Packing his things, fired James felt like he had wasted 3 years of his life. He got his things and went home, he just didn’t understand why this could have happened. All he knew was he needed a new start, he got home and found him packing again ready to leave. James headed down to the train station to catch a train to the next city. Waiting for the train he had a new sense as relief, as though he was finally in control. The train finally arrived, but they had to wait to board as their seemed to be a mechanical issue with the train. James grew frustrated waiting to board, he knew the situation was outside of his control, yet it still bothered him. Finally he was able to board the train, He hated having situation that weren’t plan and controlled. 20 minutes had passed, still at the station they were waiting for the train's conductor to arrive.
Finally the train conductor arrived smelling of booze and only half in uniform. Not many noticed, but james was right at the door when he had arrived and he got a pit in his stomach. Heading back to his seat he just told himself that he was going to be okay. They wouldn’t let a drunkard drive a train, right? Then another ten minutes pass, you hear the sound of the brakes releasing, then the conductor made an announcement letting everyone know that the trip may take an hour longer given the new maintenance. Everyone else just sign and went back to what they were doing, but there was a shake in the conductor's voice the put James off and made him anxious.
An hour passes by and all seemed to be going smoothly, moving along slowly as expected. James was finally at ease and decided that he needed some rest. Suddenly James was jolted awake by the train speeding forward. Passengers began to talk to each other in a panic, then they see crew race down the hall. They attempt to speak to the conductor, but quickly realised that he had passed out on the controls. They tried to bust in but it was no use, the door had been locked and jammed shut. The crew members pulled on the emergency brake, all for nothing though. No conscious conductor train speeding forward and no way to stop it all the passengers panicked. The crew began to calm the passengers came to a silence. THey told all the passengers that they were calling the main station alerting them of the problem and that all would be well. Not a single passenger believed them and they went back into a panicked talk, but not james who sat in a silenced fear.
Ever since he got fired he felt a weird fear and loss of control. He knew he should have gotten off when he saw the state of the train conductor, but he didn’t. Why didn’t he get off the train? Was it because he really doesn’t have any control over his life? He just stayed on the train because the system is controlled and everything would just go as plan because that's how it works, right? No, he began to realise that nothing is ever will be guaranteed to go as plan and that you can never really have full control over any situation. As for this one though, he wonder in a new found calm state, What would happen. Will they find a way to stop the out of control train or will it just puml into the city they are heading to killing or injuring all of the passengers aboard?
Back in the train the passengers and crew had all calmed and sat in fear. THey hadn’t heard anything from the main station in over 20 minutes. Some just gave up hope and wept in what seemed to be they’re impending doom. They could now see the city sitting atop a long gradually sloping hill. They continued to speed toward the city has the hill began to become steeper the train slowed a little. They all looked around anxiously as they heard a sputtering coming from the engine the had slowed back down below a normal speed. every one jumped and cheered and hugged each other with tears of joy. Except for James he still sat in silence fearing that it was not over yet.
Then all of a sudden there was a huge explosion in the engine, The train ripped apart in the front. The whole train began to derail and rolled off slamming into the ground people standing flew around the train. In a daze after they had halted James could see that every on chanting and celebrating had been thrown to the ground where they laid lifeless.
Two months later James was fine living in the city with a new job. He was no longer had a fear of not having control, but still remained with him was the terror from that day and the loss of a sense of security.