The Tunnel

One thousand one hundred thirty-four feet. That was the length of my life that night as we waited there in the darkness for rescue...or death.

I was a fireman back then. No, not the type that rides around in shiny red trucks rescuing fires and putting out cats, but the other kind; the kind that serves the large, snorting dragons that pound their way across continents on twin ribbons of steel rail and stoke the fires in their bellies.

Okay, it was a museum, sure, but it's the envy of the remaining heritage railroads. Less than ten miles long, we boasted two tunnels that predated the Civil War. One is even somewhat famous among history buffs as the site of a decent skirmish. (The Rebels won if you were wondering.)

That day started out like any other. I had been asked to stand in for the scheduled fireman; he'd sprung his ankle at a company softball game and couldn't stand. The steam billowed off of the locomotive as it warmed up in the morning sunlight. The apprentice fireman and I had her at pressure and ready to go by the time the engineer and conductor showed up.

It was a good day to begin with. Five round trips that went smoothly with lots of passengers that paid a fair price for tickets to ride behind a century-old steamer. Only two GERFers bothered us that day.

What's that? What are GERFers? Oh, sorry. Glassy-Eyed Rail Fans. You know the type: They're usually a middle-aged, slightly overweight, white male with bad hygiene, an inability to distinguish personal space, and a matching lack of being able to talk about anything other than trains. Don't get me wrong, I love trains or I wouldn't be out there on hundred degree days in ninety percent humidity sweating my ass off for free, but GERFs are in a completely different league.

It was the last run of the day when the radio crackled to life. The conductor was calling to ask if we could do one more trip.

John Pratt, the engineer, rolled his eyes, he didn’t like Jacob much. "Aren’t we supposed to stick to the schedule and not tarry from it? Especially on the tunnel trips?"

Only on the tunnel trips, I silently corrected. Our museum president, Tom Burgess, was adamant about that. Nobody was allowed to take anything through the tunnels outside of the regular schedule. The board had tried to overrule him a few times, especially around Christmas when the tunnels would help make a convincing trip to the North Pole, but so far he’d won out.

"Oh what the hell," John muttered. "Tom's an ass anyway."

John thought that of everybody that didn't agree with him, and most who did.

After the other passengers exited, we were off again on the special round trip.

It was late autumn and the sun was setting as we reached the first of the two tunnels.

"Tunnel clear," John called out as he reached for the whistle cord to sound the regulatory warning blasts. I poked my head out the window as the apprentice, Andrew, tended to the fire. It was a right-hand curve and I was on the left side of the locomotive. The boiler stretched before me, blocking my view of the tunnel portal until we were almost upon it.

The headlamp light up the stone arch as it swung into view and I could just make out the horseshoe-shaped glow of the other end. Everything looked normal. "All clear!"

Darkness swept over us and instantly the temperature plunged. The clank of the siderods and tick of the rail joints echoed off the narrow walls. You would not want to get stuck on foot in the tunnel with a train coming. There was barely a foot of clearance on either side and even if you did somehow manage to avoid getting crushed between the train and the stone wall, the locomotive filled the tunnel with a noxious cocktail of carbon monoxide, soot, steam, and other coal-fire byproducts. You'd be choking to death before you made it out.

A slithering hiss caught my attention and I glanced at the pressure gauge. It was near the maximum boiler pressure. "Andy," I yelled over the omnipresent noise of a working locomotive. "You're forgetting something." I didn't want to just tell the lad, he needed to learn this stuff himself if he ever wanted to qualify and work by himself.

Andrew rushed to start injecting water into the boiler before the safety valve blew high-pressure steam straight into the brick-lined ceiling a mere two feet above it. "Sorry!"

"You'll be doubly sorry if that valve lifts and I get brained by a dislodged brick!" John's temper had an infamously short fuse.

"Sorry!" Andrew repeated. He started to add something else but was cut off as we were thrown against the scalding backhead of the boiler.

Andrew hit first and I crashed into him. John, grabbing onto the throttle bar for dear life managed to keep his seat, but a dull clunk and a stream of curses announced the impact of his head against something metal.

We were stopped.

Instantly the cab of the locomotive, open to the elements, began filling with smoke.

"What happened?" I yelled, pulling myself back up to my feet. Andrew lay in a disconcerting heap on the cab floor. Something dark was spreading across the metal flooring.

"Don't know," John growled as he peered at the gauges while fishing a bandana out of his overalls. Wadding it up, he pressed it against his nose and mouth. The fabric muffled his next words. "We went into emergency. All the brakes are on."

The radio crackled to life as Jacob Velmers, our conductor, called. "Conductor to the twenty five oh one."

John grabbed the mic as I adjusted the boiler some to slow down the inflow of smoke, already it was as thick as a sea fog, and then knelt down to check out Andrew.

"Twenty five oh one here, we went into an emergency application. Over."

"Really? I guessed that much. I heard the air blow." Jacob's temper was as short as the engineers when they talked. There was unspoken bad blood between them. Nobody knew what, but neither could maintain civility for long with each other. "How long before we can depart? Over."

"I'm checking. Hold on. Twenty five oh one out."

Andrew was softly groaning. He must have also hit his head, but unlike John, had knocked himself out. Thankfully the spreading darkness was just his water bottle spilling and mixing with the coal dust that covered the cab floor.

A stream of quiet curses from John slid under the thump of the air compressor as it struggled to refill the lines.

I stayed on the floor where the air was still mostly clear of smoke. It was like a blanket tossed into the air and fluttering downward. Unless we moved soon, there was no escape from it.

"Dammit." John was a blurry shape that coughed in the dim glow of the gauges. The mic click as he picked it up. "Twenty five oh one to the conductor. There's something wrong with the brake system, it's not pressurizing. I'm going to enact emergency procedure three and get the locomotive out before we're all dead."

There was a long pause, I could imagine Jacob standing there wondering if John was just trying to save his own hide or if it was really the issue. From where I sat I couldn't see the gauges myself. Then the radio crackled again. "Ok. I'll start applying the handbrakes, you send the firemen back and cut off."

"Negative. The apprentice is unconscious, he'll stay with me. But you can have Sam."

Thanks a lot, I thought as I crawled out of the cab and slithered between the tender and the tunnel wall. It was tight going and I could feel over a century's worth of grim grinding its way into the back of my clothing. Well, that's why I never wore anything new or expensive.

Reaching the gap between the tender and the first passenger car, I leaned in. I could hear the hiss of air rushing through the pipe. By now it shouldn't sound so frantic, maybe John was correct, he wouldn't have any reason to lie after all.

Shrugging, I reached in and closed the tender's air cock. The hiss instantly stopped. Leaning back against the tunnel wall, I grabbed the uncoupling lever and waited. In the distance I could hear the rhythmic clicking of a handbrake as Jacob manually applied it.

The sound of the engine's whistle, multiplied by the close stone walls made me jump. John was signaling me that he was ready to proceed. With a quick tug, the couplers were unbound and as John gave the locomotive some steam, it started to ease away.

The air hoses stretched and then separated. There wasn't even a slight breath of air from the train cars; I had purposefully not closed it. So something had indeed gone wrong with the air system. A wave of chastisement washed over me for doubting John. As if in response, he blew the whistle again and then the engine was gone, vanishing in the smoke.

I was left in the small circle of light from my hand lamp and what made its way out of the coach's windows. For a moment I considered shutting off the generators per the procedure but then decided not to. With all the coal smoke in the air, what extra harm could three small gas engines do? Without them we'd all be in the dark.

Jacob met me at the door as I entered the car. He glanced at the lights and nodded. If neither of us mentioned them, then we both could pretend we were still forgetting about the generators.

"Sam. I'm glad it's you today. I say that with all honesty." Jacob was very nice and outgoing away from John. He led me into the car where two dozen kids and a couple adults, all dressed in tan uniforms, huddled in the seats. Other than that small group, the car was empty. They looked up as we entered, more than one was a bit wild about the eyes.

"Any idea what happened?" I asked.

Jacob narrowed his eyes at me and I could just make out him shake his head once. Instead of answering he clapped his hands together. "Ok everybody. As you know, radios don't work all that well underground so our engineer has left to summon help."

"What about us?" A thin voice wailed from the middle of the group.

Jacob gave a reassuring smile. "We're going to sit here and in no time the tunnel will clear and we'll taken out." I could see the tightness around his eyes that belied the smile. He continued answering a few more questions: Yes we're ok. Yes, some smoke's getting in, but not enough to hurt anybody. No, it's too dangerous to walk out. I leaned against a seat and watched as the kids calmed down, even became excited at the looming adventure.

After a few minutes, he caught my eye and jerked his head towards the far end of the car. We sauntered that way and, once out of earshot, Jacob stopped and murmured, "Right before we stopped I thought I heard something. A thump." He nodded at the door to the other cars.

"Anybody back there?"

He shook his head. "No. First thing I did was have the scout masters do a roll call. All's accounted for. As I was applying the handbrakes and closing the windows, I peeked into the bathrooms; there's nobody back there."

I shrugged. "Maybe a brick fell onto the roof."

Looking unconvinced, Jacob nodded. "Yes, Mr. Fredricks?" One of the scout masters had approached while I was looking the other way.

Jacob cheerily answered questions while I made my way back to the front of the car and sat with the kids. They bombarded me with questions about being a fireman and I soon lost track of time.

"Don'tcha think we should be out by now?" one of the smallest of the boys asked.

I blinked at him for a few seconds and then popped out my pocket watch to the oohs and ahhs of the kids.

What I saw couldn't be right.

Jacob was standing next to me and nodded as I glanced up. We had indeed been stuck inside the tunnel for over an hour.

"I've tried raising somebody on the radio, but there's no response," he said to my unspoken question. "Not only that, but the smoke's still thick out there. It should have cleared half an hour ago. We still can't leave the cars or I'd walk us out."

Climbing to my feet, I went to the vestibule door and cracked it. Sure enough, thick smoke blew in and I slammed it shut.

Walking slowly back to the group, I was about to ask Jacob about the local fire department's response time when a loud thump came from beyond the other end of the car. It hung in the air and echoed slightly in the narrow tunnel.

"Wh-what was that?" One of the kids stammered.

"That's what I heard last time," Jacob said.

I gave him a puzzled look. For the life of me I couldn't place it. It was as if something large had hit the train.

There was whimpering coming from the scouts. Straightening my cap, I grabbed my lantern and headed for the door.

"Where are you going mister?" pipped a reedy voice.

I turned long enough to give what I hoped was a reassuring smile. "Just to check on the other cars. I'll be right back."

I slid quickly through the door to keep as much smoke out as possible. The vestibule between the cars was thick with it and I immediately started coughing. Strange. It was as thick as when we had first stopped; as Jacob said, it should have cleared out long since.

The second car was awash with smoke. It was oozing in through an opened window at the end. I sighed to myself. Jacob hadn't been completely correct when he said he'd closed all the windows after all. Oh well, he'd only missed one. The lantern's bean created a long swath of light through the smoke. "Luke, I am your father," I muttered, waving it around as I walked along the car listening to the reassuring rumbling of the generator beneath the floor.

Something crunched under my boots. Shining the lantern beam downward I saw a galaxy of stars glittering back at me.

Broken glass.

I swung the beam to the open window. It wasn't open, it was busted. Pebbles of safety glass lay strewn across the seats. Whatever had broken it had been from the outside. Kneeling, I scanned the floor of the car for a tunnel brick, but there was nothing there.

Giving the window a last glance, I pulled open the door at the end of the car and stepped out between the second and last cars. The smoke was, if anything, thicker here and I hurried across to the third car. It wasn't any better inside. Everywhere my lantern light swept was twinkling glass. There wasn't an intact window to be seen.

An uneven tremor came from the floor. The generator was struggling to stay on and the lights in the car were dim and slowly pulsing as the generator sped up and slowed down.

"Who's here?" I called out. No reply. "Listen, damnit. Breaking the windows was a dumb-ass idea, but the smoke's going to make you sick. Come with me back to the first car and I promise nobody will say anything about the windows until we get out? Ok?"

Silence was my only answer.

After a bit I shrugged. I wasn't going to hang around all day; the smoke was starting to scratch my throat. "Have it your way." I turned and started walking back to the door.

The car shuddered as multiple heavy blows struck it. Glass tinkled as it slid off the seats.

With a last roar, the generator died and I was plunged into darkness except for the narrow beam from my lantern.

I fled.

The second car's lights were now flickering and the sound of its generator was no longer a steady tone.

Halfway through the car, I heard a thump against it and the crash of a window shattering.

Skidding to a stop I spun about but there was only smoke in my lantern's light.

For a long few minutes I was rooted to the spot, waiting for the assault to begin again. Whatever it was had apparently had enough because it never came. Another minute passed before I was able to force myself to turn about and finish the walk back to the first car.

When I entered the car, to its bright lights and steady generator, everybody looked up. Their faces were taut with fright and Jacob was now wielding a crowbar.

He stared at me with narrowed eyes. "What was that?"

I shook my head, "I don't know."

His tone was demanding, accusatory. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Just that!" I was nearly shouting with terror. I tried to stop myself as to not frighten the children any more, but I blurted out, "I think the tunnel might be caving in. There are shattered windows everywhere and a lot of something hit the last car as I was in it." I forced myself to not consider that the last car didn't have any signs of bricks or stones in it either. Nothing to show that the tunnel was truly collapsing.

Muffled sobs rose from the huddled mass of kids.

Jacob stared at me long and hard before nodding. "And the smoke?"

"Still bad."

He rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, a cave-in would help to answer that. Without a draft, there's nothing to push it out. It'd just hang about." Nodding he looked back at me. "That reduces our options. We can't stay here."

"But the smoke!" blurted one of the scout masters.

Jacobs shot him a glare, the signs of his old fuse lighting back up. "I know that!"

"Well," I stared. Everybody looked at me, many with desperation. "We're over the hump."

"What does that mean?" It was the same adult, flushed with anger as he stared hard at us. "We're not railroaders you know. We don't know your jargon."

Jacob shook his head. "It's not jargon. What Sam's implying is that we're over the high point of the tunnel." At the blank looks, he continued. "Look, it's basic engineering, you don't build tunnels under valleys but through peaks. Therefore most tunnels go up and over a high point."

"In other words," I interjected, seeing that half the kids, and both adults, were still confused. "The ends of the tunnel are lower than the middle. You enter the tunnel going up, reach the top of the...the underground hill, and then go back down."

"Right," Jacob said, taking back over. "So, we've crossed the hill. If we remove the brakes, we'll roll out. Can't you feel the slope?"

Hopefully, I thought to myself. It wasn't that steep a grade and if the cars had derailed, they weren't going to go anywhere. But it was worth a shot. Completely against all the training we had for tunnel emergencies, but I was as ready as Jacob to toss out the rules.

The other scout master spoke up for the first time. "When can we start?"

As if in response, more thumping booms echoed through the tunnel. This time the car shook. As the children squealed in fright, the lights dimmed and the even rumble of the generator became ragged.

What was causing it? These things had days worth of fuel, there was no reason for all of them to be going dry one after the other.

"Now," Jacob said as the echoes of the last thump died down. "Sam, you bleed the brakes. I'll release the handbrakes."

I nodded, not thrilled at the idea of going back outside and being pressed between car and stone; especially if said stone was collapsing.

"What can we do?" It was the calmer scout master again.

"Keep the kids silent and out of our way." Jacob grunted as he strode down the asile.

I tied three bandanas over my nose and mouth as I went the other way to the front of the car and climbed down the steps. They barely helped stop the smoke from working its way in and I was choking and gagging before making it to the first bleed valve. It hissed as I released the pressure that kept the pads pressed against the wheels and I could hear metal groaning to itself as the rigging relaxed.

From behind me I heard the slither of chain as Jacob released the handbrake. I was close behind him and again the brake rigging groaned and hissed as I bled he brakes. One more car and we'd be ready to go.

It was a tight squeeze between the car and the wall, far tighter than it should have been. If there was another...whatever that caused the car to rock, I'd be squished like an egg. Panic at the thought made me force my way forward faster than I should have and I heard my overalls rip as it snagged on stone.

I made it to the gap between the second and third car and climbed into the vestibule, glad to have some room. It was then that I realized Jacob hadn't released the next handbrake.

"Jacob?" I called out, but there was no answer.

"Jacob!"

What happened next will remain etched in my mind until the day I die. I had just swung my lantern to peer into the third car and was reaching for the door when Jacob pulled it open.

His face was covered in blood and his eyes bulged in fright.

I stood frozen. What could have done that? Then he was moving away from me. Not walking, but like something had grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked. His black conductor's cap, with its gold trim and perfect creases, spun in the air for a second before falling to the floor.

An unearthly shrieking began rising from the car. It was Jacob. At the same time, the car started rocking. Swaying from side-to-side, it smashed up against the walls of the tunnel.

This was no cave-in!

Oh God, I thought. Its brakes are still set!

Jacob's cries continued, reaching an unearthly pitch.

I leapt down the steps. Grabbing the uncoupling lever, I pulled with all my might while leaning against the railroad car as if my mere hundred and eighty pounds could move nearly two hundred tons of steel.

Either I could, or our theory was sound because the cars began rolling.

Leaping back onto the vestibule, I watched as we uncoupled from the third car, still smashing itself against the walls, and rolled away.

I was gasping, choking on the smoke, sobbing from hearing Jacob, but we were moving. There had to be only about four hundred feet to traverse. We were going to make it!

That's when I noticed that the third car has stopped rocking. It was hard to tell, the smoke was thick and my lantern was going dim for some strange reason. Then something swirled the smoke in the widening gap between the cars. It circled a couple times and then a V-shaped wake appeared as it raced towards me.

Once again I turned and fled.

As I ran through the second car, I could hear windows shattering behind me and the floor twisted and bucked underneath me but I kept my feet and sprung across the vestibule and into the first car.

I could only shake my head at the questioning looks everyone was giving me. They had heard the screams too. There was almost no light, the generator was dying and my lantern had gone out halfway through the other car and was now lying wherever I had tossed it.

Everybody, including myself, screamed when the lights went out and the windows shattered.

Then the rosy red glow of a dying sunset seeped in through the windows at the end of the car.

We had made it! We were almost out!

A thin cheer started up but died as those standing fell when the car stopped with a jerk.

Screams again as the light faded.

We were moving.

Backwards.

Uphill!

As the last of the light vanished, I met the eyes of the scout masters. They were holding as many kids on their laps as possible, tears streaming down everyone's faces.

The thumping began again, as if something too large to use the doors was trying to get in.

This was it. I knew it. We were all dead.

Unless...there was one last thing I could try.

I thought about telling the scout masters to pass on a message. But they all sounded corny. "Tell my wife I love her." I wasn't married though and "Tell my mother I love her" wasn't fitting last words.

Without saying anything, I made my way by feel to the door between the cars. Thin screams of fear followed me and spurred me on. I might meet Jacob's fate, but I would do it trying to save these kids.

I had to navigate the vestibule by feel. The racket out here was deafening. The other car was making sounds as if it was screaming. We weren't moving evenly. My God, were we being dragged by something?

Whatever it was, it hadn't noticed me. Yet. I had never been that religious, but I found myself remember every word of the Lord's Prayer. Atheists and foxholes I guess.

I made it to the bottom step and reached out for the uncoupling lever. A passing rock sticking out of the tunnel wall snagged my sleeve and for a terrifying moment I thought I was going to be drug out and crushed. It slipped off and I felt the cool steel of the lever in my hand.

It was awkward to work, but I managed somehow and with a deep clunking sound, I heard the pin lift and our momentum fall off. Then we were rolling downhill again.

I crawled back into the car and lay on the floor gasping and sobbing.

As light once again peeked into the far windows, whatever it was made a last ditch effort to claim us.

In the dim light I saw the end of the car crumple like a soda can.

Again our movement slowed, but more and more light was flooding in. It was now coming in the windows. The far end of the car was outside!

The roof and walls of the car crumpled more and I scrambled back, crashing into the mass of kids, now huddled in the aisle.

With a last shudder, we rolled free of the tunnel.

#

Officially it was classified as a cave-in. As far as I know, nobody from the authorities actually went inside to make that determination. The tunnel ends were blasted with dynamite to prevent anybody from wandering in. The two passenger cars, and Jacob, were entombed inside. They said it was too risky to attempt a recovery. I quickly learned to parrot the finding if I didn't want to be made out a loon.

Once the investigation "cleared" me of any wrongdoing in the event and in Jacob's death, I moved to Kansas. Fuck mountains and the tunnels through them.