The hat flew from Silas’s head as he hurried to reach the next car, feeling the imminent explosion and eyes of the demon on his back. He jumped the gap to the next wood car as the dynamite detonated. Landing hard, he turned to look at the effects of the explosion.

The smoke generated by the explosion swept swiftly away as the wood car seemed to nose down to the track. Spinning sideways, the car slowed while the rest of the train continued to pull away from the unfolding disaster. The car rolled, throwing cut wood high into the night.

The caboose burst over the disintegrating wood car, the demon thrown from the roof flailing while it cleared the wreck, only to land on the tracks as the caboose and wood car rolled on to it.

It happened so fast that Silas was uncertain about what he has seen, but it was enough. He hurried to the next rail car, then the next until he was running across the roofs of the freight cars.

Clearing each gap between cars, he noticed the train was going considerably slower, the ease of effort welcome if not understood. What the hell was Karl doing? By the time he leaped to the flat top of the tender, the train was doing all of fifteen miles an hour, the storm undisturbed by the train was even worse than Silas realized.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He saw Karl standing by the canvas and climbed down to the rear apron of the locomotive. “Why are we slowing down? Get us the hell out of here.”

“I know where we are,” Karl replied. “We are close to the Johanson house north of Hinckley, just about to Sandstone. There should be a hanging tree coming up by a water station. The farm is a half mile east of the tree.”

“What does it matter? We need to get moving. I think it hunts heat.” Silas urged.

“Here, hold this.” Karl handed a cloth sack to Silas. “I have a way to stop that thing, a trap.”

“What are you talking about? Your plan worked; I crushed the demon under the wreckage of the caboose. I saw it with my own eyes.” Silas argued as Karl motioned him closer to the rear cab wall and ladder under the shelter of the cab roof overhang.

“That thing is not dead; it can’t die if it’s a demon.” Karl said reasonably. “It is hunting this train and it will be back.”

“So, we fight it.” Silas insisted. “Those people need this train.”

“Yes, they do, but not with a demon in tow.” A broken and twisted tree came into view behind Silas, moving slowly past in the thick snow of the storm. “I have to hurt the demon and chase it away.”

“Then let’s do it.”

“You have children, I don’t” Karl drove his weight into Silas and used his arms to propel the fire-man out the access and away from the train.

Silas fell into a deep drift of snow, his fall cushioned and painless as Karl’s voice called from the train. “Tell them I pushed you off. They will believe you.”

Before Silas could stand, the train sped up with deep thumps of steam; the engineer pushing the throttle to maximum.

Quickly, Silas buried himself in the drift and waited for the demon to pass.