This is my entry for the 18th Cinnamon Cup Coffee community challenge you can find the rules here.
"Oh my God!" Miss Zielinski shouted with her hands on her face.
"Calm down Miss Zielinski, I still have the bull by the horns." Replied Mr. Hex, the train engineer. The rails were in bad shape. Wheels were coming off the tracks, and far away at the end was a diverted track.
"What the hell is going on?" young Patrick appeared asking, his eyes almost wild-eyed.
"Brace yourself lad, for we are in for a very muddy ride." Claimed Mr. Hex with a devious grin.
On this runaway train, there were only three passengers. The first, Mr. Hex, a man in his late fifties, with a gruff personality. He always carried a cigarette in his mouth and a bottle of liquor on the side. He was a fisherman when he was young, which explains his brawny spirit in the face of adrenaline, and he has worked as a machinist for over ten years and this is the first time he's faced something like this.
Next is Miss Zielinski, a pretty young girl with curly brown hair and beautiful brown eyes. Charismatic and very fond of animals, in fact, her neighbors claimed that in her house she housed many of them, some were wild, not fit to live as domesticated. She always maintained a positive attitude, but in this situation, she was completely upset.
And lastly young Patrick, about him she didn't know much, only that he worked full time as a blacksmith and sometimes worked on shipments. He was a kind, stocky boy, with a look that would surely enrapture any woman, but his tough, fighting spirit contrasted with his remarkable beauty.
This small group was chosen to take a shipment of coffee to the center of the country, but circumstances did not seem to favor them. If they didn't think of something soon, they were all going to die.
"Why doesn't the train slow down?" Patrick asked.
"The brakes aren't responding, I'm going to keep control as long as I can!" Mr. Hex explained.
"Oh, Steve, my poor goose, I don't think I'll ever get to see you again." Said Zielinski with a tone of dramatic regret.
"Do you have a goose in your house too?" asked Mr. Hex with a grimace on his face. "What do you have, a Zoo?"
The train sprang to its feet and everyone jumped. Mr. Hex kept his hands as much as he could on the wheel, but he knew it was inevitable what was coming up ahead.
"Folks, I don't think these tons of coffee will reach their destination, and neither will we. Prepare for imminent death." Mr. Hex asserted in low spirits.
Miss Zielinski reached for Patrick's beefy chest to burst into tears, he tried to comfort her by stroking her hair, he felt it was the only thing he could do. The detour was getting closer and closer, it seemed to be the end.
"Wait! I got it!" shouted Miss Zielinski like Archimedes when she exclaimed Eureka!.
"How could I forget? God, I didn't remember I had my sand-worm magic with me."
"Your what?" asked Patrick scratching his head.
Miss Zielinski pulled a jar out of one of her pockets, which contained a small worm, with eyes so cute they distracted from the rest of its brown body. Mr. Hex looked at it in amazement, as if he had seen a fright. The worm looked at him with its cute, huge eyes and blinked twice.
"Hiya!" Said the little invertebrate, the two men were speechless for a moment.
"Did he... did he just speak?" Mr. Hex asked. "Fuck, I've got to stop drinking!"
Ms. Zielinski popped the lid off the bottle, the little critter jumped up and magically flew through the windshield glass. The rerouted path was already right in front of them, however, now the magical sandworm was steering the train.
They took the path to the right, which at the end no longer had rails, but thanks to the worm's magic, new rails appeared out of nowhere and the train was able to continue on its way. Everyone was amazed at what they saw, they even felt the train was starting to stop.
The brakes worked, and as it went completely inert, everyone got off and began to calm down and laugh. The worm went back into Miss Zielinski's jar and she put it back into her pocket.
"That was... interesting." Patrick said without coming out of his amazement.
"Totally, but the important thing is that we're safe." Affirmed Mr. Hex. "Now to relax and breathe some fresh air." He lit a cigarette and puffed on it with much expression of pleasure.
They all stared at the train and the tons of coffee that were now safe. Now they just had to wait for a rescue to come looking for them.
