Dinosaurs
on a Train
Original Story
by Dimitri
Kourouniotis
CCSF Spring 2012
*note this story is altered from the original submission: our protagonists friends are no longer trying
to “mess with him” on his train journey. They are instead replaced by a mad
scientist and dinosaurs on the train shifting the genre from romantic comedy to
the B-movie realm with FX.
Act 1 – The Break Up
“You are SO
self-centered!” echoed as she slammed the bathroom door in Stanley’s face. He
stood there, shaken, absorbing the statement, feeling isolated and extremely
insecure. He tried to compose a defensive response as usual but hearing her
sobs, he decided silence was a better choice. His chest tightened and a panic
started setting in. Sitting down, he eventually realized this was the last
straw and having nothing to offer, he left her apartment for the last time.
At the
office the next day he couldn’t concentrate after losing so much sleep in
reflective, anguished thought. His inner voice was full of remorse and
self-pity, cursing him for being unable to act or look beyond his own comfort
zone. He went out for drinks with his friends to cheer himself up once the
break up was official through the social network channels. Though he was glad to see his friends, they
were annoying him with sympathy and failing to empathize. They launched into
their own version if “I were you…” and started plying him with suggestions and
solutions to help him move on. One which made his ears perk was to re-locate,
or at least take an adventure out of town the next weekend.
After so much
cajoling from his friends, when he got home he started following the advice
that took the least effort, such as Facebook status checking and calling and
emailing old girlfriends (which yielded nothing but more isolation and dread). However
he did reconnect with an old schoolmate who seemed to have experience getting
over relationships and lived in Metropolis - only a couple hours’ flight away -
and Stanley wrangled a place to stay and some companionship, at least.
At the
office the situation deteriorated. He was reprimanded for his sloppy paperwork
and poor performance; this was compounded by the issue of his now ex-girlfriend
working in the same building. He was at risk of losing his job now (as a root canal
bill was due) and was feeling miserable being there.
That night
he started shopping for flights but kept being distracted by long-ignored trivial
household chores and an airing of “Singing in the Rain” on the TV that now were
a good diversion. He was reminded of the multiple times he flew long distance
to see female friends who ended up unavailable: they were married, living with
their boyfriends, too involved with their work to spend time or just plain
weird or suddenly boring. He kept a brave face but did feel increasingly
desperate at the turn of events and developed an aversion to airports and
flying.
As the
weekend got closer, his chance of finding flights he could afford fell to zero
and he initiated an attempt to cancel. His attempt at cancelation was rebuffed
by the new information that the Metropolis Natural History Museum had a new
dinosaur exhibit and he loved dinosaurs since he was a kid. His friend
continued to encourage him and suggested the intercity high speed train, which
had plenty of seats left.
He packed
his bag with his iPad 2 and re-read some of his favorite dinosaur books on his
Kindle app with wonderfully illustrated new theories. He asked Siri to remind
him to buy souvenirs for his nieces and nephews.
In a dream
the night before his departure he finds himself running out of a church into
the rain being chased by his mother with his father driving away in the
distance. He flees her by grabbing an umbrella from a passerby and she is
confused long enough for him to blend away into the crowd.
Act 2 – The Train
Ride
After
another miserable and ominous day at work the next day, he arrives at the
railway station excited about the long, but very fast high speed train ride
ahead. As a thunderstorm approaches and he hears the news of very bad weather,
hail storms, across the country along his route, he is glad he did not fly
after all.
At the train
terminus the engineer of the high picks up his prescription renewal from the
pharmacy, unbeknownst to him, it’s been tampered with. The pharmacist confirms
with a visual nod to a customer in the store who passes on the information to
other unseen colleagues via an iPad. The train station monitors have weather
warning alerts flashing on them.
His ticket
has him at car #7. On the platform he notices large metallic crates being
loaded into the luggage car and onto other trains too. He walks down the
platform past the restaurant car - he loves the idea of dining on a train. His
carriage is just behind the first class car and the engine. Once aboard, he finds
his reserved seat and sits down, noticing the other passengers, and rehearses
in his head deflective remarks so he will be able to avoid talking to them. Opposite
him sit a mother and her 12 year son. Across the aisle sit a Catholic priest
and a pretty girl (Pam) with a dog eared copy of Grey’s Anatomy and other textbooks. In seats further down are a well
dressed, hurried older woman (the scientist) carrying a clipboard with a
stuffed briefcase and her male assistant. Toward the end of the carriage are a
man and a woman with sidearms, clearly federal marshals transporting a man,
Craig, in handcuffs, who is a computer hacker, convicted of trying to hack into
military computers.
Once the
train is en route and the chatty conductor comes through and checks the tickets,
he makes his way to the dining car - only to find he has to share his dining
table with Pam. The waiter and bartender turned out to be characters with tales
to tell and a good time was had by all throughout diner. Except for the older woman
with her assistant, who were busy scheming on their iPads. Weather reports
indicate tornadoes ahead. During the beginning of the journey the Engineer
takes his medication, which has been poisoned and is rendered unconscious. The
train is now out of control. Ahead on the route a tornado has destroyed part of
a bridge and more tornado sightings are begin reported.
Meanwhile a
commotion at the back of the train has started causing panic. Some of the
crates had been apparently been holding live animals had managed to come open.
The animals were part of a secret genetic experiment (by the scientist) to
re-introduce dinosaurs and be released and spread but the containment equipment
malfunctioned.
The
conductor runs through the dining car to the front of the train to get the
armed marshals to help. The engine and brakes have been sabotaged and there is
radio/cellphone interference affecting the vicinity of the train. The scientist
and her assistant run towards the back of the train as the passengers from the
rear coaches evacuate to the front and the bartender secures the door between
the dining car and the rear of the train.
The tally of
casualties is high with several passengers killed or wounded, and the medical
student and marshals offering first aid with the priest offering last rites to
those that did not survive. The marshals both go to the back of the train but
only one survives returning with tales of horror and dinosaurs , the other
being ambushed and killed (and eaten).
The
conductor, the remaining marshal, Pam, and our hero Stanley go to the back of
the train to try to decouple the last cars of the train and rescue the injured
passengers, where they discover the scientist and her assistant are trying to
release the dinosaurs. Our heroes rescue efforts are thwarted by the scientist
and her assistant, Geoff, who is armed, but is injured in the scuffle. The
group retreats back to the dining car to report that the dinosaurs have control
collars the scientist is using to command the dinosaurs.
Act 3 Arrival
The train
computer hacker manages to slow the train down as it reaches the bridge, but
some of the cars go over the gap, with the remaining passengers trapped in the
suspended car, their only escape now is the mail/baggage car on the bridge. A
tornado in the distance touches down and is approaching the stranded train.
Our heroes, Stanley
and Pam attempt going along the roof and the marshal and the conductor
distracting them through the conventional frontal assault route along the
center of the train.
The plan
almost succeeds, but the marshal is wounded in the fracas and the scientist’s
assistant is killed. The group recovers the scientist’s notes and plans while
the scientist escapes back to the luggage compartment to hole up with the
dinosaurs. They find that the scientists’
iPad has controls that helped sabotage the engine controls and that the
scientist and assistant had placed signal jamming devices throughout the train
and with the 12 year old boy’s help they de-activate them and are able to
summon help.
They are
also able to tamper with and immobilize the dinosaurs temporarily in order to
get through and have a last fight with the scientist using the ventilation
shaft and cage. The scientist is trying to re-control the dinosaurs with her
back-up app on her iPhone 4S. Ultimately Stanley is able to distract the
smaller dinosaurs using an open umbrella much like a lion tamer would use a
chair and turn them on the scientist. They enlist Craig’s help in disabling the
automatic release mechanisms on the other luggage compartments on the other
trains and the passengers escape through and out of the back of the train to
shelter as the tornado destroys the train. The rescue crew arrives as Siri
reminds Stanley to get some souvenirs for his nieces and nephews.
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DIAGRAM- PLAN TRAIN – MAIL/BAGGAGE CAR
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EXTERIOR with TRAIN DISABLED ON BRIDGE, TORNADO APPROACHING
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Interior Highspeed Luggage/Rail Car with adjacent passenger car
suspended over broken bridge
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VELOCIRAPTOR
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