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 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 train ride ahead. As a
thunderstorm approaches, he is glad he did not fly after all.
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
and fiddling with their iPads.
During the dessert a commotion at the back caused panic in
the train. 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.
The conductor runs through the dining car to the front of
the train to get the armed marshals to help; the engineer is trying to stop the
train but apparently the engine and brakes have been sabotaged and there is
radio and 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
They recover and try a flanking maneuver, with Stanley and
Pam 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 who 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. The engineer is
able to re-take control and as they arrive at their destination, Siri reminds
Stanley to get some souvenirs for his nieces and nephews.
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