Up to the Engine Car (young adult fiction)

The people on the train used to run all sorts of odd-jobs. They always existed inside the train, so the options were quite limited. Nevertheless, they had learned how to get creative, they'd built up a system of narrowing escapes and traps that only the other inhabitants of the train knew how to navigate.
It was just their little game, creating elaborate mazes around the corridors, yet never in the train compartments.
Those were private property, and so, off-limits. You could never interfere with an inhabitant's private life, and those went on inside of the compartments. Strictly forbidden.

Yet, one little boy didn't quite abide the rules. His name was Johann Earthstocking and he'd pretty much been born on the train. He was a first-generationer, the older inhabitants said. They, of course, had gotten to see the other world before it collapsed and disappeared into nothingness. Their only world now was the train.
Johann was a long, thin boy, with arms sticking out as if they'd been screwed on the wrong way. He was a good kid, at heart, everybody said that. Even the train conductor seemed to agree, although he didn't say much, and that was something. The train conductor existed in his cloud of smoke and rustle, the hard black coals being the only ones who understood him. The conductor never spoke, yet his will and wishes were always clearly understood by the rest of the train. For example, he never wanted to see any sort of traps on the corridor in the third train car. He didn't explain why, yet he didn't have to. Nobody set as much as a mouse trap in that corridor and passing through it was like a breath of fresh air, especially when you consider that the corridor in the second car was particularly grueling.
But even he seemed to like young Johann whose parents had presumably died soon after he was born. Well, his mother, the lovely Allura, she died in childbirth, of course and we never really knew who the father was. It was unanimously decided that he'd be better off dead, so as to absolve every man on the train of any suspicion.
So, young Johann was nobody's, and yet, he was everyone's.

Johann Earthstocking navigated his way around the maze-corridor of Car Five, which he knew by heart now, yet one could never be sure. Someone could've added more traps during the night. Why, only last Friday, Susie Bennet had caught her foot and banged her head in the freshly tied noose in Car 45.
He was skipping and skidding, avoiding the traps like a professional, yet he didn't give it much thought. There was something weighing on young Johann's mind and it had been gnawing at him for a long time.
He was now eight years old and he'd learned the train cart by cart and room by room. There were a total of fifty cars, with five compartments on every car, which meant 250 compartments, which averaged 401 people on the train. Some lived alone in their compartments, although others shared them with family or a secret sweetheart. Except, of course, there were no secrets on the train.
Johann lived alone in the fourth compartment of Car 34, which was where it suited him best. He was on one of the quieter cars of the train, and it was great, since Johann was quite happy being alone in his own world.
But something kept nagging at his otherwise peaceful world. Every individual on the train was accounted for, except for one. Nobody knew where the train conductor lived and it was always assumed he only lived in the engine car, surrounded by his coals. And yet, Johann wondered, how could that be? How could he only live in there when he surely needed a place to sleep, food to eat?
A toilet, at the very least.
He'd tried talking about this with the others, but they always cut him off before he got very far.
'Hush now,' they'd say and speak no more of it. The people on the train didn't much like talking about the conductor, it seemed to Johann and that was all very strange, since they really should be showing more gratitude towards him, it seemed to the boy, because the conductor was the one who kept the train going, permanently in motion, and that couldn't be an easy job.

So, Johann had decided he would very much like to go into the engine car, just a quick peek, to maybe ask the conductor about this. At the very least, see the bed he so often imagined suspended above the lumps of coal.
But he would have to be most careful, 'cause if the other inhabitants caught him at it, they would undoubtedly stop him. They might even put him in the very back of the train, which was terribly noisy.

As he opened the door to Car 4, he looked into the corridor, which seemed to have doubled overnight, filled to the brim with pointy things and scarecrows. It always seemed to Johann that the corridors got more dangerous, the closer he came to the front. His foot caught on the swinging rope on the floor, but he managed to swerve and escape it.

He looked down at the winding piece of rope, tying itself into knots around the empty. He held on to a scarecrow, to steady himself and the scarecrow gave a deep, guttural laugh. It wasn't laughing at the boy, in particular, although it kinda seemed it was.
'Shut up, you, that's not very nice,' Johann muttered. The corridor of Car 4 was blissfully empty and Johann made his way through without any further trouble.
He knew that his only problem would be Car 3, if anything, although there were no traps inside that one. There were people, which would be much worse. He cracked the door to Car 3 open and peered in.
The corridor was full of folks, all of whom he knew, and would have to talk to.
The Captain Major turned around on his feet and looked down at the boy.
'Young Earthstocking, what are you doing here, all the way from Car 34?' he asked. The Captain Major always called everyone by their surnames, which could be incredibly confusing, especially as some of the inhabitants shared the same last name.
'Umm, I was coming down to Car 2,' he said on the spot, words he hadn't known he would say. 'To check on Susie Bennet, see how she was feeling.'
'Huh well, that's a good lad, although I didn't know you were friends with the Bennet girl.'
The Captain Major had always been a keen watcher of the other inhabitants and of course, he was right. Johann wasn't particularly fond of the young Susie, whom he thought aloof and foolish.
'Well, to be honest, Captain, it was Laura Marmy who asked me to come check on her, since she said she was awfully busy.'
That should word, the boy thought, Laura was best friends with Susie. The Captain Major nodded and stepped aside to let the young boy pass. 'Off you go then.'
He jogged up the corridor, to get as far away as he could from the ever-watching Captain.
'Be careful, young Johann,' he heard a hollow voice come from the third compartment, 'you shouldn't run what with the train going so fast, you could hurt yourself.'

He slowed down and looked back, trying to identify the voice, yet he could not. The only thing he managed to do was stumble into the skirts of Anne Summers, who lived in the first compartment and was just coming out.
'Johann, how delightful,' she beamed, 'would you like to join me in the restaurant car?' she asked, showing off a huge, while smile.
Johann liked Anne, she was the only one who seemed to be nearly as curious as he, although she was as old as the train. He would've liked to take her up on her invitation and use the time to tell her about his plan, but he was afraid he couldn't trust anyone with his plan.
'No, thank you, Mrs Summers, but do enjoy your meal.'
'Oh, thank you, Johann, I'm just going down for a cup of coffee, are you sure you wouldn't like to join me? It wouldn't take long...'
He looked up into her huge round eyes. 'I've got something to do, Mrs Summers, real quick, then I'll come find you in the restaurant car, okay?'
'But where are you going, boy? You're nearly at the end of the train!'
Although she smiled, Johann wasn't sure it had been a joke. There seemed to be something dangerous in her old eyes, warning, and Johann had the terrible feeling that maybe she'd found him out.
'Just to check there's nothing new in the other two corridors, I just...like to do that sometimes. It's fun. Would you like to come with?' he knew the change of tactic would throw her off. The old woman would never come with, he knew, because her legs were quite wobbly.
'Very well, I will see you in the restaurant car,' she said, decisively.
Johann glanced after her and his eyes stopped on the gold engraving above the car door.
'A man's compartment is his country.'
The same words were written in every single car, he knew. And although unwritten, all the inhabitants knew the rest.
But the train is the Conductor's world.

Which seemed only fair, since the Conductor was such a nice man, spending all his time inside, just to keep their train running. It couldn't be too much fun, especially while the rest of them played all these games back here.
The corridor of the second car is filled with rolling pins and Johnann stumbles and falls three times, before he realizes that a much simpler way would be just to crawl through. He slides around, on his belly, and giggles because the pins tickle him. It's been a while since he's been this far up in the train. He usually hangs back in the other half of it, where he has all he needs. He's even made friends, of sorts, with William and Macy over in Car 43 and the Robbins twins in car 29.
He struggles to stand up, holding on to the door handle to steady himself.

He slips inside the first car of the train and nobody's there. He looks ahead to see the door to the engine room. So close. It seems all the inhabitants of this car are either sleeping or gone somewhere further back, although Johann doesn't know how they could be sleeping with this loud music blaring in the corridor and the beaming lights. Johann only sees flashes of the corridor ahead, because the light often gets very low. He tries to make his way by touch, but trips and falls over a bed of eggshells. He lets out a short scream, then struggles up to see if anyone heard him. But there seems to be nothing. He slides around the last part of the corridor, which is covered in goo entirely and feels the door knob under his hand.

This is it. He takes in a deep breath, then glances behind him once again, just to make sure. There is no one.
He pushes the door to the engine car open as slowly as he can and peeks inside. First, with one eye and then with both. There is no bed, that much is clear. No black coals or smoke, either. In fact, the room seems to be...abandoned. But this can't be, surely it's an illusion conjured up by the Conductor to punish him for his mistake.
'I'm sorry,' Johann whispers, but the Conductor remains hidden. In the engine room that moves the train, there is no one. Except for Johann. A horrible suspicion begins to nag at Johann's young mind. He steps through the engine room, stepping through the cobwebs and summoning the dust up and he wraps his hands around the door handle. The boy is mortified by fear. He has never been so close to a door to the outside, because the outside is dust and if he opened the door, he would undoubtedly fall because of the high speed. And then, he too would become dust.
Johann pulls on the door to the outside with all his might and although it sticks, it eventually slides open.

Johann Earthstocking looks out and for the first time, sees. The outside is not moving, which means neither is the train. And even worse, it is certainly not dust.

The End (for now)

I'm not quite sure this belongs in Young Adult Fiction, as I've never written in that category before. I was going to tag it as children's fiction, but when I finished writing, that didn't seem quite right. None of the images in this post are mine, so I should give credit where it is due, namely to the amazing artist Cdd20 whose images on Pixabay are truly awe-inspiring. I owe the drawings (images 2, 3 and 5) to him. The others I found here and here.

Thank you for reading,