“I’m ready for the big ride, baby…” -Castor Troy, Antagonist, Face/Off

This is Part II of “The Last Man on Earth”. If you did not read the previous parts, at the bottom of this page you will find a table with links to the previous parts.

My finger just hovers over the master power button and I slowly rest my finger on it but don’t dare press it. I stare into the console until my vision goes blurry and it snaps me out of this trance I was in. There was now a slightly different woman’s voice speaking in a different language, maybe French, I have no idea what is being said but I have to wait patiently until she hopefully reads out the numbers again so I can write them down and then I can figure out where I am going.

“Latitude Quarante-neuf degrés vingt-dex minutes, quarnte-six seconds. Longitude Dis degrés, dix minutes, quarante-cinq seconds”

Blankly, I stare. I don’t know what I was expecting, obviously, the woman would speak the numbers in French and not randomly change to English in the middle of her speech. I wait more and more, Another language comes through and again, makes absolutely no sense to me.

Finally, a language I understand at least a bit, German, they went through the same thing, slightly modified to be more intelligible to German speakers but finally the coordinates came:

“Breitengrad: Neuenundvierzig Degrees, Zweiundzwanzig Minuten, Sechsundvierzig Sekunden. Längengrad: Zehn Degrees, Zehn Minuten, Fünfundvierzig Sekunden.”

 > 49° 22’ 46”N  > 10° 10’ 45”E

Perfect.

I pull out my laptop and start looking for an ethernet cable to look it up but then I remember Google Earth. Thank god I kept Google Earth installed after Google killed the desktop app for an online version which would be useful now.

I type the coordinates into the search bar and it brings me to the south of Germany. It is a parking lot in a town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. I’ve never been there but it doesn’t look too big from the satellite data. Red roofs and it seems pretty well contained. I don’t know why it was chosen but it seems nice enough.

Now I have to figure out how the hell I will get there. Back to the nearest major train station, that’s the Berlin-Ostbahnhof.

I hop back in the car I originally took to the TV/Radio tower and drive down to the Ostbahnhof, and I realize that it seems so much more orderly in the east of Berlin. It’s actually more organized than I remember it being last time but maybe just because there aren’t people everywhere.

As I pull up I realize that I might actually have never been to the Ostbahnhof in the times I have come here. It has a historic but a slightly repaired look to it. I was able to walk in easily and I made it into the control room there with all the maps and train lines. I couldn’t even find Rothenburg ob der Tauber. I had to pull up Google Earth again and finally I find it. I finally found it. It looks like, at least from the map that there is only one platform and it won’t be so easy to move through with trains.

I change up my idea. Trains aren’t the only way to get around. The biggest nearby station has to be Nürnberg and I would probably be able to find a car and just drive there without having to deal with moving tons of trains in the south of Germany, where I haven’t really done much to clear the lines but it looks like I should be able to at least clear up the area between Berlin and Nürnberg from the main station’s control station.

I decided it would be easier to take one of the metro trains to the main station instead of driving. A relatively straight shot, I had to go a little slow just in case but it got there with less fuss and attention that is required when you drive a car.

That’s really the beauty of using trains and trams to me. You know where you want to go, so you get in the one that is pointing in the right direction and push the lever forward and you go. No need to worry about turning. It just kind of goes and you just needs to make sure you don’t go too fast.

I get to the HBF but there was a train on the platform I was heading too but luckily I was able to squeeze the first wagon to the end of the platform and get out.

I make my way upstairs to the control room and bust my way in.

Here is my method of moving trains:

First, I find all the trains between me and my destination. Then I figure out what trains are at the destination. After I make notes of all that, I figure out where on the lines between me and my destination that I can divert trains off the main line. For example, sometimes I can move things off the main line to a construction yard, or a wash station or of course a smaller like that splits from the big rail. After that, I flip the switches to direct the trains needing to be moved to ensure they go to the right places and don’t accidentally derail. Now comes the time to actually move trains.

I start moving the trains that are currently at the destination, that’s simple, move them 200 or 300 meters in the other direction, out of the way, so I can park my train and any more that might need to fit. That is relatively quick and so I do those and wait until they are all moved and parked. Now, I flip the switches to prepare to divert the trains that are close to a diversion and can easily be moved off. I start moving them at a relatively slow pace so that I can not focus on them and start moving the other trains. The trains that are close enough to the destination but not able to be switched easily will be moved to the designation and/or past it. I move them relatively slow as well because they don’t have long to go and I can’t risk crashing nearby the destination. However, the ones in the middle needing to be switched or travel the long way to the destination will be moved as fast as I feel comfortable with, that is about 80-90% of the maximum speed allowed on the rail.

I have collected many watches while moving trains. The best ones are these old rectangular Casio watches, the face is flat small and the band is simple to break. I would separate the watch face from the band and that’s how I would carry them. My method is, take a sheet, or multiple sheets, list the IDs of the trains, slightly spaced out, and placing the watches setting a timer and when the timer goes off, I know that I need to slow down and park the trains.

Now I take my purple Crown Royal bag, open it up and I pour out all my watch faces and start setting up the board for all the long-distance trains. The times ranged from twenty-five minutes and about an hour. It took me a little bit of time to organize everything but during it, an alarm went off.

“EXCEPTION WITH RB18356” The train’s status symbol went from green as they all are too red and it was no longer moving. I was confused as I have never seen something like this happen before. I tried to reverse the train or do anything but there were no controls. It was completely frozen. I stopped all the trains except the one that was between my station and the frozen one. Once that train made it to the station I went down, disconnected it from the majority of the wagons. Hopped in and rode the train slowly to where the error happened.

I have been riding for about 15 minutes so far. I was going slow, just in case anything had happened. I continue to roll along and finally, I think I could see it in the distance. It was just some dark mass down there on the tracks, but it wasn’t just on the tracks, it was completely across the tracks and kind of a mess. I rolled up to about 150 meters from it. I didn’t want to put the train any closer just in case.

I hop out and start walking toward it and I realize the train isn’t what I am seeing. The locomotive had hit something and came off the tracks but it was going slow enough where the whole train didn’t pile off with it, just the first few wagons. However, I get closer and the dark mass was just a huge tube. It was like an oil tank that a train would carry except at least twice the size around and even the multiple parts it is broken into are bigger than one. It looked burnt to a crisp but the fire had died out a while ago.

I walk up to is and it is massive, it destroyed the track and burned the ground all around it. Many of the bushes and trees that looked to be around it are completely chared or non-existent. I walk around to figure out what the hell it is but I have never seen something so big before.

I start walking around it, going left from where I was standing before. There were little pipes running down part of the tube and I was looking around at the bottom where it was less charred and I see a few flags. Italy, Netherlands Norway, I guess Spain? it looks weird and there are two more but they are pretty burned. I continue to walk and there is another huge separated piece in the field past it, disconnect but it looked like it was more ripped off it than cleanly separated.

It is kind of tube-shaped for the majority of it with a pointed nose and holes going down the side, kind of like an airplane but not as organized. This is blackened as well but not nearly as bad as the other tube that was a bit blown apart.

I get closer to it and I realize the holes are too cleanly cut to be accidental damage. I am stepping on some farm right now. I don’t even know what it was supposed to be but everything looks dead, at least the majority of it, from not being taken care of.

Finally, I can touch the outside of it and it is oddly neutral to the touch. It’s not cold or hot. I get to a hole and realize it is a window. It’s dirty and a little covered like the rest of the object. I rub at the window hard with my sleeve and the soot comes off and all I can see is people.

There are tons of people, crammed in like sardines, they maybe have six inches between them and they are all frozen. Still restrained in their seats but a bit disheveled.

Previous Parts

Link Title Date
Part I Last Man on Earth 2017-11-19