Restaurant

[Mr. Handy]

"Do you know what a psycholocational sink is?" asks Kate.

[Laraqua]

"Sounds like a question for the station manager or operator or whoever he is. He's often babbling with weird terminology like that." He leans back on his chair, eyeing them off. "You guys are planning to find a way out, aren't you? Yeah, I can see the look in your eyes. I had that look in my own eye for awhile until something came and dug it out."

[Mr. Handy]

"It is my duty as an officer and a gentleman to try to escape," says Kate, affecting a deep voice for that line before returning it to normal. "What came and dug the look out of your eye?"

[Laraqua]

"Everyone died but me," he said softly. "Originally I was trying to keep everyone ... not happy, exactly. I was trying to keep morale high when we first arrived. I'd keep everyone away from the doors and we kept to groups no smaller than three. The Train Manager became *different* first. We found him etching symbols into his chest in one of the upper class bathrooms. After that he became quiet, then slipped into a coma, then he woke up he was changed. When he attacked us, it took five men to hold him down and that was only after he managed to gut three of us. The rest fled and scattered. I don't know what became of those five men. I tried to collect everyone else. We assembled in the waiting room and were safe for awhile. I didn't know about how the hearths ... candles, lights, fireplaces ... how they meant the room would be safe. But we sensed it. We sent people out in small groups. The water was fine for awhile. Then it started making people vomit. A few died of dehydration, then starvation. Those that weren't picked off by those *things*. It seems food and drink does appear in here, sporadically. Perhaps because this place is still in use and sometimes things *pass over* to us. Or perhaps there really is weird time stuff happening here and occasionally food and drink just drops in from elsewhere. I don't know."

[Mr. Handy]

"The conductor on the train must have been one of the ones who changed," says Kate with a shiver. "How long have you been in this mess? What was the date when it started for you?"

[Ritterton]

Arty listened and as he did so, he started to have a feeling that there was not going to be a simple answer. There was also something odd about the man's story and his resignation to being a survivor of one. Something just didn't sit right with Arty. "Wonder if anyone actually got that telegraph Ms. Kate? Hmh, what was the date you pulled into the Station?"

His question echoed her's, but he felt that he needed to hear an answer and didn't want their new colleague to stray from the current line of questioning.

[Laraqua]

"The third of September, 1939. 7PM, roughly. I don't know how long it's been. We don't exactly have a real day-night cycle here. Sometimes there's fog and a vague kinda light, sometimes no light at all."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's the very day we declared war on Germany!" says Kate. "I still remember Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain going on the wireless to announce it at eleven that morning. Well, former Prime Minister. It's Winston Churchill now, and thank God we've got him. It can't be a coincidence that this began that same day. Today is 13th November, 1940 - or at least it was when I got here. Would you like to know what's been going on in the outside world while you've been here?"

[Ritterton]

Arty whistled when he heard the arrival date of the train. He shook his head slightly from side to side and then looked back at the man as Ms. Kate asked him if he wanted to know what had taken place over the past 14 months. Arty didn't disbelieve the man and what he said, it actually seemed right with all that they had encountered.

"So, maybe we should carry this conversation in the waiting room, with the fireplace and all, it might be a safer location if what he's saying is on the level," Arty looked about the place they were at and then back at the newcomer.

[Overlord87]

Jonathan has kept silent so far. After prompting the man to talk, he was more than happy to leave leading the conversation to Kate. But there's something bugging him, now. "Did anyone try to just walk away? In the fog?", he asks, abruptly.

[Laraqua]

"It doesn't feel like that much time has passed," he says, confused. "Feels more like six weeks or so. I stopped counting but ... over a year? It couldn't be." In response to the walking away question: "Yeah, they did. They never got very far and later when people passed by there they'd find streaks of blood and other parts...."

He looks around the room and its candles. "The safe room changes but they've always got something lit up. This room is safe for now. The lounge car isn't anymore."

[Mr. Handy]

"Well, let me quickly go over what you've missed," says Kate, hearing no objection. "On 17th September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. We didn't go to war with them too, as we had our hands quite full with Germany. They've been helping Germany indirectly, supplying them with oil and the like. It didn't take them long to carve up Poland. Then there were several long months of not very much happening. We called it the Phoney War. Meanwhile, the Soviets invaded Finland, but the Finns were tougher than they'd thought. That was the Winter War. In March they signed a peace treaty ending that war. The Soviets gained some territory that used to be part of Finland. Then on 9th April, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark fell in hours. Norway lasted longer, and we sent some troops to help out there, but it was a disaster. Chamberlain was forced out because of that. A lot of people thought Halifax would replace him, but he bowed out in favour of Churchill, and just in time. That was 10th May. That same day, Germany invaded the Low Countries. Our expeditionary force advanced to meet them in Belgium, but it was a trap. They somehow got their armour through the Ardennes and hit Sedan, then cut around behind our army. They were completely surrounded at Dunkirk, backs to the sea, and it looked like there was no escape. But then a miracle happened. Just about every seaworthy small craft in southern England was sent to help evacuate the army and get them to the Royal Navy vessels waiting offshore.

"After that, Norway finally fell, and France soon followed. Italy jumped into the war shortly before that and tried to invade France, but they didn't achieve much. Unfortunately, Germany more than made up for it. They occupied northern France and put Petain in charge of the rest of it as their puppet. The Soviets were busy too, taking over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Germany took the Channel Islands at the end of June, and it looked like they were going to invade us next. Only the RAF and the Royal Navy stood in their way. The Battle of Britain began in July. The RAF took a lot of losses, but they managed to hold on and win against the Luftwaffe. Then, on 7th September, they started bombing London. They've been hitting it hard almost every single night since then. They think they can break us, but they can't. There'll be no invasion this year, not now the weather's turned. We're safe until spring. I do hope we're out of here by then."

[Ritterton]

"Yea, it's been a lot, the world seems to have gone off its tracks, again." Arty's tone was more reflective, hesitant like remembering something that was not really wanting to be remembered. He shook his head and turned back to the newcomer, "You got any way for all of us to get out of this trap, friend?"

He took out the silver coin he found and began to spin it on its edge on the bar. He watched it and when it began to slow and wobble, he stopped it, then sent it in motion again.

[Overlord87]

Jonathan feels nauseous. "There's probably none, don't you think? Otherwise he would have fled by now", he states with just an hint of bitterness in his voice. "I say we just try to burn everything down. The station, maybe even the train if possible. There's got to be some fuel, or alcohol, somewhere. Won't save us, but if we do enough damage, it might save the next unlucky bunch".

[Mr. Handy]

"I don't think it's as simple as that," says Kate. "There's got to be a way out of here. If we all work together, we can find it."

[Ritterton]

"I gotta say, simple would be nice, really nice after all of that," Arty said as he waived at the distance. He had a slight twitch that rolled across the left of his neck and his shoulder.

Spoiler:

editing for the bump.

[Laraqua]

"I'd say there was a purpose to what happened here," said the man. "Surely it's here for a reason ... but whatever that reason is, I've no idea. I've wondered if perhaps the reason were only half-fulfilled, or if it were some devil's pact that made things how they are, twisted what was meant to be into this, but I'm not sure. I try to dart between safe spaces and keep out of such investigations. It is how I have lived so long while the others who come here ... while they have died or disappeared."

[Mr. Handy]

"If there's a purpose to this place," says Kate. "maybe there's a purpose to us being here. Maybe there's something we need to do here."

[Laraqua]

"If you can figure out how you got here, that may be another route to figuring out who you can leave," he agreed. "But please, remain with me awhile. There's no need to go so soon...." He gives her a look that may be flirtatious, or just desperate for human company. He seems to have warmed to them now, a little at least.

[Mr. Handy]

"I agree, we need to stick together," says Kate. "Too many people have disappeared because we got separated. I got dropped off here in a car I shared with Ilona Aston. I followed her into the waiting room through the blackout curtain, and we were in the waiting room. That's how we arrived. Things were already weird. There were some odd objects in the room, and the Station Master wasn't responding to knocks on his office door."