"Ken, I'm really uncomfortable. There's just those two guys left on this car. Let's get off at the next stop and walk or take a cab," Erin's pleas were whispered in a passionate voice against his ear. Her lips brushed him as she spoke. He tingled at the thought of having her tonight. What she said, though, broke the spell. She was scared. And scared women didn't want to fuck.
"Come on, honey," Ken protested. "We're, what, three stops from your place. We're on a subway car and there's bound to be a cop on the train somewhere. We're OK."
"I just can't help how I feel. Please, let's get off," there was anger mixed in with the plea this time. She didn't get scared easily, but she knew things could happen on a subway car. She had read about them in the paper.
His plan for the evening involved getting her in the sack in about a half hour. He didn't want to piss her off now and ruin everything. They could easily get off and take a cab for the mile or so to her apartment. He knew his plan for the night would be ruined if she was mad at him when they got to her apartment. He'd known other red heads and their tempers, but Erin had them beat. If she was pissed with him when they got to her apartment, she was likely to just tell him at the door that she'd see him next week or something like that, step inside, and close the door in his face.
He was ready to go at least twice tonight. He didn't want to have to go back to his apartment and masturbate.
"OK," he said. "I certainly don't want you to be upset. Besides, it's a nice night. A cab ride would be better than being underground in the subway."
The train approached the station. It slowed a bit, but never gave any real indication of stopping. With no announcement of an impending stop, the train ran through the station. The few people waiting looked puzzled.
The train continued without stopping. It was late and there were few people at the stations. It continued slowing only briefly as station after station was left behind.
"Maybe he's late and needs to make up some time," Ken offered lamely.
"And not stop to let people off," Erin demanded.
"Maybe he thinks the train is empty," Ken said not at all certain he was making sense. "Let's walk up to the front and tell the motorman we want to get off."
Getting out of the car and off the train entirely was Erin's only focus at that point so she readily agreed. They stood and walked toward the front of the car heading for the lead car where the motorman who was driving the train would be seated. As they passed the two men seated between them and the door to the adjoining car, Erin chanced a covert glance. They met her expectations, seedy and rough looking. They were dressed in work clothes which were dirty from the day's work or just because it had been a long time since they had been washed.
Both men eyed Erin openly sending shutters through her body.
They turned slightly in their seats. The plastic of the seat groaned and creaked as they twisted. Something in the hand of one of the men clanked against the metal frame of the seat in front of them as he gripped it.
Ken and Erin passed them giving them as wide a berth as the narrow aisle afforded. The men stared. After they passed one of them men said, "Got you a right pretty girl there. She any good in bed?"
Erin let out a cry which she was barely able to stifle to a whimper. Erin felt Ken stiffen. Neither of them replied. Ken reached for the door handle. Once pulled down the door would open inward to allow passengers to walk between cars. Ken pulled on the handle. It didn't budge. He tried again. Nothing. Again and again, he tried to force the handle downward. Nothing.
"I think the door's locked," one of the men commented.
"Don't want people moving around too much this time of night," the other responded as though the two of them were simply talking to each other.
Ken turned Erin around. His idea now was to try to get to the car behind them. This was a five car train, as he recalled. They were in the fourth car. There would be a car behind them. He thought of pulling an emergency pull, but what emergency was there beyond the two of them being a bit spooked and the train not having stopped for several stations. That might be highly unusual, but was it an emergency. They could easily get a train going in the other direction once this train stopped.
They walked past the two men a second time. The men stared again. Ken and Erin tried to ignore them. The plastic seats groaned and creaked letting them know that the men pivoted to watch. "Doesn't she have a great ass," one commented from behind.
"Yup," said the other. "Wonder if she is good in bed."
"Might be good just standing up," the other snickered. They both cackled, their voices those of heavy smokers. The cackles ended in a hacking cough. They fell silent.
Ken had been pulling Erin along behind him, but now he maneuvered her in front of him. In what seemed an eternity, they reached the door at the other end of the car. Nervously Ken reached around Erin for the handle. He pulled down. The door opened easily. Erin took the door, opening it fully. She stepped onto the metal grates which provided the floor over the cars' couplings. Ken held the door open until he saw that Erin had opened the door to the last car.
They were glad to see several others dressed in better clothes than the two men they had left behind. No one looked up. Ken quickly assayed the car's occupants. A total of four, he noted, no women. Two men sat near the middle of the car on the right. Their seat faced forward. Another sat by himself on an inward facing seat reading the paper. He was near the far back of the car. The fourth had his back to them as they entered the car. He sat in a seat facing away from the line of travel.
Ken was far more comfortable knowing that there were four additional men in this car and that only two seemed to know each other. That was far better than the two foul mouthed people they'd left behind.
Erin took them to a bench seat alongside the door and sat heavily pulling Ken down with her. "When this thing stops again, we're getting off," she said stridently. Her face was red even through her freckles.
The train swayed and rattled on with no sign of stopping.
Ten minutes elapsed before the train began to rise following the tracks from subterranean to ground level slowing as it rose.
"Where are we," Erin said quietly to Ken, but loudly enough for everyone on the train to hear.
"I have no idea," Ken replied looking around for someone else to add information. No one looked up, no one seemed concerned, no one spoke. "My god," Ken said suddenly, "we're in the yards."
Looking around Erin saw many sidings splitting away from the main line. She saw many other trains sitting dark and mute. Their train was barely moving now as it passed rudimentary platforms constructed only of wood with wooden steps leading down to paths running through the maze of tracks. The scene was shadowy darkness punctuated occasionally by the purple-blue light of mercury vapor lamps. The lack of moon light sharpened the shadows. A new moon, she thought.
With a screech of brakes and a lurch the train came to a full stop. There was no platform, not even the rough wooden ones they'd seen earlier. The only light came from a lamp on a pole maybe twenty yards away. The doors remained closed.
With no moon to add light to the bleak landscape of the rail yard that surrounded them they seemed to be in another world.
Erin stared wildly. She clutched at Ken. He said nothing staring at the closed doors. No one moved. No one spoke. The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of the door being opened at the far end of the car. The one they had passed through not twenty minutes earlier to escape the foul mouths.
The foul mouths entered. Two others entered with them.
Concern moved to full scale terror for both Ken and Erin. Neither moved. Terror was plainly printed on their faces.
The man who had been seated nearest the exit doors stood. He approached the door. He took a short metal bar from his jacket pocket which he inserted in a hole above the middle of the doors. When he turned it, the doors sighed and slid open. The lights in the car, indeed all of the train went dark. Erin screamed both from the shock of losing the light and the terror building within her.
No one spoke, no one looked at her or Ken. The men were moving slowly toward the exit as though in no hurry to get off. Finally one, then another dropped from the train onto the dirt path below.
The man with the door key turned and said to Erin as he held out his hand, "I'm sorry you're so frightened. We don't like it when you're frightened. Do take my hand and I'll help you off the train." He reached down and took Erin by the hand. When she made no move to stand, he said, "Come on now. This is the end of the line." He looked into her green eyes penetratingly and added, "for you."
He pulled on her arm raising her by force. She was too frightened to say anything even though she resisted. Ken stood. He seemed about to say something, but nothing came out.
The man looked at Ken. "Do you want to watch? Some do and some don't. We don't care which you prefer. You can just wait here if you'd like."
