30-Minute Stories

Steve stepped out of his truck, grabbed his bag and headed into the depot.  He stopped at a vending machine, punched in his code, and grabbed some essentials for the trip: batteries for his lamp, ear plugs, and an extra pair of safety glasses.  He always needed an extra pair of glasses because he had a habit of leaving them on the train after a trip and no one wanted to risk getting reprimanded by the higher ups for not having their safety equipment on a trip.  He tucked them all away in his bag and continued down the hall to a small room off to the side.  Not much could be said about the room, as it didn't contain much.  Just a radio setup, a few small lockers, a table that was as shaky as it was old, and a few dirty chairs.  Occupying one of those chairs was his engineer for the night, Jon Berry. "Evening, Jon," Steve said as he entered the room.  Jon Boyd was what they called an old head, through and through.  Steve and the other conductors w...

Steve would never get used to the buzzing at all hours of the day and night.  He pawed around in the dark for a second before finally silencing the alarm on his phone.  Slowly, almost painfully, he opened his eyes and let them adjust to the darkness of the room.  He took a moment to collect himself, stretching as he did so.  Once again he bumbled around on his bedside table for his phone, picked it up and hit the power button.  The harsh glow of the screen caused him to wince, but he was able to read the time anyway.  11:13 p.m. "This is going to be a long night," Steve said, to no one in particular. He had received a call and hour prior that he was on duty that night, and had tried to get in a little sleep before he had to get ready and leave for the train yard.  He knew he was close to being called out for a job and should have gone to bed earlier, but he foolishly stayed up watching some horror movie and had just lied down to rest a few minutes ...