Train Driver Finds Little Boy Lying on Tracks, 'They Took Sam...' Kid Whispers – Story of the Day

Train driver Alex is forced to stop his train when he encounters a young boy on the tracks. The child is weak and only manages to whisper, ‘They took Sam,’ before he passes out. Alex decides to help the child, not realizing that this decision will land him in a world of trouble.

Alex was headed back from a delivery to Gallup when he noticed something on the train tracks ahead of him that sent a shock of fear down his spine. He immediately pulled the brake on his locomotive and sounded the air horn.

The small person on the track rose to their hands and knees and then slumped back down. Alex cussed heartily as he gauged the distance between his train and the person. He wasn't sure the locomotive would stop in time.

Alex had been driving freight trains across the state for ten years and knew how to keep cool in stressful situations. He put one hand on the emergency brake and waited. Pulling the emergency brake would cause a whole lot of trouble and delay, so he'd avoid using it until it was absolutely necessary.

The train got closer and closer to the small person on the tracks, but it was also slowing significantly. Soon, it reached a complete stop. Alex leaped from the locomotive and ran to the person on the tracks.

A skinny and dirty young boy lay across the tracks. The boy looked up and said something chilling as Alex crouched beside him.

"They took Sam," the boy whispered, then his eyes rolled back in his skull.

Alex carried the unconscious child back to the locomotive and laid him down in the empty engineer's chair. He fetched a bottle of water and one of the granola bars he kept as snacks, then returned to the boy.

"Hey, kid," Alex gently shook the boy's shoulder. "I got you something to drink."

The boy's eyes fluttered open. He took the water and candy bar from Alex and fell on them like a starving coyote.

"Now you've had something to eat and drink, why don't you tell me who Sam is and what happened to him. Think you can do that?"

The boy eyed him warily but eventually nodded.

"Sam is my big brother. We were trying to grab some food off these guys at the train station, but they caught Sam. I slipped away, but I watched them tie him up and put him in a train car. I've been following them ever since."

"You've been following a train? But that's insane! Where are your parents, kiddo, and what about the cops? Surely it'd be better to let them find your brother."

The boy shook his head. "It's only Sam and me, mister, and I can't go to the cops. They'd send me off to some foster home and I'd never see my brother again."

Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He guessed the boy was between five and eight years old, way too young to have such complicated problems.

"Why don't you tell me where you were when these guys took your brother? Maybe I can help you out."

The boy's eyes brightened, and he sat up straight. "We were at platform 15. The men were in one of the warehouses by the station."

"That can't be right. Platform 15 was shut down years ago. Nobody even uses that stretch of track anymore."

"Those men do!" The boy replied. "They're always there, loading things on and off the train, but it's only ever the one train that pulls in there. Me and Sam have been watching them a while."

None of this made sense to Alex, but his curiosity was piqued. The boy seemed utterly convinced of his facts, and Alex reckoned the only way to prove to him he had mixed up the platform numbers was to show him.

"Let's go check it out then," Alex said. "But before we go anywhere, what's your name, son?"

The boy smiled a little. "Call me Nick, mister."

Alex got the locomotive running again and headed off. A few hours later, he turned onto a siding near the start of the old track leading to platform 15 and stopped the train again.

"We'll have to continue on foot from here since the switch isn't active anymore," Alex told Nick. "How would you like to ride on my shoulders?"

The boy nodded eagerly, and the pair set off down the track. It was a warm afternoon, and Alex was wary of encountering snakes, so he kept his eyes on the ground as he followed the tracks.

He started to feel that something was wrong, but it took him a while to realize what it was. Alex stopped dead as he stared at the railway tracks. A cold shiver ran down his neck.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Alex?" Nick asked.

"The tracks...there should be grass growing up around them. Some of these bushes should be hanging over them too, but they're not. Seems you were right, Nick. A train has been running along this line."

Alex proceeded more carefully then. Whoever was using this track illegally couldn't possibly be working alone. There had to be at least one driver and controller in on whatever the people at the station were doing. He couldn't risk running into any trouble.

When the station came into view, Alex set Nick down by a tall bush and proceeded alone. Alex's heart leaped into his throat when he crested a low hill and spotted a train at the platform.

Alex dropped into a crouch and crept closer. His fingers shook as he removed his phone from his pocket and snapped a photo of the train's number. He then spotted the men loading long wooden crates onto the train cars.

He moved until he found a spot where he could take photos of the men placing the crates inside the train cars. Then Alex recorded a video for good measure, ensuring to pan over the train number and platform sign in addition to capturing the men's activities.

Alex saw no sign of a young boy who might be Nick's brother. He also wasn't close enough to hear what the men might be saying to each other. He decided not to take any more risks and backtracked to the spot where he'd left Nick.

"Let's get out of here," he told the boy.

Alex hurried back to the yard. He took Nick with him and ran over to the office. His boss was locking up when Alex bolted inside.

"Mr. Kirby, wait! I have something very important to report to you. It's about illegal activity on one of the abandoned lines."

Mr. Kirby frowned. "Illegal activity? Come in and sit down, Alex. Do you have proof of this illegal activity? And who is this boy with you?"

"I'll tell you everything in a moment, sir," Alex replied as he and Nick followed Mr. Kirby back into his office. "And I took photos and a video of what I saw as evidence."

Alex sat and told Mr. Kirby about finding Nick on the tracks and how the boy's story had led him to check out the supposedly abandoned platform 15. He then took out his phone and showed Mr. Kirby the evidence.

Initially, Mr. Kirby stared at the video and photos with his mouth hanging open in shock. Then his face turned red, and his forehead corrugated as he frowned angrily. He insisted that Alex send the photos and video to him immediately.

"How dare these scumbags use my line for their shady business!" Mr. Kirby banged his fist down on his desk. "When I get my hands on them..."

Mr. Kirby clenched his jaw and rose. He rounded the desk and offered Alex his hand.

"Thank you, Alex," Mr. Kirby said as he shook Alex's hand. "You've done the company, possibly even the country, a great service by reporting this to me."

"It's my duty, sir, nothing more and nothing less," Alex replied.

Mr. Kirby then smiled kindly at Nick. "And don't you worry young man, I'll be calling the police as soon as possible and I'm sure they'll find your brother."

Nick muttered a thank you but kept his head low. Despite this good news, it seemed the boy was still nervous.

"Just one more thing," Mr. Kirby said as he escorted Alex and Nick to the door. "Why don't you get young Nick here something to eat and drink from the vending machine down the hall? It's on me...just let me fetch my wallet."

Mr. Kirby stepped back. Immediately, a hard blow landed on the back of Alex's head. Starbursts peppered his vision. The pain was still traveling through his skull like lightning bolts when he toppled forward. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Nick screaming for help.

Alex woke up to a horrific headache, a tight, pulling sensation across the lower part of his face, and painful stiffness in his shoulders. It took him a few moments to make sense of his darkened surroundings. The only light came from narrow slits lining the walls.

He was in a stationary boxcar, surrounded by the same wooden crates he'd seen earlier. The weird sensation on his face was caused by the tape across his mouth, and his shoulders were stiff because his wrists were bound and tied to something behind him.

Alex spotted Nick lying on his side nearby. He couldn't reach the boy to check on him, but he could just make out the rise and fall of his side as the boy breathed. There were voices outside, and they were coming closer.

"...inside this car?" A man said.

"There's smaller items in that one, appliances, and mechanical items," a second man replied.

"Okay, I see it here on your manifesto. Open up, please so I can inspect the cargo."

"Sure thing. Let me just...Oh my God! Rattlesnake!!"

Chaos erupted outside. Men shouted, and boots crunched on gravel.

"...just a corn snake!" The first man laughed nervously.

"Do you reckon it got mixed up with the corn in those other cars?" The second man asked. "You'd better check them out..."

The men started walking away. Alex tried shouting to draw the first man's attention. It seemed like he was some kind of inspector, probably for the border control, which meant he could save Alex and Nick if he knew they were there.

But the tape over his mouth muffled every sound he made. Although he was trying to scream at the top of his voice, all that came out was a whine. He kept trying until the men were out of earshot.

Alex let his head fall forward and instantly regretted it as a renewed bout of pain arrowed into his skull. He had to think! He needed to find a way to draw that man's attention, but how?

Alex was still trying to devise a plan when he heard the men returning.

"...satisfied with what I've seen. You can get on your way, now. Welcome to Mexico!"

The old diesel locomotive puttered a few times before settling into a full-throated roar. Alex despaired as the train started moving away.

When the train stopped again, two men entered the boxcar and dragged Alex and Nick out into an unforgiving landscape. Pale sand dunes stretched to the horizon in every direction, and the only landmark was a collection of buildings surrounded by a high, chain-link fence.

"Ándale!" One of the men barked as he shoved Alex's shoulder.

The men marched Alex and Nick to the buildings. Guards were patrolling all along the fence, and every one of them was armed. A tough-looking man let them in through a gate. They soon found themselves inside a sweltering hot factory-type building where filthy, emaciated people were packing items into wooden crates.

The guard took Nick and Alex to a corner where several people were repairing lightly damaged crates with bits of wood scavenged from crates that were beyond repair. They were immediately pressed into service doing the same job.

When Alex refused to work, the guard raised his gun and trained it on Alex. So Alex and Nick spent the rest of the day repairing crates. It was a demanding job with a lot of pressure since someone was always yelling at him to hurry, and the heat did nothing to improve conditions.

It was sunset when Alex and Nick filed out of the factory with all the other workers. The crowd shuffled toward another building, and Alex and Nick followed them. Inside was a cafeteria. They joined the line of people waiting to get food.

Suddenly, Nick gasped and tugged on Alex's arm. "Look! That's my brother, Sam!"

Cockroaches skittered openly across the table as Alex forced himself to eat the unidentifiable slop that was served to him. It helped that his primary focus was on the family reunion between Nick and Sam, who were seated on his right.

"...looked inside one of those crates and it was filled with guns!" Sam hissed. "That's when the men caught me. They said I'd seen too much, and they had to deal with me. next thing I knew, I was here."

"There were guns in the crate?" Alex asked.

Sam nodded. "Far as I can understand, they're smuggling the guns into Mexico. Here at the factory, there are people who unload the guns and pack them on to trucks, then they send the crates inside where they're filled with these weird plastic dolls before being sent back. I think there's drugs inside the dolls."

Alex went numb with horror as he realized the full magnitude of the trouble he was now in. Clearly, he'd gotten caught up in some cartel's weapons and drug smuggling business. He was surrounded by guards, an impossibly high fence, and miles upon miles of desert.

There was no way he and the two boys could escape this place.

Over the next week, Alex began to feel like he was in hell on Earth. He was forced to work six days a week from sunup to sunset and never got anything better to eat than the mystery slop. He slept on a hessian sack in a crowded room that stank and was infested with bugs.

Alex searched constantly for ways to escape with the boys, but it was every bit as hopeless as he'd suspected. He'd just about resigned himself to dying in that godforsaken factory when he had a brilliant idea.

He was removing the oil-stained planks from the bottom of a crate to replace them when he realized how easy it would be to make a couple of containers with false bottoms.

Some crates were long and deep enough that a person could fit inside easily enough. They could then be loaded up with the next shipment of drug-filled dolls being smuggled into the States.

Over the next few days, Alex furtively gathered some extra wood and started making false bottoms for three of the longest, deepest crates he was assigned to repair. He finished two crates and made a discreet marking on the bottom corner so he could identify them. He'd almost finished the third when disaster stuck.

The work day had just started, and Alex was walking toward the factory with the other workers when a woman sidled up to him.

"I know what you've been up to," she whispered. "If you don't want me to tell the guards about your escape plan, then you're going to do exactly what I say, ¿Entiendes?"

Alex stared at the woman in shock. His first instinct was to deny everything, but there was a harshness in her eyes that made him feel like she'd call the guards immediately if he tried to lie to her.

"You will make one of those boxes for me, too," she said. "When you get out of here, I'll be coming with you. Deal?"

"Okay, it's a deal," Alex replied.

The woman nodded stiffly, then moved away from him and disappeared into the crowd. He sighed as he approached his work area. He'd expected to finish the last crate today and had hoped he, Nick, and Sam could escape that night after the evening headcount.

This strange woman's demand would delay their escape by another two days, at least. It was unbearable to consider waiting that long, but Alex had no choice.

He finished making a false bottom for the third crate by midday and immediately started work on the next one.

A few days later, Alex, Nick, Sam, and the woman, whose name was Camila, bunched together as the guards carried out the evening headcount. Everything was ready, and they were going to escape that evening.

Before dinner, when they were filing out of the factory to reach the cafeteria, the four of them slipped away and hid behind a pile of junk near the loading bay. When the coast was clear, they slipped inside the factory.

"They should load these crates while everyone is eating dinner," Alex whispered, "and with any luck, nobody will notice we're missing until the midnight bed check."

The four of them each squeezed into one of the false bottoms on the crates Alex had altered. It was unbearably cramped and darker than night. Within moments, Alex felt like he was suffocating inside the small space.

But he willed himself to be calm and quiet. Eventually, he felt his crate being lifted and dropped roughly. A rumbling noise followed soon afterward. He was forced to endure a very rough ride before he heard and felt the soothing familiarity of being on a train.

Tears of relief flowed down Alex's cheeks as he realized their escape plan was a success! After days of torment in the factory, he was finally on his way home.

Once Alex was certain there weren't any guards in the train car with the shipment, he pushed open the panel and climbed out into the car. It was very dark, but flashes of moonlight leaking in through the sides of the boxcar provided just enough illumination for Alex to locate one of the other crates.

He opened the first crate, and Camila crawled out. He then searched until he found the next crate. He opened it, and Sam emerged. Together, they searched for the final crate.

As time ticked by, their search grew more desperate. Alex began unpacking the crates and moving them around. When that proved fruitless, he started banging on the sides as he examined each one in case he'd overlooked the small marking he'd made in the darkness.

"He's not here," Sam wailed from the other end of the boxcar. "Nick isn't in any of these crates!"

Alex put his head in his hands as he was forced to admit Sam was right. Nick's crate wasn't on this boxcar.

"He must've been left behind," Alex said. "This car is full so they must've left some of the crates in the loading area to wait for the next shipment."

"We can't just leave him there!" Sam cried. "All squashed up in that box, all alone...what if the guards find him when they discover us missing after the midnight bed check? They'll shoot him for trying to escape!"

"I know," Alex replied.

"We have to go back."

Camila huffed. She sat on one of the crates and crossed her arms. "You can go back if you want to," she said, "but I have my own life to worry about. Now that I'm free, I can't take the risk of getting captured by those people again."

"Then don't," Sam snapped. "We don't need your help anyway!"

Alex moved to the door. He opened it carefully, but the rush of wind still sent him reeling. He clenched his fingers around the handle set into the wall and peered outside.

A full moon turned the desert sand to a stark white as the train barreled down the tracks. The landscape seemed barren and empty until Alex spotted the lights from a town twinkling in the distance.

"We'll have to jump, Sam," Alex shouted as he gestured to the boy. "The sand should soften the landing a little, but you've got to remember to roll when you land. Can you do that?"

Sam's response was to take a running leap through the open boxcar doors. Alex swore, then jumped out after the boy. The earth shifted beneath his feet when he landed, and a jarring impact shuddered up his bones. Then he was rolling over the rough sand, letting his momentum carry him until he came to a stop.

The train sped onwards as though nothing had happened. Alex scrambled to his feet and called out for Sam.

"Over here!" Sam limped toward him.

Sam had hurt his ankle when he landed, but the injury wasn't bad. The two set out across the desert, guided by the lights from the town Alex had spotted.

The full moon had risen to the middle of the sky by the time they entered the town. It was almost midnight, and their time was running out. Alex ran into the gas station on the main road.

"El Teléfono por favor!" He said in uncertain Spanish to the man behind the counter. "La policía, por favor, es emergencia!"

Alex didn't understand most of the man's response, but he looked on eagerly as the cashier took out his phone and made a call. Soon afterward, a police cruiser pulled up outside the gas station.

Alex told the police officers everything about the factory in the desert, how he'd gotten there, and Nick's misfortune at being left behind when they escaped.

The police officer immediately called despatch and reported what Alex had told him. He then insisted that Alex and Sam come with him to the police station.

"You both will be safest there," the officer said.

"We're putting together a team right now to go and storm this factory where you were held. We've already notified border control to detain and search that train."

Alex and Sam climbed into the police cruiser, and the officer took them to the station. They were escorted to an empty room and asked to wait. Minutes quickly turned into hours as Alex and Sam paced the room.

Both were very worried about Nick. The longer they waited, the more convinced they were that the police raid had gone horribly wrong. The factory guards were heavily armed, and Alex had doubts about how well the police would do if a gunfight broke out.

Eventually, the door swung open. Both Alex and Sam rushed forward as Nick entered the room with one of the police officers.

"We found the boy quickly after we gained entry to the compound," the officer said. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long to be reunited, but the paramedics had to check he was okay before we could bring him here."

Alex grinned as he watched the two brothers hugging. "Thank you, officer," he said. "So, were you able to free all the people working in that awful place?"

"Sí, and we will probably be busy for the next few days getting all of them back to their homes. The people who were running the place are all behind bars, where they belong."

"We also got news from the border control," the officer continued, "but this news is not so good, I'm afraid. The woman who escaped with you was found dead inside the car. She was shot. We think one of the guards that were on the train discovered her there and murdered her."

Alex hung his head. Although Camila had blackmailed him into helping her escape, he regretted that she hadn't found the freedom she'd been searching for.

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