Tired and Worn Out

"Welltown Yards, 1966"

Old Smokey had been sent to the yards at Welltown to pick up important supplies for the BLU team's guard post up near Offblast. The war effort had been hard on everyone, but Old Smokey was feeling the worst of it. It seemed like the more trains he pulled, the more tired he seemed to get, and even the more weaker. He often found himself struggling to push and pull the freight cars around the yard, and even felt like he wasn't getting enough steam like he used too. It had been a while since his last overhaul, so his joints often ached and steam often leaked out of him at the worst of times. Nevertheless, Smokey never gave up on himself, and always tried his hardest to get the job he was doing done.

One morning, he was due to take a couple of cars out to the junction near Grants, but they were loaded to the brim with munitions and other supplies the soldiers needed on the front. Old Smokey struggled hard to get them to move, but they barely budged. No matter how much steam he forced into his cylinders, he wasn't going anywhere. He stopped for a minute to catch his breath before trying again, but on the opposite track next to him, a huge odd-looking engine backed down onto some boxcars waiting for him. Instead of sympathizing with the poor old engine, he laughed coldly at him. "Typical you common shunters can't handle these heavy loads," he laughed. "I'm surprised an engine of your age has even lasted this long." Old Smokey scowled at him. "I still have plenty of years ahead of me," he replied to the large engine. "things are just getting a bit busy for me is all." "Of course it is," he said. "it may not seem like much now, but once the workload increases for you, that's when it starts to get worse." Old Smokey looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at?" he asked. The engine replied, "Well, it's obvious isn't it? You're wearing out. Once the war effort gets worse, they'll go asking for more supplies and weaponry to be shipped out. Then they'll add more to your trains and keep adding them until the day comes when you finally break down and you can't pull anymore. You'll have worn yourself out to the ground, no puff and no smoke and you'll be nothing more than a hunk of junk on the rails with no use to anybody, and what'll happen then?" He paused dramatically to allow Old Smokey to think. "What will happen then?" he asked him. "Well obviously they'll send you to the scrapyards!" he said. "They'll take you apart piece by piece and forge your metal to make yourself useful as something else for a change, like say a sentry sapper or a minigun bullet perhaps?" Old Smokey shuddered. He knew what the scrapyards were like. After he had worked a lumber railroad up north in Colorado which had closed down just after the World War, he was sent to the scrap merchant to await his imminent fate. But not before he was rescued by the Engineer and his comrades, who had him restored and put back to work to help operate their private lines. Old Smokey was grateful that they had done such a feat for him, and knew just how to use it back at that engine! "I have someone who takes good care of me, and people who appreciate the work I do! I may be old and tired, but I put in my best effort for the people who need my help." "Sure people may love you now," scoffed the engine, "but your precious Engineer won't be around forever to take care of you. And once he's gone with all the other people you know and your line closes down, what will happen to you then? Eh?" Old Smokey was gonna retort, but then he realized exactly what the big engine had said. Unfortunately, unlike steam locomotives, humans couldn't get overhauls or repairs whenever they were getting old and worn out and of course they couldn't last forever. If he were to lose his owner and couldn't find anywhere else to work, what hope could he have for his future? "I....don't know..." he sighed, feeling defeated. The engine smirked. "Just what I thought," he said. He then began to wheesh steam. "Take my advice old timer, give up before you break apart completely. Find yourself a place within an antique collection, that'll last you for a while!" And with that, he puffed off leaving poor Old Smokey in a cloud of steam.

I might have mentioned somewhere before that I wanted to try improving on my writing skills a bit. So with this picture I've made, I've managed to come up with a fairly decent story along with it. More might follow up once I get some good ideas and inspirations for them...maybe......

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Team Fortress 2. It is owned by Valve.

Old Smokey and Cedric, are the characters you see in this picture, courtesy of ME. Feel free to use them with permission....if you dare...