Rail Jacks protect trains from the clouds of starving ghosts in the wasteland between cities. Most trains have a seat behind the engine compartment, the safety seat, where one of the jacks can watch the engineers for signs of mental pressure or possession, and intervene. It’s a good ‘watch and learn’ post for rookies.
So this kid is still an apprentice jack, and he’s in the safety seat, and one of the engineers has allergies. First time he sneezes, the kid overreacts and fries him with the hook, gives the poor bastard the shakes for life. So they put the kid up walking the train for the rest of the trip, and he saw a reflection he didn’t like in the goggles of his partner, fries him with the hook. By the second trip, he had a rep for massive overreaction, posing more of a threat than the dangerous surroundings.
Some say he never had the nerve to be a rail jack, but his uncle was Speeder Zeke, and everybody’s heard of that crazy bastard. So, he didn’t get run off the rails, but he earned the nickname Safety, and people knew to keep an eye on the zap-happy twerp.
From “Tales on Rails: Oral Histories of the Elevated Trains” unfinished publication notes
Did no one ever think he might be possessed?
Sebastian Baker Seasoned rail jacks are pretty good at sniffing that out in a hurry. He was just a frightened kid with a heavy weapon determined not to let any ghost get the jump on him.
Of course, the narrator may not be totally reliable. There’s seldom one perspective only on an event that happened in the past, right?