Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 690

Chapter 690
"Run! Run!?" Hunter was startled and looked around suspiciously.

"Where did you hear that? Was it some kind of strange whisper again?"

"Oh, no, I heard Morse code."

Since Hughes brought Morse code to the world, it has been successfully applied in communications.

Many places that can be seen and heard but are inconvenient to reach use this Morse code for communication.

"How could that be? I didn't see you bring a reference chart." Hunter glanced at Yami. They had been together the whole time, and Yami hadn't even looked at the reference chart.

"Do we really need to bring that thing? You can memorize it after seeing it once." Yami blinked in confusion.

"Okay, where did you hear that from?"

"Just now, I heard a whistle sounding intermittently, and after piecing it together, I came up with this word."

"A steam whistle?" Hunter was taken aback and pricked up his ears to listen, but all he could hear outside was the howling wind. No, if he listened carefully, there was indeed a faint, sharp steam whistle sound.

"There really is one! Wait a minute!" Hunter suddenly realized, his face changing drastically. "This is the wasteland, how could there be a ship's horn?! It's probably..."

A sudden thought struck him as he considered an extremely terrifying possibility.

Is a train approaching?!

The railway line between Castells and the North is currently a one-way line. Although construction has begun on a two-way line, it will be a long time before it is completed.

Therefore, if a train comes along, they won't just pass by, but...
A head-on collision!

squeak----!!!!!
A sharp metallic scraping sound rang out.

"Ouch!"

"Wow!"

"Hold on tight!"

The passengers in the carriage were thrown about, but fortunately most of the luggage had been secured and did not fall on anyone.

Unfortunately, the train conductor and the guards who had just stepped forward to secure the luggage had only just reached the car in front of them, while Amy and Hunter had only just stood up to secure their luggage when they found themselves standing under a huge pile of luggage ready to be secured.

The train's violent movement instantly caused the luggage above to slide and crash down with a loud thud!
Yami and Hunter stared wide-eyed. Neither of them were particularly athletic, and while their minds processed the situation quickly enough, their bodies couldn't keep up, leaving them helplessly watching the luggage hurtle towards them.

"Watch out!" Alvarez rushed forward to try and pull the two apart—he was not only equally inactive, but also too far away to reach them.

But a dark shadow suddenly flashed in front of them.

Bang! Crash!

The items on the overhead luggage rack fell down, but were all blocked by that figure.

The man's luggage contained many heavy items, but he didn't seem to care at all, appearing completely nonchalant.

"Patriarch Ignati?" Alvarez asked, somewhat surprised.

"It's me. Are you all alright?"

Ignati put his luggage on the ground and turned around.

His hair was completely white, and his face bore the marks of time. Although he looked old, he still stood like a wall in front of them.

The leader of the [Buried Ones] bowed his head slightly, and only after seeing that the others were unharmed did he turn his gaze to the window.

"Sudden braking. What happened?"

The group then realized that the metallic scraping sound they had just heard was actually the sound of brakes.

Trains rarely brake so suddenly, as it is both unsafe and could shorten the lifespan of the equipment.

The sudden braking, coupled with the earlier honking that seemed to scream "escape!", created a powerful cacophony of sounds.
Hunter swallowed hard, a very ominous suspicion forming in his mind—was there really a train ahead, about to collide with him?
But just as he was about to voice his thoughts, Ignati suddenly raised his hand, signaling the others to be quiet. Then, he stepped to the window and looked up.

"Patriarch Ignati"

"There's an airship up there."

"An airship?" The group was taken aback. In this weather, a train was one thing, but an airship taking off would be suicidal.
Yami's eyes lit up: "Yes, that should be the whistle of an airship. I didn't think it was from a train. If it were a train speeding towards us, the whistle would have a noticeable Doppler shift."

Upon hearing this, Hunter showed a look of sudden realization, while Alvarez remained completely bewildered.

What is Doppler shift?

Unfortunately, before Yami could answer, the train jolted violently again, and the wheels under the carriages made a sound as they rubbed against the tracks.

"Why is it starting again? Wait, this time it's heading in the other direction!?"

Since railways are single-track, trains are usually equipped with locomotives at both ends. It is important to know that starting a steam engine is a very complex and time-consuming process. The fact that the engine was started immediately after the emergency stop can only mean that the engine was started in advance to heat the water in the steam chamber.

The group looked out the window together, presumably because of the influence of the airship.

The airship was now closer to the train, and the group could barely see what was happening on it. Hunter squinted and stared for a while before suddenly saying, "Something's not right."

"what happened?"

"The steam engines on that airship were all running at overload, propelling it forward at full speed, yet it was still barely faster than the storm."

"Isn't this just normal escaping from the storm? What's wrong with it?"

“This is not right in itself.” Hunter shook his head. “It’s understandable that we can’t see the storm while we’re on the train, but the airship is in the sky. Why didn’t it avoid the storm? Besides, we’re moving backwards now, and the storm is right in front of us. Logically speaking, the airship shouldn’t be in front of us, unless…”

Hunter swallowed hard, and said incredulously, "Unless this storm is chasing the airship."

The carriage fell silent instantly.

The group, who had been watching the airship above, turned to look at the storm in the distance upon hearing Hunter's words.

When they looked at the storm just now, it was just dark clouds and wind and rain.

At this moment, rainwater, sand, gravel, trees, and various debris gathered together to form a huge black tornado, like a giant spinning top that crashed onto the earth, leaving a deep mark on the ground.

"hiss"

Yami, with her sharp eyes, even spotted a complete section of railway track within the tornado.
woo-

The sound of the whistle pierced the air, carried by the gale, and reached the ears of the group.

The airship was quite close to the train, and the sound of its whistle was clearly audible to everyone on the train.

The whistle blared intermittently, and many people quickly pulled out their notebooks to take notes.

Hunter didn't rummage through his pockets; instead, he turned to look at Yami.

Yami frowned as she listened, translating the words directly into sentences.

"Full speed ahead. The storm is chasing us."

At this point, he suddenly widened his eyes and stopped translating.

"And then? Go on!"

Yami looked up at the airship, his face filled with shock.

"They want to change direction and divert the storm!"