A train ride home from a school field trip turns sinister when two kids spot a body on the tracks.
James Patterson places middle school friends Will and Fred aboard a Baltimore transit train heading home from an afternoon field trip. The crowded car becomes uncomfortable when two disruptive older teenagers board at Cold Spring Avenue, whispering about an impending stunt.
Will and Fred end up directly behind the driver's glass partition, where an oblivious operator stares at a mobile phone. The fast-moving train rounds a curve into an open valley just as an unmoving figure appears stretched across the rails.
A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka.