The train derailed near Moose Lake in 1937, but
the tracks were never rebuilt. Now, decades
later, the region is a patchwork of isolated
settlements clinging to survival after the Great
Collapse. The old railway line, overgrown and
rusted, is a relic of a world that no longer
exists—except for the ones who still follow its
ghost.
Ewan MacLeod arrives in Moose Lake with a rifle,
a dog, and a past he wants to bury. A retired
Royal Canadian Engineer, he once built bridges
across the Arctic, but the war left him broken.
He comes not for the quiet of the north, but for
the promise of solitude—a place to forget the
betrayal that ended his career.
Moose Lake is split between two factions: the
Anglais, who run the hydroelectric dam and trade
goods with distant outposts, and the
Francophones, who live in the forested
hinterlands, harvesting what they can from the
land. Their uneasy peace is held together by a
single rule: no one crosses the old tracks
without permission. Ewan ignores it.
He finds a map in the ruins of a stationmaster’s
cabin, drawn in both languages. It marks a
hidden cache of supplies, buried by survivors in
the early days. But when he follows the route,
he discovers something else: a sealed bunker
containing records of a failed experiment that
caused the collapse. The documents name people—
Anglais and Francophones alike—who knew the
truth but chose silence.
Betrayal is not just a past wound—it’s a living
thing here. Ewan’s own brother, a former
engineer, was among those who signed the coverup.
The documents show how the experiment drained
the permafrost, triggering the chain of
disasters that ruined the north. The lake itself
is poisoned, the forests dying, and the people
divided not just by language, but by guilt.
The rule about the tracks is more than
superstition. It’s a warning. Those who cross
them do not return. Ewan learns this when he
tries to leave with the evidence, only to find
the dam’s guards waiting. They want the
documents destroyed. They want him dead.
But the Francophones have their own agenda.
They’ve been watching, waiting. When Ewan shares
what he found, they offer him a choice: burn the
records and disappear, or help them rebuild
using the knowledge buried in the bunker.
The tension between the two groups has always
been quiet, but now it roars. Ewan walks the
tracks one last time—not as a man running from
his past, but as a bridge between them. He burns
the documents in the open, letting the wind
carry the ashes into the lake.
Hopeful, not because the world is fixed, but
because the first step toward healing has been
taken. The tracks may be broken, but the people
of Moose Lake are learning to walk together
again.
