The vehicle being loaded with food and passengers was massive.  It was long too, several of these large box like containers were connected together and each had several massive sets of tread.  This was the villages wind train.  These vehicles vary quite a bit in their overall looks, but all of them had a few common traits that were essential for traveling between the villages at the top of the Canyon.  They all featured an outer layer capable of withstanding the hottest part of the day, this would mean either a simple covering made from tunnel spider silk, salvaged old world tech or anything that would work.  The wind train for this village was unique, it made use of old world tech, but it was recently made in one of the deeper areas near Sanity.  This train could run without any wind sails in the sky.  It also had a rather fancy heating and cooling system that kept the cargo and passengers from roasting during the hot part of the day and from freezing during the colder parts of the night.
The new adults wouldn’t be spending much time taking advantage of the winds trains amenities.  Their time would be spent enduring the outside elements during this trip.  This was another part of the trial they were facing, but failing this part wouldn’t mean you were back to being a ‘child.’  In a way, this one was even more important.  Failing this part, meant that you wouldn’t be able to join the scouts.  It was also a point of pride among some of the younger men.  There were several people that the new adults hadn’t really noticed until now and that’s only because they just noticed that there were more people here than at the first part of the trial.  These were adults who had previously failed this part and now they had an opportunity to give it another try.  This year, there were just as many adults re-taking this part as there were new adults.  The betting boards were going to be busy until they made it back.
Once the cargo and the passengers were all loaded up, everything was double checked by the senior scouts.  Other than a few simple mistakes and a few moments of finding out who needed some additional instruction on the ‘right way’ to do one thing or another.  It didn’t take that much time and you could see a couple of the scouting team handing over whatever they lost in a bet afterward, but before they found a suitable place to guide all of the new adults and adults retaking this part of the trial.  With so many trying this year, there were bound to be quite a few that failed.  This was going to be a long journey with so many for the scouting team to keep an eye on.  They even brought a few more of the team than usual.  With a group this large, there was going to be quite a few stubborn ones and they were the ones that needed to be watched the closest.  Being stubborn up here could easily cost you your life.

Watching the wind train launch it’s drones seemed a little unreal the first time you see it.  These gaudy looking things were used to get the wind sails high enough into the sky to get to get the winds it needed.  They were sort of balled up and loading into these sort of catapult looking devices and flung at high speed into the sky where it would unfold and take flight with it’s cable in tow.  Several thousand feet later, the drone would deploy the wind sail it was carrying and would also act as a controller for adjusting the wind sail as needed.  Once deployed, the wind sail was used to pull the train toward it’s destination.  A single container wind train could easily have a half dozen of similar devices to pull it along.  Additional containers just meant you needed to add in additional wind sails or using larger sails on some of the containers.
Once the train had launched all of it’s drones, you could hear a faint noise coming from the cables.  It was almost musical, the long droning pace of the notes slowly changing pitch, seemed to reflect the barren landscape that the train was headed toward.  Randall wondered if it had always been this way or if at one time there was an abundance of life at the top of the Canyon.  The train began to pick up speed and sound of the tread started to drown out the sound of the wind against the cables.
One of the scouts noticed Randall standing there just staring and startled him back to focus with a booming voice, “You’re not getting cold feet are ya?” The scout’s voice changed to a hushed whisper, “cuz I put a bet on you making it at least half way before tapping out.”  That was enough to get his focus back on the moving train, which was starting to pick up a bit of speed. “Either grab on to one the ladders or get on to one of the observation seats.  The winds look kind today,” the same scout said in a much friendlier tone.  Randall jogged along the side and pulled himself into one of the shaded observation seats.  This seemed to clue in the rest of them that it was time to grab onto the train or risk being left running behind a train that suddenly seemed to be going impossibly fast for something being pulled by kites.

The train had traveled for several hours well above speeds that any one would be able to do on foot.  They might be able to keep up on something they peddled, but there was really no way a person on foot could keep up.   There were plenty of places you’d clip your harness while moving around on the train.  It didn’t take long before one of the new adults had fallen off a top area and hung helplessly against the side until a few others pulled them up.  It was hard to tell who it was under their gear, but later there would be some bruising around where the harness pulled hard against the fall.  Those bruises would last more than a few days and so would the soreness.  It did still beat getting left behind miles away from anything.
Randall had noticed that the scouting group had been taking turns wearing a few over sized packs.  These were filled with enough supplies to survive at least a few nights on the path.  The nearly nagging reminders to use the clips was probably an indication of how unpleasant a night out here might be.  It wouldn’t hurt to fall completely off the train much more than it does for the harness to catch you, so it certainly wasn’t a concern for anyone’s safety.  The almost overly concerned stares when any of the new adults were moving their clips was another clue they didn’t want anyone falling off the train.  They were quick to point out mistakes that would let you fall, but mistakes that just meant wasted time and effort they didn’t bother with.
There was a whole lot of nothing as far as you could see.  The heat of the day could be fatal, but at night you could end up freezing.  Since there was that much nothing around, it was difficult to escape the cold wind at night without a portable shelter.  There were occasional ruins off the path, but you’d risk finding a pit trap or some other thing that was more likely to cause your death or take a limb than the cold.
With all of the nothing around, Randall began to wonder how this wasn’t the Wastelands. There wasn’t anything horrific in view and there wasn’t a smell to the air, well other than dusty and dry, but how much worse could the Wastelands be than this?  He’d heard stories passed down on his fathers side, but knowing that stories become exaggerated over time, he wondered if the stories he heard were really just about the top.  He didn’t see any clouds, let alone ones that would consume everything in their path.  There also weren’t any creatures that you could see.  Those stories had at least one terrible monster, if not more.
From his current vantage point, a simple chair and harness with a minimum of shielding in place, all he saw was nothing.  A whole lot of nothing. Just mile after mile of terrible heat, dry dust and more nothing.  For a brief moment he thought he saw a lake in the distance, maybe one of the famous acid lakes that ate whatever entered, but once he noticed that it stayed the same distance away, he remembered another tidbit from those stories.  He had never seen one in the Canyon, but he was pretty sure what he saw was just a mirage.  Just a trick of heat and light at a distance, that looks just like a lake in the distance.  Then he saw a lot more of nothing.
As the day lost it’s light, the train began to slow.  The winds were still strong, but now it was near night, the train would slow down by engaging it’s charging mode.  As the night went on, the train would continue to run slow so that it’s heating and filtration systems could run without any fear of running out of power.  The solar panels had all turned around and where now acting like a shutter that ran the entire train.  A shutter that also acted as a shield, keeping the things outside from noticing all the tender little meals hiding inside. The noise coming from the charging units also kept the larger of the flying creatures away. Some of the night creatures had claws or teeth that could easily cut through the toughest materials.  The best option for the night fliers was staying hidden and keeping them away with high frequency sounds.
Before the last of the light drained away, all of the scouting team, including the new adults were inside stowing their gear for this thing tomorrow.  If they were lucky, the next few days would bore them, but for now, all but a few that had first night shift climbed into their bunks, the rocking of the train and a day filled of being at high alert made it easy to fall asleep.  Tomorrow would come fast for them, all of the new adults were utterly exhausted.