The last carriage

Source: an original fiction extract.

The train stopped in the tunnel with such gentleness that Anil noticed the silence before the movement ended. Across the aisle, a woman continued turning the pages of her magazine. The lights stayed on. Somewhere ahead, a door clicked, followed by the blurred beginning of an announcement. Then the speaker fell silent too. Anil looked at his phone. No signal. In the window, the carriage reflected itself back at him, bright and apparently complete, with no sign of the darkness outside except where his reflection failed to cover the glass.

At the previous station, a railway worker had walked down the platform tapping each carriage door with the flat of his hand. Anil had watched him without interest. Now he remembered the man pausing beside their carriage and speaking into a radio. Had the pause been longer than the others? He could not decide. The woman put down her magazine. A young man farther along removed one earphone, listened and replaced it. Nothing in their faces told Anil how concerned he ought to be. He kept his bag between his feet and waited for the speaker.

A knock came from beneath the floor. Once, then twice in quick succession. The woman looked up. Anil felt relieved that somebody else had heard it, then less relieved because she had. The knock moved along the carriage, followed by a metallic scraping sound. The young man stood. Before anyone spoke, the lights flickered and returned. Anil gripped the seat in front of him. In the black spaces between the reflected windows, he thought he saw a point of orange light, moving slowly towards them from the front of the train.

The speaker crackled. The driver apologised for the delay and explained that staff were checking an obstruction beside the track. Passengers should remain seated. The young man sat down. Outside, a worker's lamp passed the window, followed by the pale oval of a face beneath a hard hat. The figure looked into the carriage, lifted a hand and disappeared. Anil released the seat. The scraping stopped. For several minutes there was only the ventilation and the woman's magazine, which she had begun reading again from the page she had marked with her thumb.

When the train moved, conversation returned in small, embarrassed fragments. Somebody complained about being late. The young man put both earphones back in. Anil watched the tunnel wall slide past until a strip of daylight opened ahead. At the next station, he stayed seated while passengers crowded through the doors. A railway worker stood on the platform, looking along the train. Anil met his eye and nodded. The man nodded back, already turning to the next carriage. Only when the doors closed did Anil realise that his hand was still resting on the seat in front.

Consider the whole source. Analyse how the writer structures the text to create and then reduce tension. Support your explanation with references to the source.