Chapter 2: Book:1 | Arc:1 | Ch:2

So, in the few minutes since I had noticed the new surroundings, many of the others in the train were freaking out. Myself included. As for the reasons, that would be because we had looked out the window and we confirmed something. The train was riding over infinite water, no tracks, no land or anything that'd indicate where we were. Just endless still water and a sunset. There were also clouds but I'm pretty sure that was irrelevant to most of the people running around like headless chickens.

Myself included.

I had only gained a semblance of calm several minutes later when the people that looked like they were from the government were having people from the other cars come here. Soon they asked we all sit or stood somewhere in the car while they stood in the middle where people could here and see them. It looked like they were going to make an announcement.

There were 45 people I could count, at least.

The only one without glasses, a man with almond-shaped brown eyes and messy hair began speaking.

"Hello everyone. Before I continue I'd like to say that this incident is a classified investigation that has been conducted over the course of the last eight and a half decades with no success until now."

The uproar that should've come didn't but I knew why, the tallest and most muscular of them stood right next to the speaker. The man wore a stone cold face that garnered no argument.

"Now then. If we leave I'd like you all to keep this to yourselves for a generous donation plan with three million dollar monthly installments for five years. Of course, all of you will get this amount, this place is that important to the government after all. Otherwise we'd have given up after the fourth decade."

The giddy atmosphere betrayed my anxiousness as people began smiling and talking to people who I presume they knew. I almost wanted to say it but someone else beat me to it.

"What do you mean, 'if'?"

Silence prevailed as people looked at the man and he sighed. The man beside him took his glasses off and cleaned them while the man started on what was the second most heartbreaking news I'd ever received.

"...You may not make it back for two reasons."

An uproar immediately started.

"SHUT UP!"

The muscled man roared.

Silence returned as worry, fear and anger reached their faces. I had no doubt my face contained traces of those emotions as well.

The no-glasses man continued.

"The first, is that we don't know what happens here. The last time we were able to find this train, the people didn't come out the next time the train came around. What happened to them is still unknown."

The tension in the atmosphere was clear, worry was painted across everyone's face.

"The second, is that..."

The man paused as it felt like the train stopped and people looked at each other, curious, before looking back at the man. At which people were confused.

The man had paused for a while, people shocked as he held his mouth agape, staring out the window. I caught on fairly quickly when I had glanced at other's reactions and found them staring out the window behind us.

The scenery was what I could only describe as a fantasy city. There were people riding beasts and machinery that looked like steampunk mechs with glowing symbols and materials I could never even imagine.

There were people coming out of shops with small cubes or even beasts, some of which looked remarkably similar to a Nekomata from Japanese mythology. There were even multi-tailed foxes and dogs the size of a 16-wheeler, some even the length of one. The buildings looked both ancient in design and modern in materials creating an odd sense of beauty that seemed to enrapture most of the people in the car.

Then I, along with everyone else was snapped out of my reverie as what sounded like a train announcement echoed throughout presumably the whole train.

[Aruna Barros, Please Get Off.]

The train car's doors beeped but they didn't open.

A man, in his 30s or so shouted.

"The doors are open! We can go!"

He was smiling as we stared at him deadpanned, silently asking him if it was a sick joke when I connected the dots a few seconds later. My theory was then proved as the government man spoke.

"I presume your name is Aruna Barros?"

The man who had shouted paused.

"Yes, uh. I-It is. Uh, sir."

The government man sighed and said the opposite of what I thought he'd say.

"I think, you should do as the train says and get off because unless I'm wrong, this will be your only chance to get off."

The man's face fell as he looked to someone next to him, a woman who looked like his twin. They both had black hair and rarely seen red eyes. The twin unexpectedly smiled and said to him.

"Go, I'll get off on what ever stop it tells me to get off on."

The man paused, hugged the woman and made his way out, the others who blocked the way parted and we all watched on as he seemingly passed through the closed doors and reappeared outside the window. The man looked back and seemed shocked and surprised. While people assumed what I had, which was that he couldn't see the train anymore, I looked back at the government people only to look past them, outside the window behind them.

The words left my mouth before I could register them.

"Why didn't the other side change?"

People heard me and inevitably looked through the other window and lo and behold, it was the same scenery they had seen for the time they had been in this train.

The same frozen sunset.

The same endless ocean.

The same light blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

I looked back at the side the man had left from and saw it had reverted from the fantasy world, to the scenery. People had looked back as well and we all were shook. The man from the government spoke once more.

"The second reason, was that the only clue we ever got was a poem found on the floor of the station that the train had arrived in."

He took a cigarette pack out and hesitated before putting it back in his pocket.

"Eternally running, through space and time.

Pick up, drop off and repeat until they're found.

The one who doesn't belong.

The keeper of the train, the fire and the sound."

Another man spoke up, very, very confused.

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"So you're saying that this train will continue, stop to stop. Dropping us off in worlds we know not of until it finds this, 'keeper'? Doesn't that mean we'll be stuck here for who knows how long until either all of us are gone or only one of us is left?"

The man did not hesitate speaking this time.

"Yes. Yes, that's exactly what we think it means."

People began to disperse, sitting down in a seat in this car or other ones and most started crying. With their heads in their hands, their elbows to their knees or simply staring blankly at the ceiling. Some even stared out the windows at the ever-present sunset.

'Will I ever see my family? My friends? Ever again?'

The silence reigned for a good few minutes before someone cursed.

"Why does everything but communication work?"

Curious as to what they meant, I opened my own phone, an older model but a working one nonetheless, and found the same issue. The internet itself worked but any type of communication like social media posts or comments on videos didn't work. I then went to my contacts list and eyed my family's contacts.

Having decided, albeit hesitantly, I clicked my dad's contact info and put the phone to my ear shakily.

Brring...

Brring...

Brring...

It continued to ring for a few minutes before I took it off my ear and clicked stop while just staring at it.

The sound of dripping brought my attention to water on my screen and a cold sensation along my cheeks.

I was crying.

I sat there in silence and let them roll down.

The clock seemed to work as well as most of my games so I just played some Sudoku and tried to destress. I fucked up the first few but was later able to complete them again and again on the highest difficulty. As soon as the time hit around 3 or so hours after the first stop, at 20:15ish, another world appeared on the same side of the train as last time.

This one was vastly different. There was a single church-like structure with a front garden and what looked like a cemetery to its left. The structure itself was in a small clearing with a huge forest spreading for farther than my eye could see.

It was beautiful and instilled a serene feeling. I slightly envied whoever would get off here.

How could I know that my envy would be of something else later on.

Anyways, the next person was called and the train started moving shortly which made me believe that they'd got off too.

Time passed with the same scenery going by and my mind drifting. I had stopped playing sudoku long ago, conserving the battery so I could still have an accurate sense of time.

By no means was my normal sense of time shit, but it'd still be better to know just in case.

Days went by slowly, only a single stop having passed after. Something changed then. The government people asked everyone to come back to the car. And so, there we were, all seated in front of the four of them once again.

People looked tired, no doubt because it was difficult to fall asleep on the train, given the everlasting sunset it made sense. Even the government people looked tired.

I yawned and started up a serial yawning movement with everyone, government people included, yawning shortly after me.

The silence after the yawning was short and swiftly broken by the muscular man.

"First, I'd like to bring to attention four things. Should you have a question, please raise your hand or speak loud enough for me to hear you. Do not talk over each other please, it'll make this ordeal more annoying than it already is."

The man looked around, making sure he had their attention.

"The first, is that there is no visible ports for charging any sort of device. Given this fact, we have decided it might be best to stay in the same car and have people only use their phone to tell the time in turns."

Murmurs went around and a man raised their hand.

"Yes?"

"What about watches and how will we go about doing this."

A sensible person, nice. I for sure wouldn't be able to do that in this situation.

"Good question, that brings me to my second point. Watches and other types of mechanical devices do not work. If anyone has a digital watch that works, please bring it to our attention."

Eyes widened, I looked at my wrist, having completely forgotten about my watch. It said the time was 14:26 and I pulled out my phone deftly. The time was the same. I raised my hand and spoke.

"I have one and it seems to be working on the same time as my phone."

"Good. May I have a look?"

The man responded. I undid the strap and stood from the floor to hand it to the man. He checked with his phone and nodded.

"Well then, we'll use this until it dies and then we'll use our phones to tell the time."

I had already sat back down when the man continued.

"As for how we will do this, it'll be based off trust. We have a pen and paper so we'll record the battery percentage of all the devices and when someone's phone dies you'll give it to us until you depart. That way people won't randomly pull out their dead phone and cause people to be confused."

Nods all around.

"The third point. I believe that medical issues, or rather, diseases, are cured in here; at least, while you're in this train."

The murmurs turned to gasps and multiple people began checking things. I realized moments after the man said that, that I hadn't felt like it was hard to breathe at all.

I tried breathing in as much as possible. I was able to breathe in a lot, 10 seconds more than before.

'Is my lung fixed?'

I was about to experiment with my stamina when it happened.

It was accompanied with a loud screeching sound that we didn't hear before.

The train stopped once more.

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