Chapter 3: Book:1 | Arc:1 | Ch:3

The world it showed this time was a beautiful ocean accompanied by ice floes and a large mass of land and what looked like a Viking ship in the distance.

People were awed or annoyed depending on their place in the car. If they were to the front of the car, they were annoyed and if they were over where I was at the back of it, they'd be awed. The main reason was probably an angle that made light blind them over there but not over here.

 The name was soon called and I only came to my senses after the doors closed once more. I started thinking about something I’d regret thinking about later on.

'I wonder which poor soul will have to stay in this place. I’d go crazy without people in this train.'

I soon fell into a lull, the monotony of waiting for my assigned number to be called was maddening for me. I felt twitchy and unsettled. It felt like time was going too fast when it wasn’t. In fact, it was going super slowly. Too slow it felt like.

The next stop resembled the illustrations of ‘Alice In Wonderland’s wonderland. It was an odd place and the moment I looked away, it disappeared. The next two stops were fleeting and forgettable, the one after only being memorable due to it being the first stop on the other side of the train.

Each one symbolized another person leaving. Another person saved from the increasingly painful hellhole that was this train.

It was starting to get to me and most likely everyone else as I could see people’s hands shaking and others even shivering a lot.

Four stops later, everyone began to break for a few reasons.

The first of which was that it was a beautiful place with naturally stunning greenery and structures that were made in a harmonious way. It was a truly soothing scenery that made many, if not all of us in awe. We all knew we'd be envious of the people who got off here. Thus, we were all shocked when not one, but four people left.

The second thing was that we learned that there would be future stops that could have multiple people getting off.

[Kiran Trevis, Quinn David, Celestine Mudiwa and Sameera Laurita. Please Get Off.]

The third and perhaps most devastating fact, however, was those four people. They were the government people who were keeping us together.

'Cut off the head of the snake and it dies.'

The saying came naturally as I had thought about our newfound situation.

People also naturally started complaining. The government people were sitting together and talking intensely.

They kept talking and others began shouting and I had already resigned to the chaos and paid attention to other things.

Small things like the minority which stayed silent, the people who already gave up on keeping their battery up now that the people who helped us organize the routine were leaving. The fact that the outside world was so beautiful.

I then heard it, the beeping of the door, shadowed by the shouting and the chaos ensuing. I then quietly remarked.

"Just wait a minute will you? Let us take a break damnit."

I did so with no hope, nor care as the train had never listened. Nor would it.

Then, I just took a nap.

I slept with no regard for safety amidst strangers, too damn tired to give a shit about anything.

So... when I woke up, I was decently surprised by a few things. The first being that the other people in the train car were all sleeping. The second was that I could see people in the train car next to us talking to other people. People who weren't here before. The most important parts, however, were two-fold. First, the Government people were still there. Second, we were still stopped.

'We're still stopped? Wait, how long has it been?'

I looked over at the other train car and decided to go over and talk to them.

I opened the door to the next car and saw most of the people glance over at me before continuing their conversation. I felt someone staring and looked back and was taken aback slightly.

They were a woman with brown hair and white-tipped cat ears atop their head.

The woman soon looked away and her eyes showed puzzlement. I ended up walking over to an empty seat and just sat down and listened to the people talking. At this minute moment of rest, I noticed there were others that looked peculiar. Not only that though, the side of the train that showed the landscape that the train had stopped on was different. The other side was different too.

As I searched for other differences and found none other than the odd people, I just sat there with null in my thoughts. Just the state I'd perfected while trying to sleep, the state of thinking of nothing. Of just being. It was a confusing state but I had found it helped when examining my body and making sure the serious injuries were healing or if I had a disease.

I was called odd for mentioning the idea of it to my doctors and had kept the fact I could do so to myself when they said it shouldn't be possible.

What was stranger than all the environmental changes was my apparent physical changes.

My clothes and shoes were tighter, my hair was longer, lengthening from the top of my neck to below my shoulders.

My sight felt like it had been washed. I was able to feel the air current clearly as it passed along my skin. I could taste the somewhat smoky air, presumably from the front of the train if it is a steam engine... a magical steam engine. That doesn't make sense, does it? My smell was weird, I could smell whatever I wanted to smell or I could smell everything. Probably one of the least strange things so far. My hearing could pick up on the whispers of the huddled government men and, now that I paid attention, the elf look alike people.

They all had near waist-length and light colored hair with pointy ears poking out from the sides. Some's hair covered their unique ears while the others had their hair tied back. 

"...ɘm oƚ ɘmoƆ"

I paused and looked around cautiously but could see nothing. Whatever it was didn't speak again either, it was fleeting like the wind.

No-one seemed to notice the voice and that only made me more fearful.

I glanced over at the person closest to me, a middle-aged man with the stereotypical beard and suit. Probably an office worker.

I scoot over to him.

"Hey, do you know how long they've been talking for?"

The man was initially confused but answered within a few seconds afterwards.

"Yeah, uh, three hours I think? Roughly. It's definitely been shorter than when the Train made its last announcement."

I paused.

"Announcement?"

My question seemed to puzzle him and I clarified.

"I've been sleeping in the other car for longer than they've been talking."

His eyes lit up in acknowledgement before he spoke.

"That'd explain it. Well, the last announcement stated that the Train would stop for a few days."

"Really?"

My mind went to what I said before sleeping.

'Could it...'

Before my mind could make further assumptions, the man spoke once more.

"Yeah. But that's not the weird part."

"There's a weirder part than the train stopping?"

"Yeah, as soon as it did so, the people outside could see the train. A few people asked but none of them can see the sunset on the other side of the train either, only we can."

"Okay, that's definitely weirder than the train stopping."

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"For now. Who knows what kind of fucked up shit we'll see later."

"True. Thanks for the info and nice beard."

"Beard?"

We paused and I stared at him in puzzlement.

"The beard? On your face? Hanging down from your chin? Are you not supposed to have a beard?"

"No."

We both sat there, super confused until I thought of a theory. That theory both shocked, and terrified me. I asked as fast as I could.

"How long has it been since we got on the train?"

The man paused before speaking.

"Wait, how does this relate to me having a beard?"

"Just, answer the question, please."

"Around 5 to 6 days... why?"

"Because I think that's only the time passed on Earth."

He nodded before scrunching his eyebrows and frowning. It took a few moments but his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"Does that mean?"

A curt, grim nod was my answer. He buried his face in his hands and I swore I could hear him clench his teeth. We sat in silence for what had seemed like ages. Now that we had thought about it though, it might've been. The silence was momentarily broken not seconds when a woman near us reached the same conclusion as us, the only difference was that they vocalized it.

"If we're aging faster than we would on earth, won't we die if we don't reach the world we need to go to??? Won't we die sooner???" 

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The woman explained the theory, the same one we'd come up with.

The silence returned to the room eerily.

Two things happened. Panic and many, many questions. I tried to shut it out, close my ears and think by myself. When that didn't work, I went to the next car. Not the one where people were sleeping but the one towards the front of the train. I finally had some peace and quiet.

'If we're aging faster, we don't have long to live at all.'

I sat down, my head in my hands.

"Damnit..."

I could feel the tears roll as my thoughts pained me.

'I might never see my family again. I might die before Old Fred...'

They continued coming as the prospects became grimmer and grimmer with every new despairing thought. Eventually, I had curled up into myself. Knees to my chest and sobs echoing in the empty car.

At least, I had thought it was empty.

I jolted, hands in front and curled when I heard a groan.

My eyes surveilled the car and found a man laying down under a few of the chairs. He stood up and said the weirdest thing I've heard.

"What, you're already here? I thought it'd take longer. Or did I nap for too long? Meh, either way, that seat free?"

I nodded, super confused by now. The man had a beard and long hair, all black and scraggy.

"Confused, right?"

"...Yeah."

"Figures. Ya know, this is the 17th time I've been on this train. Not even the end either... probably. I'll be back on the train in a few decades to go somewhere else. So, why are ya crying? Is it the fact that the train feels like a psychopath? That the scenery hurts yer eyes after too long? The aging faster than yer home world maybe? Or perhaps the fact that ya might not ever see yer family again? If ya have one."

I didn't know where to start, my head was baffled at the amount of information I'd gained. It wasn't any of the serious things that I asked first about though.

"How long did you stare for the scenery to hurt?"

The man raised an eyebrow and guffawed.

"That's the first thing ya ask about?"

He spoke between laughs and I gave a hesitant nod.

"Ha, how I missed talking to ya Maymay. I stared for about three days or so, then my eyes started to burn."

'Maymay???'

"Wo-"

"Wouldn't that just be from staring too long?"

I was now thoroughly freaked out.

"No, it wouldn't. Ya sh... no, no I suppose ya shouldn't. Right."

The man's eyes flipped from joyous to melancholic in a matter of milliseconds.

He sat there, me just next to him. Cold sweat dripping down my newly tighter shirt at this point.

The silence was broken surprisingly fast for what felt like hours of sitting there awkwardly.

"I need to go now I suppose. The doors are open and all. I'll see ya again Maymay. Ya might not know why I'm calling ya that now but one day ya will. One day."

They paused.

Silence reigned as they walked towards the closed doors.

Then he spoke once more.

"Ad astra per aspera."

Then he left.

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