She woke up with a start as the train she found herself on jostled about on tracks as old as the country's first trains. Glancing around with bleary eyes she saw people just as weary as her, just as confused and familiar in a way that made every bone in her body ache with a phantom sympathy she didn't fully understand.
As the sun began to fall, as the train passed countless stations too fast to read the names, the passengers wondered aloud where the next stop would be. One young man even volunteered to head to the front of the train to ask the conductor, only to return a few minutes later frustrated and disheartened as a genderless voice scratched out through the tannoy "There will be no stops at present. All passengers were informed upon embarkation. The Great Southerly Railway Company thanks all passengers for their continued cooperation."
And so the train carried on, just as the voice said it would and the passengers cooperated, just at the voice said they would. Nobody commented that they hadn't felt the slightest pangs of hunger, thirst or sleep though the sun had risen and set around five times by the next tannoy announcement.
"Will all passengers prepare for the next stop by bracing their heads against the provided headrests. Do not walk down the aisles, do not hide under the tables or in the toilets and do not forget why you are here. The Great Southerly Railway Company thanks you for your continued service."
The ache of familiarity grew stronger within her, little flashes of something she'd seen countless times before in trains - or maybe just in this one. A brick tunnel, a junction that should have been switched over and the sound of steel scraping through steel. Her eyes darted around her, trying ti gauge if anyone else had come to this realisation but only the young man met her eyes and with a solemn nod he closed his eyes and pressed himself against his seat.
Through the window beside him she could see the front end of the train turning into a station but more importantly, the train was heading through a brick tunnel to get there. Her head was a swirl of relived deaths and staunch denial of her circumstance as the bright lights of another train rushed towards them, clearly bypassing their turn, not triggered by a conductor who was strangely missing in all this mess.
Only a few people saw this coming, the rest only started screaming when they felt the impact begin as the faster-moving train began to plough through them carriage by carriage. She lived her death again, shrieking as she always had moments before she was crushed.
And all fell silent.
The dead picked themselves up and looked about their ruin in a daze.
She knew she couldn't keep clinging onto life and with this realisation a staircase raised itself out of the wreckage, leading up to the roof of the station. The young man gently grabbed her hand and together they walked away, onwards and upwards to something they hoped was better than this.
With one final glance behind her, she saw the trains separate and mend as everything began anew.
As the sun began to fall, as the train passed countless stations too fast to read the names, the passengers wondered aloud where the next stop would be. One young man even volunteered to head to the front of the train to ask the conductor, only to return a few minutes later frustrated and disheartened as a genderless voice scratched out through the tannoy "There will be no stops at present. All passengers were informed upon embarkation. The Great Southerly Railway Company thanks all passengers for their continued cooperation."
And so the train carried on, just as the voice said it would and the passengers cooperated, just at the voice said they would. Nobody commented that they hadn't felt the slightest pangs of hunger, thirst or sleep though the sun had risen and set around five times by the next tannoy announcement.
"Will all passengers prepare for the next stop by bracing their heads against the provided headrests. Do not walk down the aisles, do not hide under the tables or in the toilets and do not forget why you are here. The Great Southerly Railway Company thanks you for your continued service."
The ache of familiarity grew stronger within her, little flashes of something she'd seen countless times before in trains - or maybe just in this one. A brick tunnel, a junction that should have been switched over and the sound of steel scraping through steel. Her eyes darted around her, trying ti gauge if anyone else had come to this realisation but only the young man met her eyes and with a solemn nod he closed his eyes and pressed himself against his seat.
Through the window beside him she could see the front end of the train turning into a station but more importantly, the train was heading through a brick tunnel to get there. Her head was a swirl of relived deaths and staunch denial of her circumstance as the bright lights of another train rushed towards them, clearly bypassing their turn, not triggered by a conductor who was strangely missing in all this mess.
Only a few people saw this coming, the rest only started screaming when they felt the impact begin as the faster-moving train began to plough through them carriage by carriage. She lived her death again, shrieking as she always had moments before she was crushed.
And all fell silent.
The dead picked themselves up and looked about their ruin in a daze.
She knew she couldn't keep clinging onto life and with this realisation a staircase raised itself out of the wreckage, leading up to the roof of the station. The young man gently grabbed her hand and together they walked away, onwards and upwards to something they hoped was better than this.
With one final glance behind her, she saw the trains separate and mend as everything began anew.
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