Endgame Express

My eyes jerk open as watery saliva fills my mouth. I sat up too fast. Glancing frantically around the room I notice a trashcan that’s missing the bag. I don’t care at the moment. My stomach roils and everything in it is suddenly in the bucket in my hands. I feel a little bit better, but not by much. It’s just enough for me to sit back down and take in my surroundings.

A steady clacking distracts me for a moment, and I start to feel dizzy. I turn back to the trashcan and vomit again. When I calm down, I realize that the room is moving. Not just the room, but the whole building. I peek out the window and see sparks flying out from beneath the car. The whole world around me is paper white. It feels like the train is accelerating, but I can’t be sure with how unpredictable my stomach is.

I turn around and puke again.

Where am I? The last thing that I remember is sitting in the living room watching the Iron Man movies. I probably passed out. I promised my cousin I would watch them all the way through, eventually. So what happened in between the Drones and take-out? I don’t remember a thing. Did I fall asleep?

I turn back to the window and suddenly, a large crack spreads across the pane. Scooting myself away from the window, I watch as it bows, then shatters into a million pieces. I cover my head with my arms to protect myself from the flying shards. Tiny needles pierce my forearms and I wince at the sting.

As my heart rate lowers, I notice that there isn’t any wind. The room is perfectly silent. When I raise my head my brows furrow.

The window is in perfect shape.

It isn’t broken. I look down at my arms. They don’t have any cuts. I turn my palms up and notice that even the gash from yesterday afternoon is gone. Am I hallucinating? This is getting really weird.

I check the door and find it locked. Clearly, I’m not here of my own free will. I’m not even sure that I’m not dreaming. As I jiggle the door, I pinch my finger in the handle. Frustration fuels me and I kick the flimsy door open. It bounces off the outside wall and dangles from a chain; now it features a good-sized dent.

Following the hallway to the next door I notice that it has a chain on it too. I tap lightly in hopes that I have a fellow prisoner. When I press my ear to the door I hear someone vomiting up their lunch. Or dinner, depending on how long we’ve been stuck here. Despite the confusing (and potentially dangerous situation) that we’re in I can’t help but smile as I listen. I don’t like to see other people in pain, but it is nice to know that I’m not alone in my suffering. I kick the door in and the woman inside flinches away from me.

“Don’t worry! I’m not here to hurt you. I was trapped in the room next door.” I’m quick to clarify. She slumps in relief, but I still see a bit of mistrust in her eyes. Good. Whatever is going on we need to work together, but until we know the enemy it could be anyone.

“What’s going on? Where are we?”

“I’m not sure. I think we’ve been kidnapped.” If my time in the army taught me anything, it was that everyone has a weakness that can be exploited. Mine happens to be Chinese takeout. That must be how they drugged me. I guess I’ll have to get a retired K-9 to check my food in the future. If we survive, that is. I really don’t know what the whole point of this is and I need to focus on getting away first. One step at a time.

She stands, wobbles a bit, and straightens. After she’s steady I size her up. This woman is a fighter. As soon as she stood, she squared up.

“As far as I can tell, we’re on a train.” She doesn’t turn to the window to check. She won’t be leaving her back vulnerable, and her senses confirm what I’ve told her.

“Who took us?” Her eyes narrow a bit and her fists clench.

“No idea,” I reply. Now her jaw is clenched too.

A noise in the hallway draws both of our attention and she shifts to the side with her fists raised so that we stand side by side to face the unknown. That is, until we see the unknown. A scrawny, nerdy-looking kid leans against the door frame. His glasses are askew, and a gummy bear is stuck to the front of his button-up shirt. I look at it a bit funny and he follows my gaze.

“It didn’t come off in the wash, so I only wear it when I’m at home.” It seems to dawn on him that he isn’t at home, and he scowls down at the gummy bear as if the poor candy is to blame. The door across the hall crashes open and a little girl steps out. We all stare at her.

“What? It’s not hard. Even a toddler could get out. How did we get here? I don’t remember a thing.”

“None of you will. Not when you’ve been drugged with Rohypnol.” We all turn to look at Gummy Bear. I’ve decided to call him that for the rest of this trip.

“Why are you looking at me like that? It clearly was GHB. I mean we all seem fine, but we didn’t end up here willingly - wherever “here” is. Rohypnol is just a guess. Statistically speaking- ”

“Spare us,” fighter girl interrupts. “We need to find out where we are, where we’re headed, and why we’re here.”

“Based on the depth and color of the snow around the train- “

“Spare us.” I interrupt this time. “Where do you think we are?”

"Somewhere in Northern Canada.” Well, that’s - inconvenient.

“It doesn’t sound like we’re slowing down. Where could we be headed?” Fighter tips her head toward the front of the train, and Gummy Bear shrugs.

Suddenly, a compartment in the wall slides open and a meal is pushed out onto a tray. Three of us eye it suspiciously, but Gummy Bear sniffs it and digs in. We all stare at him as he shoves every bit in his mouth. When he realizes that we’re all staring at him, he wipes his chin on the back of his hand. “What? I’m hungry!”

The little girl rolls her eyes.

“That was my food you jerk!” Fighter looks ready to toss him across the room. Gummy Bear blushes.

“Sorry. You can have mine.”

“What if that was drugged?” The childish voice freezes us all in our tracks. Except for Gummy Bear, who turns to explain.

“I figured that if whoever took us wanted us dead, he would have killed us instead of bringing us here. The statistical probability of the food containing drugs was- “

“Spare us.” We all speak in unison this time. We run back to our rooms so that we can fill our empty stomachs.

~

While our heads are clearer after we eat, we still have no theories about why we’ve been taken. Gummy Bear (aka Eric) has a million theories. The only thing I am certain of is that all the theories we come up with are wrong. Cinda, who is twelve years old, thinks that we are all being recruited as spies and are being initiated with some kind of crazy training exercise. We all smile indulgently and change the topic.

“Maybe we each ought to search the train and see what we can find. As far as I can tell we are the only car on this track. Is there an emergency brake that we can pull?”

“Good idea Eric. You check the hallway and Cinda can check the rooms. Fighter, you check that door and the outside of that end of the car. I’ll check the other one.”

“I have a name, you know.”

I smirk at her. “I know.”

Her brow furrowed. “Do we know each other? That sounds just like something that...” She looks me over and clearly I don’t pass muster.

“Never mind. Let’s just get out of here.” She heads to the end of the car and shoves open the door.

I don’t know what this game is, but I think we’re about to play.

~

When I return to Fighter’s room, I tell them my plan. Cinda seems a bit disappointed, but I know that our fight hasn’t even started yet. This game is more complex than any of us could imagine.

Gummy…I mean Eric takes Cinda to the center of the car and starts removing the grates from each of the vents.

Fighter and I each head to a different end of the car. We brace ourselves and wait for Eric’s signal.

“You know this is actually pretty cool! If I hadn’t been drugged and forced to come here, I probably would have shown up out of my own free will. If only this guy had thought to-”

“ERIC!” We all scream at him.

“Okay!”

The next three seconds are the most painful of my life. After Eric pulls the plug on the car’s power source, Kelly and I simultaneously yank the emergency brakes. Then a blinding light splits my head and fades into an inky black.

~

When my eyes open again, every inch of my skin is burning.

“Hello, Step.”

I cringe away from the voice. It’s far too familiar and a chill runs down my spine.

“How’d you like my game? It’s just level one. I thought we’d ease you in.”

“Gavin,” I croak.

All my worst nightmares are coming to life.

“My…wife.” My voice is barely a whisper.

“Oh, your family was quite a nice touch, don’t you think? They handled the game so well! I was really impressed.” My body groans.

“Kelly? Where - where’s Kelly?”

“You didn’t recognize your own wife? Such a fighter, that one.” He winks at me, and my brain starts to connect the dots. “Your kids too. Maybe I should have made it a little bit harder for Cinda to break out.”

“Gavin, what are you doing?”

“Virtual reality is such a lucrative field, but all of my test subjects have…struggled. Your test group is showing such significant progress.” He clapped like a toddler, then he pouts. “The government won’t let me continue with voluntary testing after that kid went into a coma last month. They cut off the funding too, but I worked that out.”

I know that the battle is far from over. That train car was just an easy preview of what is to come.

“Why would you – how could you do this?”

He buzzes around, making adjustments to all of his equipment, checking my restraints, and fidgeting with the needles all over my arms and legs. “You always got the best promotions. You were the one who got the cushy office job and the wife, while I was the one being laughed at every night for my ‘wild theories’ and ‘crazy scribbles.’ It took a long time for anyone to listen, but they will now. Ready for round two?” A maniacal grin stretches across his face.

My head lolls to the side and see my wife and kids each strapped to a table. My beautiful Kelly, my nerdy Eric, and my snarky Cinda. I would do anything for them.

And he knows it.

The games have only just begun.