The One Way Train

Samuel awoke.

The first thing he noticed was the fact that he was sitting alone in a train cab… he reached for the door only to realize his hands were bound together. “What??” He thought. “How did I get here?” He glanced around the cabin unsure of what it was he was searching for. His eyes fell upon the window looking out into what looked like desert plains with cactuses protruding here and there.

He stood up and walked over to the door and was able to pry it open with his hands bound together with rope. He then casually began sawing his bounds across the latch until he could rip the rest apart using his own strength.

Confused and slightly dizzy, Samuel left his train cab. As he made his way down the aisles, everyone he passed smiled and waved at him. Some even opened their cabs to welcome him aboard the train. Interesting... most of them were bound too. He took into account that the ones who were bound, were all wearing blue shirts and black pants. The ones left unbound were wearing brown shirts and white pants. He looked down at himself to see what he was wearing and he too was wearing black pants with a blue shirt except the only difference was the hem of his shirt was black. Unlike any of the others he walked past.

He was surprised on why they looked as if they were happy within their bounds and not trying to get out of them like he so anxiously did. He walked to what looked like a small cafe on the train, but it was just some sort of map kiosk ran by a person. That’s okay he wasn’t hungry anyways. He picked up the map and opened it only to find more and more indications of a forever desert outside and only one train track with no breaks or other routes just ones that seemed to either go north or south, back and forth. That’s odd he thought.

He looked up at the other guy standing there with a confused expression and he asked, “Why no other routes?” The guy replied, “There’s absolutely no need, we just need one and then they must be able to get back.” “They?…okay…” Samuel mumbled.

Then the man turned around for an instance to organize the maps before turning back to say, “You’re new here..aren’t you? Well it’s a pleasure to have you aboard our train, what’s your reason?”

“I…I…I…don’t know. I don’t remember how I got here and I don’t even think I have a ticket. Did you guys check me at the door?? And what do you mean my reason? Do I have to have one to ride a train??” Samuel replied. “I guess no reason is fine, especially if you can’t remember” he laughed. “You don’t need a ticket it’s completely free, as far as how you got on here, you’ll figure it out soon enough.” He smiled.

Samuel continued to the next car and walked up the aisle followed by the same dressed people with the same hellos and welcomes and smiles and to be honest he’d be lying if he had said it didn’t totally freak him out.

He made it to the conductor when he realized just how fast the train was actually going. They were zooming. In fact were they even touching the tracks…it’s been completely smooth. He looked out the front of the train and saw the end of the tracks in the distance and they were rocketing towards what a cliff side? He started yelling at the conductor telling him to slow down! Some cuss words were implied for sure as he just lost his freaking mind. He was not ready to die. He tried to pull back the lever, but it wouldn’t budge.

The conductor just looked over, smiled and said, “There’s no need to slow down, we’ll be there soon, just sit back and relax, don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry about it!! Are you insane!?? Is this some sort of suicidal cult or something?!? Is this a joke!?”

“No, it’s most certainly not a joke, Samuel just trust me, it will be fine.”

“How the hell do you know my name?! I never told you it! This is some kind of weird cult crap for sure! I need to get out of here! There’s no way I’m trusting you!”

So many different emotions and thoughts raced through Samuels mind. He had maybe a good couple hundred feet left. Four minutes tops to figure out how to get off the crazy train. He turned towards the other people who either pretended or hadn’t noticed him screaming that they were all about to die.

He yelled, “Guys, we are all not going to make it if we don’t jump off this train!!!” A little girl replied happily, “Yes we will, yes we will make it!” A teenage boy responded eagerly, “yeah just wait you’ll see, it’s going to be great!” A women called out excitedly, “I can’t wait, there’s no need to get off this train, hun! We have complete trust in the conductor and he won’t harm us!”

Samuel gawked at them, speechless and shocked for a moment then screamed out, “Are you all hypnotized by his lies, we can see where we are going and it’s off a cliff! Are you really all that delusional! We are dead! If you stay on this train you are dead! He looked around the train cab and realized they were all crazy as they had all started laughing at him.

He’s not crazy! He’s the only sane one on this train! He ran over to one of the doors on the side and pushed it open, he was actually surprised on how easy it was.

Before he jumped out, the noise in the cab grew and grew into one voice of the people all sputtering at once, now with concern, “Don’t do it!” “Please! Don’t jump” “Stop! You’re gonna regret it!” “We didn’t mean to laugh, please stay!” They all screamed out as he leapt off the train.

In the first second he heard the concern in their voices, next their screams and then nothing but the sand of the desert whistling by his ears.

He rolled over, only to see the train run off the train track…and into the sky disappearing up into the clouds. What..

He scrambled to his feet then looked down and realized his shirt wasn’t blue anymore it was black. He was wearing all black in a desert.

He turned around away from where the train had gone and to his amazement the bright sunny desert with cactuses and blooming desert flowers faded into a grayscale sand dune full of skeletons. Thr air now polluted with the sound of screams and torment instead of peaceful desert wind. He saw people gnashing their teeth at other people, lunging for their necks and throwing them into the acidic black goo where they called out as their faces molted off along with the rest of them.

Samuel, completely mortified at all the destruction and chaos he saw was so overwhelmed he fell to his knees and cried out, rolling his head on the ground that singed his forehead.

A creature came over and stood in front of him and he wouldn't dare look up because if he did he’d know this was real.

Samuel sobbed, “ I was already dead wasn’t I? I murdered innocent men and God saved me, but I didn’t trust him so I let myself out.”

The creature said in a weirdly humanness deep man’s voice, “Welcome to Hell, Samuel. You wanted to be here so badly and now here you are.”