Welcome to the Express

He wakes up to the sound of a horn and people screaming around him. ‘What is going on?’ he wonders as he opens his eyes and startles at the sight in front of him. He is on a train, but he has no idea how he got there. He tries to remember how he got there but for some reason, he cannot remember anything.

He looks around and he sees a few people in the same train box as he is on and from his point of view, he thinks they might be feeling the same thing. The first thing he does is check his pockets. Except for a weird looking card that said ‘Welcome to the Express’, there was nothing else.

Sighing he starts getting up from his seat, only to be pulled back down by a hand on his shoulder. He looked behind him to see there was a girl sitting behind him. She looked terrified. She points to the sign attached to the ceiling and removes her hand from his shoulder.

He looks up at the ceiling to see what she was pointing at. And there it was, in bold letters, ‘GET UP FROM YOUR SEATS AT YOUR OWN RISK’, now he was literally scared for his life. He did not have any memories of how he got there or where was the train going. Why the hell are so many people there and now he cannot even get up from his seat? GREAT.

He could sense everyone around him getting increasingly anxious by the second. Being not able to get up from their seats was very alarming. He turned back to ask the girl if she remembered anything, “Hey, my name is Devin. What is your name” he asked the girl with a smile.

“Sarah,” she said with a clipped tone. She could not be more than 13 years old. Devin wondered if her parents were with her.

“Hi, Sarah. Are your parents here?” He asked her. She shook her head no and turned towards the window to look outside. He wants to ask more, wants to ask if she has a ticket, because he doesn’t, but instead turns around and sighs.

He also looks out his window and sees fields on both sides of the train. His heart is hammering loudly in his chest and he does not know what to do. He could talk to the girl more and try to figure out what is happening since she is the only one that was in the seat close to him.

His head is pounding and he feels drained. He can feel his eyes starting to close. He wants to go to sleep then maybe then he will wake up somewhere other than this train that does not seem to slow down.

Before he knows it, he has fallen asleep. He wakes up with a start and looks around. His eyes are blurry and feel heavy. Once his eyes are clear, he looks at the other people on the train and notices that there were fewer people there than there were before he fell asleep.

He looks behind him and notices the girl was still there.

He asks, “What happened to the others?

She looked over at him and says, “They got up from their seats”. He has no idea what she meant by that. He starts thinking, is that the way to go? If he gets up, maybe he will also be able to get out of this train.

Before he even has any chance to decide, he hears a loud noise from the speakers. Someone from the other side starts talking. ‘Welcome to the Express. We hope you will have safe travels, please have your tickets ready.’

WELL SHIT.