penultimate destination

You wake up to the sound of a massive CHUG CHUG CHUG. You sense the feeling of movement. You feel like you are heavier than before. You seem to be going very fast as the outside world is zooming by, but you are still able to see the surroundings. The surroundings are like anything you have ever seen. There is a sea, a literal sea of grass. Here and there you see things. A statue that was never completed. Three returned applications that were sent to some place called Harvard. A broken engaged ring. You vaguely know what the items are.

What you don’t know is what you are. Where you are. Who you are? How did you get on this train? What are you doing here? And most importantly how do you get off

You don’t remember anything about before. You don’t remember how you get there in the slightest. You are having trouble remembering your name.

It is very dark on the train. Well to be precise the outside looks blue now. The inside looks dark. You look to your right at your passenger. You just see a big blob. A big black blob. Suddenly two eyes appear. And then a mouth . But no eyes or nose. You scream. Around you hear figures making a weird noise. It’s almost as if they are swearing and cursing .

You calm down. You tell yourself its just a dream. But then you realise one thing: never in your own dreams have you ever told yourself that it just a dream.

You look back at your fellow passenger. He/She/they/it looks to be a 7ft tall quasi transparent bullet. As in their body shape is a bullet. Their legs are no where to be seen. Your passenger is also not really sitting. They are fading in and out of their seat. Their legs go into the train ground. You stare at them in disbelief. Suddenly an eye opens. You wait in shock. The eye is like a lantern at the top of the bullet. It appears to beep at you. You have no idea what to make of it. Then it closes. This creature might be in some form of stasis.

Regaining your strength and overcoming your fear, you start cautiously checking out your own body.

You are wearing a T shirt that says To the Max! .Your left hand is spilling over the seat into the alleyway. Your right hand is inside the confines of your seat. You have both blood and urine on your pants. Your legs are suspended in the air, and the seat looks to be quite big for you. You can’t look at your face, but you try and feel it. It looks like it doesn’t have much damage. But then again you aren’t sure if you know anything anymore.

You dare to look to your left. The whole compartment on your life behind and in front on you is full of these similar creatures. They look similar but then they also look different. One looks like they have a cone on their head over the bullet. But it too is black and appears to be a part of their body, like it was inbuilt. One has a long nose in the shape of a vegetable whose name you can’t remember. Another looks huge and takes up two seats. The train looks like a normal train- at least in a way. There are two seats on each side, and they all face forward. Wherever you are, you are in a strange place. There is no concept of time and space here.

The train keeps at a steady space. You can see blue and green fields with objects in them. Once you see an umbilical cord the size of an house. You can barely remember what size a house is but you feel that the comparison is right.

For the first time in forever you hear some footsteps on the train. You can still remember what they sounded like. They are squeaky. A new entity comes up to you. It has features very similar to yours. Except it has a different colour skin and hair. You then realise that both you and this entity are something called children.

“Hi” says the entity.

You pause.

“Hi” you say back.

“Is this some kind of a prank or a publicity stunt?” asks the child.

“Pranks- like a practical joke?” You ask back. Using your tongue feels heavy, like it has a weight on to it.

“Yeah. Anyway, it seem to be good Virtual reality”

None of that make sense. Every moment you are losing more and more memory. You don’t even know what a memory is.

“How did you get out?” You ask the child.

“I just got outta my seat, dumbass” they reply. “Wait, what’s your name?”

You think. You look at your shirt. “I think its Max”

The child nods. “I think mine’ Harley”. . They then show you their shirt.

“So you wanna come explore?” Asks your new friend.

You get off your seat. When your feet touch the ground, you realise it wasn’t that far from the ground. So why did it looks so high up?

Both of you walk up through your compartment . The other inhabitants don’t seem to like the noise you are making. Some of their eyes open and beep . Some make noises.