A Seemingly Endless Ride

There were three things that Caelan was certain of. One, he woke up on a passenger train that looked to be very old. It wouldn't look out of place in a Western. Two, this train was going much faster than it probably should. As the scenery outside looked like a blur to him. Third, he was completely alone in the part of the train he woke up on. This was the most messed up thing he'd dealt with in his life. And couldn't remember buying a ticket for this train. Or getting aboard it either. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants to find a ticket. When he found nothing in there, he searched his jacket pocket, and there was nothing.

No ticket, no memory of how he got aboard the train, and no one else with him. What in the world was going on?

Caelan started walking through the train car as he stared around. Wondering if maybe he was dreaming of the entire thing. He reached over to his right forearm and pinched hard. When he felt pain, he realized it wasn't a dream. That this was all real and he was inside of a fast moving train. When he tried to find his phone, he realized that he didn't find that either. A cold wave of fear washed over him as he stood there. What was going on? Just what in the world was going on? He rushed to a nearby door and opened it up as quickly as possible. Nearly yelping as there was wind rushing against him. Showing the young man just how fast the train was going as he stared around the outside. A moment later, he pulled himself back inside then shut the door. Now, this wasn't good. Just where was everyone else? Who in the world was driving this God forsaken train? And how in the world was he going to get to them? As Caelan wasn't sure what direction the train was going. Or where the conductor would be at either. Since, he wasn't sure which part of the train he was on.

Doing his best to keep calm, he turned around and started walking. Going towards the other end of the car to see if it would provide better insight.

Soon as he was at the other end of the train car, he opened the other door. It lead to a similar problem from before. But, he thought he could see someone in the car ahead of him. At least, Caelan thought that he had. His eyes widened as he debated on what to do next. Whether or not he'd want to get over to the other car. Then, the person opened the door and made him freeze in fear. The person in front of him wasn't anything he was expecting. In fact, he had been expecting a human being. Either from the time that he just left or one from the train's timeline. Which would've just been perfectly fine with him. Instead, there before him was a creature that he'd also seen in only movies. It had at one point been a man. Now, it was just a tall creature that was skinnier than a scarecrow. Wearing torn, disheveled, and dirty clothes. With possibly actual dirt or just dried blood. Either was terrible. Eyes were sunken into the skull of its head. Hair clinging barely in places with huge pieces of its scalp exposed. Teeth exposed through the rotting part of its face. A horrible creature that seemed to directly come out of Return of the Living Dead.

Without further thought, Caelan shut the train car door and turned. Running as fast as he could toward the other door. Barely noticing that the door he had just shut was being opened once more. And screaming as he heard the creature snarl behind him. Its shuffling footsteps growing louder and louder as he ran towards the other train car door. Flinging it open, he jumped to the other train car. Opening the other train car door as quickly as possible. Using his weight to keep it shut as he glanced around the car he went into. The other car had nothing in it. Nothing to sit on, no one else, and nothing to keep the door shut for him. His stomach dropped as he stared at the window of the train car door. The creature was standing so very close to it and slamming into it. Trying to force it open as it stared straight at Caelan. Was this how things were going to end? Getting eaten by a freaking zombie in some strange train he woke up on? That wasn't fair. That wasn't fair in the slightest bit! What in the world had he done to deserve this?

While Caelan kept the door to the car he was in closed, he heard something else. A door opening. Definitely from the other side of the train car. Which made his heart drop to where his stomach was. When he glanced over at the door, he stared blankly. The other person didn't look entirely normal to him. They were decked out in white clothing that covered their entire face. There were dark goggles covering their eyes. For a moment, he thought that he was going to die. Either by the hand of the dead thing that was trying to get through. Or the person that just entered the train car. Closing his eyes, Caelan braced himself to be murdered by the person in front of him. Instead, they did something that he hadn't expected at all. They instructed,"Move out of the way, I'll get rid of it."

"What?",Caelan muttered. Unsure of what he had just heard. Eyes opening as he turned to stare at the other person. Who motioned, rather impatiently, for him to move out of the way. Figuring that he didn't have much to lose, the young man let go of the door and moved out of the way. The creature burst through the door and ran towards the strange person. It was the most interesting and horrifying sight to behold. As the person brought out a decent-sized axe from their back. Swinging the item into the creature's head and spurts of thick ooze drenched the person. The person's outfit was liberally coated in the digusting slime as the creature finally stopped. No longer making any noise as it went limp against the axe. Within a few moments, the person pushed the creature off of their axe. Wiping the rest of the mess off on their pantleg. When they were done, they put the axe back where they had grabbed it from. Turning towards Caelan, they asked,"Are you feeling alright, dude?"

"Uhh...yeah, I guess so...",Caelan trailed off. Unsure if he was actually telling the truth or not. After all, Caelan wasn't physically hurt. Though, he wasn't entirely sure if he was really alright or not. Instead of lingering on this, he asked,"Who are you?"

"My name is Echo.",they answered. Pulling the fabric mask off of their face. Revealing a beautiful young woman dressed in the once white clothes. Her dark brown eyes were staring into his own. Putting the mask in a small pouch in the belt on her waist, she continued,"And before you ask, I have no real idea where we are."

"I've been here for around two weeks or so.",Echo informed. Two weeks? That was how long she'd been there? Was that how long Caelan was going to be? Getting to his feet, he asked,"Uh...how in the Hell have you been living here?"

"There's a bathroom on this train and a few carts have food.",she answered. Motioning for him to follow her to another cart. Caelan couldn't imagine a train having a place to bathe. Eat, sure. But a shower on a train? That sounded weird. Then again, this didn't seem to be a normal train in the slightest bit. While he followed her, she explained,"There's a lot of creatures like that thing around here."

"I've been dealing with them with some folks I've found here.",Echo added. While they walked through the train cart, he noticed it was normal like the one he woke up in. The other one was more modern. Then the third looked like a strange upscale restaurant that probably would've tossed him out if people were there. Well, staff at least. There were at least three other people in there. An older gentleman that was decked out in a lot of punk gear. Tons of piercings on his face. Hair spiked in the typical liberty spikes fashion. His name was 'Stitch'. A very young girl was seated on a stool and eating some strawberry ice cream. She looked to be around eleven years old. Wearing similar clothing that Echo was wearing. When she spotted her, she grinned from ear to ear and got off the stool. Running towards her and hugging her around the waist. Shouting the word 'Mama' as she did so. Echo introduced,"This is my little girl, Mignon."

"She prefers to be called 'Minnie'.",Echo added. Minnie smiled up at him shyly but, said nothing before heading back to her treat. The last person was a young man around his age. Wearing stuff that seemed out of place on the train. Khaki dress pants, white button up shirt with a tan sweater vest over it, and black dress shoes. The young man's name was 'Bo'. Bo stared at him cautiously as he toyed with his shirt. Probably feeling just as out of place as Caelan did. Looking around, Caelan asked,"So how many people are there?"

"Just us, sir.",Bo answered. Calling him sir was strange but, he ignored it. Figuring it wasn't all that important in the moment. What was important was getting the Hell off of this train. Looking at the others, he asked,"Uh. Were there more folks with you guys?

"Well, yeah...unfortunately the creatures got them.",Stitch answered. That made his skin crawl. Knowing the creatures were around was terrifying but, how many people had been there? Caelan questioned,"How many people had been with you guys?"

"There were at least twelve of us.",Echo explained. Then told him that the creatures had killed most of them. Or some of them had fallen off of the train. With the wind outside, he understood how someone would fall off of it. It still sent a shiver of fear down his spine. Just how many of these creatures were going to be? How long he would be there with them? Stitch seemed to sense his growing tenseness and directed him to a stool near the counter. Then went to make him something to eat, Echo informed,"Hey, we'll be alright. We think we're getting close to where the conductor is."

"We think that if we get there then we can stop the train and finally go home.",Bo chimed in. Looking over at Echo for confirmation, she nods in agreement. Stitch came over with a small bowl of chocolate ice cream. Whip cream liberally spread over it. This was the strangest situation that he'd ever woken up to. Hoping that their plan of moving forward through the train cars would work. Or whether or not they'd ever get to the conductor. Caelan really hoped that they could as he continued to dig into his ice cream. Unsure of what else they could possibly do.