The first incident passed by me
unnoticed. True enough, it was indeed
strange to see a baby carriage
containing several toys, a diaper bag,
and a purse (presumably belonging to
the mother) left abandoned in the
middle of the street, but I was a busy
man, I didn’t have the time to worry
about carriages without babies in
them, or other mildly strange
phenomena. Besides, no one else
seemed to notice it, so I let it slide.
Which was probably why, come to
think of it, that I was unable to draw
a connection when the second
incident occurred.
This time, it was of an even less
conspicuous nature. I was at the
plaza, running a few errands at the
time. Nothing unusual. In fact, I
distinctly remember the beautifully
ironic thought that occurred to me
almost immediately before I noticed it.
It was, quoting: I hate the suburbs,
nothing ever happens here, nothing
new develops, I’d give anything for
something different.
A revelation as common as the
suburbs themselves, except that as I
was thinking so I was also walking up
to the check-out counter. I looked
over my grocery bags, and, of course,
found nothing. Next isle, nothing.
Next, nothing. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Zilch. All through every single
check-out line.
I was more irritated than unnerved,
but my subconscious took careful
note of that. Interesting how our
subconscious minds notice everything
there is, and that our conscious minds
make decisions. Keeping that in mind...,
After I finally managed to get home, I
felt, (And I blush to pen such a
cliché), but I felt as though I was
being watched.
I shrugged of my uneasiness, after all,
I had an uneventful life to live, and
that life was full of things to do,
errands to run, etc.; I won’t bore you
with the details, as by now this must
be getting repetitive. In essence,
several similar events occurred, in
very subtle situations.
I was little more than slightly
unnerved by all this, after all, each
event could be individually explained,
and, save the uncanny frequency
with which they happened, there was
nothing to unusual. What really
happened to push me over the edge
took place nearly a week following
the first happening.
It was on a business trip, I remember
the 2-day train ticket was bought by
the worst businessman I had ever
met, picked a train with the most
horrible attendant. Seeing as there
was no businessman, and no
attendant, I decided to look around
I nodded to the few people I saw. I say
"few", because, as you must be
expecting by now, there were very
few people. I took note of this in my
conscious mind this time, as similar
events had taken place over the past
few days, needless to say, I was
denying the entire thing. As I walked
by again and again, there were fewer
and fewer people. The fifth time I
walked by, there were none.
I circled the interior again, nothing, a
few hats and bags, but that was it.
Noticing one woman sitting alone, I
walked up to her. "Excuse me," I said,
"but are you aware we are the only
people on this entire train?"
She looked up at me with irritation.
"No." she said firmly and spitefully.
"Please go away." "I realize this looks
like a feeble attemt to make a pass," I
said, "but I am completely serious. Look around and
see for yourself."
"And if there is no one around," she
began, "what difference does it make?
If you didn’t see anyone, that doesn’t
mean that we are the only ones here,
they might have left." "And gone
where?" I asked, "All of the cars are
empty, and the doors don’t even open
unless the emergency brake is pulled,
and this train hasn’t stopped once."
She raised one eyebrow. "And you are
telling me all this because...?"
At this point she still seemed skeptical,
but I could sense a note of curiosity,
perhaps even tension, in her voice.
"Well, frankly I’m scared, I’m not going
to put up any false front of
fearlessness, that many 'macho' people
have a habit of doing. I doubt there
need be an explanation as to why It
unnerves me that the only people on
this train are you, me, and the
conductor, and I doubt that there is a
conductor."
"Now, you are being ridiculous," she
stated matter-of-factly "I can almost,
almost believe that there are no other
passengers, but if there is no
conductor, who is driving this train?"
"I don’t know." I admitted, "But then
again, I don’t know who was parking
the car I saw yesterday that had an
empty driver seat, an empty
passenger seat, and empty back seats."
She smiled triumphantly. "You are
drunk." She said assuredly. Now she
can relax, I thought bitterly, having
denounced what might have made her
uneasy. I looked out the window of
the train. Maybe I’m just insane, I
mused, there’s certainly no sane
explanation to all this. I turned
around and saw the hat and coat of
the woman I was just talking to, lying
on the seat without the owner.
That was to much. Fear gripping at
my heart, choking off my scream,
propelled my hand. I found the
emergency brake and yanked it down
towards me. I jumped out the door
and, without pausing, I ran. Why and
where to I wasn’t sure, I just had to
get away from there, had to get
somewhere safe, somewhere with
people, had to, had to.
Fortunately, by an astronomical
stroke of luck, we had stopped only a
mile or two from a city. Just keep
running, I thought, Run and run and
run and don’t stop until you reach
the city, full of people, people walking
and shopping and working, but just
not, oh please don’t be people
disappearing!
The time running passed in a blur,
every second spent with fear
propelling my body, forcing me to
ignore the pain in my side, the
burning in my lungs, the constant
feeling that at any moment I would
simply break apart and fall in bloody
pieces on the dirty grass, pushing me
onward. By the time I got there, I
collapsed on the ground, panting. "You
okay, buddy?" I heard a voice say
above me. To out of breath to talk, I
looked up, to find... nothing.
I looked around me praying that the
voice had been said by someone
standing farther than it seemed, but
there was no one anywhere near
enough for that.
Everywhere there were signs of what
happened, dogs on leashes with no one
to hold them, fur coats strewn about
the sidewalk, rings rolling into gutters
like glittery stones. People wouldn’t
just leave those things there, would
they? I ran, trying to find a
safeground, someone whom I could
trust, there were a few people
walking the streets, unaware of what
was happening, but I couldn’t
approach them, they might go while I
was talking to them, that would be
enough to drive a man insane...
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