I opened my eyes and looked up at the digital clock. The LED display was trying to tell me that it was only five-fifteen in the afternoon, but something about that didn't jive.
I had turned in at four forty-five, and since I hadn't been awake very much longer, I must have been asleep by five at the latest. The clock was trying to tell me it was only five-fifteen. I had been asleep, at most, fifteen minutes, and yet I was feeling well rested. Totally awake and alert.
I blinked and stared up at the ceiling. There was something else wrong. Something that I should have noticed immediately upon waking, but had missed, and was still missing. What was it?
The clickety-clack of the train continued unabated, so I knew it wasn't that. I listened to the clickety-clacks, but nothing seemed wrong with what I was hearing.
Hearing.
There was no other sound. That's what was wrong. The normal hubbub that had been outside my door since this journey began was missing. All was silent.
I got up and walked over to my door, and pressed my ear against it. I heard nothing, as I had feared.
I had no idea why it was so silent. I cracked open my door, and looked outside. There was no one there. I stepped outside and looked up and down the hall.
"Hello?" I called. No reply was forthcoming. "Hello? Anyone there?" There was still no reply. Where was everyone?
Could they all have gone to the meal car? I didn't think that was very possible, but one never knows.
Still, the chances of everyone all at once going to eat in the meal car, during the same fifteen minutes that I was asleep, and none of it woke me? The odds were against it. Highly- astronomically- against it, I thought.
I walked down to the end of the car, and looked at the two doors on either side of me. Then, I knocked on one of them. There was no reply from behind the door. I knocked again, harder, but still no one answered. These were one room cabins; if someone was inside, they would have answered. I tried the handle, and found it unlocked. I looked inside, but no one was there. There were suitcases and books, like someone was occupying it, but no one in the room.
I closed the door quietly (though why I was being quiet since there apparently was no one there was beyond me), and turned to the next door.
I knocked on that door, but got no reply from there either. The door was unlocked, so I opened it and peered inside. There was no one in this room either.
The next room up was mine, so I went to the room across the hall from it, and knocked once, more out of habit, then of the fact that I expected to find someone. The knock opened the door, since it wasn't fully closed, and I poked my head in. The inside was as empty as I thought it would be. The loveseat, the bunk, and the end table were all clean, with nothing on them, but there was something lying on the ground.
I stepped forward and picked it up. It was one of those hand held tape recorders. I pressed the play button, but heard only silence. The tape clicked itself off then, and I looked at it for a moment before realizing that it must be at the end of one side.
I hit the rewind button, let it rewind for a few seconds, and then pressed play. There was still no sound on it, except for the faint clickety-clack of the train wheels on the track.
I hit stop, then rewind again and let it run back a few more seconds, and then hit play. I heard the clickety-clack, and then a strange sort of breathing sound. It sounded like someone breathing through their mouth in the middle of their sleep because their nose is plugged up. A wet kind of sound. You could tell there was a lot of moisture in this mouth.
I listened to it for a few seconds, and then it faded away. I hit stop and then rewind again, and let it go all the way back to the beginning of the tape. Then, knowing that I could be on the verge of listening to something really weird, I took a deep breath, and pressed play.
This is what I heard:
I must be crazy now. Maybe I dream too much; but when I think of you, I long to feel your touch. At least, that's how the song goes. I think only the first two lines apply to me in this case.
God, why am I doing this? Am I crazy? It's not like we'll be able to be a real actual couple. Yes, maybe for the two weeks that I'm there, but after that? Probably not. I mean, look what happened with her and The Jerk. He moved to a different city, and they broke up. Why would she even invite me back? It makes no sense.
Oh, sorry. I guess I should tell you the whole story, shouldn't I, constant listener? Well, you might not want to hear it, but you're a tape player, so you don't get a choice. Here's how it happened.
Her name is Linda Kent. When I was in high school, she should have been my girlfriend. We should have been a couple. As soon as I asked her though, she decided she liked some other guy. Some other guy who was a real jerk-off. I hated him with an unholy passion. I'm pretty sure it's immoral to hate anyone as much as I hated him. I'm going to let that go though. I'm past it. I'm over it.
So, right out of the blue, this girl who completely shattered my heart my senior year, sends me an email. She wrote to basically ask me to come out to California to see her.
Now, yes, I know a trip to California has been in the works for a long time, but this actually gave me a real, concrete, chance of a lifetime reason to go out there. So, I got all the transportation worked out, and how long I'm going to be gone. I secured the time off of work, and now here I am, on my way to California.
I can see the signs that tell me how to get to the train station, and I can't believe that this is actually finally happening. I'm going to go back to California, and Linda asked me to come out, and I'm going to see her again.
I can't believe this.
[There is a single click as the narrative for this moment ends, and then a second click as a narrative later on in the day picks up.]
Okay, here I am at the station, and my heart is beating in double time. The train is pulling in as I speak [Indeed, on the tape, I heard a sound that sounded like a train pulling into the station] and people are beginning to line up at the door markers.
I'm in no hurry. I feel like I might throw up at any second. Still, I need to be on this train, because this is the one I got the tickets for, and the tickets are nonrefundable. If I don't show up in California, Linda will probably think I'm a jerk, and not ever want to see me- Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to jostle you there.
Wow. That was a pretty girl. [There is a few seconds of silence]
Oh! Uh... Where was I? [There is another of those double clicks, as, I assumed, he went back to listen to what he had just recorded.] Ah yes, I was talking about Linda not wanting to see me again. Knowing my luck, that would be what happens.
Okay, I'm moving toward the train now, and- sorry, you all right? Didn't mean to whack you with my bag. [There are a few moments where the only sounds are the hurried conversations of all the people around him, and their grumbling, the sound of his breathing, and muttered apologies as he bumps into someone.]
Tell you what, I'll be back in just a second.
[Another double click]
Okay, peace and quiet at last. Wow that was a crowded train station. Anyway uh...Where was I? Oh yeah, I was telling you about Linda. Linda, as I already told you, went out with some Jerk. This may have seemed, in the short run, beneficial to her, but in the long run, it probably wasn't. At least, not beneficial to her from my perspective. We were good friends before. Things started to change about three months into her dating this guy. She began to not hang out with us as much. She began to waver, and go talk with other people.
It was scary watching her transform like that. Watching her go from the perfect woman, to someone I wouldn't even recognize. I could even tell you what happened. He happened to her. He changed her, in some fundamental way. I guess it's just good old-fashioned influence, and if it is, that's kind of scary. She started not talking to me anymore. Any attempt I made at conversation with her would be met with a cold shoulder, and let me tell you, of all the parts of a human body to warm, the shoulder is probably the hardest, if you get my meaning.
So, through this Jerk's influence, he corrupted her against me (not that I would ever dream about thinking about considering telling her that). She began to dislike me, and then to straight up hate me, to the point that she wanted nothing to do with me. That was perhaps the hardest blow to deal with. I could deal with the fact that she wanted to be with someone else instead of me. I could deal with the fact that the someone was a complete jerk- she would realize it in time, right? I couldn't deal with the fact that he corrupted her, to the point where she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore.
It sure seemed like she would never want to have anything to do with me ever again. Then, I get this email from her, asking if I could come out to Cali to visit her.
To visit! Can you believe that? Talk about audacity. Or Tenacity. Whatever acity that is. Seesh.
'Course, I guess I'm not one to talk. I'm on the train right now, riding my way across the country- across the whole entire country- to visit her. [There is the sound of laughter and a few seconds of silence]
I must be crazy now
[Another double click]
Well, constant listener, it looks like you're going to be up for another interesting story. I'm glad you're here with me, otherwise, I would go crazy having to write all this down without my PowerBook here. I don't even know why I left my PowerBook behind. I could certainly use it here. A couple levels of Marathon on the Kindergarten difficulty level always cheer me right up. But, at any rate, I left it behind, and so here I am, relating to you the viewer- well, I guess it's listener- what I just saw. Or think I saw. Or something. I don't even know how to describe it. It was like Like I don't know. I'll just tell you what happened, and then you can make up your own mind about it.
Remember when I rented that movie? Mystery Science Theater 3000? What was the movie that was shown there?The Day the Earth Froze? That might have been it. Earth something, I know that. This Island Earth? I think that was it. Can't say for sure.
Anyway, there's this guy in that movie ("Nerdy Joe not included" is how the MST guys described him), and he makes a quote, which I think applies quite well to this situation.
He says, "I know everyone has claimed to see flying saucers, and screwy lights in the sky. Well, you can put me in the booby hatch too, because so help me, I saw that plane glow a bright green."
That's about how I feel. I saw [There is a sigh] Well, I don't know how to describe it, but it
It wasn't human.
[There is another of those double clicks, and this time, I could tell that the person making the recording was growing more strained, or nervous. Or perhaps scared would be a better word.]
It's back.
Whatever it is, wherever it came from, it's here again, running alongside the train, keeping pace. God, look at it. It's unreal.
[A moment of silence, in which the clickety clack of the train is the only sound]
Where was I? Oh, I was going to tell you the story from the beginning.
I was lying on my bunk, pondering why, exactly, Linda might have wanted me to come to see her, when a bright flash of light outside my window caught my eye. I turned my head to look, but didn't see anything. Then, there was another flash, and and I watched it grow, from a speck, to to a shape.
It was some sort of flying thing. It wasn't an airplane, or a helicopter, or an ultralight, or anything else that man has invented, and it wasn't some sort of animal, because it was obviously metallic.
I don't want to say a UFO, but that's what it looked like. God help me, that's it looked like.
[Another double click]
God, the fangs, look at them.
[Another double click]
-Opened, and this thing came out of it. I didn't get a glimpse inside like I hoped I would, but I didn't need to. I saw what came out. The flying ship was keeping pace with the train, maybe going a bit faster, and the creature jumped out and began running alongside the train without missing a stride.
This creature, it's It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It has a human head, only, it was disfigured. It looked like the face of a man transforming into a werewolf, and he hadn't gone all the way. It was like part human, part canine.
The body... the body is-
[A few seconds of silence]
It's back again. I can see it quite clearly this time. It appears very powerful. The body, like I was saying, is leonine. It looks like a feline's body, only leaner, and more muscular.
It's been moving very fast, keeping pace with the train like I said, for maybe ten minutes now. Can cheetahs run that fast for that long? I don't think they can. Not really sure though.
God this is unnerving.
[Another double click]
Oh shit. It just disappeared on me. I had been watching it for a while. It had been running alongside the train, and then, it drew closer. I glanced away to look at my clock, saw the time was five-oh-seven, and then glanced back, and it was just gone.
We're on an open plain as far as I can tell. There're no trees, no mountains, nothing but flat grassland for as far as the eye can see in any direction, and yet it totally disappeared. That leads me to believe it could only have gone to one place, and that worries me more then anything.
It has to be on this train somewhere.
Just a second. I'll be right back. [There is a thump on the tape as, I assumed, he put the tape recorder down on a table or something, and I heard him muttering to himself as he walks across the room. I heard the door open, and then close, and a few cautious mutterings, as he came back across the room and then some rattling as he picked the tape player up again]
It's not on my car. At least, I don't think it is. Something like that could probably move as silently as silk. Still, if it did appear here, there would be screams or something, wouldn't there? That makes sense, doesn't-
[There is a sudden silence as the voice cuts off, and then a loud bang as the tape player hits the floor, apparently dropped from my nameless friend's hands. The rest of the tape, except for a seventeen second interval about five minutes later, is completely silent, save for the clickety clack of the train. [That seventeen second interval does have some sound to it, but there is no double click to signify someone stopping, and then restarting the tape. It just fades in and then out. It is a sound of someone, or something- I'm more inclined to think something, after what I heard- breathing through their mouth in the middle of their sleep because their nose is plugged up. A wet kind of sound. You could tell there was a lot of moisture in this mouth.]
I listened to the voice on the tape telling his story, and when it suddenly cut off, I wondered what had happened. The creature of course, was the first idea to pop into my head. The creature had gotten him.
That was an absurd thought, though. There were no such things as monsters. I didn't believe in spooks, and no tape was going to get the better of me.
Still, the monster theory continued to loop itself around in my brain, like Haley's comet, making an appearance every few seconds, and demanding attention. I tried to ignore it. I mean, the tape was so weird. A creature that came from a flying "thing"? That couldn't have been right. Something else must have been going on. Something I'm missing.
I looked all around the cabin, but didn't see anything. I shook my head, and dropped the tape player in my pocket, then turned to leave.
Something white caught my eye. A stack of papers, lying on the end table. I picked them up, and leafed through them. I saw something that liked like it might be a title. It read The Monster on the Train.
I glanced from the papers, to where I had seen the tape player. Of course, that was the obvious explanation. The guy who was in this cabin was a writer, or something, and he was writing a new story.
Had to be it.
That doesn't explain where the people went Gregg.
I knew that, but that wasn't the point. The point was that my conscious mind could now put this matter to rest. It was all fake.
Then where had the papers come from, Gregg?
They had been there the whole time of course. Or had they? I remember when I walked in thinking how bare the room was. How the table, and couch and bed were empty. And now, there were papers?
Had I not noticed them before? It was possible, but-
Damn it! No! They were not there when I first came in. The table had been empty. I was sure of it.
Suddenly, I was back where I was before. Was the tape real, or not? That man, whoever he had been, making the recording, had just disappeared at the end of the narrative. Just straight up vanished and that makes sense, because all the other people on this train have apparently vanished too.
Now, where did they all go?
Only one way to find out.
I stepped outside the room, moved up to the next one, and knocked. There was no reply of course, so I tried the handle. This one, like all the others I would encounter, except for one, was unlocked. I opened it, and looked inside. The bed was no made. It was being used. There was a human shaped lump under the covers, but I couldn't tell if it was male or female.
"Hello?" The figure didn't move. "Hello?" I said, a little louder this time. I moved forward, then, and laid a hand gently on the bedspread, intending to gently shake the sleeper awake.
"Hey, are you-?" That was as far as I got, for when I put my hand on the cover, it collapsed underneath me, and lay in a non-human shaped lump, now.
If there had been a human under those covers, they were gone now. That worried me even more then the tape, or the papers did. How the hell did someone get out of a bed, and leave the sheets in the exact same shape they were in when they were lying in it?
What could make that happen?
I don't want to say a UFO, but that's what it looked like. God help me, that's it looked like.
The nameless voice spoke up in my head, offering his opinion. And to be perfectly fair, it did make a certain amount of sense. That would explain why the people were all gone. But then, why wasn't I taken?
I moved in a daze, hardly seeing anything, and stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind me. I walked across the hall to the next one, and knocked on the door.
This time, something different happened.
There was a small little shriek from the other side of the door, and then a voice.
"Who is it?"
I was so shocked for a second I couldn't speak. There was someone else on the train! The feeling was wonderful!
"Who's out there?" The person on the other side of the door demanded.
"Oh, uh... my name is Gregg Hynes, and.... umm something's happened."
"Something's happened?" There was the sound of footsteps, and then the door opened.
I was once again struck speechless. The girl standing on the other side of the door was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life. Her dark brown hair fell in waves to just past her shoulders, and I fleetingly wondered how it would be to run my fingers through her hair. It looked very soft.
She looked at me with eyes that seemed to pierce my soul.
"What do you mean 'Something's happened'?"
"Well you see I woke up about five-fifteen, and thought it was extraordinarily quiet, and when I stepped outside, all the people on this car, have been gone, except for you and me."
"Gone?"
"Gone."
"Hasn't it ever occurred to you that maybe they just went to the meal car to get a bite to eat?"
"Well, yeah, the thought had occurred to me, but the problem I came across with that theory is this. How did so many people decide to leave their rooms all at once, and go get a bite to eat, all at the same time, which happens to be the same time that I'm asleep in my room, and none of them wake me up? The odds are insane. Absolutely crazy!"
"But possible."
"Yes, they are possible. Very slim, as to be almost non-existent, but possible. And besides, I found this." I showed her the tape player. She picked it up and pressed play.
There was only silence.
"You have to rewind it," I said.
She hit the rewind button, and while we were waiting for it to rewind, I asked her what her name was.
"Tara," she replied.
"Tara?"
"I don't think you need to know my last name just yet."
"Probably not, but there can't be any harm in it, eh?"
"You'd be surprised," was all she replied, rather cryptically. Then, the tape player clicked, and she reached down and pressed play, and listened.
"My name is Timothy McClure," the player said. I stared at it in wide-eyed amazement. Somehow or other, the message had changed on me. But how? Had I not rewound it all the way the first time I listened to it? No, I know I had. I know I did, cause I let it rewind until it stopped itself. It was the same voice, there was no doubt, but there was a different narrative issuing out.
"I lived in South Carolina up until four days ago, when everything I thought I knew and understood about my life came to a crashing halt. My mother, convinced she was doing the right thing for everyone involved, shot and killed my father, and my two sisters. I think-"
There was a click as Tara thumbed off the tape player. "Well," she said, "that was morbid. Why would you want to listen to that?"
"It... It wasn't like that before." I said, knowing how stupid that sounded in my own ears. "Before, it was a story about how he was going out to California to see an old friend or something. It's the same voice, but it's a different story. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true."
"I believe you that it does sound crazy. Are you all right?"
"Yes! I'm not crazy! I'm totally fine. I just want to know what's going on, that's all."
"Well, one thing that's bugging me is this. How do you make a different recording without the original person there to- Wait a second! Are you putting me on? Are you playing some sort of game with me?"
"What? No! How could I be? That guy on the tape doesn't even sound like me!"
That seemed to finally get through to her. She gave a token "Yeah but." And then her voice faded out.
We looked at each other for a few seconds. She was insanely beautiful. "Tara," I finally said, "People are missing, and I don't know why. I want to know. Don't you?"
"We don't know for sure they're missing..."
"Tara." The firmness behind my voice quieted her. "They are missing."
She took a deep breath, and let it out shakily. "Okay, I guess you may have a point."
"Alright. So, shall we continue searching the train then? I've only checked this car, so far. It would go twice as fast if you were to help."
"Yeah, I'll help. I want to know what's going on."
"Good. Thanks." I tipped her a wink, and she smiled back.
"Gregg, what if we don't find anyone else?" Her question momentarily froze me.
"Well, in that case," I said, "let's hope we find someone else."
4. A Locked Door, and the Singular Quality of a Newspaper
She stepped outside of her room, pushing a lock of hair back behind her ear. We moved up to the next two rooms. She took the left, and I took the right. We each knocked, but neither of us got a reply. She looked back at me, and I made a motion to for her to go inside, and check it out. Then I turned back to my door, and opened it. The room was as empty as the others had been, but there was another object lying on the floor here. It was nowhere near as illuminating as the tape player was (nor as mysterious).
What I saw, was just your standard, run of the mill jump rope. I wondered why exactly there would be a jump rope on a train, but then decided it probably belonged to some non-existent kid.
Or one who was grabbed by the flying thing, or killed by the monster....
Didn't I tell you to shut up?
There was no reply to that. I picked up the jump rope and looked at it, then out the window at the flat featureless landscape, stretching as far as my eye could see. I put the jump rope on the bed, then turned back to the door.
I put my hand on the doorknob, and that was when the light coming in through the window flickered. I looked back over my shoulder at the window, half expecting to see an almost human face on a feline body crawling through, but there was nothing.
Just the window and a distant mountain range. I took a steadying, cleansing breath, and then stepped back out of the door. Tara had already moved on to the door adjacent to hers.
She knocked on it repeatedly. She turned to look at me, but I already knew what she was going to say. "The door," she said. "It's locked."
"Locked?"
She nodded, and twisted the doorknob to prove the point. I stepped up, and tried it myself, vaguely wondering why people test doorknobs they know are locked. It isn't like it's magically going to open itself for me.
The door was, indeed, locked. I knocked, but there was no reply. "Hello?" I called. "Anyone in there?" I opened my hand, and slapped on the door. As soon as I did, the strangest thing happened.
There was a shaking, rolling, shuddering sensation, like an earthquake. It started lightly, and then began to vibrate faster, and harder. The train began to shake side to side, sometimes feeling like it was going to flip over, but somehow, it never did. Then, the shaking stopped, and the floor began to roll.
It started at the door connecting this car to the rest of the cars, and then began to make its way slowly down the train to the back and out the other side. The floor actually humped up, like there was something under it, and the lump rolled flowing smoothly down the floor of the car, like some sort of carpet wave. Where it bulged, the walls bulged up with it. You could see the wall panels, shifting and flowing to meet the wave, and where the ceiling connected to the wall, it rolled too, but it pressed outward, instead of inward, as if some sort of force had lifted that section of the train off kilter from the rest of it, and to fix it, was now just sliding it right off the back. Indeed, when it reached the end, it just disappeared. It didn't go onto the ground, or flow back like a wave would. It just stopped. I looked back down at the two sets of four doors lining the walls leading back to the back of the train. Everything was perfectly normal, and nothing had changed. There was a moment of silence.
"What the hell was that?" I asked. Tara didn't reply. Her face was very white.
We moved up to the next car, wondering how many, if any, people we would find here. Tara's color was coming back, but slowly, and I asked her if she was all right.
"Huh? Yeah... I'm just... What was that Gregg?"
"I don't know. But let me tell you, I've come across some interesting things so far." I filled her in on what the tape player said originally, and the somehow unsettling fact of my short, yet very restful nap. "Were you sleeping?"
"Oh, no, I wasn't. When you knocked on my door, I was listening to some music I had brought with me. Billy Joel's Greatest Hits volume Three."
"So, you didn't go to sleep. Hmmm. I wonder what, if anything, that means."
"Why should it mean anything?"
"I don't know, but there has to be some reason why you and I are, so far, the only two people left right now."
I didn't know that as I spoke, there were two other people making their way towards us from the other side of the train. A guy and a girl, to be precise. No, I didn't know that until later, but if I had known that then, I definitely would have told Tara to keep her calm. As it was, We were forced to assume we were the only people left, and we had to finish our search to make sure.
I nodded to the left side. "You take that side, and I'll take this one, alright?"
She looked at me with a very serious expression, and an impulse to hug her and tell her it would be okay came over me, but I fought it back. No need to make things possibly more awkward then they already were. I knocked on the door to my right, but there was no reply, as usual. I opened the door, and stepped inside.
There were signs of habitation here, as there were in all the other cars, but there wasn't much. There wasn't anything of any kind of use here, so I turned to leave when my eye caught a glimpse of something out the window. There was that mountain range again. Why would that seem wrong to me?
Because it wasn't there before?
My mind flashed back to the cabin I was in just a few minutes ago, where I found the jump rope. I looked up at the flat featureless landscape, and didn't remember seeing a mountain range. It was only when I was leaving that I saw it.
It hadn't clicked until now, but now it struck home with force. What the hell was going on? Landscape changing around on me? What was going on?
You're losing your mind, you know. That's what's going on.
No I'm not.
That little mental voice gave a shrug then fell silent. I shook my head to clear out all the cobwebs, then stepped outside. Tara had already moved up two doors, so I decided to pick up the pace, and step into the next room. I knocked, got no reply, and stepped inside.
This room, like all the others was sparsely decorated, and looked like it had been lived in for only a few minutes before whatever had happened, had happened. I looked around, and my eye alighted on a newspaper. I picked it up, and looked at the date. It was today's date, which was right, and the headline looked-
Wrong. I blinked, squeezed my eyes shut, and shook my head, then opened them and looked down at the paper. It had
looked exactly as it had before.
¥ø¨æ®´ å߬´´> ¥ø¨æ®´ å߬´´> ¥ø¨æ®´ å߬´´
Was what it said. It was all so much gobbledygook and scribbles to me. I recognized some of the symbols, but not all of them, and I couldn't even begin to guess why it had been printed that way. I let the paper drop down to my side, and looked out the window, vaguely wondering what was going on.
I knew I wasn't losing my mind, because this was as plain as the nose on my face. I bet if I showed it to Tara, she would see it too. I turned and stared at the wall for a while, then looked back out the window. the plain we were crossing over had given way to ocean. An endless stretch of water waved and lapped its way up to the shoreline we were riding across. I blinked, looked again, and saw it was still the ocean.
...The hell?
I turned away from the window, deciding it was better if I didn't look, and drew the paper back up again. The text had changed.
å°´ ¨ å°´ ¨ å°´ ¨
Was what it said now. I had no idea what to make of it. Maybe Tara would. I tucked the paper under my arm, and stepped outside. When I got there, I froze, looking at what Tara had found inside the fourth room on her side. I blinked, not quite daring to think it was real; then I felt my face split into a grin, and I rushed forward, eager to shake the man's hand.
"Hey! Wow! It's good to see someone new! What's your name?" I asked him.
"Patrick Barkman," he replied. Then, before I could ask him if he knew what was going on,
"What's this the girlie's telling me about people disappearing?" Tara ribbed him with her elbow.
"My name isn't 'Girlie.' It's Tara."
"Oh, sorry," Patrick replied; though I didn't think he really was. "Anyway, what's going on? She woke me out of a really good nap."
"Well, we're not really sure either. I woke up about five-fifteen, and everyone was already gone. I went searching door to door, and found Tara, but so far we haven't found anyone else."
"Hmmm. it's almost like this one story I read. The Langoliers."
"Lango-whats?"
"Langoliers. It's a novella by Stephen King. It's about ten passengers on an airplane. These ten passengers all wake up, and everyone on the plane has vanished. They can't figure out what happened, until they work out where they are, and when they are."
"When?" Tara asked.
"Yeah. It turned out that they flew through a time rift, and everyone still awake was instantly vaporized, or whatever, cause they just disappeared."
"Do you... Do you think that's what happened here?"
The fortyish, balding man looked first at me, then at Tara. "Well, it's a possibility, don't you think?"
Tara shook her head. "No, actually, I don't. I wasn't asleep. I was listening to my Discman. Billy Joel's greatest hits, volume three." She turned to me. "You were asleep, weren't you?"
I nodded. "That doesn't prove anything though. I think something bigger then just the disappearances of the passengers is happening."
Tara's eyes widened, and she regarded me with open surprise. "Why is that?" she asked at the same time Patrick asked, "What makes you say that?"
"Well, one of them, is this," and here I hefted the tape player. "There's one of two things going on with this, but we'll know for sure in a minute, when I press play. When I first found, it gave me one narrative, and when Tara played it, it gave another. So, either I'm losing my mind, something backed up by what I've seen outside windows, and on newspapers or... What? What did I say?"
Tara's face had gone white again. "You... you saw it too?"
"Saw what?"
Patrick was watching the conversation jumping back and forth between us like a tennis ball. "Well, everything. The... the changing landscapes, for one. One minute, were on a plain, the next, in a mountain range. Then, were in China, the next minute, Spain."
I shook my head. "No, nothing that drastic. Just changes in the landscape. Mountains where there were no mountains before, Oceans where there were previously plains. That sort of thing. Then, there was this."
I showed them the newspaper, but this time, the print had changed again. It looked like this now:
You need to wake up you need to wake up
They stared at it for a moment. Patrick reached out for it, and I handed it to him. He opened it, looked all through it. "It's all in this weird writing. How strange. Do we have any ideas what's going on?"
"Well, I have one," I said, "but let me get back to what I was saying before. This tape player has been changing narratives on me. When I pressed play, it was the story of a guy going to visit a friend in California. When Tara pressed play, it was about a guy whose mother killed her entire family. Now, I want to see what happens if you press play."
I handed him the tape player. He held it carefully in his hand as if it would poison him if he held it wrong, and then slowly reached up and pressed play. The voice that issued forth was the same one as the first two times, but the narrative had changed again.
"I guess," the tape player said, "if I had to choose a starting point, it would have to be my first day of school at Southbridge Academy. It was midway through the school year, and I had no friends at all. To understand why I was starting in the middle of the school year, you would have to understand three or four different people. The first was my best friend, Jeremy Horst."
Patrick clicked off the tape. "That's... uh, that's kinda boring."
Tara was wide-eyed again. "That wasn't on there before. Before, it was... Oh my God, what is going on?"
None of us had an answer.
"So, you just woke up and all the people were gone, correct?" Patrick asked. I nodded.
"Yeah. I didn't even wake up when whatever happened, happened."
He looked to Tara. "And you were listening to aa CD, right?"
She nodded. "Very interesting. I myself was napping. So, that makes two nappers, and a CD listener. I wonder who else we will find?"
"What..." Tara stopped, then took a deep breath. "What makes you sure we'll find anyone else?"
"Law of averages. If you," and here he nodded to me, "found me and Tara on the first two cars, then there must be at least one more person in the remaining three cars."
"Is that how many cars there are? Five?"
Patrick nodded. "When I boarded the train, I saw there were two passenger cars ahead, and two passenger cars behind the meal car. That makes five. There must be at least some people left somewhere else. It's the only thing that makes sense."
"I was beginning to wonder about that."
Patrick nodded. We looked at each other for a few seconds, and then, in a silent agreement, we moved on. I checked the third door on the right side, Patrick took the fourth, and Tara took the last door on the left side.
This room was like all the others. Sparse, utilitarian, very little to prove anyone had taken up residence inside this room. I looked out the window, almost against my will, and noticed that the ocean had disappeared, and had, once again been replaced by flatlands and a mountain range in the background.
I stepped back outside, and there was Patrick and Tara, looking at me. "What?"
"We were just waiting for you so we could go into the next car."
A somewhat disconcerting thought struck me then. They didn't have to wait for me, but they did. Tara didn't wait for me when she went up the hallway, to the doors, and she found Patrick in the fourth room just before I emerged from the second. They were waiting for me, because they were looking to me as their leader. I was the one who discovered that somehow or
other, all the people had disappeared. I was the one who had found Tara, and Tara had found Patrick. Patrick looked to Tara, and Tara looked to me. I was the lead.
I hate being the leader, I thought dismally. "Well, then," I said, "let's go." I stepped forward, turned the handle of the door, and stepped inside, hoping against hope that there would be a large amount of people all eating in the meal car.
There was, as seemed to be the usual, no one in the meal car. There was, however, a large collection of plates, and leftover food, some of it barely touched. On the table closest to us, there was a plate with a half-consumed mound of mashed potatoes, and some chicken.
On a second table, there were pancakes and sausages. At a third, just a glass of water, bouncing with the rhythm of the rails. Patrick stepped past us, farther into the room, and sat down at one of the tables.
"Well," he said, "that busts that theory, doesn't it?"
"It was never really a theory," I told him. "At least, not to me. I never really believed in it." I glanced back behind me at Tara, whose pretty face was now distorted, twisted with confusion.
"They... they aren't here..." she said.
"No, Tara. For better or for worse, they are gone from the train."
"All of them? Every single one?"
"I don't know about every single one, but we are all still here, and like Pat said-"
"Patrick. Don't call me Pat."
"Oh, sorry. Like Patrick said, the law of averages states that there should be at least two, maybe as many as four people in the other two cars, alright?"
She nodded tiredly. "You alright?" Patrick asked. She nodded again.
"Yeah, it's just, so weird."
"That it is, Tara. That it is." Patrick moved to one of the tables and sat down at it. He speared a piece of chicken with on of the forks lying nearby and sniffed it. I heard Tara suck in a breath.
"You aren't seriously going to eat that?"
He looked up at her. "Any particular reason I wouldn't? This food hasn't been out here this long. An hour at the most. That may be enough time for the milk to get warm, but we don't need to drink the milk. The rest of this food is perfectly fine."
He brought the chicken up to his mouth, and took a bite of it. Tara gasped, and I realized I had been holding my breath. He chewed it for a moment, and then looked at us. "See? Perfectly fine. I told you so." Feeling more encouraged, I went to one of the other tables, lifted a pancake and took a bite. It was some of the best food I had ever had. I sat down, poured syrup over the pancakes and began to eat.
Tara's eyes were jumping from me to Patrick. "How can you be eating that? The food could be what happened to these people!"
"How?" Patrick asked.
"What?"
"How could the food be what happened?"
"I... I... How do you know it isn't?"
"Well," I said, "I know for two reasons."
"And what would those be?"
"Well, the first is the floor." The look on her face when I said that made me wish I had a camera. Here eyes widened, and her jaw dropped.
"The floor? What does that have to do with the price of beans in Belize?"
I smiled to myself, and decided to muddy up the works a bit more. Cruel, I know, but fun nonetheless. "I'll tell you in a minute. The second thing is the tape player."
She closed her eyes, and flopped down in a chair. She opened them again. I glanced at Patrick, who was watching with amusement. I wondered if he knew what I was thinking. When she spoke, her voice was quieter, but still seemed somwhat ragged.
"Again, What does that tape player have to do with the slaughter of chickens in Guiana?"
"Well, nothing actually; but it has everything to do with our situation here."
"How?"
"Listen." I pressed play on the tape player, and the original story I heard on the tape player began to play.
After a few seconds, Tara said, "What does this have to do with us?" I shushed her by holding up a finger, and the tape continued to play. She grew quiet, and then more quiet as the narrative continued. When the tape ended (well, the voice part of it anyway), I clicked it off and looked up at Tara. Her face had gone white again.
Vaguely I wondered what her face would look like if I had let it play to the point where the breathing fades in. "Is that... Is that what you think happened? Some sort of monster from a... a... a flying saucer, is here? that all the people have been spirited off by a UFO?"
"No, I don't. I don't know what happened, or how, or why. I don't know if we'll ever find out. I simply played that to show you why it couldn't be the food that happened to the people. Now, will you please sit down and eat?" I took another pancake and ate it.
"How did you know?"
I looked up at her. "Know what?"
"What the tape would play." I shrugged.
"It was a guess actually. I thought that if it played three different things, when held by three different people, it might play the same thing I heard it play if I held it again."
She didn't reply. She just stared glumly at the table. She grabbed a glass of water and sipped at it.
"You all right?" Patrick asked.
"I'll survive," she replied. If she had known how this was all going to end, I doubt that she would have replied in quite that phrase.
She looked at me. "You never told me what the floor had to do with any of this."
"Ah, the floor. Well, look at it. What do you see?"
She looked all around. "Carpeting."
I nodded. "And what do you see on the carpeting?"
"Other then the tables and chairs, nothing."
"Exactly. Now, if the food had something to do with it, we would see a couple of different things on the floor. One, we would see spilled food, but none of this food is spilled. Number two, we would see spots where people vomited, if it was poisoned food. Number three, if the food happened to these people, then... where are the bodies?"
She looked all around. I glanced at Patrick. He nodded in agreement. He had been thinking the same thing. Tara wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged herself.
"I suppose you're right." She took sausage from the plate next to her and bit into it. "Though I'm not really hungry right now."
"No one said you had to eat," Patrick said. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Are we going to search the rest of the train?" Tara asked.
I was silent for a moment, hoping Patrick would answer, making this a partnership, instead of them looking to me as a leader.
He didn't. I sighed. "Yeah, I suppose we should, before it gets dark." I looked out the window, but the afternoon sunlight was just as bright now as it had been when I woke up earlier. I glanced at my watch. It wasn't there. "Patrick, do you have a watch?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I have-" His voice cut off as he glanced down at his wrist and saw he had no watch on. Tara looked at hers, but she didn't have a watch either. They both looked up at me.
"Hey, I don't know any more about this then you guys do."
There was an uneasy silence then, as we all sat around, poking at our food. All of us, like Tara, had lost our appetites.
Tara turned to me, and opened her mouth to ask a question. Her mouth froze in midmotion, and her eyes widened at the sight of something behind me. I turned in my chair, and looked. I felt my own eyes widen, and my mouth drop open as I saw what she was looking at. On the far side of the meal car, through the door leading to the unexplored section of the train, four strangers were stepping through.
The first person through the door was a guy. He stepped in, and caught sight of us. He blinked. He stepped forward, carefully handling the pack on his back, and as soon as the door was clear, a girl stepped through. Behind her, another girl followed, and then a third.
They walked over to our side of the room, but didn't get too close. We stared at each other for a long time. I gave a quick nod of my head in greeting, then indicated the tables and the food. "How you doing? Welcome to the Orient Express Café. Take a seat. Go ahead and eat. There's enough for everyone."
No one laughed. The man sat down at the table that was next to mine. the girl who had come through the door second sat down next to him. the other two chose a table across from them.
"Who are you?" The man asked. There was suspicion in his voice. I looked at Tara, and then Patrick, and raised my hands to show I wasn't a threat.
"We're on your side, here, okay? Let's get that straight now. We were just about to search the rest of the train to see if anyone else was left."
"You are the only people left from that end of the train?" he asked. I nodded. "No one else?"
"Well, that's the funny thing. There's... there's a locked door. We couldn't get through it, so there might be someone in there. I don't think there was though. Tara and I knocked- this was before we found you Patrick- and there was no reply. Though, something weird did happen after that."
He sat up straight at that. "Weird? How?"
"Well, it was like a wave on the floor. It just rolled right off the edge of the train."
"You haven't seen any other weird things?"
"Yes we have!" Tara interjected. "Newspapers you can't read, landscape that won't stay the same, and a tape player that won't play the same thing twice in a row!"
"You've seen the land change too?" This came from one of the girls at the other table. We all looked at her, and, as one, my group nodded. She swallowed and grew a little pale. The girl sitting next to the guy was trembling. "Some of us have seen more things then that," was all she said. The man slid his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him, seeking comfort. He looked at us.
"When I found her, she was... well... not in a good position, I guess is the nicest way to put it."
I nodded, but didn't say anything. If they wanted to tell, they would tell in time.
"What's your name?" I asked him. He looked at me, but didn't reply. "My name is Gregg Hynes," I continued. "She's Tara, and this is Patrick... What did you say your last name was, Patrick?"
"Barkman."
"Right, Barkman. Patrick Barkman. Now, fair exchange of goods, my friend. Your names?"
He looked over at the two girls, then at the one leaning against him. "My name is Nathan Erickson," he said at first. "This lady here," he indicated the girl he was holding, who was still trembling, but not as bad as before, "is Amber Bates."
"Why is she trembling like that?" Tara asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute," Nathan replied. "The raven haired beauty over there is Kristi Gilbert, and next to her, is Amy Dewitt. We're the only ones left from that end of the train. Even the engineer is gone."
"The engineer?" I asked, a bad thought forming in my head. "Then who's driving the train?"
"No one," he said.
"That's... uhh... That's not good," Patrick said.
"No, it's not."
There was silence for the space of a few minutes. We regarded each other with suspicion.
"So..." Amy said, "what... what happened with you guys?"
Briefly, I told them the tale of what happened, and let them listen to the tape, while I hled it; both of which I will not write down again, for sake of time. As I write this on Nathan's computer, Amy is standing there next to Tara, both of them covered in Patrick's blood, telling me to hurry. They should know that I am typing as fast as I can, and I'm trying to get this down accurately.
God, I just heard some sort of sound from behind the door. In the meal car. Where that damnable thing's body is. Something is moving in there, and I don't think it's Patrick or Nathan.
Where was I?
I told them basically what I've already written down here, not omitting any of it. They sat, listening attentively. Amy shivered, and wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself.
"So," I finished up. "That's our tale. Believe it or not." I could see from their eyes they believed it. Amber especially. When the part about the tape player's message came up, she cringed, and tucked her head into Nathan's arm, whimpering. I almost stopped then, but Nathan urged me on, telling me that she would be fine. Nathan was still holding Amber when I was done, but she was no longer trembling. She seemed to have accepted whatever was going to happen. She had recovered quite quickly. She was very interesting in that regard. Very resilient.
She wanted to tell her tale first, to get it out of the way. Nathan let her. So, Amber told the first story of the evening as the train sped it's way
across the country to an unknown destination, with no one at the helm.
1. Amber's Tale
When I woke up, it was almost four forty five. I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, and then got out of bed, and walked down to the meal car. When I got there, I got a hamburger, and carried it back to my room. The V.C. Andrews book I was reading was still waiting for me, and I decided to get a few more pages into it.
I stepped back into my room, and closed the door. I sat down on the bed, and grabbed the book out of my backpack, found my spot and began to read. A couple minutes later, there was the sound of laughter as someone ran by outside.
I went to my door and looked out, but didn't see anyone. I didn't hear any doors close or anything, but there was still no one in the hall. I closed my door again, and sat back on my bed. About two minutes later maybe, there was a thumping noise. Well, not really a noise. I guess it was more felt, through the wall, then heard. It was like something bumped into the side of the train.
I listened for a few moments, but didn't hear anything. I walked back to the door, and looked outside, but didn't see anything. I went back into my room, leaving the door open this time in case I wanted to see anything in the hall, and went back to my book. I reached for my hamburger, took a bite, and put it back on the plate.
I continued to read, and about two pages later, I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye. The door had moved.
It was just barely perceptible, but I had seen the top half of it swing open just a little bit. the bottom half was hidden by the footboard of the bed.
"Hello? Anyone there?" No one replied, so I tried to dismiss it out of my head. I reached for my hamburger again, but it was gone. I stared at the plate in disbelief. Had I been so wrapped up in my book that I hadn't even noticed myself eating a hamburger? That didn't seem right, due to all the distractions I had been through, but it was the only one that made sense. At the time anyway. I picked the plate up, and looked at it. There was some sort of gunk on it. Some viscuous sort of fluid. I touched it gently with my finger.
It was like saliva. That same disgusting feeling. I put the plate back down, and got off the bed once again. I walked over and closed the door.
Then, when I turned around, There IT was. It was standing next to the bed, on all four legs, looking at me like I was some sort of life form it had never seen before.
"Hello, human," it said to me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I was so filled with horror that I couldn't at first move. My breath seemed locked in my throat- I couldn't scream.
It took a few steps toward me, it's green eyes watching me with frightful intelligence. "Just thought I'd pop in for a quick bite," It said, "Hope you don't mind."
"What are you?" I asked in a whisper.
"I am. What are you?"
"I'm... I'm..."
"Human, yes. I always get that answer. But remember this, what you are, I once was. What I am, you soon will be. You are looking at the next rung on the evolutionary ladder, and I'm it."
"No..."
"Oh yes. A perfect, silent, fast assassin. Look at my body. Everything about me screams predator. And a Predator I am. Man gives in to his basic instincts in the end, Amber."
"How did you know my name?"
"I know everything about you. I know you are traveling to California to see your dear sweet grandmother who has recently fallen ill. It's too bad she's going to DIE BEFORE YOU GET THERE!" The creature let out a harsh, barking laugh.
"How do you know?"
"You don't get it do you? I'm not merely from mankind's future. I am from YOUR. DIRECT. FUTURE. AMBER. I am you. You will become me. Isn't that grand?"
"No. I don't believe you. It can't possibly be true."
"Oh but it is true, Amber, it is. Look in the mirror, and tell me you don't see a base, savage, primitive desire to kill in your eyes. Oh yes, it is possible Amber. You'll see that it is."
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
There was another of those harsh barking laughs. "You humans seem to think that pork is the sweetest of all your meats. You look at your world, and how you have gained mastery over it, even to the point of destroying it in war, and still you clap each other on the back, and strut and parade like rulers of the world. You think you know all there is to know. Barbie is the Ideal Woman, Ken, the Ideal Man. You think that Intelligent extraterrestrial life may exist, and if it does, you will meet it someday. You believe that Wendy's will never die, and that McDonalds will eventually. You think, when it comes to meat, that pork is the sweetest meat you eat, but it isn't. There is a sweeter meat, and unfortunately, very few people ever acquire a taste for it.
"There are people in Africa who have discovered it. Hell, there were people at a party I wish I could have been at that discovered the thrill. The Donner Party I believe that one was called.
"And I see you're beginning to get it now. Pork, my dear, is not the sweetest meat there is. Human flesh is ever so much tastier. And you know what really sweetens the pot? Fear. the hormones your body secretes when you are in the grip of fear are the best seasoning you could ever add to it. Talk about boil-in-a-bag, eh?" There was another laugh. "That is why I am telling you all this. So you will be frightened. So you will be terrified. So that your body will flood itself with sweetness, making yourself nice and ripe and perfectly seasoned for when I eat you."
The creature seemed to smile at me, and then it leaned back. I knew what was coming now. I had seen cats do it a hundred times. He as preparing to pounce. I took a step back, and bumped against the wall. It sprang at me, just as i threw myself to the side. It dug it's claws into the wall, and then jumped at me again, right off the wall. It's front paws landed on my shoulders, and threw me down. It was the size of a tiger, and probably weighed just as much.
It bared it's teeth at me in a toothsome grin. I punched it in the face, but it didn't even seem to be effected. It's head snapped around, and then back at me, and the grin returned. I had one hand on it's throat, trying to keep it's weight off me, while my other hand struggled for something- anything- to use as a weapon.
It snapped it's jaws at me, barely missing my face. I could feel the brush of it's teeth against my neck. Don't give me that look, I know how it sounds. How could someone like me hold off something the size and shape of a tiger?
Well, I don't know, but I did. I found something small and hard with my searching hand and swung it up crashing it into the creature's face. It howled, and shook it's head, but it wouldn't get off of me. Even in pain, it wouldn't let me up. I struggled beneath it, and gave it a push. It flopped off me, still shaking it's head. I pushed back, and found myself cornered in the closet.
It turned it's head and looked at me. There were shards of glass sticking out of it's face. I glanced down at the floor and saw the broken perfume bottle laying on the floor. It looked up at me, and growled. "Not for a long time, human. Not for a very long time has any HUMAN hurt me in battle. Sposky, they call me where I come from. It means "The Destroyer." I am called that because I have never lost, and I will NOT. START. NOW.
"I will kill you. Do you understand?" It's voice seemed to be rising in anger, and maleficence. He rose up on his hind legs. The sight was terrifying.
"You will not survive. I will destroy you. I will destroy all of you. You won't live through the day. I swear it!"
It began to pound on the walls, shaking everything. Flakes of plaster were falling off the walls. Through it all, somewhere back in my mind, I was wondering why It wasn't attacking me instead of just boasting. Why wasn't it?
What was holding it back?Then, it came down on all fours, and looked back at me again. This time, it was going to kill me. I looked all around the floor, but there was nothing on the floor to assist me. It approached...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She didn't finish. She had broken down into a fit of sobbing, and weeping, Nathan was holding her, telling her it would be alright. She was safe now. He looked up at us. I glanced at Tara, and Patrick. Their faces were white as chalk. Had been ever since Amber first mentioned the creature.
Nathan noticed it too. "What's wrong? Why do you all look like that?"
I looked at Tara, and then at Patrick. They were waiting for me to reply. "Well... it's this tape player I found. It has a rather unsettling account of the same creature Amber might have been talking about."
Amber, who had almost gotten control of herself again, broke out into fresh tears. "Can I hear it?" Nathan asked.
"Yes," I replied, "but later. Please, continue the tale. the hour groweth late." It wasn't really, the sun was just as bright as it had been.
"Oh, well," interjected Amy, "I guess mine is the next story to tell then."
2. Amy's Tale
Well, like the rest of you, I was heading to California, but not because my grandmother was dying, or because I had a college to go to. I was going for a more festive reason.
Two of the friends that I knew when I lived there, a long time ago, are getting married.
Well, at least, were getting married. We don't really know what the situation on the outside is like do we? No one might exist out there.
Anyway, Mitch and Windy had known each other for almost four years. Theirs was an on again, off again relationship. They were together for three years, and they got engaged. Something happened, even now, I'm not sure what, and they broke up totally. Weren't even a couple anymore.
A year later, they got back together, and got engaged again, and now, they're getting married. For real this time.
They were two of my closest friends when I lived there, and it really is great seeing them get together.
I'm getting off the point aren't I? I was on the train, and at about four-thirty, I called them on my cell phone-
["You have a cell phone?" Patrick demanded. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"]
Because I had already tried to use it, as you'll see in a minute. Now be quiet so I can finish my story. As Greggy there said, the hour groweth late.
[I opened my mouth to tell her not to call me Greggy, but then shut it as she continued]
Where was I? Oh yeah. I called them on my cell phone, and she picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey there," I said back. "It's Amy."
"Hey, how're you?"
"I'm doing good. I'm on the train right now heading out to California."
"Really? Cool."
"Yep. Hey, you got anyone out there that could come pick me up from the station? I'll be coming in to Fremont."
"Hmmmm. I would come pick you up, but I'm swamped with the wedding. Can you believe this? The stupid chef thought that this was a bar mitzvah or something. I had to get the entire cake redone! he didn't even apologize!"
"Yeah, that does suck. So, you can't get anyone to come pick me up?"
"Well, I didn't say that. Have you tried calling Adam?"
"Adam?"
"Barfield."
"Adam Barfield? Are you serious?" One of things you have to understand, is that Adam was one of our friends back in high school, but he was one of the ummm... more eccentric, shall we say? individuals. He was younger then most of us, but he was in the same grade.
That made him a little arrogant. Still, he was one of our friends. "Yeah. He would pick me up."
She laughed lightly on the other end of the line. "He would jump off a bridge if you asked him to."
"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm afraid that if I asked him to come pick me up, he would annoy me so much I would ask him to jump off a bridge."
"Awww, what a mean thing to say to your true love..."
"He's not my true love. I never liked him, and you know it!"
"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm just playing with you. I swear, you need to switch to decaf or something. Seriously though, if you want a ride, Adam will give you one. I'd bet my... well.. bet my maid of honor on it. Which I am, if you decide to ask him."
"I'll think about it," I replied.
"Yeah, just make sure you do it, otherwise-" Her voice suddenly dropped off, and I heard a clunking sound.
"Hello? Hello? Windy?"
No reply. "Windy?"
I hung up the phone, then redialed the number, but got only a busy signal. I hung up, redialed, got another busy signal. This was getting me nowhere. I stared at my phone for a few minutes, almost dialed again, thought better of it, and put it back down. Why had she left? Where did she go?
I think we know why she left. I think we've figured that all out, but where did she go? We may never know the answer to that one.
Well, I didn't really have a whole lot to do at that point, so I laid down on my bed, and took a nap.
I woke up about fifteen minutes later from a strange dream. I had dreamt that Windy and Adam had run off together. That the strange clunking noise was the car door closing, and that the had run off together to be married on some strange forgotten island.
Everthing was gong smoothly, and then I heard a scream. it shattered my dream, and pulled me back to the world. I listened for a second, and heard another scream, this one a bit quieter.
It was scary. Why would someone scream? I laid on my bed, listening, hopoing that there wouldn't be any other sounds. Then, there were. there was the stealthy creep of foot steps outside my door. [At the mention of this, Nathan paled for a bit, and Amy looked at him.]
Are you alright?
["Yeah, I'm alright, just.. something that I'll tell you about when I get to my tale."]
Okay.
Footsteps outside my door. Right. I looked at my door, but didn't see anyone pass by the translucent window. I got up, and slowly moved over to the door. I tried to look through the window, but couldn't make anything out. Then, through the wall next to my room, I heard a knocking, then a door opening.
Someone, or something was going through the rooms.
I stepped back, and looked for a place to hide. This might be the person who had caused that scream I heard earlier. Some sort of terrorist or something. I stepped back into the bathroom, and closed the door to just a crack.
The knock came at my door. I watched as the door swung open, and a man stepped inside. He looked around, then scratched his head. I opened the door.
"Hello." I said. "Can I help you?"
He spun around faster then you would think was possible, and stared at me.
"What are... How..." He blinked. "Who are you?"
"My name is Amy Dewitt. Who are you?"
"Who is it Nathan?" a voice outside asked. He turned back to the door.
"A person. Another person, thank God."
A girl stepped through the door at same time that I asked, "What do you mean another person? There are alot of people on this train."
"Not anymore." Nathan said.
"What?"
"The people, except, so far, for us, have disappeared."
"They've what?"
"Vanished."
"How?"
"We- me and Amber- we don't know yet." A sudden thought struck me. Did Windy vanish too? Is that what happened to her?
Is it eventually gong to happen to all of us?
"-ind other people?"
I blinked, and refocused on Nathan and Amber. "Uhh, what?"
"Do you want to come wth us and see if we can't find any other people? Amber here has already had a run in with some sort of... monster, and I think there would be safety in numbers."
"Monster?"
Amber nodded slowly, and then told me this.
The monster, Sposky, grinned ferally and as it crossed the threshhold, Amber kicked a foot out. The creature watched it fly past and connect with the wall on the other side, barely moving to avoid her foot. It looked at her and grinned it's toothy grin again.
"You missed," It informed her. She looked it in the eyes.
"No. I didn't," she said, and slammed the sliding door of the closet with her foot, it's head still in the opening. It let out a shriek of rage, and tried to pull his head back out.
She opened the door, intending to slam it on it again, and again if nessecary, but as soon as the door was open, it pulled it's head out, and disappeared.
She slammed the door shut anyway, and stayed there. Every noise in the dark, every sound outside my door, was the creature come back to kill her. She didn't know how long she crouched in the corner of that dark closet, the only company her thoughts, and that not very good company. The main thought she had was "Talk about boil-in-a-bag, eh?" and she thought that after not much more then that, she would go insane.
Then, after what seemed an eternity, she heard the door bang against something, and the sound of crunching footsteps. She screamed.
[She stopped for a minute, and Tara asked her to go on.]
No, I don't think the rest of that is my tale. I think that's Nathan's. After all, he was the one who rescued her. Amber finished her tale, and Nathan told his.
I told them everything that had happened to me so far, and they asked me again if I was going to help them.
I nodded. "Yeah, I think we'd better stick together. Lead on, O' Fearless."
So Nathan led us on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She quieted, and then said, "Well, that's my story for the evening. Nathan, I think you had better go next. These people are going to want blood in a minute. Especially if you don't tell what happened with Amber."
Nathan nodded and smiled. "Very well put. Particulary appropos pun, considering the nature of Sposky."
"The creature really does exist?" Patrick asked.
The four nodded soberly. "It really does," Nathan said, and if you need proof, I'll give it as soon as we're done here."
"What proof do you have?" Tara asked skeptically.
"You'll see. Now, let me tell my tale."
3. Nathan's Tale
I had been settled into my cabin for about two hours, and I was setting up my computer to do some work when there was a knock on my door. I walked over and opened it. There was a lady on the other end, asking me if I had heard her child run down the hall.
She was afraid he had run up to the engineer's station to see all the dials and such, but wasn't sure. I told her that I didn't hear anything outside, and that if I did hear a child running loose, I would be sure to halt his progress
and return him immediately. She smiled, and thanked me, but said that wouldn't be nessecary. Then she left, without even saying good day.
I watched her to see what room she went back to, and then stepped back inside. Well, I closed my door, and sat down at my computer, and began to work.
I worked for pretty close to half an hour, and gotten more then half the work I had to do done, so I got up to get something to eat from the meal car.
As I stepped out of my room, I tripped over something, and fell against a door. The door banged open, and I fell inside the room. I got up, already muttering an apology to whoever was inside the room, except, no one was.
The room was empty. I got up, and looked around, but there was no one there. I looked back into the hall, and saw what I had tripped over. It was a
shoe.
[He paused as Amber looked at him. "There was nothing in the hall when I looked that first time. I mean nothing. There were no shoes on the floor. So where did the shoe you tripped on come from?" she asked him.
[Nathan had no response, but to continue his tale.]
Boy, it takes a special kind of stupid to trip over a shoe, you know.
Shut up.
I picked up the shoe, and looked up and down the car, but no one was in sight.
"Hello?" I called. There was no reply.
"Hello?" A little louder this time, but still no reply. I walked over to the room I had seen the lady go inside, and knocked on the door. No one answered. I tried the knob, found it unlocked, and went inside.
Inside, there was the loveseat, the bed, an endtable, and nothing else. I looked inside the closet and saw a couple of suitcases, but that was about it. I looked inside the suitcases, but there was nothing of interest there. Just a change of clothes, and a toothbrush in each. I put them back, and then looked out the window. I might have missed something, but I didn't hear a little kid running anywhere, so I don't see how I could have.
I stepped back outside, and looked up and down the hall. No doors were open. No one was moving up and down the hall, as had been the norm for the first few hours of the trip, and that seemed odd to me. Or maybe it was normal train procedure. I don't know. I've never been on a train before today, and you can bet after what all I've seen, I won't be ever again.
I'll get to that soon enough though. Or maybe someone else will. I don't know if that part is my tale to tell.
Anyway, I went back into my room, and closed the door most of the way, but kept it open, just in case someone decided to pass by outside. I sat back down at my computer, and pulled up a solitaire game. Something easy, that didn't require much thinking, so I could divert attention from it to the sounds outside in case anyone passed.
For ten minutes, nothing happened. Then, I heard something. I wasn't sure what it was then, but after I found Amber, I knew. I knew beyond a doubt.
[Amber was again cringing against Nathan's shoulder, and he was holding her protectively, telling her it would be all right, it was over]
It was a strange kind of footstep. It was like someone walking down the hall, trying not to make any noise, and not wearing any shoes. I walked over to the door, and listened, but heard no sound. Whatever it was, had stopped. I stood beside the door for almsot an eternity listening, but not hearing anything.
I turned and went back to my game, and it started up again. A stealthy kind of... thup, thup, thup, as whoever it was walked up the hall. I stepped over to the door again, and opened it, looking out.
There was no one either up or down the hall. It was as quiet as a church. Or, now that I think about it, a graveyard.
I walked into the hall, and called out. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
There was a thumping noise behind one of the doors. I walked
over to it, and listened. Thump. Thump. THUMP.
I opened the door, and looked inside. The window, you know, one of those slide back deals, was open. It was loose, and the wind made by the movement of the train was causing it to bump against the other pane of glass. I took hold of it, and tried to slide it back into place.
There was something wrong with it. It wouldn't fit and close properly. I tried to push it in, and then I saw that the metal had been bent out of joint, and part of the frame had been torn open. I looked at it for a minute, wondering why whoever was in this room would want to destroy the window, but I didn't get an answer.
I looked around the room, but there was nothing there either. Not of any use anyway. I stepped back out, and looked up and down the hall again. All the doors were still closed, and silent. I went back into my room, quite disturbed by something, but not sure what.
I closed up my computer, and put it back into it's bag, then slung it over my back, and decided to go find someone else. I stepped out of the room closing the door behind me, and then walked across the hall to the next room.
I knocked on it, but as you found out, there was almost no one left on the train. The same held true for most of the doors on the first car. Then, I came to Amber's door. I knocked on it, and it just fell right over. Like it had had no support to it.
The smallest gust of wind could have knocked it over. When it hit the floor, there was another sound, this one more disturbing then the last. It was a scream. A high pitched female scream.
My blood froze, and so did I. I stood in the doorway, listening. Not hearing anymore then that one scream as the door banged.
"Hello?" I said, quietly.
There was another scream, this one, undoubtedly of relief, and a small female shape darted out of the closet at me. All I caught was a glimpse of the brown hair, and terrified eyes, and then she was one me, hugging me fiercely as if I had saved her from some sort of Stephen King monster or something. Come to think of it, that may not be far off.
She held onto me like we had both fallen out of an airplane, and I was the one with a parachute. I hugged her, and tried to calm her, but she was hysterical. She just kept repeating the same word over and over and over.
"Sposky... Sposky, Sposky... I'm scared of Sposky!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nathan stopped then, and looked at us.
"Go, on," Patrick said. "What happened after that?"
"After that? Not much. I calmed her down, got her thinking rationally, and then asked her about what had happened. After that, we went out of her room, and decided to see if anyone else had seen the creature. we went door to door, but at each one, we got no response. There was no one in any of the rooms. We continued to search though, more to find someone else, and be sure there was someone other then us on the train. As Amy said, we found her, and then we three left together to finish searching."
Nathan fell silent, and we all turned to look at Kristi.
"Do I have to finish the story? I would really rather not relive it. That beast was too much. Please don't."
Nathan smiled encouragingly. "We're all here. We all went through it. If you find you can't finish it, one of us will, okay? Please tell your story?"
She sighed, then began to relate the last of the evenings tales.
4. Kristi's Tale
I'm here by myself now. I wasn't always. Earlier today, there was someone else on the train with me. My best friend was with me. She and I were traveling across the country to... ummm... see a friend. I won't explain any more then that because it's kind of personal.
So, we were traveling to Cali to meet this guy, and we were discussing what things would be like once we got there.
I showed her the piece of paper I had in my hands, and she nodded.
"What about it?"
"Do you think it's really him?"
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well, you know those urban legends... people from the internet meet, and it turns out the nineteen year old girl is actually a sixty-five year old guy, and the kid is never seen or heard from again." She shivered. "I don't know if I want to go through that."
I laughed. "You don't know? I know for sure I wouldn't want to go through with it. I mean, never heard from again? What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, I just don't think-"
"And that my dear is your problem. Now, calm down, because I have talked to him on the phone. I have talked to his family on the phone. I have talked to everyone on the phone, and on the 'net. Things will be fine, I guarantee."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Only fools are positive."
I felt surprise at that. I never took her for one to make a joke like that. She grinned, aparently satisfied in some primal way that she had surprised me.
I sat down on the couch, and pulled out an envelope. One that had a return address of San Mateo, California. I pulled out the piece of paper that was folded up inside and read it over quickly. it was a letter from him to us, detailing where we were to meet him, and when. It was all perfectly straightforward, and the writing looked natural enough.
The letter slipped outof my fingers as I stood up, and I bent and picked it up. When I was standing again, I held it out to her, but... but..
She was gone. Totally, and completely gone. I looked in the bathroom, and in the closet, but she had disappeared. I hadn't heard the door open, or anything. She had just vanished straight into thin air.
"Jenni? Jenni! Where are you?" As you all know, there was no reply. I stepped out of the room, looking for her, and wandered up to the front of the train. I glanced in several open doors as I passed them, but they were all empty.
When I got to the ront, the door to the Engineer's place was locked. I knocked, but there was no reply. I looked in the window, and what I saw, was one of the scariest things I had ever seen.
That was when I heard a scream coming from far away. I froze, and felt a chill work it's way through my body. I shivered, and turned around slowly. There was nothing there, but something had screamed. I stepped away from the door to the engineer's compartment, and walked down the hall.
There was a second scream, from closer this time, inside one of the doors on the left side, and it was so brief, and cut off so quickly, I was sure something had died.
I fled down to my room in the second car, and waited, listening. I didn't hear anything, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything out there. I slowly cracked open the door, and looked out, but there was nothing there. I stepped outside, every nerve tuned in to hear anything, and I heard nothing. I left my door open, and walked across the hall to the door on the opposite side. I knocked on it, hoping for a reply, but got none. I tried the handle, found it unlocked and opened the door.
That was when the rattling at the door to the first car caught my attention.
My head jerked up, and I looked at the door, watching the handle turn. I threw myself inside and closed the door behind me. I laid against the wall on the hinge side of the door and waited for something to happen.
I heard the door open, and I heard it close again. It was in the car with me. at the front of the hall, I heard doors being knocked on. One door, then two. Three. Four. They were dong a methodical search of the train, seaching every room, which meant that whoever was doing whatever was happening would search my room, and then this one.
Or maybe they'll come to this one first, I thought. The door across from me was open, they- no, not they, It- would just have to glance inside to see it was empty, and then, on to this one.
The door across the hall- my door- closed, and then there was the sound of footsteps, and a muffled voice. There was a knock at the door. veyr loud in the silence, and though I knew it was coming, I had to bite my hand to keep from screaming.
There was another knock, and a call of "Hello?"
I felt the urge to scream die down. The voice sounded familiar. I jumped up and grabbed the handle just as the door opened.
I dashed outside, half-expecting to see Jenni out here, but it wasn't. I ran straight into Nathan, who fell back, yelling. There was another scream, loud, right next to my ear, and then another, farther back.
There were voices yelling something, and hands grabbing my shoulders. I rolled away, and stood up, looking at them. The stared back. Amber had been the one screaming, Amy had been trying to calm her down. Nathan was trying to calm me down. We were all semi-hysterical.
We all got sort of calmed down, and Nathan asked me my name, and what had happened. I told him in short, broken sentences, but as I calmed down, it came out more and more clearly.
After that, we decided to stick together. Amber and Amy were both looking to Nathan as their leader, and I guess I just followed their lead, waiting for him to decide what we do next. He rubbed a hand across his mouth, and looked both ways.
"I... I guess the first thing we should do is try and figure out if there's anyone still driving the train."
"No," I said. "That would be a waste of time. I've already been up that way. There's no one there."
"You've been up that way? Then why didn't we see or here you?"
I shrugged, and told them briefly about my trip up to the engineer's station, then they told their tales. I asked if Amy's cell phone still worked, and she replied that everyone she tried to call didn't answer.
I found that disturbing, especially considering what had happened to Jenni, but didn't say anything.
We got up, and were just about to head into the meal car, when there was a noise behind us. A thump reverberated up and down the hall, and we turned all together. A door had come open, and was thumping against the wall, but that wasn't what grabbed my attention. What grabbed my attention was the fact that the door had not been knocked open by the vibrating of the train on the rails, or by the wind blowing against it. The door had been opened by some soret of creature, a creature that was now... walking is too kind a word. It was stalking. This creature came stalking out of the door, and faced us down the hall. There were shards of glass stuck in it's muzzle, and there was some sort of ugly bruise on the side of it's face, and little drops of blood hanging off of it's whiskers, but other then that, it looked ready to kill.
It grinned a feral kind of grin and spoke. That chilled me, that this kind of creature could speak. To me, that proved it wasn't created by any kind loving God. This was a beast from the pit of hell. And it was loose on our train.
"Ahhh, a buffet." It said. Amber cringed back behind Nathan, holding onto his shirt. Nathan stood his ground, but his legs were shaking. Amy was behind me, I couldn't see her reaction, but I know I was paralyzed.
It took a couple of steps forward. "Hello Kristi," it said. Let me tell you something I bet you didn't know about Jenni. She has a scar high up on her left arm, almost in her arm pit. t was put there by her father, who, in a drunken rage, burned her with his cigarette when she came home five minutes late from a date.
"Did you know that that scar still smelled and tasted like cigarette? I never did like that taste much, but the rest of her was more then enough to make up for the bad taste of the scar. She was delicious." It licked it's lips
"Nathan. Your story is progressing quite nicely. Too bad you won't ever become anything more then a hack writer for an underground magazine.
"Amy. Who's walking down the streets of the city talking to everybody she meets? Who's looking up to be murdered by me? Everyone knows its Windy." It sung in a sick parody of the the song with those lyrics. It's green eyes shifted to Amber.
"Amber. My dear sweet close friend. Talk about boil-in-a-bag eh?" Amber screwed her eyes shut, and tucked her head against Nathan's back.
"Four travelers on a deserted train. I got all the rest of you. I will get you also. You can't escape me."
Nathan curled his hands into fists and brought them up, taking a few shaky steps forward.
"Then come and get us."
The creature grinned it's feral grin again. "No. I won't. You are too strong. When you meet up with the rest, then I will, but not until then." It stood there, watching, waiting.
Nathan turned to us, and spoke. "If it's right, and we're too strong for it to attack us, why don't we attack him?" Amber looked at him with wild frightened eyes, and Amy shook her head, eyes locked on the creature. I was still too emotionally spent to speak. his idea was met with complete silence, and he turned back to look at the creature.
It was gone.
"Where'd he go?" Nathan asked. He looked at Amy, whose eyes had never left the creature.
She blinked, and then turned her head, as if looking at him in a strange way. As if he were some sort of bug. "I... I don't know. One minute he was there, the next, I was aware I as looking at nothing. It... I don't know. I.."
She shook her head.
Nathan rubbed his eyes. "Alright," said he, "let's just get moving. Maybe there will be someone in the meal car. The creature did imply there were others, but..." his voice faded out.
"But what?" Amber asked.
"They're supposed to make us weaker, whatever that means. I would like to know just what the heck is going on."
We all nodded in agreement wth this statement.
"There's only one way, as far as I know that we can figure that out. That's to find all the rest of the people, and piece the story together, and hope they have some insights. Come on, let's go."
We turned, and Nathan opened the door to the meal car, and...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The rest, as they say, is history." Kristi finished. She looked at us, and we at her.
Tara and Patrick were watching her with fascination. Amber, Nathan, and Amy simply looked tired. It wasn't anything in the way they were sitting. It was in their eyes.
Silence fell, and for a while, no one spoke. After a few minutes, Tara did.
"So, what do we do now?"
This was greeted with some considering looks.
"That's a good question," Patrick said. "What can we do? We can't search the rest of the train, if you've already done that."
"Well, we could," I replied. "Just because they foudn each other doesn't mean that there isn't someone else left."
"I don't think we should," Tara said. "I mean-"
Nathan stood up, and threw his arms straight out. "Can we please quit jabbering and find some course of action to continue on? We're burning daylight, and we need to figure out-"
"No we're not," Patrick said. Nathan froze, mouth partly open. His head shifted around to look at him.
"What?"
"We're not buring daylight."
"What are you talking about old man?"
"Hey!" Tara snapped. "Don't insult him. He's just making a point!"
Patrick held out a hand and made a patting gesture. Calm down, calm down. "Now, if you'll listen, look at your wrist. You don't have a watch on. Neither does Amy, or Amber or Kristi. None of us do either. How do you rectify that wth burning daylight?"
"I don't have to. ust because we all don't have watches doesn't mean that daylight is being spent."
"No, it doesn't. but look at the sun. It hasn't moved since we came in here. It's just as strong as it was when our group first came in here. There is no daylight being burned here."
"That's crazy. There's no way that the sun could have stopped moving. The only time that has happened is in the Bible. Book of Joshua. That was a direct divine intervention. That sort of thing doesn't happen anymore."
"You a Christian?" Patrick asked. Nathan nodded.
"Interesting. Something else to consider. I myself am an agnostic. I believe there's a God, but I think He created us, and then left us to our own devices. A Divine Comedy, if you will. What about you Tara?"
"I'm a Catholic." Patrick nodded, and looked at me.
"Methodist," I replied. He looked to Amber, then Amy, then Kristi.
"I'm an atheist."
"Jewish."
"Baptist."
Patrick nodded. "So, let's see what we've eliminated here. We know that we're the only survivors, but we don't know why. We know it has nothing to do with age. I'm 37 years old, and Amber there doesn't look a day past eighteen. So, we can safely eliminate an age factor. It has nothing to do with religion. If it did. there would be one predominant denomination here, but there isn't.
"It doesn't have to do with what we were doing at the time of the disappearances, because we were all doing different things. So, why were we left and everyone else taken?"
No one replied. I knew I couldn't think of a reason.
Kristi shivered. "I would... I would say it was the Rapture, or something like that, but if it was, wouldn't one of us the Christian persuasion have been taken to? I guess we can eliminate that as well." Patrick nodded.
Nathan drew in a deep breath and let it out. "As interesting as this conversation is, I think we need to decide on a course of action. God knows when that monster is going to be back in here."
"Well, it more then likely wouldn't do any good to search the other end of the train if you've already done that. And we can't... Wait a sec. Can we get into the engineers cabin? Is there anyway to do that?"
"I don't know," Nathan said. "We could try. I think we should. I mean, the train isn't gong to stop itself. Eventually, it has to run into something. The end of the line, or another train, but definately something. We need to get up there and stop the train, and then we can figure out what's going on, and how we can change it."
"The locked door." They all turned to look at me. "We need to go back to the locked door. There's something important behind there. Something on which this all hinges. I'd bet my life on it. I mean, what else could that weird rippling be? Some sort of defense mechanism is my guess. However the hell it works, it stopped me and Tara from getting in. But with seven of us, one of us has to get through."
"What if it kills all of us?" Nathan countered. "What if we try to get inside, and then it kills us all? Then we'll never know what happened. Maybe that's what happened to all the people. Some sort of ripply thing going from room to room, devouring all the people alive, right out of their rooms, and then moving on. What if what you saw was like the essence of the creature, and the beast form is how it scares people into not moving or something?"
"It can't be. It has to be some sort of defense thing. Or warning device or something. The creature was on your end of the train the whole time, remember? As far as we know, it hasn't been on our side of the train at all."
"That doesn't mean it couldn't be. Remember the tape? The monster can run extremely fast, and it's extremely strong. After everything that happened with Amber, and the fight she put it through, and it's still strong enough to not be slowed down. Do you really want to run the risk of meeting up with it?"
I was beginning to grow exasperated. "Listen Nate, as of this moment, I have not run across this thing, and you have. Twice your group has come across. All on that side of the train. Do you want to head back that way where all the confirmed sightings have been?"
Nathan who had sat down during the previous conversation, stood back up again. "Well, what good would going to the back of the train do? There's no way off there, and at least going to the front of the train we could get control of it!"
"I wasn't talking about going to the back of the train. I just wanted to go open the locked door. There might be someone or soemthing behind there that can shed some light on the subject."
"That could be where the monster came from! Isn't that clicking? I mean, think about it. You try to open the door, and it runs you off. Sounds like it wants you to stay away because there's something dangerous there. Think about it Gregg!"
It hasn't occured to me until now that we were all making the same assumption about the locked door- that the rolling wave occured when we tried to open it- and even though it made sense, it wasn't right. It just clicked with me now. I wish I had noticed it then.
"That's not the point. Why are you being so stubborn?"
"I'm not being stubborn. You're the one being pig headed!"
We had begun to move toward each other and we were now very close- nearly yelling in each other's face.
"I am not being pig headed!" I accented this last by pushing him back out of my face. He leapt forward and tried to tackle me. I stepped aside, and he made an awkward half turn, grabbing for me. He stumbled, caught me around the ankles, and we fell, twisting into a heap on the floor.
He grabbed my shirt, and raised his fist and brought it down. I swung my forearm and blocked his blow, bring my own up to hit him. He blocked with his forearm, and tried to punch me again. His fist came up, and that was when Amber let out a piercing shriek.
We froze, and looked up. There was nothing to be shrieking about, but everyone's eyes were now riveted on the door on the dor on the far side.
We each stood up, and wondered what they were looking at.
then, we heard it. There was a scratching sound at the door. Then a a pounding. A very loud powerful pounding.
It reverberated, and then came again. BOOM. Again and again the blows fell against the door, and still it held. Then, with a singularly power blow, the door began to splinter.
The rain of pounding continued, and the door split even more. I could see some movement behind the door now, something showing through the cracks. Something black.
Boom. Boom. BOOM.
The door split, and fell over, and for a moment, in the dust and haze that fell with it, I couldn't see what was in the doorway.
Then I could see. I could see all too clearly.
There in the doorway, like something from nightmare, slinking like a tiger in an Indian jungle, was the living creature that had claimed to kill every human that had come against it.
Sposky the Destroyer, coming to dinner.
"Ahhh, all together are we? Good."
I stepped forward, and so did Nathan, and Patrick. I heard a voice in my head. A narrator's voice, froma nature show. The males of the species step forward to protect the females, even at the cost of their own-
No, don't think about that.
"Where are all the people?" I demanded.
"People? Other then you? Gone. They just floated away to whatever dreams may come."
"What are you talking about?" Patrick asked.
"Why, th esolution to your problem of course. You know it as well as I do. Now, stop all this talk, I'm hungry."
It launched itself forward, moving with frightening speed, directly toward Nathan. It jumped, caught him in the chest, and threw him to the ground. A small projectile came out of nowhere and bounced off Sposky's ear. the creature let out a howl, and then turned it's head with now red eyes to Kristi.
"You'll be next." It said. At that moment of distraction, Nathan punched the creature in the neck, catching it off guard, and getting it halfway off his body. The creature let out a barking cough, then swiped a paw at Nathan almost carelessly. His head bounced a bit more then Sposky's did, then came back. He swung up again, and instead of goign for the neck, wet for a more vulnerable spot. His thumb pushed it's way into Sposky's eye, and pressed inward and to the side.
All that happened in three seconds. In the next three, I came out of my paralysis and leapt at the side of the creature. I hit him in the flank, and knocked him off Nate. the creature rolled and roared, and then stood up shakily. Some sort of goopy white substance was dripping out of it's eye. Nathan got up slowly. The creature looked at us, closed it's eye.
Something behind the eyelid began to move. We could see the bulges as it moved against the eyelid, like some vile sort of pregnancy. When the creature opened it's eye, it was whole again.
It reared back, and then sprang, at Patrick this time, and somethign else went flying through the air. I could see it was a saucer of some sort, and it caught Sposky in the side. It couldn't have been a very hard throw, but then it was enough to knock Sposky off course. Instead of the paws ripping through Patricks neck, they simply ripped through his right shoulder, sending gouts of blood out.
Patrick screamed, and fell back, and the creature descended. I ran and kicked
(That's no good the creature will just heal itself even if you do manage to break something and stop it's advance momentarily there's only one thing you can do)
the creature right in the ribs. He fell of to the side, and then leapt at me. I threw myself backward, and kicked my foot up on instinct, catching it in the stomach and hurling it back behind me. I didn't see where it landed, but I heard it crash into a table, and that's when I got the idea.
It's an insane idea. You know that. I mean, the thing can heal itself. You won't be able to beat it. It's invincible.
Maybe I can't permanently hurt it, but as was previously proven, if you hurt it enough, it runs. That means it has to have a weakness. We just don't know what.
But what you're thinking, surely it's already been tried.
Perhaps.
All those thoughts went through my head in half a second, and in the next, I was calling for Nate.
"Nathan! I have an idea, but I'll need you to distract the creature so I can- crap!"
I dived left as the creature jumped at me again. I looked to whwere I had last seen Nathan, but he wasn't there anymore. Where had he gone?
The creature was advancing toward the girls, and I'd be damned before I let them come to harm.
I got up and moved toward the creature just as a "Yee-haaaaah!" ripped through the air. it was probably the most incongruous thing that had happened to me so far. Nathan landed on the creatures back, and locked his ribs around the creatures rib cage. He leaned forward and grabbed th eneck, and held it fiercely.
"Go Gregg! Whatever you're planning, do it now!"
"Right!" I spared a glance for Patrick, who was being attended by Tara and Amy, both fo them witha generous amount of blood on them trying to stop the flow,a dn then I ran to the table that SPosky had crashe dinto earlier.
Nathan continued to ride the beast like some sort of demented rodeo; Amber and Kristi were moving away from the action whereever it happened to move to; Patrick was trying not to move; Tara and Amy were trying to stop the flow, and I... well, I was working on a way to get the creature to leave us alone.
I knelt by the remains of the table, and looked around. "Come on come on, where is it? There's always one in the movies!"
This isn't the mov-
SHUT UP!
No response from that inner voice.
Thank you.
Nothing. Tme to make this like the movies. I grabbed one of the table legs, and looked at it. It might do. Especially since I had to improvise. No really long splinters of table wood like I had hoped. I always hated improvising.
"Nathan! Get it over here!"
"Yeah, I'll just lead it docilely toward you. It doesn't come with a saddle and reins, you idiot!"
I half walked, half ran to where Nathan was trying to stay on top of things (if I may be permitted a small Bon mot), but already I could tell he was losing his grip.
I glanced at Patrick again, Tara and Amy were now almost crimson, and they still hadn't managed to stop the bleeding. The wound must be worse then I thought it had been.
"Nathan! Let go of it!"
"Are you sure?"
"No! Now do it!"
he let go just as the creature bucked, and he was thrown clear. I didn't see where he landed. Amber did though, and she screamed. it was a white hot scream, that almost perfectly accented what I was about to do. I pulled the table leg up, and, in the second that Nathan was thrown off, brought it down with all my might on Sposky's head.
There was an almost hollow bonk sound, and the vibration traveled up my arms, the way it does when you hit the ball too close to the handle in a baseball game, then I felt something give way with a sliding ratching sound. the creature collapsed.
I pulled the table leg up, and brought it down on it's head again. there was anothe rsickening crunch, then I tossed the leg away. I staggered away from the body, stood in front of the door leading to the front of the train, and threw up.
Amber was still screaming, and looking at something. I tunred my head slowly, like something in a dream, and there was Nathan.
I had been. Apparently, there had been some splinters in the table wreckage sharp enough to kill. Nathan was impaled on three of them. He wasn't breathing.
I pulled a table cloth off the table, spilling most of what was on the table to the floor, (biting my tongue to keep from laughing hysterically at the thought thatjust passed through my mind- boy, someone's going to have hell of a time cleaning that mess up) and covered Nathan with it.
I turned and looked at everyone else. "Are we all okay?"
Amber didn't respond, but Kristi that they both were. Tara and Amy looked alright. Patrick didn't.
Tara looked up, her face ghostly. "Patrick... I think he's... He's... you know... also."
I walked over, and checked his pulse. Or lack of one, as the case may be.
I looked back at the beast. It still had a crushed head. Though there were small bumps and bulges moving under the skin. It was beginning to heal. revulsion welled up in me. God, will this never end?
"C'mon," I said. "We gotta get outa here."
"To where?" Kristi asked.
"There's only one place we can go," Amber said suddenly. We all turned to look at her.
"Where?" I asked.
"We have to go to the locked door."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. It feels right. It feels... like what's supposed to happen."
"Okay, then, let's go," Tara said.
"Wait a sec," I told them. I walked over to Nathan's carrying case, and grabbed his computer.
"What are you doing?"
"Did you ever read the diary of Anne Frank?"
"No..."
"Well, it chronicles the story of a Jewish family during the holocaust. Anne didn't survive it. I want to create something like that. Now c'mon. Let's go, but we're going to take a rest on the other side of that door, so I can do some writing."
"What about Sposky?"
"We'll lock the door, or think of something. Now c'mon, let's go. through the door."
The girls all stepped through, and I followed, taking one last look at the beast. the bulges and lumps were moving quicker now.
I looked back at the girls. "Just a sec," I said, "be right back."
I stepped back through the door, not at all ahppy about what I was about to do, and picked up the table leg again. I walked over to the beast, and began to smash it's head in again. It didn't move, didn't even make a sound. It was dead as far as we ewere concerned, yet I knew those bulges would probably brign ti back to life given half the chance. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't come back for a while. I had alot of work to do with Nathan's computer, and I needed all the time I could get.
Once I finished with it's head, I moved down the body, feeling bone crush, and blood veins burst. I beat it mercilessly, feeling my anger grow, remembering how Patrick and Nathan and I had stood against it, and how now I was the only left of that group.
I wanted it to die. I wanted it to die slwoly and painfully. I continued ot beat it, and probably would have continued until there was nothing left but some sort of bloody splotch on the floor.
"Gregg, please! For the love of God, stop!"
The voice, even now I'm not sure whose it was broke through the red and black haze that surrounded me, and I looked up. The beast was no longer recognizable. It was a mushy pulp. I dropped the table leg on the body and then walked away.
Strangely, I didn't feel sick, or disgusted or anything like that. I walked away, and didn't look back. I knew though, that if I did, I would have seen lumps and bulges moving under the body, already beginning to restore the beast.
We went through the door, into the fourth car, and took a rest. We had been going strong or what felt like hours, and most of us were exhausted. Tara and Amber sat together on one side of the wall, Kristi and Amy on the other, and I sat leaning against the door. I pulled out Nathan's computer, woke it up, searched for a word processing program, opened AppleWorks, and began to write down everything I could about what had happened.
It occured to me that this was sort of a last will and testament. Something that we could leave behind, and other people would at least know what happened. Sposky was invincible, we all knew it, and eventually, it would kill all of us.
I wrote most of what you have just been reading (whoever "you" are) when there was a sound behind one of the doors. Some sort of thumping, struggling noise, and then a cough, that sounded like a roar dying in somethings throat.
No one else heard it, only me. I decided to keep it to myself, so as not to worry everyone.
The sounds continued though, as I progressed farther and farther into the story, and they are continuing now. I'll try and pick this up again later. Hopefully someone else will if something should happen to me.
My name is Gregg Hynes, if I should not get to write anymore, and life was good to me.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Gregg didn't get to write anymore. Shortly after he finished with that section, there was a tremendous crash as something rammed the door. Kristi and Tara both screamed, and Gregg jumped up, and pushed against hte door, trying to hold it closed.
The door continued to press back at him, and he could hear the slobbering grunts of Sposky as it continually pushed against the door.
"Help," he managed to get out to the rest of the girls. "A little help, please."
Kristi darted forward, and added to Gregg's pushing against the door. It bulged some more, but not as much. They were holding it at bay.
"We can't keep this up forever. Eventually, it will get through. Oh., Gregg, why is this happening?"
Gregg wasn't listening, there was some sort of memory stirring in his mind, something that would help them. The metal and plastic door continued to bulge and bend. It wouldn't hold much longer.
That memory wouldn't come. It had something to do with a mountain range, and something to do with the tape player he had found.
"Kill you!" Sposky yelled from behind the door, clearly audible. Gregg jerked his head around, and looked. There was now a hole in the door, and Sposky's muzzle was pushing into it.
Gregg reached down to his waist, and yanked out his key chain. He flipped open his pocket knife and ran into Sposky's muzzle. There was a howl, and then the muzzle retreated, and the weight was temorarily off the door.
He had almost three seconds to try and remember what he was trying to remember before Sposky renewed it's attack on the door.
Not as enlightening. Mountain range. It wasn't there before. What did all these thoughts bring to him?
Not as enlightening.
"I."
Mountain range.
"WILL.
It wasn't there before? Maybe because it
"KILL YOU!"
wasn't there before?
A discovery, not as enlightening as the tape player. The jump rope!
"Tara!" he gasped, as Sposky pressed forward, almost opening the door.
"The jumprope!" he called to her. "Second room down, on the left, in the next car. Get the jump rope!"
"The... the what?"
"The jumprope! Just get it!"
She looked at him weirdly.
"WILL YOU JUST GET IT?"
She went. The door bounced. It opened, and a paw tipped with claws came though, reaching for anything it could get a hold on. Gregg slashed at it with his knife again, but it didn't go away. He kept slashing at it, and then the arm began to apply leverage.
The door began to open. Where the hell was Tara? The hand began to reach again, and Gregg slashed it again. It felt around, and found Kristi's arm.
"Gregg...!" was all she had time to say before she was focibly yanked back behind the door. The door closed with a thud and a bounce, and then the screams started.
The screams were both on their side, and the other side of the door. Amy and Amber were screaming, as they watched what happened to their friend. Kristi was screaming from behind the other side of the door, and here came Tara, finally, with the jump rope in her hand, but it was too late because Kristi was already gone, so what good would the jump rope do now if Kristi was already gone, and the monster wasn't trying to get through anymore because it had Kristi, and it was killing her and
Gregg shook his head. No. It will still do good. It will keep the mosnter on that side. Kristi was an involuntary sacrifice, but it would keep the monster there until he could finish the job.
He tied the jumprope to the doorknob, and then pulled it across the hall to the other doorknob, and tied it tightly. He prayed it would hold, thinking that it probably wouldn't, but positice thinking was better then no thinking at all.
He tied them off int eh tightest knots he could, and then stood back.
"Okay," he said, let's get over to the locked door, and figure out what's behind it."
"Will that hold?"
"I don't know. We'll have to hope and pray that it does. Come on, don't worry about it for now."
They headed down the car, adn opened the door between this car adn the last one, and then opened the door adn stepped through. They closed and locked the door behind them, thinking that when Sposky decided to come, there wasn't a whole lot they could do.
They stood looking at the the door. The only dor ont eh train that was locked, and tried the doorknob once again.
Stilll locked.
Gregg looked at the girls, two of them covered in blood, one with haunted eyes. "I don't suppose any of you have a bobby pin, do you?"
None of them did.
"All right... ummm, let's see here..." He pulled out his knife, yanked out the screwdriver attachment, and began to dismantle the doorknob.
From the car ahead of them came thumping noises. Sposky was trying to get through.
He didn't hurry, trying to keep his concentration, and finally got it open. He tinkered around inside, and finally got it open. the door swung open.
None of them stepped through though. The door stood open, and they were looking into something that was not the train any longer. It was someone's room, that much was obvious, but it wasn't a room you'd find on a train. It was likea room you'd find in someone's house, and there was someone asleep on the bed, wrapped in a big blue blanket. He was snoring loudly.
Gregg gazed at the scene.
There was a window in the room, but the scenery outside was not moving. It was like this was some sort of doorway (no pun intended) through space to someone's room.
He stepped through, just as a crash alerted him to the door opening in the other car. There was a roar, and then Sposky was coming. there was a crash and a clatter as it ran into the door, the final door between them and it.
As soon as that door was gone, so were they.
Gregg stepped forward, intending to wake him, thinking that two guys and three girls against this beast would be better then one guy and three girls, and as he reached for him...
His hand passed right through him.
Pow. Bang. Boom.
"LET ME IN!"
Gregg swished his hands several times, but with the same result.
"What..." That was all he said, then the though occured to him. Maybe if not by touching him, he could wake up the man by making noise.
"Hey!" he yelled. "Hey! Wake up!" The man in the bed opened his eyes, blinked blearily, and looked at him.
"You gotta help us! There's some sort of monster after us, and we need-"
The enitre world exploded around him, and he knew no more.
[There is the single click of the record button being pushed, and then the voice speaks]
Okay, alright, okay. The date is, uhh... September 1, 1999, and the time is about... ummmm, twelve-thirty in the morning.
I had an interesting dream this morning, and I guess that's what I'll start this off with. I don't exactly remember the dream, but I do remember this guy in it at the very end. He was yelling at me to wake up, and help him with... what was it? Some sort of monster, I think. There was a monster, and he wanted my help to fight it, but somehow or other...
[There is a long pause]
Okay, When I woke up, he was there, in my room, I was actually seeing this guy who had previously only existed in my dream. It was the weirdest thing. I looked at him, and tried to speak, but as soon as I opened my mouth, he was gone. I grabbed my glasses and fumbled them on, but there was no trace of him.
He was totally gone.
I shook my head, and laid back down in the bed. Then, I went downstairs, and got my watch off the couch, and decided to watch one o the movies I had rented. Probably That Thing You Do! since it had less of a language deal then the others did. You know hwo my parents are...
Anyway, I started watching it, and my little sister came down and asked what I was watching....
