The Never Ending Train

14 Indecision

"I'll never understand your passion for trains, haha." I joke.

"They're like a never ending force of steam and metal that helps people all over the place! They can go everywhere, anywhere! And they never stop, just constantly hearing the whistle is enough to remind you how amazing trains are." Denna says bubbly. When she looks at me, I swear there are sparkles in her eyes.

I raise an eyebrow at her, not sharing her excitement or passion for trains at all, but piqued nonetheless. "So what are you working on right now?"

"Studying the rails. Trains should be able to do anything if they were to go literally anywhere. Making them run on water is my first goal." She looks faraway at something, deep in thought.

"Your first goal? That might take you your whole life. What else are you planning on doing?" I ask, dubious.

"Next is to make a train fly." The sparkles return.

I try not to laugh, seeing how strongly she feels about this. But it seems impossible, it is impossible. This girl is talking about things of the sci-fi future, like two hundred years in the future. We don't have the technology to do these kinds of things now.

Denna frowns. "Make fun of me all you want. Just watch, I'm going to make it happen. I've already started designing my train. Hehe."

Although I seriously doubt that a train can run on water or fly, I try my best to be supportive of her. She knows more about trains than I do. Who knows, maybe it is really possible.

"I'm sure it's going to be great."

"The best train ever!" She hops giddily onto the couch next to me. Her face calms down in a split second. I start tilting my head in confusion when she shoots forward and steals a kiss, light and fast, and her face shifts to one of merry and joy again. She bounces off the couch and runs back to the table, continuing to work on her design.

A smile forms on my lips, bright and wide and hurting my cheeks. She looks the happiest when she's doing anything train related. Especially on her own train.

The blissful moment is interrupted by the slamming open of a door. Keeper, a nickname for our friend Willium, rushes through the door to the large, bright living room. On his heels is his cousin, Terri. They're both panting hard.

"News. News. News." Keeper repeats. "News! Guys listen, listen."

"We're listening, spill it."

"The anomaly scientists found in northern Canada, that yea?" Terri says before Keeper can even open his mouth. "It's changed."

"Changed? How?" Denna asks, only half listening.

"It's formed into a sort of dark fog slash mist thing. Scientists don't know if it's safe or not but no one is allowed to go near it. That's not even the weird part. The weird part is that the people closest to it say they feel a sort of gravitational pull coming from the mist." Terri finishes.

"That..doesn't make any sense." I say after a moment.

"I know right! But it's sooo interesting!...Yea?" Terri jumps onto the couch next to me, right where Denna was a minute ago.

"Move." Keeper scoots me over to make room for him. His face was neutral, not really happy or sad or disappointed or expectant or...anything. I frown, that means something is up.

"What else is there?" Keeper starts, shocked I read right through him. "Uh...Uh..." Terri stops moving next to me. I tense, what could it be?

"Well officials in charge of the anomaly sent an official notice for assistance from professionals and students alike who could offer a solution, cause, yknow, yknow, we ain't never dealt with this kinda stuff before." He stops and looks at me. I nod to encourage him to go on. "I suggested Denny's train." He finishes, crossing his arms.