The Never Ending Train

21 Help

I look at Nora with a questioning look on my face. She shrugs.

"The mist formed a few years ago in Northern Canada. It was first labeled an anomaly. At first, you couldn't see it clearly, it was just air that was warped and twisted. Soon, it began to absorb light around it. The black colour formed first, then the gravitational pull, then it started emitting mist. The more light it consumed, the larger it grew. It was about the size of a house when it started to move, a few months after it's discovery. It consumed the person closest to it, a whole football field's distance away. That's when it was labeled a national emergency. Soon, a worldwide problem-"

The van lurches. We slide around for a bit before the van rides smoothly again. "Uh, you do know how to drive, right?" Nora asks Ophelia sarcastically.

"Idiot. It's not me, it's the mist!" She says just as she steps on the pedal and we speed up tremendously. My back hits the back of my seat, the speed making it hard to move. I turn around.

"I can't even see it yet!"

"The bigger it grows, the more gravity it has. Of course you can't see it yet." Angela says like I'm dumb.

"How come you know all of this even though we don't? How come you remember?" Dominic barely gets through his teeth. The pain must be unbearable combined with the force of our speed.

"Hey! Slow down!"I tell Ophelia. She eases off the pedal a fraction of a centimeter.

"I didn't get the memory tampering thing." Angela answers.

"So our memories really were tampered with?"

"Why?"

"Why didn't you get yours removed?"

"Why are only part of our memories gone then?" Our questions start flowing out, unable to hold them back as soon as we have some answers. Angela holds up her hands to silence us.

"I'll tell you! Jesus. Anyways, we couldn't tell the public because the panic resulting from the information will hurt more people than it will save. There was a solution, a woman created a train." She lets it sink in, making sure we know it was the train we just got off. We just got off the solution to the black mist.

"See, the black mist is a wall that travels around the world. It stretches from one pole to another, but it doesn't wrap around the whole world. Meaning as long as we keep moving, we can outrun the mist and still live, that is until the mist is too fast for us to outrun. However, there was nothing in the world that could run on both land and water. That's where the train comes in. It's both a boat and a land vehicle. It's tracks run in a straight line across the entire world, it never ends. Last I heard, another was being built, but I don't know if it was successful."

The car's speed plummets unexpectedly and we all shoot forward in our seats. I faceplant into the headrest of Angela's seat, hurting my head. Kai yelps as the seatbelt almost chokes him but Ophelia clenches her teeth against the pain.

"Okay that's great and all but we're all missing a very vital point!" Nora shouts over everyone else's screams. I hear the sound of the mist in the distance, it's getting closer. "Why! Didn't! You! Stop! US?!?!" Nora shrieks like a banshee. "Now we're all going to die!!"

"I tried!!" Angela fires back.

"You never talked to us once before getting off the train!!" Dominic adds.

"This bitch got in my way!!" She directs her finger at Ophelia.

"Well if you weren't acting so suspicious, then maybe I would have let you through!! You also could have just told me the truth then!" Ophelia shouts from the driver seat, making the van suddenly go unsteady.

"Drive!" Kai orders.

"Ah, I can't deal with this shit right now." Dominic puts the back of his hand on his forehead, trying to ignore us.

"Well at that time I didn't think people would be crazy enough to jump out!! I just thought we would pass the station, everyone would be sad, and that's that."

"You should have told us the truth from the beginning!" Ophelia risks a look back. They keep screaming back and forth. This van is filled with adults acting like teenagers. It's a mess. Everything is falling apart. Speaking of a mess, the van lurches again. Then a tremor and the van is immediately knocked over onto its side. I crash into Nora, slipping around her and landing on the side of the van. I hear more screams from everyone else as we all tumble to the left.

The van has barely settled down when another tremor hits. "Everyone out!!" Me and Nora wait in the back of the van as Angela struggles to climb over Dominic and pull herself out. Then, since Dominic can't pull himself out, me and Nora go on instead.

I go first, maneuvering around the seats and grabbing onto the doorframe. I hoist myself up, struggling against the quakes that are getting worse and worse already. At some point, Dominic's screams stop. We have to check on him when we get him out, the van getting knocked over must have been rough on his injuries. I turn around and look past Dominic to Nora, putting out my hand for her to grab. I pull her out with effort, dragging the both of us off the van when another quake hits.

"Crap, I can't even stand." Ophelia complains once she's out.

"We have to get Dominic out of there. These tremors are getting worse." Nora says as she starts climbing the van to get him out.

The rest of us stay crouched down on the ground, waiting for her to get him. She lifts herself up onto the side of the van, crouching down so as to not get knocked over.

"I see it!" Kai says. He points in the direction we came from, and in the far far distance, I can see a semi translucent wall of dark mist. It will be consuming the entire ground and sky soon.

"Hurry!" I tell Nora. I look back at her, and she's still crouching in place, just looking into the van.

"Do you need help?" Angela asks.

"Not anymore." Nora says, her voice void of emotion.

"Nora?" I ask, suddenly worried. "What's wrong?"

"Yea, we could have used your help the moment we came to. We could have used your help with every obstacle we have faced since waking up on that damn train. But NO! I don't need help anymore! And neither does Dominic!" Nora shouts, finally facing us. Tears are streaming down her face, and her face is twisted into one of agony.

All of us realize what she's talking about at the same time. Dominic is gone.

Angela doesn't say anything, but at least she's looking at Nora. She looks like she has regrets.

"We need to move." Kai says, quietly.

"Move?! Move where? There's nowhere left for us to go!! We're on a road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by grass and more grass and trees probably a thousand miles away!"

Another tremor and she's tumbling down the van on the opposite side. "Nora!" We all scramble up and half crawl, half run around the van. "Ow, fuck." She cradles the back of her head. Noticing the look on Angela's face, her look of pain is quickly replaced by rage.

"Oh what, are you still hiding things from us?! Even now?!" She's screaming so loud I'm afraid she's going to lose her voice.

What is she talking about? I look at Angela, sure enough, even though our situation is so dire, and there's sure to be no way we live through this, she doesn't look as panicked as she should, especially for someone who wanted to survive the mist so badly.

"What do you know?! This isn't the time for anymore of your fucking guessing games!!" Ophelia grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her. Then she slaps her. Kai tugs Ophelia back from tearing Angela to shreds.

The four of us wait here, crouched and bouncing up and down from the tremors, waiting for Angela to speak. Always waiting for her to speak. I've never felt more hopeless. I've never felt more crushed in my life. My heart hurts for Dominic, we need his smiles and jokes now more than ever.

Finally, she sits up, crossing her legs like we're not about to die from a black hole, and says. "We wait."

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I'm so creative with my titles.