Infinity Train Book 5: The Odd Boy

The Nightmare Car

Orion and Flux were drying themselves off after they escaped from a water car. Flux groaned, "Uh, that was definitely not the best car that I've been in. Hope we never see that car again." Orion chuckled. The two of them started walking further into the car, but were met with total darkness. The boy hummed, "Huh, this car is completely dark. Wonder what it's for." He turned to look for Flux, but was met with the same darkness that was in the car. Orion looked around, "Flux, are you there?" It was strange. The fox had been right next to him just a few seconds ago, but now there was no sign of him. He looked around a saw nothing. It was strange. There wasn't even a door in sight. He didn't even see the door that they entered from. 

After a few minutes, Orion sat down. He had been looking for Flux or for any signs of anything in the car. However, there wasn't anything in the car. It made the entire car seem even stranger than any other. Finally, he saw what appeared to be a door. Orion ran to it without thinking and opened the door. When he did, he was surprised to see that he was back in his house. His parents were sitting on the couch. Mr. Torren turned to him with a frown on his face, "Oh, you're back. It's been a while." Mrs. Torren hummed to acknowledge that her son was back. Orion was a bit confused. According to his calculations, he had been gone for at least nine weeks. It was strange that they were greeting him as if though he just went to the store for a few minutes. It was especially strange that he was now back home when he had just been on the train. Orion waved to his parents, "Uh, hey. How's it going?" Mr. Torren said, "It's been good. Especially since we got the news." Orion raised an eyebrow, "Uh, what news?" Mr. Torren said, "We finally got some news from the government. They're finally going to be able to fix you." Orion started getting scared, "What, what are you talking about? What do you mean fix me?" Mrs. Torren turned to him, "It's because your not normal. We need to fix you and make you normal so that you can be like everyone else." Orion began panicking and turned to go back to the door he came from, but it was gone. As he tried to think of another way to get out of the house, the was a banging on the door. Orion looked outside of the window and saw several dozen government vehicles. He was grabbed and turned to see his father with a serious look on his face, "This is what you need to do. It's so you can be normal. You need to be changed." Orion looked at his father in horror as several men in hazmat suits burst into the room. He hit his father in the face and ran upstairs to his room. Once he reached his room, he moved his desk to block the door. The men started banging on the door, yelling, "Let us make you normal! Let us make you normal!" Orion hid inside his closet and covered his ears. The men continued to yell at him to let them make him normal. Orion tried his best to ignore their yells, but after a few minutes, decided that he had had enough. He exited his closet and grabbed the bat that his father had given him a while back with hopes of getting his son interested in the sport. Orion moved the desk out of the way and allowed some of them men to enter his room. However, the moment the did, he instantly started attacking them with the bat. Orion yelled, "I am not going to let you change me! I don't care if I'm not normal. I'm me and I'm never going to change that!!" As he began swinging the bat again, the entire world went black again. Suddenly, he felt a force push him. Orion saw the exit door, having been opened, and was pushed outside. Once he was, the door slammed close. 

"There you are!"

Orion stood up and saw Flux with a panicked look on his face, "I was worried about you when you didn't come out." Orion asked, "What happened?" Flux shrugged, "I don't know. We were walking together one moment and the next thing I knew, I was trying to stop a bunch of strangers from stealing all my money. It was like something out of a..." "Nightmare." Orion completed. He thought back to what he had seen, "I think this car was meant to test our deepest fears and insecurities and use them against us. Once we overcame them, it let us out." As he came to the realization, his hand began to glow. His number went from 57 to 12. Flux said, "Guess this means you're almost on your way home." Orion clenched his fist, "Guess so. Anyway, let's go to the next car." The two walked on the boardwalk, unaware of the dark shadow watching them from atop the car they just exited. The shadow watched as they entered the next car before grinning and moving towards the same car.