Spirited away

Chapter 4

- Where are you going?

- We have been waiting for hours! We are going to next town by following the railway.

With that, the first group left, a second one shortly after. We followed the third and last one, along with Hotaru-nee-san.

Someone came back to us, reporting that a second train was nearby, and that its passengers were in the same situation. Employees still on board had confirmed that the railway company was not to blame.

The man said that a few kilometres further on, there was a town, or some kind of a forest. He wasn't sure, it hadn't been made clear to him. What he did know was that this place would serve as our gathering point.

Once we had digested this meagre information, we continued on our way. Each of us went at his own pace, and we always waited patiently for the slower ones, so that no one would get exhausted. The second train was soon in sight, or at least, what was left of it.

Under our feet the rails had given way to dandelions and weeds, until the concrete sleepers that regularly blocked the track were completely swallowed up. Small pebbles no longer stuck to our soles creases, swallowed by the emerging vegetation. Shiro held my hand, absorbed in studying this side of the mirror that he had never approached before.

The second train stood, covered in greenery, half collapsed as if abandoned there for decades. This strange sight aroused emotion, fright, beginnings of anxiety.

We left it behind, turning our backs on it, like to the temple of the little god, on Hinami's grandmother's mountain. Destined to disappear.
The road led us to the town, and we entered it in close ranks, recognising almost nothing. We didn't dare leave our landmark, the metal lines that still shone under the cover of the creeping ivy.

We don't know who took the first step on the dislocated tiles of the station hall, but a rope was already linking us to each other. We all followed the movement, as one, fearing division, the strangeness, the loneliness. Shiro, Hinami and I were only three children who looked up to the adults with falsely incredulous eyes. They, bewildered, displayed their questions in their furrowed brows, their tense mouths, their stiff backs.

I was embarrassed to keep my scanty knowledge to myself, but who would have believed me?

Step by step, we moved through the streets... We discovered a new urban environment, probably not hostile, but different, deformed by the monstrous assaults of nature. The city had become a luxuriant jungle, it kept some clear lines, some straight avenues, but as whole, our eyes roamed in an impressive fantasy. Trees with striated bark covered the entire surface of some buildings, the concrete disappeared under interlacing lianas. We made our way between these gnarled trunks, these stone-breaking branches and roots, amazed.

- Hey! You there!

A rumour went up among us, there were others! Other people, from elsewhere, from the town itself, also lost. We asked each other questions, trying to understand, to get organised.
The adults scattered again, and some, including Hotaru, volunteered to look after the children. The only help we could give was to stay quiet and calm. Some were crying, asking for their parents, their home. After all, that was normal. They were communicating their unease to the others, and our guardians had all the trouble in the world to reassure them.
The hours passed slowly, we did not move. We were a rendezvous point, and emissaries came and went. We were brought some food and drinks, preserved in the ruins of a combini-market. Hunger - the first of many problems - was already beginning to make our stomachs rumble...

A little girl had become attached to our trio over the minutes. Sitting next to us, she had ended up sticking to Shiro, who didn't seem to mind. When we were handed our portions of food, she had gobbled up her piece, before glancing awkwardly at my companion's, which he had only half nibbled. He had given in to her, discreetly passing his good into her small palm.