I Choose All of You

Chapter Seven

 The cobblestone streets echoed as a couple dozen of us ran from the warehouse. The moonlight reflected off of the glistening stone, and the alleyways turned into a maze. Skylar and I held up the rear and eventually caught up to the rest of the group ahead of us. The city of Trost had fallen asleep by now and the moon's location indicated it was about 10pm. I looked over at Skylar next to me and she looked at ease, not panting unlike me, and a free smile plastered across her face. The night's light glinted off of her silver eyes and I noted how happy she looked.

We followed the group down different paths, leading deeper into the city, until we stopped at an over-night train station. It looked a bit run down and rickety, but no one seemed to mind. We all climbed into the next open train car and took off. Everyone was panting by now and held onto the safety ropes hanging from the ceiling. People around me chatted excitedly, one person started blasting music on a speaker, and several people started dancing in the center aisles. I nodded my head along to the music and giggled at the small dance battle that had ensued between Jack and some guy named Liam.

"You ready," Mariah asked wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

"As ready as I can be riding to an unknown location with a bunch of strangers."

"Family, not strangers," Mariah corrected. "You can ride with me. We're both small so they should let us squeeze in together."

"Wait. Ride what?"

 "Oh! This is our stop, c'mon," Mariah excitedly waved me to follow her as we jumped off the train. I recognized the town name of where we stopped.

A large sign hung on the train station ceiling reading "Waytown". I used to come here growing up with my mom to get cheap food from the farmer's market, but haven't been back in years. Last I heard, a lot of the people, who used to live here, left because of bankruptcy and Trost scaring away their customers. Waytown was a small, lower-class city with a few large buildings here and there, but rent was always too high so no one could afford a living. The people were always very nice to me though, so seeing it now so empty and ghost-like made me a bit sad.

I followed the large group down a couple more streets until we came to the tallest building in the city. It looked abandoned. Large, grey, busted windows, and the front door now replaced with a sheet of wood. A few of the older guys and girls pushed the sheet to the side and went in withflashlights. Soon we all followed suit and the sound of hoots and hollers bounced off the old building walls. I tried to keep up from behind and saw everyone start to disappear up a staircase. Jesus. Can we stop all this running? Stairs now? I am out of shape. I took a deep breath, gripping onto the cold railing, and made my way to the top.

The last two floors were pain. What is this? 10 flights? I came to an open door and walked through. Everyone was gathered by a corner. We were on the rooftop now. I looked up and saw the stars clearer than I ever had before. There wasn't any light pollution here so the sky was vast and beautiful. I circled myself, eyes still glued to the dark abys glittered with light. I mentally pointed out a few constellations Leo had taught me. Leo. His name made my chest tighten.

 "Sarah! Over here," Liz called out to me.

I tore my gaze from the sky. Then joined Liz and the group of people, wiping beads of sweat that has formed on my forehead.

Liz pointed to a small cart in front of the crowd of people, "That, is your ride."

"What is it?"

"Couple years ago the oldest ones of the group wanted to make something up here. Something fun we family members could do. We used to come up here to drink and go stargazing, but now we have this. It's basically a makeshift roller coaster. Don't ask me how they made it, but Ipromise it's safe. We all have rode it at least a dozen times," Liz laughed and put her hand on my shoulder. She could probably tell I was skeptical.

I peeked through the swarm of people and watched as a person climbed inside. They buckled up and everyone around me started counting down.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"

And just like that, a couple guys at the top pushed them really hard, and the passenger went flying, zooming, and eventually fell away into the darkness.

"How do you get the carts to come back," I asked no one in particular.

"There's a pulley at the bottom. They hook the cart back up and we pull it up here. It's not anything crazy. Just a one way slope down with a few smaller hills but it ends at the building across from us."

I looked next to me and Skylar stood there, arms crossed, smiling excitedly.

"Cool. This is actually really impressive," I said back.

"Thanks," Skylar beamed.

"Wait, you made this," I asked shocked.

 She laughed, it was actually really nice, "Nah I just helped a bit. Myself and several other people put it together though. Jack was actually one of the main masterminds of it."

Wow. Jack did this? It was then I noticed he was one of the people up front pushing the carts. I am impressed. I was learning more and more about Skylar and Jack tonight.

Slowly each person took a ride on the coaster. Each time, we all counted down and by now I was shaking in my boots.

Finally it was my turn and Mariah grabbed my hand, "C'mon Sarah, it's our turn!"

She let me sit in front and she straddled me from behind.

"Woah woah woah. Mariah I don't know if you both can fit," Jack said as she handed me the seat belt.

"Oh stop. You know we'll be fine. Look," she wrapped her arms under the strap so we both now fit beneath the belt, "nice and secure."

Jack rolled his eyes and grabbed onto the back of the cart. The remaining people behind us started counting down.

"Alright, are you guys ready," Jack shouted.

"Let's do this," Mariah hollered and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"S-sure," I said, peering over the cart edge noting how high up we were.

"-3,2,1!"

And just like that we started to move. Mariah and I immediately erupted in laughter and screams. We went down a small incline before taking off down a long steep hill. The world around me blurred and wind was breaking through my hair. Buildings below, wisped by us and my stomach dropped, as we plummeted downward. My heart was beating. We quickly came up on another hill and three smaller ones, slowly losing speed. The biggest smile plastered on my face as Mariah screamed with her hands in the air. All too soon, we slowed down to a stop at the end and everyone cheered for us as we got out.

"AHHH! Wasn't that so fun," Mariah shouted and gave me a hug once we both hit solid ground.

I tightly embraced her back as adrenaline pulsed through my veins.

***

After everyone took a turn, we all made our way back down the abandoned building and to the train station.

"God, I'm pooped," Mariah said. She slumped into the empty seat next to Liz and rested her head on Liz's shoulder.

"Maybe next time you can spend all your energy on not shouting all the time," Liz laughed and adjusted herself so Mariah can be more comfortable.

I sat down on the other side of Liz and leaned my head back onto the glass window of the now moving train.

"Have fun Sarah," Liz turned her head to ask me.

"The best."

The moving train seemed to rock everyone to sleep. Slowly eyes started to close and the energy now was a stark difference to what it was before. I guess we all wore ourselves out. My eyes eventually grew heavy and I closed them, letting sleep overcome me.