Critical Crossing

Mission One: Rail Rider

I look down at my pocket watch and watch as the second hand ticks passed the thirty second mark. The longer I watch the time, the more it mocks me, dragging on. Closing my pocket watch, I look out the window and see trees and foliage passing by. Every few moments, the trees would part and the evening sky would peek through, the setting sun shining a brilliant orange. Even though it was so late in the day, I was not particularly tired. I was used to having to stay awake late into the day, sometimes over night into the next morning. However, I was beginning to grow impatient considering it was almost half and hour after I was meant to receive a specific text message.

I pull my phone from my pocket and click the power button next to it. On the screen shows a single notification from an app called Watcher. Watcher is a GPS tracking app which allows the person on the other end to monitor where the phone has been and at what times. The person using the phone being tracked is able to see when Watcher is active, in other words, when the other person is currently viewing the location. Right now, the notification is informing me that "Zero One" is currently watching my phone's location. Right before I was about to stuff my phone back into my pocket, another notification pops up, informing me that my messenger is currently active in the background.

'Passenger car three, last seat on the left,' the notification changes to the actual message. Moving my finger to the fingerprint scanner, my phone unlocks and I open my messaging app to my messages with an individual labeled as "Zero One."

'Understood,' I reply to the message, turn off my phone, and slide it back into my pocket.

I rise from my seat, looking around to see the interior of the car. Above the back door, a silver colored plaque hangs with a black number two on it. I start shuffling my way down the middle of the aisle, attempting not to bump into anyone as I make my way back. Occasionally, I hit my hip against the chairs. Luckily, cushioning of the seats stretches past the metal frames.

Abruptly cutting me off, I hear metal clatter to the ground, along with something that sounds like plastic. Moments later, a mother is scolding her child, telling her she told her that he should not have been playing with the metal tray. She then looks up to me and apologizes, to which I raise my hand and tell her that it is fine. I crouch down and grab the tray and the plastic toy. I hand the tray to the woman and the plastic toy, a popular comic book superhero, to the boy and tell him he ought to listen to his mother.

I open the back door of the car and then close it, seeing that I am now in the entrance way of the car. I then open the next door and feel a sudden burst of wind, slightly pushing me back as I hear the tracks clack against the train's wheels. I walk through the door, closing it and standing on the small platform I can. Looking down, I see the coupler connecting both cars together and the platform to the next car. I step over the gap and place my hand against the train car, trying to keep balance. With my other hand, I grab hold of the handle and open the door, slightly pulling myself forward and stepping into the next car. I close the door and fix my disheveled coat and hair, then turn the collar of my shirt back down.

Looking into the next car through the window, I open the door and look around, making sure to take into account who is in the furthest seat back. According to the information I have, from this perspective, it would be the far right seat. In that seat, I see a man with a big, bushy black beard and a bald head. He has a scar on his left cheek, a squared yet slightly chubby face, and keeps a stern look. Currently, he is looking back and forth between his phone and out the window. I open the door and step inside, closing the door behind me. As I come in, he looks up and sees me, but does not seem to suspect anything and continues looking down at his phone and back out the window.

I start making my way down the aisle, shuffling as I did in the last car. Before I can even make it halfway through the car, the car suddenly jerks and tosses me to the side, forcing me to collide with a man in the seat to the right of me. Before I even start to get off of him, I start apologizing. Although he accepts my apology, he still looks at me as though I were crazy. Any other time, I would ask why he is looking at me like that, but I do not have the time for it. I look to the back again to see how far I am from the back and notice the man is no longer there. I look around in hopes of seeing him and notice him through the window of the door, hurrying in an attempt to get to the next car.

Wasting no time, I hasten my pace as well. Although the best I can do is shuffle past the people, I apologize as my quickened pace causes me to bump against people. Finally reaching the back, I open the door and find that the man has already reached the door to the next car, opening it as he rushes inside. I close the door, letting it slam as I open the next door and hop to the platform ahead of me, letting the previous door hang open and pushing the next door open. I hear the door slam behind me as the air suctions it closed again. I open the next door and find that the car is dark. From what I can see, this must be one of the cargo cars. Boxes and large wooden crates. The air smells a bit of sawdust and dampened cardboard.

I reach into my coat into the inside pocket and grab my pocket knife, pulling it out without unfolding the blade. Keeping my breath low and crouching down lower to the floor, I attempt to let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Slowly, I can see more things within the car, though not much clears up due to the light coming in from both sides of the car from the windows of the doors. I reach out to my left side and place my hand against one of the wooden crates, letting it guide me forward. Once I feel the corner of the box, I lean forward and look past the corner, finding nothing. I slowly start creeping forward again, placing my hand gently against the next box. Trying to keep my sound low, I hold my knife with my thumb against the indention in the blade so that I may pop it out when necessary. Slowly, I move forward nearing the corner of the next box. My hand once again comes around the corner and I slowly lean forward looking both left and right this time

Suddenly jumping forward, the man grabs my arm and pulls me towards him, forcing my body to awkwardly flop against the ground. Luckily, I didn't drop my knife so I quickly roll over and push against the indention so that the blade flips out. He rushes towards me, but stops and instead decides to grab the boxes above me when he notices I have a knife. Realizing what he's doing, I quickly pull myself up and to my feet so that I can launch myself at him. Once I get my footing well enough, I push myself towards him, the upper part of my right arm colliding with his stomach. The boxes crash to the ground as he hits the floor with me on top of him. His head slams against the wall of the car, dazing him for a moment. Before he can regain his senses, I press the knife to the soft part of his neck and press it into his throat, angling it so that it pierces his internal jugular vein. I pull the blade from his throat and push off of him, his hand shooting up to his neck in a futile attempt to keep his blood inside his body. I take a cloth from my pocket and wipe it across my blade to clean it, then stuff the cloth into a separate pocket and my pocket knife back into my interior coat pocket.

For several hours, I was wiping down multiple surfaces in the dark cargo car of the train making sure to remove any traces that I may have left behind. I pull my phone from my pocket and see that the Watcher app's notification is still on my phone, but I have no new messages. Unlocking my phone, I go to my messenger app and open my conversation with "Zero One."

'Completed. No need to worry about Harvester anymore,' I send the text message.

'Return immediately. We'll handle the rest. We have some matters to discuss as well,' they almost immediately send a text back once they read my message. Normally when they have some matters to discuss with someone, it does not seem particularly pleasant, at least not from what I have seen or heard.

However, I send them a message of confirmation and watch my phone's notifications. The Watcher app's notification disappears and I then put my phone back into my pocket. It used to be unsettling to have someone constantly monitoring my location, but now that I have been doing this for so long, it no longer bothers me. However, it is a bit displeasing that not conforming to their directions to the absolute letter will cause them to either suspect something strange or result in them sending you a message in that exact moment asking what you are doing. Although it is not exactly my business, so the most I can do is go along with it.