Going Nowhere Train

A New Life?

Screaming.
Pushing.
Fighting.

The thousands of children who had previously been so docile and contained had been released from the spiderweb of mystery, and knowing exactly what was to come, they broke free and each individually added to the chaos in the train station. I had to grab Madison's arm to avoid being swept away, as everyone barged to get to the front of the platform. I could barely hear Madison's shouts.

"We have to get out! There's no way we're going to get anything from the train," she yelled. Flora nodded vigorously. Fighting to be seen over the sea of heads, I point to the exit, and shrug, as if to say, 'do we really want to do this?'. What passed between the two girls was a glance filled with so much information, I could feel the words dripping off them. Whole conversations were held, and it seemed that debates were taking place; there was a deep friendship between these girls.

I felt a pang of jealousy.

Nodding, Flora and Madison grabbed onto the banister and started to climb the huge staircase, helpfully marked 'exit'. Looking sideways, I could see that only half a dozen other children had had a similar idea; other than one other group, everyone was still crowded around the platforms. I grant myself one last glance of the chaos below. Torrents of children were shoving and pushing each other, constantly moving. I notice that the older children seemed to be the ones nearest the front. As soon as I catch a glimpse of a child on the rails, I decide it's time to start moving.
The three of us crawl under ticket barriers and emerge into the street.
"Where are we?" I ask automatically.
"Princes street," Madison answers, pointing at a street sign. I'm amazed at the different shops, ghosts of the past I never thought I'd see again. Huge signs show the brands I was so used to seeing; H&M, KFC, Monsoon, The Body Shop. Those few mementoes are almost enough to fool me into thinking that life could resume as normal.
But above all of that, something haunted down to my last bone, like a skeletal finger tapping me on the shoulder only to turn to smoke when I look back: silence. No cars, no aeroplanes, no toddlers giggling as they're pushed along by mothers. I couldn't even here the screams and shouts that had once so prominently echoed in my mind from the station.

I felt deaf.

Madison and Flora called out to me, snapping me out of my daze.
"We need to grab provisions," Flora reminds me.
"Food, batteries, extra clothes. Maybe even water, as we don't know if we still have running water," Madison agrees, creating horrible images of dying of thirst in my mind.
"The train will arrive soon, maybe in twenty minutes. Whatever we do, we're not going to have much of a head start above anyone else," I point out.

Staying still seems painful. It's like when you're playing hide and seek, and you can hear the other person counting, and they've long reached 20, but you haven't found a hiding space. Your muscles shake, and stains of adrenaline fill your stomach. That's how I feel, except I know that thousands of children will follow us, like an infestation of rats. We need to move. We need to run. Panicking, I say the first thing that comes into my head, just to get us moving.

"We could make our way a few miles from here, then start looting the shops. That way we'll always have the lead over everyone else." The girls nod, and thankfully, we start to run along Princes road. Away from the train the got us here. Away from everyone else.