The Underwater Train (Chapters 1 - 3)

Chapter 1 - Prized Possessions

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                  I stared at the fish tank, which was carved into the wall. The fish swam back and forth without a care in the world. The television only showed one channel: the news channel. I yawned. The couch was horrible, too soft for my liking. It was one of those that everyone who sat on it ended up sinking to the floor. There was nobody to talk to, excluding the receptionist, who was as strict as a terrifying teacher. I'd been here every school afternoon for the last two years. My mother had died when I was four and life had been different since. Dad thought I was too young to go home and stay there alone, but I knew many people who had begun when they were eight. 

                 Dad was his company's boss and he fit the description of a CEO almost perfectly. He was a large man: tall, but average weight. His temper's short and he's really scary when he's angry. I think his pride and joy was the new type of train they were creating at his company, a train that went underwater. I guess that's why his company was renamed to The Underwater Train Company. However, I think his voice may be his third most prized possession, because his voice is ridiculously loud. I don't know where I'd be on the list.  

                 His company was famous for making new forms of public transport. The company had already invented improved bullet trains, monorails and faster coaches. They'd reconsidered the fares to fifty yen, which was around a dollar and fifty cents in Australian. Before Dad had come in, the business had been a scrappy one that had been dwindling to nothingness after the third Global Financial Crisis, and they said that they were lucky to survive it! Now it was one of the largest companies in the world, which was why Dad was always on small business trips and I'd either get to go, or stay with a dreadful babysitter. 

                  A green light blinked on beside the door and it clicked open automatically, allowing my father to leave the meeting room. I just walked beside him and both of us were silent as we left the hissing entrance behind. My school bag drooped down my back. We hadn't talked as much to each other after Mum had died, but he was grinning like a lunatic. 

          "Dad, why are you smiling?" I asked curiously.                                                                                      

          "Guess what's happening in two days then," he ushered excitedly, almost holding his breath.      

           "Oh. Right. The train is going to be allowed for public use in two days."                                  

           "Correct!" 

           I peeked through the curtains, as an elderly lady ambled on. Somehow I ended up peering into the part darkness of the garage, where an open display of the train lay. Black hands snatched the train model and snapped the model in half. I shook my father and pointed at the garage. Dad gave me a stare, one that implied 'There's nobody there', however I knew it was real - too real to be part of my imagination. 

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            Two days later, I forced awake. The sun was a gorgeous dawn pink, splashed gracefully with little wisps of clouds, and the light filtered in by the triangular gap in the curtains. My vision was completely blurred, but I could make out the shape of the person who'd awoken me. It was Dad.  

         "Da-ad, it's six in the morning!" I yawned.                                                        

         "Don't you know what day it is?" he prompted. "Sure. It's Saturday, the only day I get to sleep in."      

        "It's Saturday the 15th of June, the opening day of the..."                                                                       

        "... Underwater train. I know! I know!" "So get up, or I'll do it for you! Three. Two." 

        I was gone before he even began the number 'one', sluggishly heading towards the bathroom. I'd dragged a jacket with me and the zip was making its usual noises on the floorboards. This was how everyday began, except on Saturdays. Dad always used different or reworded phrases, but I never listened to him. 

        "Ayumi, hurry up!" he started yelling.   

        "Dad, why do I have to go?" I whined. 

        He didn't answer, instead he pointed like an army general at the waiting bus across the road. I surrendered. It was almost impossible to win something like this against him. I forced my feet to move. They hardly budged. 

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        All of the guests could have been categorised into one of three major categories; the first group was the people of the UWTC, the second was devoted to formal sophisticated people and the last were people who were covering this event and their cameramen. There were a few children around, but there were none who were the same age as me. In fact, there were no teenagers or children over ten years old. I was eleven. 

        "...I now declare this new underwater train open for public use!" my father finished. 

        I didn't cheer like all the other people around me. Instead, I had noticed a black moving dot, darting from place to place, post to post, as if it wasn't supposed to be there. It seemed to be the same shadowy figure from only two days ago. The shadow's clothing was completely black and hard to notice, like a saboteur, but this person was almost entirely covered in clothing. Criminals on television had never looked like this; they normally had a small slit that showed their eyes. I tried to make out any details I could, but only deducted that the person was an adult. The height of this shadowy man looked rather tall, too tall to be a teenager. 

        I was brought back to reality when my father dragged me to the train, which was about to be tested for the first time with more than fifty passengers. Dad plopped me into a seat and shouted a single phrase that he'd wanted to say throughout his childhood: "All aboard!" 

         The train carriages' doors sealed shut and the lights dimmed. A small whirring noise was increasing in intensity and suddenly went silent. The train began to slide on the monorail steadily. People murmured in question, but I could see a pinprick of light expanding to reveal a transparent tunnel. I could see the creatures of the sea. They swam carelessly and freely, like the fish in the aquarium. I turned to face my beaming father and smiled back. 

          Before he could say anything, the train lurched uneasily and the bright red lights blinked on and off. Sparks began to fly from the wheels of the train. The loudspeakers repeated the same words over and over again: "Emergency alert!"  

           The train began to derail and smashed into the newly formed chemical glass. Water flooded in and the train floated, creating another hole above the railway and sending it upwards, through the sea. Water even began to flood the inside of the train and kept piling. Passengers were trapped under the wave of rising water; there was too much to move against it. Luckily, we had floated up towards the surface of the sea. Dad opened the doors and let the water trickle out before letting people out. Everyone scrambled off. Only two bodies didn't move at all, because they couldn't. They seemed unconscious.