Going Nowhere Train

Running

So back to real life, where colours spin in and out of focus as the world rushes past me in a flurry of adrenaline.
We'd been running on and off for half an hour, stopping to catch our breath, only to do so again five minutes later. From the way that the three of us would sprint along side roads, double back on ourselves and loose track of where we were, it was painfully obvious that none of us had a clue where we were headed. Edinburgh was a maze, and we were lost in its clutches.

Shop fronts whirls past, every display of food causing a jump of panic in my heart. How were we meant to survive? Regardless of whether supermarkets were well stocked now, that would all run out soon, and then what? We had thousands of teenagers to feed, and no way of sustainably receiving food. Whoever was piling food on trains was stupid. Those rations wouldn't last us any time at all. If anything, having something to fight over would just ignite the first sparks of conflict that flew. I'd seen how many children were back there, and there was no way to control that amount of people without turning to violence. Back there. Thousands of kids still presumably pushing each other in order to get to the food. Unless the train had been and gone already. In which case, we were running FROM them now. I could picture thousands of children running up the same hills as us. When would they catch up? What were we actually running from? Why were we running? To get to the food first? And hoard it all? To starve the kids who didn't make it in time?

That reminded me of something that had been tugging at my mind for ages. Why leave all this food? How long had they known that they would have to evacuate Edinburgh? There was certainly no one here. I had given up on that idea long ago. It looked as if the city had fled, leaving barely a trace.

If the city had fled, then why were we here?

I put up my hand, signalling for the others to stop running. We're all panting, out of breath. We've reached a high street, framed with obscure but expensive clothing companies. Not much use to us now.
"What do we next?" Madison says. I will never get bored of her logical mind.
"I don't know. All this is insane. This is crazy," Flora murmurs, overwhelmed.
"We should find a shop that has stuff we need," I say, as if that wasn't obvious enough, "like a camping shop. You know... Something with torches and backpacks and practical clothing." Flora and Madison exchange glances, and once again I'm left wondering what they're saying. It seems to me as if they're connecting by a small piece of thread, and all the other has to do is tug on it and it alerts the other. Like a magic trick that I can't see.
"So we should find a camping shop, take all the stuff, then what?" Madison points out the fact that I don't really have and idea of what we should do in the long run.
"We'll find a house, stuff it to the brim with food and try to live there. For ever." Flora says, seeming to have come to the same logical conclusion as everyone else.
"Ok, but let's go now. I don't want to be caught up with anytime soon," Madison agrees. So we start running again, but this time taking more care to glance into every shop window.

It all seems to be going well, but will my two friends share their forever with me? Right now, I don't know if I'm part of the plan.