Nebula

The tube

I could hear the train coming. I saw it coming with insane speed. I had never been on a train, but I had seen them before when I went hiking with my parents as a child.

I was standing there, all alone on the concrete platform. It was overgrown, old and abandoned. But the facility was out in the middle of nowhere, and the closest in-use station was a day away. I had no luggage, we weren't allowed to bring private belongings. Other than the clothing we were wearing, but why not bend the rules? I had a doll in my back pocket. Mona had given it to me, she never quite knew what kids liked to play with. So she just got me a stuffed doll. It wasn't my most used toy, but everything else was too big and would be noticed easily. I just wanted to bring something, as a reminder about Mona and the others.

The train stopped, it was very sleek, with tinted windows. But this one seemed like an old model, it had visible wear on the metal. The doors opened and lingered a bit before walking on the train. The wagon I walked into was completely empty except for 2 guards.

"Where are the other people?" I asked the guards. "The other recruits are in the 4th wagon, this is the 2nd." One of the guards elaborated.

I nodded and walked into the 3rd wagon. It looked like some kind of dining hall. But all the tables were pushed aside, and the chairs were stacked on each other. The whole trained seemed way to fancy for an ISE recruit transport.

I walked around in the room, daydreaming about the rich people sitting on the tables, eating their fancy meals. Wearing outfits as expensive as my parents' house. Laughing and drinking, waving their hands around. Competing about who can wear the most jewelry. Even though I rarely had seen people of 1st class I could imagine what they looked like. Such wealth. But at least they earned it.

I heard a door slide open, I turned around. A girl walked in, she had long black curly hair, and deep skin.

"I knew I heard someone!" Her smile widened and traversed over to me. "What are you doing here? Didn't the guards tell you we were in the 4th wagon?"

I nodded. "They did, I just stopped to look around. This looked like it was a dining hall."

The girl had reached me, and she looked around, "Yeah I think so too. The train isn't even new, it doesn't resemble the ones we see regularly. Looks like the train my great grandma " She reached out her hand. "I'm Taya by the way, and you are..?" I took her hand and smiled,"Daria." 

"Let's go into the other wagon," she pointed to the door and led me through it, into the 4th wagon we went. I was met with a shock, the wagon was stock-full. I had never seen so many other teenagers before. Several of them sent me what seemed like judgmental stares.

"Told you, Travis!" Taya smirked at another boy, he also had dark skin and black hair. I wondered if they were siblings. He rolled his eyes at her. "Whatever."

Taya sat down next to him, I sat down on the opposite side of the table, next to a girl with short blue hair and green eyes. She was staring out the window, not paying attention to the people around her.

"You have blue hair?" I asked the girl, it caught her attention. She turned her head and gave me a confused stare, so did Travis and Taya.

"She isn't born with it dumbass. It's called hair coloring." Taya kicked Travis in the leg, "Don't be rude, not everyone knows that!" 

I felt a bit embarassed, and tried to find somewhere else to look. There were so many different unique personalities in here. But all of us were here for the same reason, everyone wanted to become a part of Nebula.