Where The Wild Things Go (Joshler AU)

Chapter 3- The Train

~Tyler~

Tyler walks up the stairs to the train, which opens up to a long hallway, which is split into ten rooms on each side. He follows the woman as she leads him past several doors. Each one is marked with a number that matches the Zone. She stops in front of a door with a six on it and pushes it open, revealing a small square shaped room, with benches on both ends, a coffee table in the middle and just above it, a small window, letting in some light. Tyler spots his cart filled with all his bags, in the corner, near the door they entered from.

"The washrooms are at the very end of the hallway. Also, the benches are pull out beds." The woman informs, she pauses before asking "do you have any questions?" Tyler shakes his head, and the woman steps out of the room. The ride to Zone Six took a day; twenty one hours to be exact. He pitied the person going to Zone Twenty, it took three days to get there. He takes a seat on one the benches attached to the wall. It was covered in a blue fabric. He takes out his Monster Finder from his back pocket, and touches his finger to the ON button. 

The screen lights up, and a quick tutorial pops up. It shows him to use the various features the program offers. There's a map- which is marked with landmarks; like fresh water or forests, a monster locater- which can pick up any monsters nearby, there's even a killcount- where you can track the number of monsters you've killed. On the homepage, the screen reads 11:05, and shows today's date.

The door opens and Tyler hears footsteps. He cocks his head towards the entrance and notices a boy dressed in a blue jumpsuit holding two bags, one in each hand. He smiles at Tyler, and walks over to where Tyler's bags are kept, placing his next to the cart. He shuffles over to where the benches are and sits on the one opposite of Tyler.

"Sorry but the trains are for monster hunters only." Tyler vouches. No civilians are allowed to enter the Zones, why would they want to though?

The boy smirks, "Well, I guess they made an exception for me, then. My name's Allie Kovac. I'm supposed to run a check up on the Zone 6 forcefield." He explains. To keep the monsters from travelling out of the Zones, the government built a forcefield around each one. He pulls out a card from his back pocket. It was his ID card, every citizen had one. "So, you think you're so great because you stupidly volunteered to be a monster hunter? Is that right?" 

"No, I was just making sure you knew." Tyler defends, but Allie doesn't respond. Tyler decides to drop the conversation. He focus on his Monster Finder again, and continues exploring the other features. 

***

"Attention passengers, we will be beginning our journey to the Zones. Just a reminder that bathrooms are at the very end of the hallway, and food will be served every four hours." Allie leans back into his seat, and sets his feet on the coffee table. He places his hands behind his head. Tyler lies down on his back, and folds his knees.

"So, tell me, are you afraid of the monsters?" He wonders. "You don't look scared to me."

"I am, but I've been trained to stay calm during difficult situations." Tyler states, and Josh looks at him, like he's waiting for him to say more. "During training we took this thing called the Fear Pill-" Tyler explains, sitting up and crossing his legs. 

"Wait, so they drugged you?" Allie gasps. 

"Well, we knew about it. But when you took the pill, it all felt real. You had no memory of it, it seemed as if you were really trapped in the Zones." Tyler vouches. "The whole point of it was to teach us to calm down. Once you did, you would wake up from your dream. Most people took months to get used to it, after a while you learn to calm down, and you can think logically about how to defeat them." Tyler explains.

"How long did it take you?" Allie inquires. He doesn't seem as mad as he was before, he stares at Tyler interested in hearing more about the pill. 

"The same time as everyone else." Tyler responds. "Although, not to pat myself on the back, but I was one of the best at learning about the monsters. They were just so fascinating." Tyler remembers when his mom used to call me a 'walking encyclopedia' because of how much he liked to learn. His heart aches as he pictures her face, when he told her he was going to become a monster hunter. Broken and dull; like he had just stabbed her.

"I have a question," Allie mumbles. "Why did you volunteer to become a monster hunter?" Tyler hesitates before answering, he wasn't sure he if he should tell him something so personal. "Oh come on, what would I do if you told me?" He coaxes.

Tyler sighs, "Alright, fine. My grandmother died from the monsters, and I wanted to avenge her death." Allie looks at him with pity. "Did you have a choice in coming to Zone Six?"

Allie shakes his head, "No. But I'm sure the monster hunter will kill any monsters that come near me." Tyler laughs a little, and Allie smiles. Tyler turns on his Monster Finder, and 1:45 pops on the screen. 

"A quarter until two already, wow." Tyler mutters. He slips his Monster Finder, into his bag and pulls out the notebook Pierre gave him. He discovers a pen tucked into an elastic band, which was slipped around the book. That wasn't there before, Pierre must have done that. He adds today's date and time on the first line, and makes his first entry below it.

I'm on the train right now, we should be arriving at the Zone entrance soon. It feels strange that I'm almost there, this is it, after eight months of training. There's this other guy heading to Zone Six with me; his name is Allie Kovac.

"Attention passengers, please head back to your section. We will be arriving at the Zone entrance in five minutes." Someone announces over the train speakers. Allie and Tyler both sit up, and they look out the window, there were a bunch of warning signs, and as they got closer he noticed that the forcefield was made out of spheres hooked together, forming a giant barrier.