League of Losers: A Cat and His Human

Chapter 2 [Andrei] Ghost Train

"ANOTHER ONE!" a female voice said. I opened my eyes.

Where was I? On a train..? The last place I expected to be was sitting on the lower bunk of a sleeper car, and a perfectly ordinary one to boot. Opposite me sat a young woman with wild, wet hair, holding a frightened, tear-stained boy who looked about twelve. It was chilly in the train car, cold even. The woman and her son wore only wet bathing suits. The train wheels thundered. I saw a snowy forest through a dark night outside the window. The train was headed somewhere, through dark and cold. I wondered; where? This was far from what I expected from a primeval world. They shouldn't have railroads, that was for sure.

I was about to ask my companion in the car about this strange place, the sudden change of season from summer to winter, the night train's route, but I froze with my mouth half open. Something far more important than my half-naked companions and the sleeper car caught my eye. Somewhere in the top left of my field of view, multicolored bars began to appear one after another. Red. Yellow. Gray. At the same time, floating hints appeared to tell me that they were meters of health, fatigue and hunger. All three bars were full. Before I could recover from these sudden life changes, a fourth bar appeared at the bottom of my view, this time empty. According to another hint, this was my progress bar to the next level.

What the hell..? Levels, hit points, experience... Where was I? Inside a computer game somehow..? That wasn't part of the deal! That guy didn't mention any of this! What came next only confirmed my suspicion of a virtual game; text appeared above the heads of those sitting across from me:

Elayne Makarova. Human. Female. Class undetermined. Level 1

Anthony Makarov.

A similar message with my name and surname must have appeared above my head, because the woman suddenly addressed me by name, her teeth chattering with the cold:

"Andrei. Do you... hap-happen to h-have a spare sweater or warm... warm clothes?"

Her mouth emitted a cloud of condensation with each word. The air in the car felt close to thirty degrees, if not even lower. Without hesitation, I unclasped my backpack — I had a wool sweater in there, and a warm flannel shirt. Elayne started telling their tale while I dug through my pack.

"My son and I were on a boat when it s-s-suddenly overturned in the waves, and we st-started sinking. Anthony and I c-can't swim. We w-went under and started falling to the b-bottom... But then... Th-that strange light appeared. I didn't even th-think about it. Just agreed to a n-n-new life. I t-turned up here alone. I was so scared that my s-s-son stayed behind in the water and died. But a few seconds later, Ant appeared n-next to me. Only a wet b-bathing suit and swim trunks aren't s-suitable clothes for this place at all. I tried to take the curtains off the windows, but my h-hand goes straight through them. Thank you, Andrei!"

My clothes turned out to be far too big for my traveling companions, but they weren't about to complain. The woman pulled the sweater on over her wet swimsuit and pulled the shirt over her son's head, rolling up the too-long sleeves. In the meantime, I tested Elayne's words, reached for the curtains on the window. Funny and creepy at the same time... My hand passed right through them like they were incorporeal! Was I a ghost? Or were the curtains themselves immaterial?

I noticed something else. My progress bar to the next level had filled a little! Not much, maybe five percent, but that meant I'd done something that the game rewarded, and made a little progress to level two. I didn't see when it happened, though. When I gave the clothes to the other passengers? When I tried the curtains? Damn shame that I hadn't had time to fill my thermos with hot tea. My partners in misfortune could have used it. Their teeth chattered. And I suspected that would have filled up my progress bar even more.