Press. Release. Wait.

Tunnel Vision

The reflection of light bouncing off of the train car shone dimly as I passed by the first car. My phone reflected its way through the first cabin. I looked in. Just to make sure. Just to make one hundred percent sure that Adam was where he said he was.

No one.

Just an empty, dirty car. No conductor at the front. No bodies. No one there. I knew there hadn't been many passengers when I first got in but I couldn't imagine there had been none.

I shone my light into the next car. I knew it was in vain. The next car was almost exactly the same. Plus or minus a few dust particles.

The thoughts repeated in my head.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

There was nothing. There was no one here.

Well... the dog was here.

I wanted nothing more than to see a friendly face again. Even the dog. I dreaded staring into the tiny pinpricks of holes just barely lit up by the dim red light. That was all Adam was at this point. A disembodied voice calling through a metal box. Judging me Telling me I was doing everything wrong.

I knew he was just trying to help. But sometimes his helping just, well, didn't help.

I approached car three and instinctively shone my light inside.

Why bother?

No one.

Nothing.

I continued to stare in despite my better judgement. Even as I passed by the connector that marked the next car.

Car four.

Time to do the same thing again.

Car four was no different.

Why do I do this to myself?

At a certain point it became torture. Watching, waiting for something to happen.

"Hey Dog!"

I screamed out ahead of me. I waited as my voice was dampered by the large pile of concrete and dirt that was blocking the other end of the tunnel.

My face scrunched up, listening closely to a tiny whisper of a tail dragging across the dirt. Or small panting.

Nothing.

"Hey!"

I could almost convince myself that I could hear it in the neverending silence. But there was nothing.

I sighed.

"Thanks for being there for me Dog."

I continued to walk, approaching Car six finally. I had to look into car five despite myself.

Goddamn it Cheyenee. Just don't.

I did it anyways. I never really listened to myself when I swore. Not sure what I was expecting though. Every car almost felt like a carbon copy of the last one. Just a copy paste of every train.

My footsteps echoed and were quickly dampered. I could see the open door ahead of me. No sign of the dog still but I knew it would be there. I stepped quickly onto the platform.

Immediately everything felt different. It looked different too. I was sliding off of the platform. I grabbed randomly at the various objects surrounding me, eventually hanging onto the chair.

The entire car was tilted.

Both my hands were desperately clutching onto the dark, dilapidated leather of the conductor's chair. My feet scrabbled at the metal beneath me. I felt my feet finally find traction beneath them.

And then silence. A long, drawn-out silence that could have been longer if not for the uncontrollable rage seething through me.

"What the FUCK?"

I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Again. Something shitty happened AGAIN.

Why?

What even was this?

I let go of the chair with one arm. Then shone my flashlight to the dirt floor of the tunnel. Then I placed one leg down. And the other.

I took a few deep breaths before investigating. My feet stepped forward carefully, attempting to see anything that might cause the car to fall at such an angle.

Only a few steps in my searching foot touched something unfamiliar. I prodded it gently. It didn't budge. Finally I lifted my flashlight up from the ground.

"That would do it." I whispered softly.

Concrete and dirt littered the ground. A few small pieces where I was standing but a mountain of it right in front of me. It blocked car six almost entirely. Only leaving the conductor's room and the first row of seats or so.

I looked even farther up. The wall of dirt and concrete and who-knows-what reached all the way up to the top of my vision.

Some particles and tiny rocks began to slide down, creating a tiny cloud of dust in their wake.

How could I have not thought of this? How could I be so stupid? If there was a collapse it was only a matter of time before more would become structurally unsound.

I began to back away slowly. Determined not to touch but I didn't want to take my light off of it. Somehow fearing that the barrier would grow if I wasn't looking at it. I took a few steps back. Then looked up, trying to spy the top of the neverending pile of garbage.

My light raised up.

And went out.

Darkness.

I shook my phone in my hand in despair.

Nothing.

"FUCK!"

My voice was muted almost instantly. I felt the cold seep into my skin.

I shook my phone again.

"Please, please, please."

The shattered screen dropped a few glass particles but nothing happened.

"Please! Please! Please, for fuck's SAKE!"

I wasn't even shaking the phone anymore. My hands were just vibrating in desperation.

WHUMP!

A huge sound came from in front of me.

The tunnel is collapsing.

Run.

WHUMP!

Another sound, like metal bending in front of me.

I was running.

I hadn't even realized I was running but my legs were moving. There was no thought. No coherent words.

Just panic.

WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! CALL FROM TR- WHUMP!

I ran.

WHUMP! CREEEE- TRAIN SE- SCREECH!

The bending and breaking sounds were getting softer. But the other sound was as present as before. I could hear it despite the intermingled groaning and bending of the train car.

CALL FR- WHUMPH!-AIN SEVEN.

The noises stopped.

Except for one.

CALL FROM TRAIN SEVEN.

I looked back.

CALL FROM TRAIN SEVEN.

Towards the mass of rock and dirt and concrete that no one could have survived in.

CALL FROM TRAIN SEVEN.

Towards train seven.