Train Hunters

Setup

Grace and Simon sat outside at a small restaurant near the center of Grace's town. Simon had seemed mostly okay after their talk at the mall but after leaving Grace hadn't heard from him for several days. The thing that made her worry was that he wasn't at therapy. After he'd failed to show up Grace had decided to take matters into her own hands. She'd already texted him a few times with no response but at that point she'd explained that she was worried about him and that if he didn't give her an indication that he was okay she'd have to track him down.

Finally he'd responded saying that he was fine and Grace was very thankful for that considering the fact that she was bluffing and had no real way to find him if something had gone wrong. Simon had explained that he'd gotten really sick and so hadn't been anywhere including the group, and had mostly stayed off of his phone. Grace knew it was a lie but she didn't really want to push him to talk about it. So instead she'd asked if he wanted to go get some food with her and now here they were.

Neither of them had said anything to each other yet and Grace wasn't sure where to start. Simon didn't look sick and by that she meant he looked his normal shade of pale. But he definitely didn't look okay. He looked very tired, like, "hasn't slept in days and is running on fumes" tired. She'd mistaken the bags under his eyes for makeup when she'd seen him and though that would have made sense she'd concluded that they were tiredness induced. The waitress came around and asked for their drink orders.

"Pink lemonade for me." Grace had responded. Both Grace and the waitress looked at Simon expectantly. He stared at them for a time that was far longer than necessary as his brain seemed to lag behind the rest of the world.

"Water." he finally said and the woman wrote it down and walked away. Grace gave Simon a long look as he propped himself up on the menu and seemed to be struggling to stay even the tiniest bit conscious. Grace figured that now was probably a good time to try and ask him about what the hell happened to him over the course of the last week.

"So...how have you been since the mall?" she asked awkwardly. Simon gave her a look like he was trying to simultaneously figure out both if she was joking and if she was real. Finally he gave an answer.

"How have I been since I found out that the basic laws of science and reality are fake? Not great thanks for asking." Simon put his head on the table and started to close his eyes. Grace tapped him on the shoulder and he jolted awake.

"Yeah, I can tell. When was the last time you slept?" she asked. Simon started counting on his fingers with great difficulty, most likely because he kept forgetting which number he was at.

"Eight days ago," he said finally. Grace was awestruck both by the largeness of the number and the flippancy with which he said it.

"How are you even alive?" she asked, completely caught off guard. Simon did the best approximation of a shrug he could do without moving his arms too much.

"I definitely don't feel alive." he responded. The waitress returned with their drinks and took lunch orders. Once she left Grace returned to her line of questioning.

"How is it even possible to stay awake that long? And why would you want to?" she asked. Simon gave his response as he struggled for a minute to remove the plastic straw from its wrapping and then proceeded to swirl it around in the glass of water not actually taking a sip.

"A lot of Monster energy and coffee actually. And I've been staying awake because I've got to figure out what the hell is going on with the train. I'm so close to putting the pieces together I just-" Simon's thought was cut off by a long yawn after which he didn't remember what he'd been talking about.

"It clearly isn't good for you. You need to sleep." Grace said with a frown. Simon shook his head in response.

"No, I just need more caffeine." he said before taking the glass of water and dumping it onto the ground. Grace stared at him as he did this almost robotically and she felt very good about the fact that she'd gotten them a table outside because something told her he would have done this either way. Simon dug in his bag before retrieving a can of the aforementioned energy drink and pouring most of it in the cup and finishing off the can himself. Grace didn't know whether to be horrified or impressed by his preparedness.