5 miwekwklwe

I’m not sure exactly what woke me. I was feeling hazy, like I sometimes did after a boisterous night of drinking. But I wasn’t hungover… I think. I don’t know… maybe I was and just needed to come to my senses and drink some coffee so it would all come back to me. And what is that godforsaken wooden rumbling noise? Why are my eyelids like 5 pounds each? And my hands… oh my gawd… was I scraping cement off of the backs of alligators? Every damn finger felt bruised. What the hell happened last night?

I slowly opened my eyes and took in the realization that I was not in my bed. I was not even in my home. And I was moving. Sitting in one of those passenger sleeping rooms on a no-shit I-think-I-can-I-think-I-can damned train. What the hell happened last night?

I looked around my room. It was fairly small. Just two comfortable leather benches facing each other that can be converted into two uncomfortable single beds. Amazing how it’s plush to sit on, but disastrous for sleeping. The walls appeared to be wood, but upon closer inspection, was that fake wood you see all the time in trailer homes. Paneling. Laminate paneling, I believe they call it. The carpet was just a plain medium brown braided texture. Great for easy clean up. Horrible for bare feet.

I looked down at my feet. They weren’t bare, but I was not wearing shoes. Only dirty white socks with a hole in the tip of my second toe on my left foot. I was even more confused. I threw holy socks away all the time. I even make a joke out of it, pretending to pray for it as I say its final rights because it is a holy sock from Jesus’s flock. Silly, I know. And not particularly good timing for a joke since none of what was happening was even slightly humorous.

I opened the door leading out of my room and peeked down the hall. No one there. I turned around and looked at the window just to clarify that it was daytime. Indeed it was. The sun was shining brightly onto fields and fields of yellow farmland as far as the eye could see. Where the hell am I? And what the hell happened last night?

I walk into the corridor just as a slight rumble could be felt through the train. Suddenly a vertigo I’d never experienced came over me. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the bathroom, which was God only knows where anyway. So I leaned back into my… (my?) room and wretched into the garbage can by the door.

My throat burned as it came up. But I knew there was no stopping it now, so I just let my body reject whatever was in me that it didn’t like.

After composing myself, I realized I suddenly felt a little better. Whatever was in me was mostly gone. And although my stomach was a bit sour, I felt milestones ahead of where I was only a few minutes ago. The vertigo was gone. The hazy hungover feeling had passed. I was still slightly tired, but had upgraded from “groggy”.

I figured I had better seek out an attendant to help me dispose of my garbage, so I gathered up some energy, stood up straight, and walked back in to the corridor. I took a brief second to compose myself and make sure I wasn’t too wrinkly from sleeping in my clothes…

My clothes. Oh my God! Whose clothes was I wearing?

I realized I had looked down at my socks before, but was so distracted by the missing shoes, that I hadn’t noticed I was wearing a pair of men’s basketball shorts. They were shiny, red, and had little snag marks all over them like a cat had been kneading on them for hours. They were so baggy that the drawstring had been tied in several knots just to keep them on my hips. The shirt I was wearing was some old t-shirt that looked like it had been fished out of the free bin in front of the thrift store. It was a faded maroon and had a picture of a fish right below “Fred’s Fishing Bait” sprawled across the top.

What the hell happened last night?

I looked quickly down both directions of the corridor. No one was coming, so I jerked the shirt over my head, turned it inside out, and put it back on. I patted my hips hoping to find my cell phone, or a ticket, or something that would clue me in to whatever mystery world I was in. But, of course, there were no pockets in the shorts I was wearing and there was nothing else in my room with me.

“I need some answers,” I muttered to myself.

I began to walk towards what I assumed was the front of the train. I don’t know much about trains but if you walk in the direction the train is moving, that’s the front, right? Hell if I know.

As I walked down the long corridor past the other rooms, it became apparent that no one else was in their room. Where was everyone? Breakfast? A train passenger event that I didn’t know about? I kept walking and peeking in the small windows of the other rooms as I passed by. Not only did they appear empty, they seemed untouched, as though no one had been in there at all. How odd, I thought.

At the end of the corridor was an automatic door that opened as I approached. It led me to a little space about 4 feet by 4 feet with cupboards and another automatic door on the other side, which almost immediately opened.

I peeked in one of the cupboards. Cleaning supplies. I snagged a couple of the disinfecting wipes, quickly washed my face and hands and threw them away in the bin on the floor.

I stepped in to the next car. It looked like a restaurant. But a closed restaurant. There was no one at any of the tables. So I kept walking forward.

As I walked, I peeked through the outer windows again and noticed the sun appeared to be slightly lower. It must be close to sunset. Had I slept the entire day away? Where was everybody?

And what the hell happened last night?

I took a mental note of the position of the sun. I guessed it had to be after 7pm. I tried to look at the shadows of some of the bushes outside, but we were going too fast. Trying to focus on one point made things too blurry. And considering I had just got sick, I left it alone for now. There has got to be a clock somewhere.

I walked through the closed restaurant, pushing the oddity of it to the back of my mind.

Maybe there was a kitchen problem and that’s why they closed this section, I thought, trying to justify it in my mind.

I walked through the automatic doors at the end of the restaurant, through another tiny section filled with supplies, and through the automatic door of the next car. It was a bar. Dimly lit and no passengers at all save for one man behind the bar. The bartender I guessed. He seemed a bit blurry until I realized I did not have my glasses on.

“Hi, Sir. I’m a little lost,” I explained as I approached the bartender. “Maybe you could help me?”

As I got closer, my eyesight should have become more clear. But the closer I got the more blurry he became. I softened my pace to approach slower thinking perhaps my vertigo was coming back. But it wasn’t. Where this man’s face should have been was a blur, like a badly far sighted person without their glasses. But strangely, the bar, the glasses, the booze, and neon lighting were all perfectly clear.

I felt my heart race as my mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing. The train chose that moment to rumble again. I grabbed the edge of the bar to gain balance and peered out of the window. Everything the train passed seemed blurrier than before. But this was a different blur. This was because the train appeared to move even faster than the last time I looked out the window.

A movement from the bartender caught my eye and I quickly turned to face him. It seemed as though his mouth was moving and he was having a muted conversation with no one in front of him.

“Hello? Is this real? Am I dreaming?” I asked the blurry figure in front of me. The blurry man either did not hear me or was too engrossed with his conversation with no one to notice me. Either way, I was a little too overwhelmed with weird happenings today that I decided to muster forward.

As soon as I thought this, the automatic door to the next car opened as though welcoming me in to the next room. Odd, I didn’t think I was close enough to trigger the sensor, I thought. With a shrug and one last look at the blurry man, I headed into the next car.

As soon as I entered, I stole a glance out the window to check the time. The sun had nearly set making everything dusky and murky outside. And, I could not believe my eyes as I saw the scenery become nothing more than lines of blur due to the speed we were traveling at. It had to have tripled since the last time I looked out the window. How is that even possible, I thought.

The next car was a lounge. Again empty. There were fake candles glowing with amber lights placed on the four tiny tables. Leather chairs with fancy wooden stub-legs were place on both side of each table.

It appeared as though the amber lights were glowing brighter until I realized it was just getting darker as the sun took its final plunge in to night time. I could no longer see the blurred lines we were passing, but I could feel the inertia and my sense of being centered was challenged. I had no idea how fast we were going now, but was positive it wasn’t legal. Had the conductor passed out?

What the hell happened last night, I screamed in my mind.

I am wandering around what seems like an empty train, except for one faceless man serving drinks and talking to people that aren’t there. I have no shoes on. I am wearing someone else’s second hand thrift clothes. I have no pockets, no tickets, and no memory. I am traveling at speeds that shouldn’t be legal while I try to make sense of all of this.

“You won’t make sense of it,” a voice cried out.

I turned all the way around, not knowing where that came from.

“Hello?” I called out.

No one answered me.

I was beginning to think I was losing my mind. Was this all a dream?

“It’s not a dream,” the deep voice said again.

“Ok, so I know you’re here somewhere. If this isn’t a dream, can you please just come out and talk to me?” I asked.

No one answered me.

I went from scared to angry.

“Look… I woke up here and I don’t know where here is. I just need to know where I am and how far until we stop so I can call someone to come get me.”

I didn’t think I said anything that could be misconstrued as funny, but for whatever reason, I heard a burst of deep laughter. But no answers.

The amber lighting on the wall flickered and caught my attention. The whole room appeared to glow in the amber color. I looked out the window and it was black. Not just night black, but a black like you were wearing a pair of goggles while swimming under the waves of a tar pit. I’d never seen such blackness. It engulfed everything around the train car. It even appeared to affect the color of the trim around the windows.

The voice was no longer laughing. It was no longer talking.

“Hello?” I called out. “Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

I glanced at the window again. The blackness seemed to be blocking the entire window frame. Confused, I stepped closer to the window to examine the darkness. As I got closer, I saw clearly the blackness slowly engulfing the window and begin to seep in through the walls.

“What the f….”, I muttered as I took a step back.

I glanced all around the car. Every wall was beginning to become smothered with the blackness from the night.

I gotta get the attention of the conductor, I thought. At the far end of the lounge was a rope and a sign that said, Employees only beyond this point. I tore it aside and headed through.

I passed another 4x4 area and entered the next automatic door. I was in the engine room. The front control area. What’s it called, I thought? I’d heard it called a barn once, I thought. Or maybe the locomotive? I don’t know.

Not the time for that, I thought.

“Hello? Anyone here?” I called out.

No answer.

I looked around and saw there was no one around. There was a small flashing red warning light blinking next a digital readout that stated 384 mph. I quickly glanced around looking for any sort of knob that might stop the train or at least slow it down. I passed by one digital screen that said “auto-accelerate engaged. Auto-pilot locked. Please enter 10 digit code to disengage.”

Ten digits? I thought. No one would ever crack that code.

“Hello?” I called again.

I glanced around and saw the blackness had almost completely engulfed all the outer walls of the train. I turned to head back in to the lounge, but the door was now blocked by the blackness.

Panic started to kick in. I turned to look at the control panels again. The speed was now 402 mph. I suddenly felt very sick again.

The blackness had begun to come up from underneath the train. Swirls of dark nothing began twisting around my holy socks.

I started to scream.

Then I heard the voice one more time…

“How long til you get here?” it said.

“Until I get where?” I screamed as the blackness was now swirling around my hips. I could no longer see my legs.

The voice said, “Can you hear me?”

“Of course I can hear you! What’s the matter with you?” The blackness had completely engulfed my waist and was making its way over my stomach and chest.

“Blink if you can hear me,” the voice said.

What the hell? I thought.

I started blinking rapidly as the blackness engulfed my chest and swirled around my neck.

I screamed in terror as everything went dark.

Suddenly there was silence. I could hear beeping and a woman’s voice talking to another woman with a familiar voice.

“The EMTs said they were drinking and tried to play chicken with a train. She’s lucky to be alive. But I’m afraid she’s never going to regain use of her body. She’s paralyzed. And blind.”

“Oh my God,” the familiar voice said and began sobbing.

“Ma’am, here are her belongings. The officer at the site said there was another male passenger in the car. He didn’t make it. And it looked like she was headed to meet some friends.”

I could hear the clicking of what sounded like keys on a cell phone. And the familiar voice began reading the messages out loud.

“I don’t know why he doesn’t like me. It don’t make sense.”

“You won’t make sense of it. He’s a guy.” I recognized that response.

“Do you think he’ll be at the party tonight? God, I don’t know if that’s a nightmare or a dream come true.” My best friend Angie sent me that message.

“It’s not a dream.” I had replied.

“How long til you get here?” Angie had asked.

“5 miwekwklwe” –

“What?”

“Kate?”

“It’s been 20 minutes. Where are you?”

“Kate… c’mon, you’re missing the party of a lifetime.”

“Now I’m worried, Kate. It’s been an hour since I heard from you.”

“Kate?”