Changing Trains Of Thought

Zeke and I fell in love and were a much-envied teenage couple in high school. We we’re even crowned King and Queen of the Senior Prom. As a graduation gift, my parents gave me and Zeke a month-long tour of Europe by train.

This tour was even more incredible than either one of us could have possibly dreamed. The pensiones were prepaid as were all the train tickets which meant we didn’t even need to worry about losing tickets or being bothered by a conductor barreling though to wake us up and collect them. We were having so much fun and about halfway into our tour, we boarded a quaint train to whisk us away to Venice. After getting in our seats, we were so exhausted from all the activities during the past two weeks, we quickly fell asleep.

Rudely awakened by what felt like a 7.0 Richter-scale earthquake, I looked out a window and everything was a blur. I knew we were going way too fast and on a runaway train. I panicked and looked at Zeke who could not calm me because he was also freaking out. At the same time, I heard laughter which kept increasing as people were screaming. I managed to catch a glimpse of an old man in his 80s enjoying the impending doom. Louder and more demonic laughter continued until I realized the train had left the tracks and passengers were flying through the air ending with metal, bones and bodies crashing, twisting and colliding with the Earth.

Within the otherwise dead silence, there was still only loud, crazed laughter which filled and echoed in this death chamber until I was no longer aware of anything. As I lost consciousness, I felt weightless.

In the next instant, I was at my hometown State Fair. It was 11:11 p.m. on the last day it would exist.

It had been in existence since 1886. Obviously, many changes and replacements have occurred as advancements were made to what seemed incredible at each time period, but soon became embarrassingly and pathetically obsolete.

Zeke and I had seen many changes in the years we attended this Fair as children and the eleven years we have been a couple. Progress always seems to move faster and faster as though on a runaway train because we lived in an era where innovation and obsolescence are updated yearly, if not monthly.

So, tonight at midnight on November 11, 2022, this now 277 acres will cease to be a State Fair and become a Space Port for the new 'Magnetic Assisted Space Train' or MAST. Soon, it will become the greatest ride any State Fair could ever enjoy. Passengers will depart from here to exclusive vacations with breathtaking views in a Space Hotel 248 miles above the Earth called the '250 Mile High Club and Space Suites.'

The last group of passengers for 'The Runaway Train' ride was freed from a simple chain holding us back. Zeke and I ran very fast laughing to reach the first train car on this most recent addition to the park, but it was still doomed to get dismantled after midnight. Each train car had an old nostalgic passenger train name emblazoned on it. The one we were in was ‘The Train of the Stars - The Super Chief.’

There were eleven cars on this ride, and they all filled up. In fact, a few were not able to be seated and some older riders gave up their seats so the younger ones could ride it since they possibly hadn’t ridden it before like the older patrons.

Once all the shuffling around, re-seating and locking us all in was completed, the music was turned up to deafening as we waited anticipating the reputation was true about its scream-worthiness.

Each car held six people but, oddly, ours only had five passengers, Zeke and me, another teenage couple and an old man in his 80s. I guessed he probably attended the Fair every year and wanted this one last ride. It was bittersweet to me and as I started to ask him about that, the ride jerked forward and abruptly stopped. Everyone started to laugh at the tease they assumed came from the ride controller. I noticed the old man was not laughing or amused whatsoever. He glared at me then started laughing and demonically shouted out “You are not ready for this!”

I started to ask him what he meant, but suddenly the train ride took off pinning me to my seat. Indeed, I wasn’t ready for that and wondered if that’s what the old man meant.

The speed of 'The Runaway Train' ride seemed to be too fast, but I had never ridden it before. “Zeke, is this ride going too fast?” Instead of Zeke answering me, the old man started laughing hysterically and said “Too fast? You think this is too fast? Just wait!”

Zeke could tell I was shocked by his answer, so he whispered in my ear “Just ignore him, Bree. He’s having fun teasing you.”

The lighting was dim, but I saw an effect coming up that looked like giant boulders rolling down a mountain side. We approached it so fast, I cringed and put my head against Zeke’s chest covering my head with my hands because I really thought those fake boulders would fall into our train car and crush us.

They did not hit our car, but they did crash into the fourth car immediately crushing all the occupants. There were no screams from them because it all happened too fast. However, all the other people in the surviving cars, were screaming and crying. This ride seemed to be fueled by terror and it picked up speed again. I could no longer see what was about to happen or even tell what did happen. Everything was a blur because of the sickening speed.

Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Everybody was screaming or crying trying to get the ride controller to make it stop or at least slow down. Everyone except the old man who seemed to be insanely laughing about the dead people in the fourth car and the panicked screaming now filling and echoing inside this fully enclosed ride.

I couldn’t tell if it was being fueled by the demonic laughing from that strange old man or the screaming passengers. It didn’t matter because now the speed was out of control and a slight turn made the cars inertia break the steel clamp which had kept us on the somewhat modern track.

As the entire train ride freed itself like a hideous monster from the track, all passengers were trapped inside their cars by the safety bars that were locked down before this nightmare started.

'The Runaway Train' ride was now a real runaway train. It had a mind of its own and nobody knew what its intentions were. Except for the old man who was laughing and enjoying the unleashed havoc realizing nobody had the ability to control it.

I’m pretty sure this ride was not intended to throw the train cars flying in all directions with all its passengers still locked in them. 'The Matrix Effect' was controlling time now and the macabre events that were happening. I saw a familiar panic had seized Zeke’s face and realized there was no hope whatsoever for a good outcome. Yet, the old man was still laughing viciously.

I heard metal clanking and grinding as the train cars slid sideways on darkened unknown surfaces. Bones were nauseatingly cracking, blood was spurting hitting me in the face and into my screaming, open mouth.

Then, the once loud screaming and crying dwindled down to dead silence.

Yet, out of the dead silence, once again, loud laughter filled and echoed in this death chamber until I was no longer aware of anything. As I lost consciousness, I felt weightless.

In the next instant, I was a fully suited-up astronaut careening through space with no lifeline. In the distance, I saw what appeared to be another astronaut headed directly and intently towards me. As the astronaut attached a hook to my suit, I looked at his face in the helmet and it was Zeke! I screamed “Zeke!” with happiness, but it only echoed inside my helmet. Zeke smiled back realizing and relieved I was safe.

Zeke then pointed to an amazing structure. A neon sign on top read '250 Mile High Club and Space Suites.' My jaw dropped in my helmet at this unbelievable sight. I looked at Zeke and his voice echoed through the speakers in my helmet, “I made reservations. Let’s check in!” His jet pack flew us to the entrance, it was wide open so we continued to fly up to the reception desk. I started laughing at how insanely ludicrous this all was, yet I didn’t question it because I loved it all.

Zeke was handed a metallic card which I assumed was a room key. It had 1111 printed on it and Zeke received instructions for its location within this vast maze of a space odyssey. There were no elevators. We simply flew to our suite. Zeke passed the keycard over a plate and an airlock opened to our room. Great news because Zeke immediately stripped me, Barbarella style, out of my space suit because we could now breathe in the room totally naked and, WOW, did we ever breathe heavily! The sex was literally ‘out of this World.’

In the morning, we ordered suite service breakfast and it was light and airy, but delicious. It was also real food, not astronaut food. Zeke explained “There’s no need for packaged astronaut food, Bree. There are daily Space Train deliveries from Earth to us and we can go back and forth, too! When we finish eating, let’s take a ride on the Space Train back down to Earth!” I must have gone totally white because I felt the blood drain from my head when I heard the word ‘train.’

“A Space Train, Zeke? Shouldn’t there be space ships or shuttles to go back down to Earth?”

“No, Bree, it is a type of shuttle, but it’s called a train because it’s run on a magnetic cable and it’s very fast and efficient because it requires no fuel. They call it ‘The Train of the Stars’ just for a bit of nostalgia.”

I felt slightly queasy as Zeke expertly used the jet pack to fly and guide us into the ‘Space Train Station.’ He already had free tickets courtesy of the Space Suite in which we were staying. They actually looked like train cars stacked on top of each other and, just as Zeke had described, they were attached to a giant magnetic cable from the station all the way down to the Earth. I became fully nauseated when I looked down and realized the floor of the 'Space Train Station' was thick see-through acrylic with metal threads running through it so our magnetized space boots would keep us from floating away. Oddly, in keeping with nostalgia, the cars of the Space Train we were about to board had the names of old passenger trains painted on each one. Each Space Train had eleven cars and seated six people in each car.

“How fast does this go, Zeke, and how long does it take?”

“It’s fast, but you won’t actually feel it. It’s like an elevator, Bree, but the magnets make it speedy just like a bullet train and it only takes eleven minutes to get to the Earth’s landing and boarding station.”

As Zeke and I entered the car 'The Train of the Stars - The Super Chief,' three other passengers we’re already seated. They were another teenage couple and an old man probably about 80. Again, another wave of nausea swept over me because they seemed vaguely familiar. No! They looked exactly like Zeke and I did as teenagers on our 'Tour of Europe by Train' adventure gifted to me by my parents!

As we buckled up, I noticed the old man staring at me. The doors slid and sealed shut and the change in pressure caused a slight downward, but unexpected drop and I screamed.

Then, the old man started a familiar demonic laugh I knew I’ve heard before. He then glared at me and said “Now, you ARE ready for this!” Before I had a chance to ask him what he meant, there was a sudden whoosh as we were being rushed down magnetically towards the Earth and I felt weightless.

I became intently aware of an unidentifiable electronic rhythmic beeping sound. I looked at Zeke and asked “What is that beeping sound, Zeke?” Zeke did not answer. In fact, he didn’t even acknowledge I was there. The laughing from the old man got louder and more crazed. I screamed at him “STOP LAUGHING!” as the Space Train shuddered and the infernal beeping became all I heard.

Now, it became slower and slower.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BE…___________________________________.

“Is Bree gone, Doctor? She can’t be! I heard her say something! What did my baby say?”

“She said, ‘Stop laughing.’”