Enigma Express

Pain is the first thing I feel. It lances through my head and down my arms, through my chest all the way to my legs. My eyes feel as though they’re being held shut. Something is rocking under me and I’m unsteady. I stretch out my fingers and wiggle my toes in my shoes in an attempt to wake up further. I force my eyes open and look up at a red velvet ceiling. My vision is fuzzy and I squint in an effort to see more clearly. Whatever I’m lying on is surprisingly comfortable and I brace the palms of my hands on the cushioned fabric and push myself into a sitting position. My vision goes black and my head pounds. It only lasts for a few seconds before I regain my bearings. I’m moving I realize with a start. My vision is still slightly distorted and my body throbs, my head being the worst. I rub my eyes in an attempt to clear my vision, but that only makes it worse. I look around and realize I’m in a train compartment, which explains to the moving sensation. It’s nice and looks as though it’s straight out of the early 1900s. There are two benches facing each other that are covered in a plush red fabric that matches the walls. The whole compartment is red I realize in surprise, down to the shelves above the seats meant to store luggage, even the door and support beams. I try to remember how I got here. It’s blank. I try to remember my name and it comes to the front of my brain, Aiko Hayashi. I try to think of my parents, nothing. I try to remember if I have friends and what my job is but it feels as though I’m grasping for air, as I recall nothing. My heart starts to bear faster. Panic floods through me and I stand up, my vision goes dark and my elbow slams against wall and bounces off. Pain shoots through my arm and I reach out blindly and grab onto the shelf meant for luggage so as not to fall down. It fades after a minutes, but I still feel weak and dizzy. I look for a window, but there isn’t one. I realize the easiest way to find out would be to ask a worker or another passenger. I feel myself start to calm. I probably just fell asleep and hit my head, I’m just disoriented and everything will come back to me in a couple minutes. It’s probably just a concussion or something.

I slide open the door to my compartments and walk out into a narrow hall with compartments lining one wall and a plain red walls lining the other. It’s a narrow corridor and the floors are the same plush red carpet along with the plain red wall on the other side. Everything is an identical shade of crimson from the walls to the wood. I walk to look into the compartment next to mine and find it empty. I go to peer into the next one and it’s also empty. My heart starts pounding again as I go to the next and the one after that and the one after that. I look into every single compartment in the hall, eight in total, and every single one is empty. There’s a door on each end of the hall and I pick one at random. I run to it and swiftly to find an identical hall. I search in every compartment, no one. I’m shaking now, my blood rushing and my body still weak. I feel as though I’m about to collapse. I go back to the hall I was originally in and try the door on the other end of the hall. It’s the same and I again glance into every compartment. I run through through hall after hall as fast as I can while still disoriented. I finally go through a door that doesn’t lead to an identical corridor. It’s a lounge with cushy armchairs and pretty light fixtures with wooden tables and a fancy looking bar that’s fully stocked. All of it is the same goddamn shade of red; even the lights are tinted red. It’s big, taking up an entire carriage. I look around, there’s still no one. There’s no bartender and I consider helping myself to a glass of liquor. I decide against it, not yet. That’s when I notice even the alcohol is an identical red. There’s a piece of the room carved out with access through a door. I open the door to a bathroom with red marble. Strangely it’s the only one I’ve found so far and it doesn’t say if it’s a men’s, women’s or gender-neutral bathroom. In fact there is nothing that would even indicate it’s a bathroom from the outside. I walk through three more carriages that are identical to the one I woke up in before finding the front of the train. The door is red painted wood and I try the handle. It’s locked and I regain some hope. Maybe there’s someone in there. Maybe I just forgot to get off the train and that’s why there’s no one here. I pound on the door.

“Hey,” I call out, “is anyone in there?” There’s no response and my heart sinks. I need to get in there. I kick the door open and it doesn’t budge. I try again and again and on the fourth try in swings open and crashes into the wall. This is the most modern looking thing I’ve seen since I woke up. It’s rows of switches and nobs and buttons that glow with electricity, but there’s no one operating it. It’s all red, even the glowing lights. The rest of the compartment is the same as the remainder of the train with plush red floors and walls with wooden beams. The truly odd part is that there’s no window above the panel of controls, just another red wall. I decide to try flipping one of the switches, but nothing happens. I turn a nob then press a button, still nothing. I press and turn all the controls, but the train remains steady. I look under the board and it’s plain red, except for a small keyhole on the side. There’s also three numbers engraved into the bottom, 274. I search the room for a key or a meaning for the numbers, but find nothing. I sigh as the last bit of hope leaves me. My system seems to go into overload and confusion and fear floods over me. Am I dead? Is this some weird afterlife? I rush back to the lounge and my hands shake violently as I go behind the bar and find a glass below the counter, which is of course tinted red, and poor myself a glass of the closest bottle. I don’t even look what it is before I drain it. The burning sensation glides down my throat. It makes me feel alive and the thought that I could possibly be dead leaves me. Though honestly, anything’s possible. I sit in the nearest plush red chair with the bottle of what I now see it is Campari and my glass. I don’t bother with the glass on the next swig and just drink straight from the bottle. I look down at myself and notice my weird appearance. I’m wearing all red, simple red pants and an identical red cotton shirt that matches the shade of the train perfectly; even my shoes are plain red runners. I look down at my wrist that’s adorned with a watch, which is also the same shade of red and the hands have all stopped at the 12:00 mark. I frown down at it as my stomach twists. The only thing I can see that isn’t red is my skin and my black hair.

I put down the glass and the bottle and stand up. The alcohol hasn’t hit me yet, but it will soon. I want to find a mirror so I can look at myself or maybe a clock so I can know what time it is. I realize I haven’t seen a single window and have no clue whether it’s even day or night. I look around the room and then I wander down all the corridors. They’re all identical apart from the lounge and the control room. They lack all the things I’m looking for. I go back to the lounge since it’s the most spacious and has alcohol, but on my way back I notice a flicker of light. I turn back to look at it. It came from just above one of the compartment doors. I walk back and something catches the light again. It takes me a minute to spot a surveillance camera I hadn’t noticed before since it’s also pained red aside from the minuscule black lens. I look for more and find ten more in that carriage alone. There’s one in each compartment and three in the hall. I also notice that every single one moves so that it’s always facing me. I check carriage after carriage and find a consistent eleven with the same placement each time. It must take me hours, but I’ve lost all perception of time. I eventually make it back to the lounge and find seventeen surveillance cameras. Every single one is focused on me and tracks my movements. Fear takes over me and I find myself screaming into them.

“Where am I?” My voice is hoarse from disuse. There’s no response.

“What do you want?” Again nothing. My throat aches slightly and itches for water. I wonder if the cameras pick up audio and wait for a minute, but nothing happens. I take a closer look at the camera, climbing on top of the red painted bar to peer into its lens. It’s pitch black, but there are small numbers at the bottom. This one reads 9:00 written in red in a digital font. I look down at my watch again. Is that the current time? I carefully get down from the bar and climb onto one of the armchairs to look into another surveillance camera. The numbers at the bottom show 7:00 and I start to get curious. I jump off the chair and hurry to another to read the time on a third surveillance clock. It shows 14:00. I gather two things from this. One, the cameras aren't telling me the time of day since each one has a different answer and two, they’re using a 24 hour clock, but the one on my watch is 12 hours meaning it isn’t showing 12:00 a.m., but 12:00 p.m.

I walk out into the hall and go into the first compartment to stand up onto the bench and look into the surveillance camera. This one doesn’t have a time but it has the number 42 with an arrow pointing upwards. I frown at it and rush to the next compartment and look into its surveillance camera. The number 32 is written next to an arrow pointing right. The longer I’m here the more confused I get so I go back to the lounge where I can possibly make sense of the times on the surveillance camera. I decide I have to find the camera with the time 12:00 and set to work. It probably takes me half an hour because it’s one of the last ones I check that finally shows 12:00. I smile, but then it falls because now what? I sit down in the chair I was standing in to look into the camera and examine the watch. I take it off my wrist and flip it over. The back has a combination lock with three slots. I look at it in confusion, because what watch has a combination lock? Then I remember the numbers I found engraved in the board at the front of the train, 274. It’s worth a shot. I plug in the numbers and the combination lock pops open to reveal a little compartment. Inside is a tiny screwdriver that doesn’t even have a handle. It’s the length of about a third of my finger and I have to hold it carefully so as not to drop it. I put the watch down onto the bar and climb back onto the chair below the surveillance camera with the time 12:00 to see what I can do with the screwdriver. I inspect the camera and find four screws attaching it to the wall. I undo them one by one, dropping the screwdriver many times, cursing profusely, before it finally comes off the wall. There’s a square hole left in the wall and I get closer to look through it. There is a number followed by a row of symbols. 6 - upwards pointing arrow, square, triangle, downwards pointing arrow, rectangle = circle. I look at it confused, and then remember the symbol with the number in the carriage cameras.

I run back and look again. Sure enough there’s still the number 42 next to an arrow pointing up. I grin, I rush to the next one and there’s still the number 32 next to an arrow pointing right, that doesn’t help me. There are only six symbols and eleven cameras so some have to be useless. I rush to the next one, jumping onto the bench to look at the numbers. 27 next to a pentagon and my smile fades. I look at camera after camera, even jumping to look into the cameras in the hall but I’m still missing the number 6, a circle, a square and a downwards-facing arrow. I scour the carriage, looking for anything that might help me. After about twenty minutes I notice the number 8 above the door in the exact same shade of crimson, making it nearly impossible to see except for the fact it’s slightly raised from the wall. I walk towards it only to realize it’s referring to the carriage number, so the symbols must be in the sixth carriage. I run through two carriages and finally make it the sixth. I find all of the symbols and memorize the numbers then go into the compartment with the camera that has a symbol of a circle. It doesn’t have any number next to it, which gives me some confidence. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the numbers. The must be a combination lock or something here. My vision goes bright all of a sudden and a myriad of colours swim before my eyes. My head pounds and I squeeze my eyes close. I feel for a bench and sit, pressing my fingertips into my temple. Colours flash even when my eyes are closed. I think I’m about to pass out. I’ve heard of this before. I believe it happens when you stare at one colour for too long, that colour retina gives out or something like that. Why now when I was finally figuring things out? Time blurs and I have no idea how long I sit there before I hear an automated voice float through the train.

“5.” I frown and try to open my eyes but that only makes it worse.

“4.” A countdown? Maybe whoever put me in this hell train is finally letting me out.

“3.” Or maybe I’ve run out of time to solve whatever twisted puzzle this is.

“2.” It’s definitely a countdown since the numbers are being said at exactly one-second intervals. I force myself to stand up but keep my eyes closed.

“1.” Dammit. I slide the door open and feel my way down the hall, moving as fast as I can.

“We are sorry you are out of time. Thank you for participating in our experiment and we hope you enjoyed your stay on the Enigma Express. Goodbye.” Enigma Express? Is that the name of this cursed train? Also what experiment are they talking about? Why did the voice say goodbye? Then I feel the front of the train plummet off something and the rest follows it. I’m no longer standing on the floor as I hit one of the walls. My body groans on impact and I hear a crack. Pain explodes through me as I hit another wall. I try to grab for something, anything. I force my eyes open and see a light fixture to grab onto. I reach for it and clutch onto it. My ribs scream in protest and my head is about to split open. The light detaches from the wall and I go flying. I feel like a volleyball being bounced from wall to wall. Darkness creeps into my vision and I don’t have the strength to fight it as it engulfs me.

A white lab is crowded with rushing scientists, eager to study their newest trial subject. The lab is clean and one wall is completely dominated by screens portraying a train falling off a cliff. A man and a woman study the screens, the woman taking notes on her computer. The man shakes his head in disappointment.

“Subject 19 completion, 8%. Fail. Prepare subject 20.”