The Nowhere Train

…Choooo, choo, choooo…

Choo…

Choo, choo, choooo…

Choo, choooo, choooo, choo…

“What is that? A train?” I mumbled as I reflexively rubbed my eyes, allowing a static cacophony of phosphenes to erupt behind the lids. But something felt strange… I suddenly realized I was sitting upright – not in the familiar warmth of my bed. My body also recognized the gentle shake and shudder of movement, as if I was in a vehicle. With confusion forcing a shiver up my spine, I blinked to get my vision adjusted to my surroundings and took in the small room I was in.

The smell hit me first. A heavy soot and paraffin scent coming from several oil lamps that provided a golden wash of light over the rich warm hues of the wood-lined interior of a very old, yet well kept, roomette. Across from me was a bench seat identical to the one I sat on; plush and upholstered in a deep red fabric. The oil lamps were a gleaming brass with bulbous glass housings for the flames. I counted four of them; two framing the windowed pocket door for the room to my left, and the other two on the wall opposite – one on each side of a window to my right. I noticed immediately that both the door’s window and the exterior window were covered by drawn curtains of the same hue as the benches.

I instinctively grabbed for my smartphone in the pocket of my gray parka. Looking down at myself, I was thankful that I was fully clothed in jeans, an old black tee shirt, my favorite beaten-up boots along with said parka and not somehow in the pajamas I half expected to see.

Glancing at my phone to note the time, I came upon the fact that I had no service, but more horrifically, the date and time only read zeros.

00:00

Friday, January 00

“What the hell?” What was wrong with my phone? Was it broken? Would I need to get it repaired? How much would that cost?

Kicking myself mentally over my expensive and now seemingly useless device, I came back to the issue at hand.

“I definitely don’t remember getting on this train. I didn’t even know trains this old were still in operation.” I laid my phone next to me on the bench and scrounged around my pockets for any other clues. Nothing. Not even a ticket for the train.

“Oh man, did I sneak on here? Did I go insane and have a completely unconscious escapade wherein I broke my phone and stowed away on some old train?” My mind reeled over these questions as another blow of the horn rang out – low, and far away.

Choo, choo, choo, choo…

Choo…

Choo, choooo, choo, choo…

Choo, choooo, choooo, choo…

“What an enthusiastic engineer…”

Choooo, choooo…

Choo…

“What’s going on? Maybe there’s something up ahead on the tracks?” My curiosity got the better of me as I flung open the curtain to the outside world. The sun was out, but my stomach sank as I saw thick forest outside the window whizzing by at a bewildering speed. How far from home was I at that point?

I could feel a pull on my body as the train rounded a curve and I took the chance to try to see the locomotive at the front. As I pressed my face against the icy glass, I looked up the metal segmented procession. On a bend, I thought for sure I’d be able to see the engine, but the train just disappeared into the tree-lined distance. I flipped my face to look toward the back only to find the same thing – the train cars curving into the dense woods as if emerging from a natural tunnel. All the coaches seemed to house cabins like the one I found myself in, only they had their curtains wide open. From what I could see, they were all lit, but I saw no other people inside them.

“Weird.” I backed away from the glass and looked toward the door that lead to the corridor. I sighed heavily. The last thing I wanted was to be caught by someone collecting tickets only to find I was seemingly here illegally. I looked around, under the seats, in the crack of the bench, between the bench and the wall in vain – hoping to find anything, even a ticket I had no knowledge of.

“Was I kidnapped? But who would kidnap someone, take them on a train, and leave? Maybe they’re coming back?” This sudden line of thought made my heart race. I checked my empty pockets once more. I had nothing – not even a pen – to protect myself with, and there was nothing in the room that wasn’t nailed or bolted down aside from my phone, which laid on the bench. I sighed through my nose as I snatched the useless thing up and stuffed it in my pocket.

“At least the battery is almost full in case I need to use my flashlight or something.”

I kneeled on the bench and put my ear to the wall to see if I could hear people in the next room over. There was no sound of talking, only the rough clickety-clack of the metal wheels on tracks and the vibrations that fed up throughout the entire car.

“It almost seems like I’m the only person here… but that would be impossible. Wouldn’t it?”

I made up my mind to leave the room. After all, who knows how long I’ve been asleep and how much longer the trip would take. I didn’t even have the slightest idea of where in the world I was. As far as I knew, no antiquated train rides happened around where I lived in the Midwest. The railroads were used by trains carrying grain, coal, shipping containers, or other cargo – not for leisure trips.

I peeked out the curtain covering the window on the door. The corridor was lined with oil lamps and windows that let in light from outside. I looked as far up and down the hall as I could and saw no one. Gently, and quietly, I slid the door open and stuck my head out. The smell of the oil lamps was out there as well, but there was another underlying odor that was tangy, like pennies. No one was in the passageway, so I stepped out.

“Wow, look at all this woodwork.” I thought as I ran my hand down the rosewood-paneled wall. “This train has to have been around since the Victorian Era… But it’s like brand new. Maybe it’s been refurbished?”

That made me feel even more nervous. I wasn’t just illegally on some old train, but probably a very expensive old train. Would there be even more hell to pay? How in the world did I get on here unseen?

I slowly took a step toward the room next door to me in the direction of the head of the train. It was the first room in the car, mine being the second. The soft, ornately decorated carpet padded my strides well. Luckily the curtain looking into the next roomette was open, but I found no one inside. I slid the door open and peeked in to be sure. It was identical to the room I had woken up in, but completely unoccupied. I backed out until my shoulder blades touched the opposite wall of the corridor – the left side of the train car. Craning my head, I looked up and down the coach. From exit door to exit door, there were eight cabins with a smaller room at the rear end of the car that I assumed was a bathroom. Each compartment had its curtains open, with lamp light spilling into the hallway. There was no noise or movement from any of them.

“What should I do now?” I asked myself. Looking back and forth down the hallway, I decided to check each room.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, no one, nada, surprise – nothing! The smaller room at the back of the car was indeed a bathroom with a private closet housing the toilet and a small sink for washing up. An elaborate mirror hung above the sink with an oil lamp on either side.

As I stood there, the train horn blared again, but this time it was one constant blast. I started to worry as it went on for what seemed like thirty seconds. I leaned back and turned my head to look up the car toward the direction of the front. Through the glass on the exit door, I could see into what seemed like endless cars in a straight line ahead. The interiors of the coaches in front of the one I was on blurred into nothingness as my vision could only reach so far. But then I noticed something; a darkness sliding through each car. It took them over, one-by-one like a blackout.

The train horn became distorted, as if the front end were descending under water, until it faded out. The blackness that took over each car closed in and soon drenched my own in an inky blanket. As my eyes adjusted, I realized we must have gone into a tunnel. The thundering of the train reverberated off the walls and back into the coaches with nowhere else to go. The lamps did their best to shed light within the dim, wooden cocoon but even they seemed to struggle against the absolute void the tunnel brought.

A chill ran up my spine as dread welled up inside me. It filled my stomach, crept up my chest, and into my head, causing my hair to stand on end. I felt bad, like something was about to occur and I had no power to stop it. I could only stand there as a witless passenger.

The new murk within the train ushered in a chill and I was thankful for my coat as I wrapped it tightly around myself.

BOOM…BOOM…BOOM.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM.

A loud stomping sound was racing toward me from the train cars behind. I could barely hear it over the rumble in the tunnel, but it was there, and getting louder. I peered out the exit door next to me, which led out onto a gangway between the cars. In the next coach, I saw nothing, but that noise became feverish and blended in with the dissonant racket of the train.

No wait, were the lamps in that car dimming? Were the ones in my car dimming? They were being swallowed up by something far darker than even the tunnel. Suddenly overcome by the need to hide, I backed away from the door and dove into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I put my back against it and slid down to the floor with my face in my knees.

“What is that? What is that!? What’s happening?” Hot tears stained my jeans as I shoved my fingers in my ears to deafen myself to the chaos erupting around the train.

A sudden burst of howling wind screamed into the car as the rear exit door was flung open. I bit my lip to keep myself from crying out but even if I did, it would have been lost in the pandemonium occurring outside that bathroom.

The door the unknown thing had come through slammed shut but the noises hardly diminished. Instead, there was a new sound – my blood rushed in my ears and my heart pounded so fiercely I was sure it was louder than anything else. I worried it could be heard as I cowered there against that wooden door which now seemed as thick and safeguarding as paper.

From down the hallway came a splintering crack, ripping, shattering of glass, and then a petrifying, nauseating screeching. The yowling the creature made was mixed with gurgles and growls and, though I couldn’t yet tell why it shrieked, it sounded furious. It soon halted its rampage on the structure and began tumultuously treading back and forth, and then suddenly… silence.

The lamps in the bathroom swelled their glow as if they had just woken up from a sound sleep. The train horn blared out clear and almost happily with one short note. The normal rhythmic hum of the wheels was almost a lullaby compared to the mayhem just moments before and I briefly wondered if I had gone partially deaf.

I stood shakily, bracing myself on the sink and stared at my tear-streaked, red-faced reflection. That was when I noticed the finger markings on the mirror. I couldn’t tell what it was, but someone had clearly written something on it. I twisted the hot water tap on and let it heat up, filling the small room with steam before turning it back off. Now the message on the mirror could be seen more clearly. It was still hard to make out, but there was a tall shape that looked like a thin, towering man with a hat and eight arms. I got a sense for his size due to there being a smaller drawing of what I assumed was an average-sized person next to him that only stood as tall as his midsection. I couldn’t make out any other details of the pair, but below the crude drawing were two words with an arrow appointing them to the large man with too many arms: Ticket Collector.

My stomach twisted in knots as I held my weight up with the porcelain sink. I stared into the drain as my mind disassociated from its current reality. The bathroom around me disappeared as my eyes focused on the darkness down the small hole.

“What’s going on? Am I having a nightmare? Did I die? Is this some sort of hellish afterlife? Was that thing the “Ticket Collector”?”

I glared back up at the drawing on the mirror and slapped myself across the face. The stinging redness on my cheek, reflected back at me and brought me to my senses.

“No! You aren’t dead or dreaming.” I told myself. Thinking I should save this grim scribbling in front of me, I took out my phone and snapped a picture of the mirror message before pocketing it again. Looking to the door, part of my brain told me that thing could be out there, waiting silently on the other side. I stepped up to it and put my ear against the wood. I heard nothing but the standard rumbling I’d become used to before the train entered the tunnel. Steadily, so as not to make any noise, I undid the lock and slid the door open a crack.

My eyes darted up, down, left, and right, but I saw nothing other than the bright hallway. We had left the tunnel. Was that why everything had stopped abruptly? I slid the door open fully and stepped out, first looking to the train car behind mine. The vivid sunlight made it hard to see into, but from what I could tell, it was devoid of anything or anyone, at least in the corridor.

I spun around to look toward the front of the car. There were pieces of wood, glass, and bench stuffing everywhere on the floor toward that end. Realizing, with growing terror, that the roomette I had woken up in, was demolished as if it had exploded outwardly into the hallway. As I stepped into the ruined mess to investigate, I saw that the far wall was tattered, but the window had remained intact. The cabin had been mercilessly battered and destroyed but the rooms adjacent were left untouched. While I stood there staring at the turmoil, my stomach gurgled. How long had it been since I’d eaten? Obviously, this was no common train ride – what with a monstrous creature that rips through the train cars unabated – so I doubted a food cart would be making the rounds anytime soon. That begged the question: What direction do I go in to find food?

I looked toward the caboose and then up in the engine’s direction. Are the dining room and kitchen usually toward the front or rear of a train? I had no clue. But I was sure of one thing – someone was driving the train and honking that horn. If they are… human… then they need food. I resolved to head toward the front either way since that seemed like the best option judging from the fact that the brutal thing from earlier had come from the rear. Plus, I still had no idea if it was only able to move in the near pitch back environment the tunnel provided or if it just happened to pick that time. There would possibly be more tunnels as well. I could feel sweat drops tickling my hairline. Would travelling to the front of the train give me any sort of comfort? There was a small voice in the back of my mind whispering, “What if the Engineer is like the Ticket Collector?”. This whole train could be manned with things like that. From the Ticket Collector, to the Conductor, and the Engineer. There was no way to tell other than to move forward.

I ignored those worries for the most part and made my way to the exit at the front of the train car, careful of where I stepped in the wreckage. The door was large and made of a thick, sturdy metal with a sizable window in the upper middle, allowing a view of the train segment in front. I reached for the latch and turned it with ease, pulling the door open. The howling wind whipped my hair into tangles as I stepped onto the small platform between the two train coaches. Looking down, the tracks were a blur due to our speed, but scanning out around me, I could see the forest on either side thinning a bit and I became excited at the thought that we might be coming into a town where we would stop at a station and I could hop off this fiendish locomotive.

I promptly made my way to the car ahead and popped the door open. Being back inside the train was both a blessing and a curse. I was safely inside without the rushing wind blowing around me, but I was also once again within this antique, wooden hellscape I had come to loathe. I stared ahead at a perfectly identical car to the one I had come from. Aside from the floor being spotless and devoid of the shambles of my cabin, I would have thought I was just walking through the same train car on loop. And this happened; after finding nothing at all in the new car, I moved to the next, and the next, and the next. My mind jumbling them all together into one ophidian amalgamation masquerading as a simple train.

I came to the tenth car – or was this the eleventh? Twelfth? I had thought I was counting them as I went, but I second-guessed myself a few times as, with each indistinguishable train coach, I felt I was slowly losing my mind. The only thing that perked me up was that outside, we were no longer within the thick embrace of timber. The woodlands had receded outward on both sides of the track, opening to vast fields of tall grass with hills in the distance that kept me from seeing anything further.

We had to have been going for hours since I awoke but the sun outside showed no sign of celestial movement. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t see it, so I had to assume it was directly overhead, but that wouldn’t normally make any sense. The whole train ride was deranged with it being as it was, so I’d given up on thinking anything would be normal.

“Even the sun in the sky obeys the will of this train.” I guessed.

Were people looking for me back home? Was my boss pissed that I hadn’t shown up for work? I lived alone, but surely my friends and neighbors would notice my sudden disappearance. I imagined myself being shown on the news as a missing person. They would search for me, find nothing and then give up – making me one of those unsolved cases that never gets closure. I’m an only child, so that would wreck my parents’ lives. I had to make sure that didn’t happen. I needed to get off this train, but that wouldn’t be possible unless I got to the Engineer and made them stop it.

I began to get warmer as I relentlessly progressed through the train, so I pulled my phone from my coat pocket and discarded the parka on a bench in one of the many empty cabins. Aside from feeling like I was starving, I soon had to make use of the bathroom, so I did my business and checked the mirror for good measure to be sure there wasn’t another mysterious message from an unknown hand. There was nothing on it, like the several others I had checked as I traversed the litany of coaches.

I ran some cold water, cupped my hands, and gulped as much down as I could to stave off the hunger I felt. I splashed my face as well, letting the icy water re-energize what it could of me.

“I really hope this isn’t some sort of weird torture chamber where rich people stick poor people to watch them try to survive on a messed-up TV show. Shouldn’t they at least feed me? I think it’d be pretty boring to watch someone starve to death.” I said aloud to no one… or anyone who might have been listening. My mind was left scrambling for any sort of answer to the gnawing question of “Why am I here?”, but even I had to admit through the haze of hunger, confusion, and exhaustion putting stress on my senses that being kidnapped and put on a hell train for the entertainment of some 1-percenter, power-hungry pricks was far-fetched.

I exited the bathroom and was about to continue my seemingly endless journey when I felt the train lurch to the left slightly, signaling we were rounding another curve. I ran to a window in one of the rooms to get a look at the train now that the trees weren’t obstructing my view. What I saw was equal parts baffling and heart-wrenching.

Around the large bend, I could clearly see far up and down the train, but it went on forever in each direction. I couldn’t make out the front at all, not even the slightest hint of steam from the chimney. How had I ever been able to hear the horn if the engine was that far away? The train had to be miles long, which was out of the question, but I had promised myself that normalcy was the true nonviable thing here.

“We don’t stop or even slow down. What kind of Willy Wonka everlasting hell is this!?” I yelled as I kicked the wall. An abrupt, curt horn honk rang out.

I kicked the wall again.

Chooooo!

I fell backward into the bench.

“No. Way.” I said with a smile spreading across my face. I didn’t know if it was insanity or pure childish glee. Could the train feel me kick it? Or was I being monitored?

Kick. Kick.

Choo. Choo.

I laughed as I kicked a random pattern and the horn repeated it right back. But abruptly the horn went off on its own tangent.

“That’s weird. It sounds like a pattern…”

Choooo, choooo…

Choooo, choooo, choooo…

Choo, choo, choo, choooo…

Choo, choo…

Choooo, choo…

Choooo, choooo, choo…

“Haha, wouldn’t that be funny if it were Morse Code or something… Oh wait.” I gasped, recognizing some of it. At that moment, I was glad my father had thought to teach me Morse Code when I was younger, and I in turn taught my friends. We used it to communicate like we were spies. I was extremely rusty and wasn’t sure I remembered it all, but I was determined to figure out what was being said through the train’s blaring pattern of code. As it went on, I pulled out my phone to type what I was hearing in my notepad app, using the short horn burst as a dot and the long horn burst as a dash.

“Dash, dot, dash. Dot. Dot. Dot, dash, dash, dot… Dash, dash. Dash, dash, dash. Dot, dot, dot, dash. Dot, dot. Dash, dot. Dash, dash, dot…” I stared at the message, making sure the pattern of dashes, dots, and pauses lined up with what the train was currently trumpeting non-stop.

“Well I definitely know a single “dot” is “e” and a double “dot” is “i” … So I’ve got blank, e, e, blank, pause, blank, blank, blank, i, blank, blank… Okay what is this?”

The train was still honking, which was extremely distracting so I kicked the wall, hoping whoever was doing this got the message I was sending back. The horn abruptly stopped.

“Thank you!” I huffed, finally happy to have some relative calm. I concentrated on the code and guessed at a few more letters.

“I’m pretty sure dash, dot, dash is “k”, or was that “r”? Dot, dash, dash, dot is “p”, I think? So “Keep” or Reep”. Well I don’t think “Reep” is a word, so I’ll go with “Keep”.” I mumbled as I deciphered the jumble of dots and dashes.

“Keep… Towing…? No, that can’t be it. Keep toving? That’s definitely not a word… Oh wait! That’s “m” not “t” … Keep moving!!!”

Goosebumps erupted over my body as the meaning of those words sank into my fatigued brain.

“Well… That seems ominous.”

I stood from the bench and went to the exit door but paused before opening it and continuing on. I looked back at the train cars behind me through the window in the back door until they melded together into obscurity like an infinity mirror.

“But how long do I have to keep moving? I’m tired and hungry. Are they telling me I can’t rest? Are they helping me or saying I don’t get the luxury of inactivity?”

Although a huge part of me wanted to give the finger toward the front of the train and lay down on a plush bench, the other half feared what would catch up to me if I gave it the chance. I twisted the handle and opened the door to move to the next train coach. I was sick with the thought of seeing the same monotonous wooden interior and smelling that same stale lamp oil.

I entered the door to the next car without hesitation, so I didn’t see the golden swaying field of wheat until I was waist deep in it. I stared, agape at the blue sky with puffy clouds that hugged a softly setting sun, which made the wheat glisten like it was made of actual gold. I turned around and stared at the door that hung firm about six inches off the ground with no wall in sight. I still heard the wheels on the tracks and felt the gentle shaking of the train, but birds also sang and flew around me as a breeze caressed the field and the few trees surrounding it.

I opened the door and peeked back out. The familiar breakneck speeds and high winds rushed past. I closed the door quickly and turned back to the serene landscape surrounding me. I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Now this was definitely a clear sign that I was experiencing something otherworldly. Perhaps even within another dimension.

I cautiously made my way into the field, leaving the door behind but then noticed another one up ahead. It was like I was inside an interdimensional space that existed within the train car. The two doors were signaling a tangible exit back to, what I had thought, was the real world. However, within the actual coach was another macrocosm, open to explore and spreading out so wide that the confines of the train no longer had a physical hold on it.

As I stepped out to the left or right, the sounds and juddering of the train evaporated and the harmonious sounds of my new environment became more lucid. I picked a sprig of wheat and examined it. It was real. At least it seemed quite real.

The two doors, the length of a train car apart, remained fixed in their spots. I jumped back into the space between them and felt and heard the train movements. I jumped back out and it disappeared, being replaced with the sounds of nature. I did this several times until I was satisfied.

“These doors don’t seem to be going anywhere, and I’m finally on solid ground… This place must exist for some reason. I was told to keep moving as if they knew I’d find it.” Looking back at the doors, I pulled my phone out and snapped a quick picture, noting my battery life was holding up surprisingly well.

“If I have to get back to the train, I’ll just come back here. I’ll try going off in a straight direction with this point directly behind me.”

I walked away from those doors that hung oddly in the field, positive that I could explore my new world, figure out who left the mirror message, and find my way home. However, I had no way of knowing that the dark creature stalking the train could also make its way to this hopeful new place and it was only a matter of time before that rear exit door shook with fury and burst open.

To be continued…