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It’s been a while. Now that I have enough time, and battery, I can write down everything that has happened so far since my new friends has been overtaken by a group of armed people.
The first few hours were bad. Really bad. Having barely managed to slip away undetected, I set up camp 20 carts away from where everyone else was, trying my best to not just give up on everything and resign myself to the subway. My mind was racing with every possibility, not letting me be for one second. I could be eventually found out by the group and taken prisoner along with the rest. I could just starve to death in this place. Or, in the worst case scenario, I would run out of tickets and be taken by the Conductor, the only proof of my existence here being a black puddle, dripping on a chair.
I was thinking how everyone would eventually forget about me, thinking I ran away to God knows where. How I would never return to the outside world, never feel the sun’s warmth, never eat my mom’s blueberry pie, never see Marie’s smile… I began to cry. Cry for the first time since I got stuck in this hellhole. In retrospective, it was cathartic, but in the moment, I couldn’t focus on anything but the pain. Eventually, I fell asleep like that. The next two days I didn’t do anything, bar for interacting with the Conductor. I couldn’t go back to everyone, because I’d be either gunned down or captured. On the other hand, if I left, I would be wrecked with the guilt of leaving people who cared about me, even for just a day, behind. I was paralyzed in that cart…
But, during the third day, I began feeling like the Conductor was my only companion, hearing his whistle being somewhat reassuring. For a brief moment, I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t forced to deal with anything else. Just me, him, and his whistle. He didn’t feel malicious then. Just a man doing his job. If you have a ticket, he let’s you be. If you don’t, you have to pay a fine. Just like the outside world.
“Yea,” I remember saying out-loud, “this is just like the outside world. I’m just on my way home, of course. It’s perfectly normal that I am alone here. It’s late, so people are already home. Yea…”
Sitting up from the floor, I put myself down on the chair nearby.
“I will just pass the time sleeping a bit, 15 minutes should be enough. I will be home soon enough.”
I closed my eyes, wanting to sleep just a little bit. All my valuables were home, except my phone, which I kept closely.
I almost dozed off when I heard the cart open. It couldn’t be the Conductor because I would’ve heard him. It couldn’t be one of the armed men cause they would immediately yell to get down. It didn’t smell like salt, so it wasn’t the Janitor. That meant that I’ve never seen that before. I bowed my head down, praying for the best. However, deep down, I knew I wouldn’t have minded if this was it.
“Excuse me,” someone next to me said, “do you know when the next stop is?”
That voice… That voice was too familiar. Looking up, I was met by a pair of emerald green eyes.
“Marie?!!” I yelled as loud as I could, jumping from my chair.
“Anthony???” She yelled back, being just as surprised as I was.
After the initial shock we felt, we hugged each other.
“Oh my God, I missed you so much.” I said, beginning to tear up.
“There, there, it’s ok.” she said, trying to calm be down. “Don’t worry, everything is ok, just let it aaaaall out.”
After finally managing to gather myself and making sure I was ok, we sat back down, leaving her backpack next to her. Afterwards, I heard my stomach grumble.
“Oh, are you hungry? One… second…” Marie, after rummaging through her big backpack, took out a container with some pancakes and a thermos.
“I was going for a camping trip and wanted to eat those later, but here, you can have them. Some tea too”
That was the first real thing I ate since I got here, with the exception of that rat meat and, I began to tear up again. She patted my back but I could hear a slight chuckle.
“I meaaan, I know my cooking is good, but not “crying-over-while-eating” good.”
“They’re delicious…”
She just smiled at me, saying “I’m glad you like them then.”
As I kept eating, Marie started to ask me about everything.
“Anthony, where have you been? Everyone’s been looking for you.”
“Well, here.” pointing my hands all around the cart, mumbling with pancakes in my mouth.
“What do you mean “here”? You’ve been gone for like, at least a month. We almost gave up on finding you… Surely, you didn’t just ride a random subway for that long.”
I looked at her, incredibly confused, and I stopped eating.
“Wait, what do you mean by “at least a month”?? I’ve been here for like a week. Maybe two.”
“Noo, I am pretty sure you were gone for longer than that. See?”
She showed me her sport watch, and sure enough, it was dated for two weeks later.
“That doesn’t make any sense… Look, my phone says differently”
“Yea… That’s… concerning. Where the hell are we?.”
That’s when it hit me. In all the joy of finding Marie and finally getting some decent food, I completely forgot that I am still in this subway. Even worse, she’s in here now too. Panic began to settle back in.
“Hey, hey, it’s ok. I’m here. Breathe iiiiin… and oooooout… iiiiin… and oooooout.”
“Thanks… As for where are we, I don’t know. I’ve told you, I’ve been stuck here for what felt like weeks. Just cart after cart, endlessly stretching.”
“You can’t be serious…”
“Does it look like I am joking with you?”
“That’s the scary part,” she replied “you don’t.”
“Honestly,” I looked her straight in the eyes “I have no idea how to ge-“
A faint whistle was beginning to be heard, getting closer.
“Oooh,” said Marie, “what a lovely tune! Reminds me of my grandpa- What are you doing?”
I was scrambling in my pockets, looking for the tickets. The whistling was growing louder by the second, and then, I heard the door of the cart open.
“Marie, eyes down. Quiet. Do. Not. Move”
“Wait, why are you saying that?”
She then looked at the giant figure of the Conductor. As she took that image in, fear began to get to her as well.
“What the fuck is that?? Anthony, what??” She then put her hands on her head and bent down, her head now being close to he knees.
The Conductor was approaching us. It had just a few feet left. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Found them right as he got in front of us.
“Tickets, please.” The conductor echoed.
“Quick, take this and give it to it!” I whispered loudly enough for her to hear.
We gave him the tickets and the Conductor left. I was feeling very relieved, making Marie give me a very concerned look.
“What the fuck was that thing???”
“That was the Conductor. It asks us for our tickets and if we have them, it’s harmless.”
“And if we don’t?”
“I’d rather not find out…”
“How did you even know that? How do you even have tickets in the first place?”
“I got lucky… When I first got here, I found a guy who’s been stuck here far longer than I. He gave me a ticket and took me to his group.”
“Oh but that’s wonderful! Where are they? And, more importantly, why are you here? Alone?”
“They… They got captured. A few days ago, by a group of armed people…”
“Oh God… Are they alive??”
“I don’t know. I managed to escape… I’ve been in this cart ever since.”
“Well, we better go and see! We can’t just leave them, especially not after they took care of you!”
“Yes, yes, I know. I just… I’m too scared. I can’t-“
“It’s ok. Of course you’re scared, especially after what I’ve just saw. We will figure something out, don’t worry. We’ll go check the situation out after we get some rest, ok?”
“Ok. You can go sleep for a little bit. I’ll stand watch for now.”
“You sure you don’t want me to stay up first?”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve done nothing these past few days, might as well take the first watch to stretch out a bit”
“If you say so… In that case, I’ll just mosey up over there. Wake me up when you need to sleep, ok?”
“Of course.”
“Alright then. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
She then gave me a kiss, ruffled my hair and went to sleep.
With that, this update finishes the first three days. I am too tired to continue with the final four, so I will finish the events of the past week tomorrow. I’m just waiting for my Conductor Shift to finish.
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