A train is coming. As Annie reaches the platform, she hears the sirens of the police cars coming closer. They are really close now. The first police car arrives at the station at the same time as the train pulls up at the platform. Annie stands still as she panics. Where could she go?
"Annie!" Someone shouts her name. "Annie, get in here, run!"
She looks up. The train turns out to be a single car. A single, very rusty car. Annie breaks out of her freeze and starts to move. Inside is only one person, the driver, running to the other end. He wears a Neotek jacket - no doubt, that has to be Jack. She runs towards the closest door. The motors start humming. Annie jumps inside as the train starts moving in the direction it came from. The doors close just after leaving the platform.
The train accelerates with a force stronger than anything she has ever felt before. The motors scream, the entire train rattles. While she makes her way to the front, Annie looks outside. The city flies by. The horn sounds as the train barrels though the next station. The platform appears, is visible for just long enough to see the astonished faces of the onlookers, and disappears again.
She reaches the driver’s cabin.
"Hello Jack!"
"Hi Annie – you okay?"
"Yes", she breathes heavily, "but that was close."
After catching her breath for a moment, she says:
"You arrived just in time, we got really lucky."
Jack seems to think for a short moment while his eyes stay fixed on the track ahead.
"That remains to be seen. Cycling that airlock seems to have set off some sort of alarm. Like poking a stick into an anthill..."
"An anthill?"
"Oh, I forgot, you wouldn’t know... Ants are tiny little animals. They pile up loose material from the ground into small hills as their nests. If you poke a stick into one, they scramble to defend it."
"Ah..."
Annie imagines a bunch of tiny cats scratching and biting away at a stick that’s stuck in a slope.
Looking outside again, she realizes: "I have never seen one of these" - she knocks on the control panel - "go this fast."
"Me neither", says Jack. He makes a short pause, then he adds: "I mean there used to be trains that could go faster - a lot faster - but not metro trains."
*Note to self: This dialog needs to be continued to tie the sections together*
Jack decelerates the train. "Almost there", he says. Ahead of them is the airlock in the outer wall of the dome. The inner ‘B33FY-AF’ door is wide open. Technicians and police are standing around it in small groups, trying to figure out why it had opened. The ramps leading up to the airlock are full of parked transporters and police cars. Some are even on the rails but the track that Annie and Jack are approaching on is mostly clear.
The train loses power and passes over a bunch of switches. The headlights flicker and turn off. A police car that was parked too close to the track gets flung aside. A bunch of technicians jump out of the way as the train passes them and rolls into the airlock. Jack presses some buttons on the control panel. The train jolts to a stop. The screams of the police and technicians are drowned out by the hissing of pressurized air and the *ka-chonk* of large machinery.
"Cycling airlock, please stand by", announces an automated voice. The bunker door behind them starts to move with a screeching noise. The ‘keepers of order’ that had started to run into the airlock after the train stop and look around in confusion. Everything around them turns to black. The only thing Annie can see are the illuminated gauges on the control panel. More hissing of pressurized air.
The train shakes slightly as it makes a noise that sounds like a mechanical version of someone clearing their throat. The gauges on the control panel flicker. Annie is surprised by this, the noise is unfamiliar to her. It turns into a constant rumbling hum and the headlights come on again. The bunker door ahead is moving out of the way revealing a long tunnel.
"Everything okay? You look puzzled." Jack looks at Annie.
"What’s this weird noise?"
"Oh, there’s no power out here. This train has a generator so it can drive with and without a power rail."
The police start banging on the outside of the train and yell something. Jack grabs a microphone off the wall and speaks into it:
"Gentlemen, for your own safety, please step back from the train."
He pushes a lever on the control panel and the smooth hum of the motors joins in with the noise of the generator.
*Jack needs to say something along the lines of "We made it."*
*Appropriate reaction? Idk. Am bad at writing dialog. Will revisit.*
"In a couple minutes, it’s gonna get very bright." Jack says while accelerating the train again. "Close your eyes if it’s too bright. It might take a while to get used to daylight."
As the train moves through the tunnel, an automated voice comes on: "Dear passengers, welcome to the combined Ivydale and Sentinel Shores local transit zone! Please keep in mind that the last train returning to <undergroundcity> for today departs from Ivydale South at 10:15PM. Enjoy your travel!"
The train leans into a curve; Annie hears the screeching of the wheels grinding on the rails. After a moment, a blue-ish white shimmer appears on the walls of the tunnel. It gets brighter and brighter. The tunnel straightens out again and the other end comes into sight. It’s brighter than a hundred spotlights shining on the same spot. Annie closes her eyes but the light continues to get brighter. For a moment, she covers them with her hands as the train leaves the tunnel and rumbles over a bunch of switches.
Annie hears Jack press some buttons and remove a key from the control panel. The motors go quiet, the generator turns off, and the train starts to slow down. She tries to open her eyes but it’s still too bright.
"I think you could use a pair of sunglasses."
"Sunglasses?"
"They’re like normal glasses but... dark to make bright light easier on your eyes."
Jack puts a pair in Annie’s hands. She puts them on and cautiously squints outside. Lots of green, brown, and gray but before she can make out anything specific, they roll into another tunnel. The automated voice comes on again:
"We are now approaching Ivydale South. Your next connections are line 7 to Ivydale Distillery from platform 5, HST1511 to Siren’s Edge from platform 14, HST815 to Nova Metropolis from platform 11. This train will continue on line 5 to Sentinel Shores Fish Market via Ivydale West, Sentinel Shores Observatory, Sentinel Shores Central Station."
