7.8 KiB
Annie reaches the platform. The sirens of the police cars are really close now. A train is coming. The first police car arrives at the station. Annie freezes as she panics. The train for sure won’t leave before the police searched it. Where can she hide?
"Annie!" Someone shouts her name. "Annie, get in here, run!"
Annie breaks out of her freeze. The train had turned out to be a single car. A single rusty railcar painted in different shades of blue. note: make it a theme that the metro is always yellow and red The only person inside is the driver, turning away from the door he just opened - that has to be Jack. His Neotek jacket flaps in the air as he runs to the other end of the train. While Annie is still running towards the open door, the motors start humming. She jumps inside as the train starts to move back in the direction it came from. The door closes 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 making her way to the front, she 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 good?"
"Yes", she breathes heavily, "but that was close."
After catching her breath for a moment, she says:
"You arrived just in time. They were close on my heels, but we got away."
Jack seems to think for a short moment while his eyes stay fixed on the track ahead.
"That remains to be seen. Coming through 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 build hills of loose material as their nests. If you poke a stick into one, they scramble to defend it."
Annie imagines a bunch of mice scratching and biting away at a stick that’s stuck in a slope of rubble.
"Anyway", Jack continues, "this little expedition hasn’t gone unnoticed."
Short pause.
Looking outside again, Annie realizes: "I have never seen one of these" - she knocks on the control panel - "go this fast."
"Me neither", says Jack. He adds: "There used to be trains that could go faster - a lot faster - but not the metro."
After watching the tracks, stations, and buildings fly by for a couple minutes, Annie opens her bag and pulls out a pile of paper. "Here are the documents you need. Maps, blueprints, manuals, everything we could find."
"Sounds good. Just put them in there for now."
He gestures towards a small cabinet next to the right side window. Annie places the pile on top of a few books that are already in there. The train barrels through another station. Jack slowly decelerates the train.
"We’re almost at your drop-off point, next station is Crystal Park... uhhh and we might have a problem."
The train is going around a long curve overseeing the park and square in front of the station. <Grandpa’s friend>’s car is there, surrounded by police cruisers with flashing lights and open doors.
"What do we do now?"
"Well I’m sure as fuck not staying around to see what they’re doing down there." jack says while accelerating again. "I hope you’re okay with coming with me."
They pass a couple more stations before the train runs over a switch and gets suddenly jolted to the side. The train rocks side to side for a moment. They are now heading straight for the outer wall of the dome. The airlock, now in view, is rapidly coming closer. 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 connecting the street below to the airlock are full of parked transporters and police cars. Some are even on the tracks but the one Annie and Jack are approaching on is mostly clear.
"Hold onto something!" Jack slams on the brakes. The train loses power and rumbles 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 where it comes to a screeching halt. Jack presses some buttons on the control panel.
The screams of the police and technicians are drowned out by the hissing of pressurized air and the ka-chonk of large machinery. "Access authorized, cycling airlock, please stand by", announces an automated voice. The bunker door behind them starts to move with a squeaking noise. The ‘keepers of order’ that had started to run after the train into the airlock stop and look around in confusion. Everything around them turns to black. The only thing Annie sees 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 her.
"What’s this weird noise?"
"The generator. There’s no power out here so the train has to generate its own power to drive."
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.
"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 Sentinel Shores and Ivydale local transit zone! Please keep in mind that the last train returning to 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 the light over Central Square. 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.
Annie hears Jack press some buttons and clicking relays. 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 any details, 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."
After a moment, Jack says quietly: "I wonder how much of these places is left..."
Raising his voice back to a normal level, he adds: "But for now, we’ll head back to base."
"Base?"
"The bunker, we refer to it as our base of operations."
The train rolls out of the second tunnel and they find themselves in a station.