//------------------------------// // 6. The Passengers // Story: A Wilting Flower // by Terran34 //------------------------------// Approximately 3000 Years Ago The locomotive of the train was miniscule compared to the rest of the train cars, containing only enough space for a single operator to sit comfortably at the dashboard. At the back of this compartment was the door leading the first car, where the sounds of the first class passengers could be heard. The forty-two year old Brendan Hoover sat forward in his chair, occasionally looking up from his book to check the array of monitors and displays spread across the dashboard before him. In the middle of a trip like this, he often found himself with little to do. It got boring, but he couldn’t complain; he’d rather be bored than deal with the many problems that could arise with the machinery. Due to the advances in modern transportation technology, Brendan was one of three senior staff members in charge of keeping the train operational. His job was as the train’s driver , while his co-workers Kent and Robert were respectively the conductor and engineer hired by the company. Although no further staff members were needed to keep the train moving, there were still multiple other lesser staff. They were in charge of keeping the passengers satisfied through other services, such as cleaning and cooking. Brendan glanced once more at the dashboard, absentmindedly scratching at the graying stubble on his chin. He noted the status of the train’s dials and gauges, finding them to be at normal levels. All in all, it seemed as though this trip would go by without a hitch. Brendan’s chest swelled with pride as he recalled his flawless track record when it came to operational procedures. According to the display, there was less than an hour before they’d reach Staten Island. Around this time on the trip, they’d pass underground through a sturdy tunnel to cross the river between New Jersey and Staten Island. That would take the rest of the trip. Brendan made this trip so many times in the past that he mostly had the route memorized. It was partially because of this fact that Brendan was completely taken by surprise by what happened next. It happened without warning. There were no warning signs, no bells or whistles, or anything that could have tipped the driver off as to what was about to happen. With a click, the displays and monitors turned black. The various indicator lights on the dashboard went dark all at once. Before Brendan could process this, the overhead light keeping the driver’s compartment lit went out, plunging him into complete darkness. “What in the…” Brendan emitted in surprise, wondering if he was imagining things. However, he knew without a doubt that this was not the case as he heard the telltale sounds of engine failure. He got to his feet, fumbling in the dark for the safety handle to steady himself as the train rapidly slowed down. “Did we lose power?” Brendan knelt down and searched the darkness for the flashlight that he was required to keep with him in case of power failures such as this. Flicking it on, he used it to locate the folder that held all of the emergency procedures. His first thought was that something could have gone wrong with the conduit supplying the train with power from the third rail. That would be extremely hazardous to repair, as it would require one of the senior staff to go beneath the train to inspect it. With that in mind, Brendan reached down and pinged Robert by way of the battery powered pager clipped to his waist. The emergency lights were due to come on soon, and Brendan wanted this train up and running again before the secondary generator even grew hot. “Damn, like I needed this,” Brendan complained. As the driver, he would no doubt be forced to let the passengers know what was going on. His job in that regard would not be pleasant, considering the first class riders tended to be difficult to deal with in the case of delays. With that in mind, Brendan resigned himself and reached for the intercom the moment the emergency power lit up the display. “Attention all passengers; this is the operator speaking.” The speakers on the wall cracked to life with the voice of an older sounding man. This single announcement was enough to quell the rising murmurs from the other passengers surrounding Amaryllis and William. Now that the emergency lights had kicked in, everyone seemed to be calming down, their surprise quickly turning to annoyance. At the sound of the intercom, people were starting to come to the conclusion that their trip was probably going to be delayed. “The train is suffering from an unexpected power outage, and is currently inoperable. There will be a short delay until our engineer can restore the train to its proper function. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the operator explains. His voice sounded calm, as if this sort of thing wasn’t that uncommon. Because of that, sighs of relief and annoyance sounded from the other passengers. “We ask that you please remain in your assigned cars until motion has been resumed.” “Great...like I wanted to be stuck in this train for another few hours,” Amaryllis complained aloud to herself, sitting back in her chair now that she was assured the situation wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. She couldn’t explain why she had gotten such a foreboding premonition from the power outage. Even now something seemed wrong, making it difficult for her to get comfortable in her chair. “It’s unfortunate to be sure. You won’t be late for your interview, will you?” William asked her with some concern. Amaryllis gave him a stare, wondering why he even cared. If she was late for her interview, the only one suffering would be herself, so it shouldn’t affect him in the least. “The hell you worrying about me for? Worry about yourself,” Amaryllis responded after a moment, feeling somewhat uncomfortable at his odd show of concern. In response, William gave a sheepish smile, as if her words had been what he expected. “Thankfully I’m in no rush. My company doesn’t expect me back until this weekend,” William revealed to her, despite the fact that she hadn’t asked. “I decided to return early because I have a family waiting for me. I want to spend some time with them before going back to work.” William looked and sounded so happy after saying that; Amaryllis couldn’t help but feel bitter, even though she knew she had no reason to be. “Well, good for you, family man,” she retorted, her tone clearly betraying her bitterness. William seemed to misunderstand her jaded words, as he attempted to look reassuring. “Don’t worry, I think your company will understand. These things do happen,” he says with a shrug. Amaryllis rolled her eyes and averted her gaze, instead taking out the last book in her collection that she hadn’t finished yet. In actuality, she wasn’t worried about making it to her interview on time. She purposely bought tickets for a train ride several days in advance so that in the case of unforeseen factors, she wouldn’t end up being late. She mentally praised her own foresight. The train car fell into relative silence, broken only by the other passengers whispering to one another. There wasn’t much for everyone to do now that the train was running on emergency power. Internet connectivity was down and the built in entertainment systems were nonfunctional, so all they could do is talk to one another. Amaryllis in particular never looked up from her book; she figured that by the time she finished her book, the train would be moving again. “Weird, I don’t have phone service,” William commented aloud, gazing down at his fancy android phone. Amaryllis hazarded a glance at her own phone to see that she too was receiving no cell service whatsoever. “That’s because we’re in a tunnel, moron,” Amaryllis pointed out as if it should have been obvious. William winced at her insult, but actually responded back to her. “That doesn’t actually disrupt service anymore,” he pointed out, much to Amaryllis’ surprise. “Come again?” “With the recent advances in the infrastructure in tunnels such as this, we can actually get access to cell service even deep beneath the river as we are. There are cables in the tunnel wall that basically ‘leak’ cell service so that we can use it,” William explains to her. “Huh...how about that,” Amaryllis commented, blinking. Maybe it was because she worked in finances, but she’d never heard of such a system. Then again, she never really paid attention to technological advancements unless they directly affected her. “So it’s odd that I’m not getting any service, especially with the provider I’m using,” William continued. He stood up from his seat and proceeded to address the rest of the car. “Excuse me; is anyone else getting cell service?” There was a shuffling as other passengers briefly checked their phones. Soon, there was a resounding chorus of no’s from everyone else, showing William and Amaryllis that everyone was in a similar situation. There was no internet, no cell service, and no way of knowing how far it was to the next station. They were essentially cut off from the rest of the world. “Quit worrying. It’s not like you’d do anything other than text their families or fucking tweet about this even if you did have service,” Amaryllis cynically told William, returning to her book. Despite that, William didn’t look reassured whatsoever. Neither did Amaryllis for that matter. “You’re right, I suppose. There’s nothing we can do except sit here and wait until the engineers sort things out,” William admitted. “What do you mean, ‘there’s nothing wrong with it?!’” Brendan snapped at the taller of the three men standing in the cramped locomotive. “I mean that there’s seriously nothing wrong with it. I don’t know how I can make this any simpler for you.” The train’s engineer, Robert, shot right back at Brendan. The taller, younger man looked as though he’d seen better days. His face was pale and his fingers were smeared with grease, indicating that recently he’d been hard at work. His hair was frazzled, showing just how unsettled he really was. “I checked the conduit, I checked the generator, I even checked the damn third rail itself. There’s nothing wrong at all. It’s just dead.” “You’ve gotta give me something more than that. I can’t tell the passengers that the train’s ‘just dead’ in the middle of the damn tunnel beneath the Arthur Kill!” Brendan was getting more and more flustered now that the situation was clearly out of his control. “You’re the engineer….find what’s wrong! “I don’t know what you want from me, Brendan! I’ve been working on this train since before you were stationed here; I know the old girl like the back of my hand,” Robert argues vehemently. “The whole train is entirely in working order. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this train as far as I can see.” “You’re not looking hard enough!” Brendan retorted. This clearly angered Robert even more. Just as the engineer was opening his mouth to retort, the third man, the much older sixty year old Kent interjected, his wizened hands raised placatingly. “Now you two need to just calm right down for just a second,” Kent interrupted them. As the conductor, Kent’s jobs generally involved working on paperwork and other such trivialities that didn’t involve the physical function of the train itself, but he had been hired for his other more social talents. “There’s gotta be something else we can do without arguing. Mr. Hoover, have you tried contacting the station?” “That’s just it. I can’t. Even through emergency power or the cell service in the tunnels, I can’t reach them. We’re completely cut off. This has never happened before.” It was clear that this situation was way beyond anything Brendan had ever had to deal with during his time driving the train. “And you’re certain there’s nothing wrong with the train?” Without missing a beat, Kent moved his line of inquiry to Robert, who was calming down now that accusations weren’t being thrown at him. “Absolutely. Whatever’s happening here, it’s not my fault. I check the systems every hour, and I double checked them right before I got here,” Robert seemed more forthcoming when talking to Kent, which was causing Brendan to eye him with frustration. “I’ll be frank. I have no idea what’s going on. This certainly isn’t a power surge. It’s as if all power coming from the station just went dead.” “Which is impossible. There are five separate power plants in New York City alone, one of which is right on Arthur Kill, only a few kilometers from here,” Brendan interrupted again, not convinced by Robert’s suggestion at all. “Even if by some miracle a plant were to go down, one of the other four would have rerouted power to us by now.” “We can worry about whys and hows later,” Kent joined back in again. “What’s important is how we deal with the now, right? Tell you what, I have an idea.” “Go ahead, Kent. It’s probably better than being screamed at.” After saying that, Robert threw Brendan a nasty look. “Just for Brendan’s peace of mind, why don’t you give the train a look-see one more time, see if you can’t find anything you missed?” Kent suggested. Robert sighed in frustration, but nodded, seeing no better alternative. “Then, if you’ll keep trying to raise the station, Mr. Hoover, that’d be great. In the meantime, I’ll fetch the emergency protocols. We’ll fall back on those if all else fails.” “It’s as good an idea as any, I suppose,” Brendan grumbles, turning back to the dashboard. “We only have so much emergency power.” “I’ll get moving then. Meet you back here when I’m done.” With a sigh, Robert leaves the room again, passing through the first car and out of sight. Brendan noticed Kent still standing there, his hand brushing against his bushy white beard with unease. “Something else, Kent?” “Not really...I just can’t shake this feeling that something isn’t right here…” Amaryllis was getting impatient. She long since finished her book over half an hour ago, which was now sitting in her bag with the rest of them. She now had nothing else to do other than sit tight and tap her foot against the floor. She couldn’t fathom why fixing a simple power outage was taking this long. Even some of the other passengers were getting antsy. Some of them were up and walking around, though it would be more accurate to describe that as pacing. Some of them were following Amaryllis’ previous example and reading books. As Amaryllis had run out of books to read, this made her jealous. “This is getting old really fast,” one of the male passengers complained, standing up straight. “Shouldn’t one of us talk to the conductor or something?” “Great idea! Why don’t you go and do that?” Amaryllis was the first to respond, as the last thing she wanted was to deal with the other passengers getting uppity. Upon being addressed, the other passenger turned his gaze to her, his eyes widening slightly. “What, me? Really?” “Of course, since you suggested it. Why don’t you walk on up to the senior staff and get in their way with your inane questions? That’ll get the train moving much faster,” Amaryllis’ false enthusiasm soon gave way to utter sarcasm. Much to the complaining man’s chagrin, some of the other passengers were stifling chuckles. “Excuse me?” The man responded, clearly offended. People were so simple to Amaryllis at times. “That was beyond rude of you. Why don’t you just keep quiet, if you’re just going to be a smart ass?” “Figures. Try to shut me up instead of acknowledging that your complaint is shit,” Amaryllis returned, angering the man further. Just as she was starting to stand up as well, a third person stood up, intervening before things could degenerate further. “Now, if we’ll just calm down here...we’re all just upset because we’re bored and there’s nothing to do, right?” the third person, who was a balding man who appeared to be in his forties, attempted to defuse the situation. “Some of us had places to be,” the complaining man grumbled in reply, glaring at Amaryllis. She just gave an uncaring shrug. She could less about his troubles; all she wanted was for him not to get in the staff’s way. Then they’d be stuck here longer. “Did you have a suggestion?” A brown haired woman from the back of the car asked the balding man, sounding hopeful. The man lit up, putting on a bright friendly smile. It wasn’t an expression Amaryllis expected to see on the face of a random stranger. “Yeah, I think I did. If we’re all hurting for things to do, we could always talk to one another,” he suggested. “...What,” Amaryllis deadpanned, not liking the sound of that at all. She’d rather be bored than be forced to socialize with people she’d likely never see again after getting off this train. “I think that’s a terr-” “That’s a great idea,” William talks over her forming complaint, mirroring the other man’s smile. “If we’re stuck here anyway, it might be nice to introduce ourselves.” “Hm, why not?” The brown hair woman agreed as well. She stood from her seat and moved closer up. “Might as well.” “Nothing else to do.” Before Amaryllis realized it, the other passengers were beginning to gather in the center of the train car. She gave a slight scoff of derision. William was right in that there was nothing else to do, but she didn’t care about these people. Why bother learning their names? “Come join us, Amaryllis!” William offered, leaving a spot open in the forming circle for her. She gave him a death glare telling him exactly what she thought of his offer, causing him to quail. When he spoke again, his voice was noticeably shakier. “I mean, you finished your book right? It’ll be fun.” “‘Fun’ is subjective,” Amarylllis grunted. However, even she was beginning to understand how annoying it would get to be stuck in a trainful of people that disliked her for an indeterminate amount of time, so she took the offered space. The whole time, she mentally cursed William with every fiber of her being, along with that man who suggested it in the first place. “Fine, let’s get this over with.” There were twelve of them in total in this particular car, including Amaryllis. There had been more people before, but after the previous stop, several had departed. Once all of them were gathered in a circle, the balding man started. “So I figure we’d start by introducing ourselves and then say where we’re going and why,” he explained. “I’ll start. I’m Dawson Reeves, and I’m on my way to my home in Manhattan.” After Dawson’s introduction was acknowledged with polite nods and murmurs, each person began to introduce themselves in turn. Whether Amaryllis liked it or not, she committed each name and face to memory as it grew closer to her turn. After Dawson was the complaining man from before. His name was Jakob, and his attitude didn’t change despite the somewhat more amicable atmosphere. According to his annoyed complaints, Jakob was on his way to Staten Island for his son’s wedding, and he was fairly certain that this was going to make him late. Amaryllis pointed out that he should have bought tickets in advance, but all this did was cause Dawson to prompt the next person to speak before she and Jakob could get into it again. Next was a man and a woman introducing themselves at the same time. They were brother and sister and looked very similar to one another, with short black hair and brown eyes. By their own introduction, Amaryllis learned they were twins, named Aven and Avil. Due to their accents, Amaryllis guessed that they must have been German. They were engineers who did everything together, and they were on their way to Manhattan to work on the city’s infrastructure. After the twins, the next person to introduce himself was a muscled man of Hispanic origin named Samuel. Amaryllis was surprised to hear that he had come all the way back from a trip to Mexico through multiple trains in order to meet up with his friends in Queens, where they planned to enlist in the armed forces. That in particular gained a tiny sliver of respect from Amaryllis. She always tended to respect anyone who could fight. Next to speak was a woman who looked considerably younger compared to everyone else in the group. Her name was Jennifer, and she was dressed in strangely casual clothes depicting upright animals similar to those you’d see in a Disney movie. To Amaryllis, they were disgustingly cute and reminded her painfully of Seth’s ponies, even though they looked nothing like ponies. According to Jennifer, she was changing trains soon on her way to Rochester for a convention of some sort, though she seemed reluctant to say what kind. Moving on, there was the Graves family. They were a family of three on a sightseeing trip to the big city. The husband was named Grant, the wife was named Rachel, and their son was named Sawnee, though he didn’t look at all interested in their destination. Rachel gushed on and on about how she wanted to see Times Square, causing everyone who lived in New York to chuckle or roll their eyes. Tourists. Amaryllis introduced herself next, though her introduction was much more brief than the others. “I’m Amaryllis, and I’m going to find a job. Happy? Okay, move on, I’m done.” She felt uncomfortable in a group like this, so the sooner she could quit being the center of attention, the better. Lastly, after William had introduced himself, was the brown haired woman and her daughter, who Amaryllis hadn’t even noticed before. Unlike her mother, Mary, the little girl was blonde. She looked to be about 9 years of age, but conducted herself in a very polite manner. Amaryllis was taken aback by how well behaved she was; Mary must be very strict with her. “My name is Emma Kristen. It’s nice to meet all of you,” the girl introduced herself enthusiastically, giving a slight dip of her head and a bright smile. Before going back to her mother, she turned her attention to Amaryllis. “Oh, I wanted to say that you have a pretty name, miss Amaryllis.” “Wha…?” Amaryllis was taken off guard at being addressed directly, and with a compliment of all things. Unsure how to react, all she could do was give an awkward smile. “Thanks, I guess?” Emma beamed. “Mother always said if I had something nice to say, I should say it,” she explained happily, and then she returned to Mary’s side, leaving behind a very confused Amaryllis. “She’s adorable,” William had to say, a goofy smile on his face. “You have a very well-behaved daughter, miss Mary. Reminds me of my own.” Mary blushed slightly as some of the others gave assenting murmurs, complimenting her daughter. She smiled and nodded to acknowledge them. With that, everyone had had a chance to speak, so introductions were over. Right on cue, Jakob groaned and glanced over towards the door that headed towards the first car. “Now what do we do? There’s still no sign of the…” Before Jakob could even finish his complaint, the door slid open to admit an old man with a thick white beard who was dressed in the same clothes as the rest of the staff. Glancing at his chest revealed that his name was Kent by way of the name tag clipped to his breast. “Alrighty, I’m Kent, your conductor. I’m gonna need you all to play close attention,” Kent begins, speaking loud enough that everyone in the car can hear him. “As you know, the train’s lost power, so we’re not going anywhere any time soon.” “Well, what’s wrong with it? My brother and I might be able to help fix it; we’re engineers,” Avil is the first to respond, interrupting Kent before he could finish. Aven nodded enthusiastically, bringing forth a toolbox from the luggage compartment. “If I knew, I’d tell you. Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got it on good word from our engineer that this train isn’t going anywhere,” Kent assures them, giving them a smile. That sounded suspicious to Amaryllis, but she didn’t say anything. “Communications are down and we’ve no way of knowing how long it’ll take for the first responders to figure out we’re missing.” “So then what are we going to do? I have places to be!” Jakob snapped. He seemed to have no patience for the lack of satisfying answers. Dawson laid a hand on Jakob’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down, but he just threw him off in bad grace. “In the absence of all other options, we’re going to go by emergency protocols. Keep in mind that none of your are in any danger,” Kent begins, unperturbed by Jakob’s interruption. “If you’ll move ahead into the front car, you can step out of the train there. We’re going to be grouping up and heading for the nearest station.” “We’re going to be walking along the rails?!” “Are you kidding me?” “What about the third rail?” William interjects over the comments of the other passengers. “That’s just it. The third rail is dead. No power running through it at all,” Kent reveals, much to everyone’s surprise. He held up a hand to forestall any incoming protests. “However, we don’t have a guarantee that it’s going to stay that way, so the sooner we’re all on the ledges, the better off we’ll be.” “We’re going to walk on the rails? This is going to be so exciting!” Emma seemed to be the only one enthused by the current events. “No, honey, there are ledges on the sides of the tunnel,” Mary explained to her daughter while everyone else processed what was going on. “Now, I need you all to move in a calm and orderly fashion out of the train like I told you. The driver, Mr. Hoover, is already outside with the passengers from the first car. He’s got flashlights, so you can’t miss him,” Kent directs. “Meet up with him and do what he says. Alright? Then go.” After the brief explanation, Kent moved through the group into the next car, no doubt to tell the next group of passengers the same thing. After several moments of silence, Dawson got to his feet and looked around at everyone. “Alright, you heard the man. Let’s get moving. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been in a subway tunnel before. It’ll be an adventure!” He gave a chuckle in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it went mostly ignored, except for Emma. The little girl was only getting more excited as time went on. “This has been quite the trip, huh?” William joked to Amaryllis as he too stood up. Everyone seemed to be gathering their luggage, grouping up, and following Dawson, who appeared to have installed himself as the group’s acting leader, into the next car. “It’s been a pain in the ass; that’s what it’s been,” Amaryllis snapped in annoyance. “Not only do I get forced to socialize with a bunch of strangers, now I have to walk for god knows how long through a tunnel several hundred feet underground. Pardon me if this wasn’t what I’d envisioned when I bought my fucking ticket.” “Hey, it’s not that bad,” William attempted to placate her as the two of them followed the rest of the group into the first car. At the end of the car was a door on the side that was usually reserved for emergencies such as this one. It was hanging wide open, opening out into the complete darkness of the tunnel. This only served to remind Amaryllis that it wasn’t just the train that had lost power...everything had. They were going to be walking in total darkness. “How do you figure!?” “We’re not in danger, right? So why not treat it like an adventure, like Dawson said?” William suggested. Amaryllis gave him an incredulous look, wondering if he was actually being serious. This was nothing, compared to the things Seth told her about what he’d gone through with the ponies. “Just whatever. You’re such a child,” Amaryllis derided him. It was her turn to step out of the train now, so she grasped the bars on either side of the door and leapt to the rails below. Her shoes clanked against the metal rails and echoed throughout the dead silent tunnel. The only light came from the brightly shining flashlights coming from the group gathered on the far side of the tunnel, where a raised ledge allowed people to walk above the rails. Upon hearing the sound of Amaryllis hitting the rails, the flashlight turned to point at her, illuminating the spot where she was standing with a circle of brilliant light. “Over here! Don’t worry, the third rail’s inactive! Just keep walking and you’ll be okay!” An unfamiliar voice called over to her from the edge of the tunnel. Amaryllis tentatively took a step forward, carrying her luggage with her. With every step she took, the flashlight would illuminate the path ahead of her, allowing her and everyone else around her to navigate across the pitch black tunnel. In that manner, Amaryllis made her way to the ledge and climbed up a ladder to join the rest of the group. William soon joined her. The rest of the train’s passengers made their way to the ledge with the rest, forming a long line back into the tunnel. Despite the growing amount of people on the ledge, Amaryllis found that she was somehow still with Dawson and the rest of the people she’d met in her car. No doubt they felt closer to one another due to the whole conversation they’d had in the train. Eventually, Kent and one other member of the senior staff joined them, both of them carrying flashlights with power similar to that of floodlights. They staggered themselves amongst the line in order to cover as much space with light as possible. Kent stood in the middle of the line, and the last member, who appeared to be the senior engineer, stood at the back. Amaryllis and the others from her car were closest to the staff member in front, who introduced himself as Brendan Hoover. Because of that, the could see the path ahead of them. “Let’s get moving, everyone. Grab onto a friend and stay close to the searchlights. It will be extremely bad if you get separated from us!” Brendan called, and then he started to move. Around her, Amaryllis noticed people doing as directed and grabbing hold of one another, either by holding hands, arms, or shoulders. Amaryllis noticed William looking at her and she shot him a glare. “Do it and you lose a hand,” she snapped before he could even finish formulating the thought. At first, as the group moved forward, everyone was rather lively and talked amongst themselves. However, as time went on with no end of the tunnel in sight, conversation gradually petered out until the tunnel was dead silent, broken only by the sound of footfalls and breathing. The feeling of wrongness Amaryllis felt while in the train came back to her, but she still couldn’t put her finger on why she felt that way. Maybe it was because there was no end of the tunnel in sight, and it was getting to her. Even with the powerful flashlight facing directly forward, it hardly made a dent on the crushing darkness. The minutes passed, stretching into hours. While they had been close to the station, they could hardly use the time estimate of the train to determine how long it would take them to walk the same distance. Unease began to settle over the group, though like Amaryllis, no one really had an answer as to where that feeling was coming from. Even the previously excited Emma was clinging to her mother’s side, her smile nowhere to be seen. “Mother, I don’t think I want to be here anymore…” she whined softly. “I know, honey...I know,” Mary replied in an equally soft tone, brushing her daughter’s hair with a free hand. “Just stay close to me. Everything’s going to be okay.” Eventually, the group came across another train. This one was on the other side of the tunnel and also looked to be dead on the trails. It lay there, inert and abandoned, with the passengers nowhere to be seen. No matter how far they went, there was no sign of power anywhere in the tunnel. Even Brendan was starting to get nervous, as he was certain they were nearing the station, but he couldn’t see any sign of the brightly lit area. It couldn’t be that all of Staten lost power? “Everyone, we’re going to be approaching the station soon. It seems like there’s no power there as well, so stay very close to me and do not stray off!” Brendan called back loud enough that Kent would be able to hear him and relay the message back. “Finally...though you’d think they’d have power, wouldn’t you?” Amaryllis remarked to William. When she didn’t get an answer, she turned to see that William was very pale, his hands trembling. “What’s the matter with you?” “I don’t know...but something isn’t right. I can just tell,” William sounded terrified. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark,” Amaryllis remarked, despite the fact that she felt the same as him. This tunnel was too quiet...too still. “No, it’s not that. I don’t know what it is...but I feel like I just want to run, and never look back,” William answered with a shudder. Amaryllis didn’t answer after that. She was beginning to feel the same way, and she wasn’t a coward like the one she considered him to be. Suddenly, William went ramrod still. “There, did you hear that?” “Hear what?” Amaryllis snapped, tugging on his jacket to keep him moving. She could hear Brendan calling that he could see the station. Sure enough, just up ahead on the right wall, there was a typical train platform with inert escalators leading up, but there was no sign of power. Nor were there any people, for that matter. “Hey, I heard something,” Brendan said, coming to a slow stop as well. Amaryllis listened closely, but heard nothing but silence from the tunnel ahead...at least at first. Soon...she began to hear soft whispering from the other end of the tunnel. They were too indistinct to be made out, but they were definitely there, and they were gradually growing louder. They could be other passengers from stalled trains...but for some reason, Amaryllis knew that wasn’t the case. A chill ran down her back, every instinct screaming at her to run. “W-What...is that whispering?” William stammered. Nobody had an answer for him. Then, another noise joined the mix. Amaryllis could hear a strange combination of noises, as if something metallic was clicking against the rails on the far end of the tunnel. Immediately, she knew that something was coming. And there wasn’t just one of them. There was only one way she could describe the cacophony of sounds emanating from the far tunnel. Click-sccraaape.