Garth

“We have plenty of time.” That’s what they would say each and every time. Plenty of time, and people believed it. Even now as everything shatters people deny it.

“It is under control, we have time.” People took their word for it, anything to not lose what they had. Stability, the status quo. Even if everything were falling apart they would be calmed by a half convincing assurance.

“We have -” Those were the last words the broadcast sent before being cut off. Pandemonium couldn’t describe what came next. People searched for any word, message, or sign after that. But nothing came. Everyone was lost in our small town when the world went silent. Little did we know it was just the calm before the storm for the commune of Garth.

***

Garth had always been my home, its all I’ve ever known. My family moved here not long after I was born, and I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I were to leave or what I want to do if I stay. Mum called it head-in-the-cloudsitis, she always tried to find humour in life.

I never really had a father figure, I guess he hated Garth because he left not long after we moved here. I don’t even know what he looked like. I sometimes wonder where he wounded up, but I guess that’s not important anymore.

“Jackson, you in there?”

“Oh, yes, sorry, huh?”

“If you weren’t paying attention then you don’t get to know.” Sam puffed out.

“Ah, okay.” I reply.

“Okay, what’s wrong? You’re an idiot but you’re never like this.” She laughs, Sam had been my friend for many years. Despite how mean she seemed, she cared deeply.

“Well, the broadcasts, no one seems to really be noticing them, or even that worried that they cut off right in the middle and we haven’t heard anything since.” I reply since there isn’t much sense in keeping it from her. She sits and ponders for a moment before responding.

“So, you’re worried because of faulty equipment?”

“What if it wasn’t? They don’t just cut out like that. Something could have happened. What if -”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, nothing bad is going to happen. I’m sure of it.” She places her arm around me and pulls me in. Sam was like that, strong willed and caring, always ready to step up and be a rock for me to lean on.

“Sorry, it’s just… what the hell is happening anymore?” It’d had been 3 days since the broadcast was cut off and while a fair amount of people dismissed it and went about their daily lives, others, like me, have taken it as something has gone deeply wrong.

“I’m sure everything will be alright.” She says as she holds me. “Just look around, nothings changed around here for as long as we’ve been here, I doubt one cut out broadcast will do much to change it either.” She gestured to the illuminated town, but I can’t help but feel guilty for not believing her.

***

The piercing whistle startled the entire town as a train came hurtling into the station. Screeching to a stop was an older model locomotive. A crazed man dropped onto the platform and rambled on about the encroaching end for us all.  The sheriffs swept through each car finding almost no one aboard until they reached the front car. Fourteen bodies, all gunshot wounds to the head. The mad man found himself locked in a cell before long, howling and raving until someone allegedly gagged him.

Despite the man’s silence, Garth was on edge, fourteen unidentified bodies were placed into a mass grave on the edge of the cemetery an unceremoniously buried. It was a shock to the system that had people on edge. A meeting was called in town hall, to discuss what to do with the man. Some people suggested we send the train back the way it came, empty and be done with it.

Others made note of how people who had left town for errands hadn’t come back yet. I sat at the back with Sam, frustrated that no one seemed to remember the broadcasts. Something was wrong and every seemed to only be clueing into it now. I left the meeting in a daze, a peculiar feeling had come over me, it felt as though I had little time left in a contest that I had no idea what I had to do in. Sam walked with me and as we passed the station on the way home she pauses.

“You ever wonder what its like out there? I mean, we’ve been here our whole lives and all, would be nice to, you know… leave for once?” She says staring at the silent locomotive. I take a moment to consider it, I never really knew where I wanted to go in life and so I didn’t exactly have a response, but I let my imagination do the talking.

“Maybe we could take the train and just keep going, till the end of the line.” I say, the rolling countryside flashing through my mind’s eye as I imagine it. “I don’t think its that easy to make one of those old things go.”

“The crazy guy must’ve done it, why can’t we.”

“He just stopped the train; we have no idea who started it.”

“Oh well, maybe we start the train and don’t stop.”

“Just like that, ride off into the sun? You can’t be -”

“I am. Tomorrow, you want to just go?” She asks me and oddly enough I don’t even hesitate in my answer.

***

“C’mon, lets go.” Sam hisses at me, its four in the morning, we have our packs filled with supplies and are crouched in the alley by the station. “Remember you’re –”

“Decoupling the cars, we just want the engine. I got this.” I reply quickly. “You sure you know how to start it?”

“Of course, I’m sure, we’re doing this aren’t we,” she smirked back at me. We wait for the deputy to walk past the alley again before we move towards the train. We head towards the engine, splitting up as we get to the last car. I climb up and take cover inside the car while Sam moves up to the engine. We decided we were going to wait for the sheriff and the deputies next patrol for our window to move. So, there I sat, in the murder car. Overall, it would have been a very nice train car, if it weren’t for the blood splattering the walls and roof. To my left was a bar lined with shattered glasses and filling the rest of the cabin was booths.

I had to wonder what happened to those people, they were all found dead in this train car, with their murderer behind bars, yet it didn’t make sense that they all seemed to have died in this car together. There I sat, waiting for the torchlight of the patrol to go by so I could decouple the car and we could be on our way. My thoughts remained on the broadcasts, their abrupt end still weighed heavily on my mind, what could have happened?

Sam and I were going to find out, one way or another because at that moment I saw the torch go by my window and I knew it was time to go.

***

Having done my part, I crept from the first car to the engine to find Sam waiting for me.

“We ready?” She asks, sounding as little unsure. I give her a nod and gesture for her to send us on our way. The train arrived in Garth from the East and since the bulk of train cars blocked the track the only option was to continue west. Sam fired up the locomotive and surprisingly it started to gain speed before we even knew what was happening. We heard shouts of the sheriff and deputies as they tried to catch it, but since the majority of the weight was gone from the train, we lost sight of Garth fairly quickly.

“You ever hear about that story, Journey to the West?” I ask Sam after sometime gazing out at the plains.

“No, I don’t think I have. What’s it about?” She asks.

“Do you even have to ask?” I smirk at her, and she punches my arm playfully. “I don’t actually know, I never read it, I just really liked the imagery.”

“That’s a bit pretentious.” She gives me a look before gazing back into the plains. It is five o’clock in the morning. “What do you think it’s about then?” I consider her question and answer.

“Forging your own path, I think, like I said I don’t know what its about. But there’s something about making your own way in the world that seems right, don’t you think?”

“You only brought it up because we’re headed west didn’t you?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” We laugh, plain and simple.

“Jackson, look, the sunrise.” Sam says after a while.

“Well, look at… wait, no that doesn’t make sense.” Panic builds inside me.

“What do you mean? It’s almost six? That’s sunrise.” She responds, before pausing and looking at me quizzically. ‘We’ve bene going straight along the tracks this entire time, no bends or curves?”

“None”

“So, how is the sunrise ahead of us?”

“It isn’t.”

We stared ahead out of the locomotive and saw what was coming. An encroaching end as the mad man of the train had said. A wall of dancing flames seemed to be slowly creeping towards us. It lit up the night sky with beautiful colours.

“What do we do?” Sam asked, choking on her words.

“We keep going.” I say without hesitation. Even if it were towards the end, then at least they would be together. “To the ends of the Earth.”

“To the ends of the Earth.” Sam replies, grasping my hand as she pushes the accelerator.

We begin to hurtle towards the roaring inferno, faster and faster we go and as we go I feel more alive than I’ve ever felt. I can feel my heart racing alongside Sam’s. Was this freedom? I take one more glance at Sam and find her looking at me too, we share one final smile before bracing ourselves.

We were never going to make it.