The Road to Nowhere

I yawned and rubbed the sleep away from my eyes, looking around.

The flickering lights of the train windows I had gotten so used to were gone, and all I could see were the dim white lights that lined the aisle of the train car. I glanced around at all the empty seats, confused.

Why was I here? Why was the train empty?

And why wasn’t it moving?

Confusion overtook me, followed by panic. I shot to my feet and strode to the end of the train car, trying the door at the very end, but it wouldn’t budge. I quickened my steps to the other side, my shoes clanking on the metal floor, and tried the sliding door; this one opened like a dream.

Excitedly, I stepped out of the train car onto the solid ground I knew would be there - and promptly fell.

There was no ground. There was no sky. 

There was just… Nothingness.

My heart dropped into my stomach as I lurched downward, and the only thing that saved me from plummeting into that nothingness was the open backpack on my back, caught on the armrest of one of the chairs still inside. My arms, having felt like they were wrenched from my shoulders, hung there loosely as the straps of my backpack held on to me for dear life. My breath caught in my throat and my mind raced as I stared out at the blackness before me. 

How do I get up? 

I tried to turn to grab the floor of the train car, but a loud tearing of fabric caused me to pause, and my heart thundered in my ears. I waited, my arms refusing to move out of fear, but in one fell swoop I launched my hands up behind me and hoisted myself back onto the floor of the train car just as my backpack completely tore open. 

Panting heavily, back in the safety of the train car, I ripped my backpack off my shoulders and inspected the damage. The top was completely torn, but I didn’t care; that stupid backpack saved my life. I threw it back on and stood up, staring out at the blackness before me, holding on to the armrest of a chair just for insurance.

There was literally nothing. No one. The silence was so suffocating I almost wished to hear my heart pounding in my ears again. 

“Hello?!” I called as loud as I could into the void, but there wasn’t even an echo, just… Silence.

Suddenly, as if compelled by some outside force, the train car lurched forward.

I nearly tumbled into the void again, the only thing that saved me being that armrest I was holding. “What was that? Who’s doing that?” I called, but once again, no answer.

The train car chugged along slowly, almost at a snail’s pace, but I figured that was better than nothing. I closed the sliding door, sick of my inability to stay firmly in the train, and walked carefully to a seat, plopping down into it.

What was I doing before I got on the train? I didn’t remember.

Who was I? I didn’t remember.

It felt like I’d been created from air and dropped onto this godforsaken train, surrounded by this godforsaken nothing. I took the poor, shredded backpack off my shoulders again and searched through it this time, but all I found were some loose-leaf blank sheets of notebook paper.

A student, maybe? If I was, I was stupidly disorganized. I desperately tried to search my brain for any clues related to school; maybe the name of a school I went to, the names of past teachers, the faces of fellow students and friends. I came up with nothing.

No matter how much I tried to scour my memories, one unchangeable fact remained; I was stuck on a train car, in the middle of the void, heading to nowhere. All I could do was wait.

So that’s what I did. I waited. And I waited. And waited.

I kept myself occupied with my thoughts as I stared out the window, gazing into the darkness.

I don’t know how much time passed… I had nothing to gauge my bearings on. No watch, no ticking clock, nothing. The dim lights from the train ceiling flickered for a moment, and then went out with a quiet click, and at the same time the train came to an abrupt halt.

I looked away from the window and shot to my feet, wrenched away from my thoughts, and pressed myself against the train wall. I could barely see anything; the dim lights were the only light source in this never-ending blackness. “Hello?” I called out, but my voice broke in my nervousness. 

There was a small beep, like something about to be announced over an intercom, and all of a sudden a digital message began scrolling across the top of the train wall in bright red, digital letters:

“Suddenly, as if compelled by some outside force, the train car lurched forward.”

The train started moving again abruptly, the force almost yanking me off my feet, and I steadied myself before looking back at the digital red letters. “Who’s doing this?! Who is it?” My frustration and stress exploded into my voice, and I stomped angrily away from the wall to stand in the center of the slow-moving train car, bathed by the weak red light of the letters.

    The digital message continued scrolling, and the letters would reveal a message that would make me rush towards the seats:

“The train started moving again abruptly, the force almost yanking me off my feet…”

I didn’t catch the rest, desperate to get to a seat. The train did, in fact, start moving forward again, and it was only by the grace of God that I ended up grabbing the armrest of a seat to avoid flying to the floor. 

Angrily, I stormed to the end of the train and yanked open the sliding door, screaming into the void.

“Are you messing with me? What are you trying to do?! Why am I here?” I glanced back at the red letters on a whim, and saw the following message:

“The silence was so suffocating I almost wished to hear my heart pounding in my ears again.”

Nothing. Absolute silence. 

And the last thing I saw before tumbling out of the train and into the void were the small, red letters forming the words “There was no ground. There was no sky. Good luck.”