Lost

"I'm so sorry, excuse me! Excuse me, sorry," I tapped a man on the shoulder and asked him to move. "Sorry miss," He scooched over and I walked past him. "Thank you!" I thanked him, making my way back to my train seat.

This was already the 7th business trip, and it had only been 3 months. COVID ended, and everybody was allowed to go back to work. Luckily for many others, that didn't mean "business trip."

Business trips used to be exciting, because I was allowed to explore and travel while I worked. After a while, I noticed that the luxury had started to disappear. My boss assigned more and more projects for me, which meant I barely had any time to even eat during a business trip.

Now here I am, on a crowded train with 3 hours left to go. "Hello there! Are you also on a business trip?" A young woman asked me, eyeing my small suitcase. "Yes, I am. Are you?" I replied. "Yes, this is my first one! I'm very excited." She exclaimed happily.

I sighed and opened my mouth, reading to speak. "Oh, business trips aren't very fun-" I stopped as a person on the train spilled their soda and everyone turned their heads . "Ahem, I meant business trips aren't very long. Yeah, you might not have a lot of time to travel and look at other places." I didn't want to tell her since she seemed so joyful.

"It's alright, I'll try to finish my assignments quicker!" She gave me a thumbs up and went back to her seat. How cute, a little college graduate who has just started working. That's nice. I thought. I closed my eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.

A few hours later, I noticed that all the lights on the train were off. I checked my phone and tapped someone on the shoulder. "Hi, um, do you know when we'll be getting to Charleston?" The person turned around and shrugged. "Sorry, I have no idea. I'm also heading there and it seems that we should be there in a bit." They turned around and went back to looking at their phone.

I sighed and called my boss to check in with him before going back to sleep. When I had finally woken up, all the lights on the train were out. I could hear a lot of people panicking, and some people even wanted to get out. "What happened?" I asked. "No idea, the conductor isn't answering us and we can't get to the front," a stranger answered. "Oh, that's weird. Maybe something happened and they're still fixing the lights?" I replied. "Maybe," They sighed and started pushing people to go to the front.

Suddenly, I heard a loud, piercing scream coming from the front of the train. As I stepped out of my seat, all I could see was a person running towards me screaming: "RUN! A CRAZY WOMAN IS TRYING TO KILL EVERYONE!" I looked at them and cocked my head until I saw more people running over.

Quickly stepping out of my seat, I started running to the back. "LOCK THE DOORS!" People were shouting and everything was very chaotic. Almost as if she was possessed, a woman holding a big knife ran in our direction. People pushed on the door and tried to lock it, but the door just wouldn't budge. I worriedly reached my hand out, and got the door to loosen.

"CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!" People started screaming. A man slammed the door and put his body up against it as another man locked the door. Everybody immediately calmed down, but they started worrying again as they thought about how to get off the train. I, on the other hand, was extremely confused and scared.

"Guys, we need to find a way to get out of the train. The train has slowed down, but that doesn't mean we can't be cautious. She's still outside," A man started speaking and making plans. I just want to get off this train, I want nothing else. Aren't there any side doors? I wondered, looking around. The man pointed in the direction I was looking at and said: "Let's go to the side door and try to get off! Everyone be careful!"

He led us to the side door and opened it. Immediately, people started hopping off the train and sprinting in the other direction. I was just confused and didn't know where to go. I didn't even know where I was, to begin with. I was scared, and everything happened so quickly. One second I was on the train, and the other second I'm getting chased by a stranger with a knife along with some other passengers. "Hey! Let's stick together!" The young college graduate from a while ago ran over to me and looked around. People were getting off, and the train started disappearing in the distance.

"What now?" I asked. Some people were also standing in the same place, like us. "Where are you guys headed?" Some asked. "I'm headed to Charleston, but I don't know where she's headed. Where are you headed?" I looked at the girl and she took out her phone. "Huh? What? Well, I'm headed to... let me check.... Charleston! Yes, Charleston. For a business trip." She smiled.

"Many of us are too, but we don't know which direction to go." They shrugged, and started looking at their phones. I took out my phone as well and looked on Google Maps. "We can try to get there, but it'll take long," I said, pointing to my map. "Sure, but I'm bad at this stuff. I can barely read directions," Some answered.

We started walking in the direction of the others, trying to get to Charleston. After walking for quite some time, we noticed something weird. We were all fast walkers, and could definitely catch up to the others. But they were never found, even after walking for so long. We did see some of their belongings on the side of the road before, but we didn't think too much about it.

Suddenly, someone screamed and then they disappeared. It was the man from before. "Where did he go? Guys? What just happened?" I asked. The young woman shrugged, but I was very worried. He just..... disappeared. Where did he go? Although I was worried and some of the other people were too, we couldn't stop here. Continuing to walk and hoping to somehow find the man, we stopped at an empty spot and sat down.

"Guys, let's take a rest. Look, we're so close to Charleston!" I pointed at my map again, showing them." They nodded, and agreed to take a rest. It was already very late. "Goodnight guys," We all said, using our jackets and hats and scarves as blankets.

Early next morning, I woke up. The sun was still rising, and a beautiful sunrise was in front of me. I looked around, and noticed that only the young woman and I were here. "Hey! Wake up! Where did everyone go?" She woke up, and rubbed her eyes. "Good morning, what do you mean? What people?" She looked around and shrugged. "The people! They were with us before, remember?" I asked again. "Nobody was with us, you must have had a bad dream or something," She yawned, and went back to sleep.

I breathed in some fresh air and sighed. I was sure there were people. There was more than one person! Sighing again, I looked in front of me. The sun was rising, and the beautiful colors in the sky were blending together. The sun rose, and lit up the grassy plains the girl and I were resting on. The green grass turned to golden, and the colors started to fade.

Note: I had no idea what to write, sorry if everything in the story was super random haha.