Happy Endings

    Colin had the train station in sight, he could see the massive semi-cylindrical structure looming over the skyline ahead of him.  Looking down to street level, he could also see the Army checkpoint surrounded by soldiers.
    Easily making his way through the checkpoint, Colin moved on towards the main entrance of the train station.  Pouring through the doors, walking in the opposite direction of Colin, were the masses of citizens returning to the city and to their homes.
    Colin felt like he was struggling upstream as he pushed his way through the opposing crowds.  Eventually he managed to squeeze through the doors, keeping the briefcase pressed tightly to his body at all times, to keep it safe.
    Inside the station, there were two trains, only two.  Each on adjacent platforms, one for departures, one for arrivals.  The one for arrivals had swarms of people exiting it and coming in Colin’s direction.  No one was around the departing train, not many people wanted to leave in the latter days of the war, all the people who wanted to depart had done so when the war started.
    Even though citizens were coming back to the city from the refugee camps, evacuation trains were still running and probably would until the city completely returned to its previous glory.  Colin veered away from the packs of miserable-looking, unwashed former refugees as he passed their train and headed for the empty platform.  
    The silent and vacant platform, Colin found extremely eerie when compared with the other one, which was not that far away, yet full of activity.
    Colin entered the train, expecting to see a few people who still wanted to evacuate at this late stage and had gotten on before he arrived, but there weren’t.  Colin was the only person he could see; he found it unsettling but also peaceful.  He sat down in a seat by a window and was quite surprised to find out how luxurious these trains were.  The chairs were large and comfortable and, even more unexpected; each one had a small television in the back.
    As he waited for the train to take him away from this prior life of his, Colin placed his briefcase very gently on the seat next to him, rested his hat on the top of it and turned on the TV in front of him.  He found the news; he was going to turn it over when something caught his attention.
    “…The most important development in the history of our country since the Roman invasion.  This time, there was no physical attack, only a battle of will and minds at the polls.  Once again, the British Isles is now under the control of a European power.  The vote for joining the reformed European Union was passed earlier today, the UK is to become the newest member of the New Union, which involves handing over complete control of the government to the European Parliament.  The King publicly announced his abdication just moments ago, attributing the reason why most people voted in support of this drastic political upheaval to the controversy in Edinburgh.  Saying that the British citizens have lost faith in the current establishment’s ability to keep the United Kingdom united and are now blindly trusting the European Parliament, just to see if they can manage any better.”
    Colin turned off the TV and leaned back deep into his chair.  He thought about how this would affect him and realised that it probably wouldn’t matter all that much.
    The train began to move, it left the station and a flood of light poured in through the window, causing him to close his eyes, he could feel this new warmth flowing over every contour of his face, it felt good.  He didn’t remember the Sun being out when he entered the station, but now that he was leaving, it shone brighter than ever.
    He rested his head against the window, he felt so tired, he hadn’t slept properly for seven months and not at all for more than 24 hours.  Colin thought about many things as he left the city, his initial thoughts were of himself.  It was almost May and his birthday was coming up, he would be 42, Colin wondered how he’d spend it.  It wasn’t too far away but Colin had no idea what he’d be doing when that day did come, every other time in his life, there was at least a general inkling of what he’d be doing in the future.  Now, there was no plan.  Now, there was only a sense of liberating improvisation.
    Even though Colin was essentially finished here, there were still a lot of questions that needed answers to accompany them.  Was this a happy ending?  Was he a bad person if he said yes?  It wasn’t perfect, a lot of people were dead but it definitely could have been worse, he could’ve been among them.
    He kept asking himself questions.  Was Malcolm right?  Is there no such thing as truly evil or good people because humans can’t focus that well?  Do we all just have our positions on the scale?  Do we all have a part to play?
    Colin admitted to himself that it sort of did make sense in a warped kind of way.  Even though no one can be totally evil or good, people still think in these simpler terms just because it’s easier that way.  However, there are people out there who generally lean towards actions that most people consider to be good or evil.
    This balance really is a necessity.  Good people, by definition, are the very best of the masses so if everybody was good, in the end nobody would be.  You need the drag factor of the bad people out there to even things out, to give the good a chance to be appreciated.
    No, Colin thought, he wasn’t going to believe what Malcolm told him.  He almost forgot that he didn’t like to think in the terms of good and bad, right and wrong, because Colin believed in neither good nor evil.  Let everyone else think in this over-simplified and yet convoluted way; they can all have their own private opinions on what is good and evil.  People will remain thinking in these terms but the definitions will still tend to shift from one person to another.  What one person considers as evil might not be considered so by another.
    This means that if it is all so relative and if there is no universal definition of what is good and evil that everyone can agree on, then these concepts don’t really exist.
    As Colin came to this revelation, he thought of what Malcolm would say if he told him this theory.  Malcolm, he wondered what would happen to him, Colin couldn’t imagine his story ending quite as well as his own had.  It was true not everything had turned out the way he predicted.  His wife was dead.  Was he so heartless if he didn’t really care?  Probably, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t need to come to such conclusions anymore, he was rich.  Sometimes, even if you make the wrong choice, other people pay the penalty and everything still ends pretty well for you.  Colin didn’t mind this outcome at all.
    Then, Colin began to think of Ian, maybe it was a good idea for him to stay behind.  Who knows if he would’ve survived the altercation with the Cerberus tank?  No, the choice he made was probably better for him, Colin wondered if he could’ve seen it coming.
    It would’ve been nice to know if Colin would ever see Clark or Ian again, or even Malcolm.  He guessed he would just have to trust the nature of chance for now, it had been kind to him so far.  Quietly admitting to himself that Colin was very content with the result of his greed, he realised that even if he could change the outcome, he wouldn’t.  He didn’t feel guilty about thinking this, he felt happiness and that was nothing to be ashamed of, it was the goal in life after all.
    The reason explaining Colin’s happiness was because of the money sitting next to him, which allowed him to live anyway he wished.  If he wanted to, he would never have to interact with people he didn’t like ever again.  Colin really hated the vast majority of people, he didn’t think that they were evil; he didn’t want to believe that.  Colin thought that people were mean, petty, patronising, boring and pretentious, but not evil.  Colin wouldn’t mind if they were evil, at least they’d be interesting then, he thought of all the people he was leaving behind as worse than evil.
    It would have to be said that things really didn’t turn out well for Victoria, but Colin tried to look on the bright side.  At least she would never have to know that Dominic was dead.
    Colin grew weary of thinking about the last seven months just to eventually justify his every action, making him feel better about his many questionable choices.  He decided to pick this up where he left off later.  For now, he would just go to sleep and let this empty train take him away from his past.
    In the history of the future, the last seven months were seldom spoken of and when it was, the description of what had really happened was always incredibly vague.
    It was never referred to as a war, the European Parliament, now in its newly formed second incarnation, would never allow the completion of the new union to coincide with warfare.  It was simply known only as ‘a time of depression’, which was now over.