Terror Train

Inspired by the song "Terror Train" by Demons and Wizards, who based their song off Blaine the Mono from The Dark Tower series. Listen to the song and read the lyrics first, then read this while playing the song in the backgro

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

Metal claws raking across metal chalkboards. Diamonds on grindstones. Cars crashing through semi's.

No tingle. No writhing. My spine shatters.

I'm still sleepy.

My head flings forward and smacks against something hard.

I'm awake, I'm awake!

Where am I?

Flashing lights, an entire hallway of strobe lights. Light, dark--light, dark--light, dark. The world is still frames. What's going on? Why's the ground trembling? Why's the ground rattling?

The world rocks and shakes, but it's jerky animation. I'm lifted clear off my seat and land back onto it with a thud. Square shadows pass at ninety-miles-per-hour past my face. I pat my surroundings. Wood? Where, why?

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

My world jolts to the side, and I'm flung against aged white plastic walls. Pulling myself up, gotta...gotta... Where now?

Run into the aisles, (what aisles?). Look around. The world still shakes, the world is narrow and only eight feet tall. Must be thirty feet long. Windows? Flashing windows, light pouring in only to be jerked away at breathtaking speed. There are television sets embedded above the seats every three rows. Static answers me with sarcasm. My world.

My world is moving.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

Knocked to the ground, again. A twisted pile of limbs and stupefied expressions. G-forces? The ceiling of my world trembles back and forth, side to side. We're sliding up and down, up and down, up and down.

Gotta...gotta...Grab onto that seat rest! Now pull yourself up! C'mon!

The insane strobe lights flicker still, a row of dozens of them. All I hear is shrieking, pained wails outside my thin walls---metal grating upon metal. Metal streaking at how many miles-per-hour?

The lights belie not ninety.

Something's clacking. What? I look down. Buttons. Buttons hitting buttons. Vibrations? The world's an earthquake. How fast are we moving? I pull on my handhold. It's not gravity pushing me back down. Momentum? Centrifugal force?

Push up---run! Get out. Feet pounding, I bolt. There's no doors at the end of the cab. No time, I dash past it. Gotta get to the end of this train.

What good would that do?

Run!

Poles, there are poles. Metal poles. Standing poles. Handholds now. Grab one, reach out, pull, let go, grab one... Mountain climbing at ground level.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

Everything tips, I fly! Two feet cannot hold my balance, and I crash against the right wall. The cab rights itself a second later with a loud resounding clank from outside. Outside?

I claw towards the windows. Nails find so little purchase in plastic. I crawl standing up, scraping...almost, there! I pull myself before the cold glass and press up to it. My cheek swells while becoming flat, eyes pushed as far as they'll go. Kiddy. Mommy are we there yet?

Where's there?

There's here.

We're, I'm, on a track. A rail. A line. A monoline. Monorail. This large, off-white obese sarcophagus hugging the tracks, racing along on sparks. Tripping the light fantastic. The far end of the mono is curving ahead. I see windows, portholes or eyes, pores or arrow wounds. One long legless millipede.

My cab is coming towards the bend. Now I feel it, there's a slight deceleration as the train begins to brake, just slightly. The wheels are churning...that way.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

Sparks. Broken fragmented shards of light, orange-yellow shrapnel, flare up from below across the glass plane before I'm flung away.

My room tilts again, as if it's on a gyro. No papers and debris fall with me. Just me. Bounce once off the wall to the other side, then off the floor. Two points. I think I taste blood. Were those rocks?

The rotor spins back down, everything's right-sided again with a clunk.

Stagger up, c'mon! I lunge for my new set of nearby windows and haul myself up. Dark rock flits by. Very close by. There are bits breaking off as the train zips past. Little bits of dust, pulverized by a moving wall at the speed of sound. So we're atop a mountain now?

I press against it, trying to see again. The rock begins to recede. It fears the train? I would. The gap between plastic and uncarved stone grows. Wait, no... It’s coming again.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

I'm ready for the curving tracks this time, and leap into it. My cab tilts the other way, bending into the angle so as not to fly straight off the rails at this speed. My hands shoot forth, wrapping around the poles. The train levels again. I land....on my feet.

Okay.

Look around now. Where was I? Poles. Gotta...gotta...I must hurry. Let's hurry.

Grab one, reach out, pull, let go, grab one. The threshold's near...

The cab bumps high and my arms are almost pulled out of my sockets. I land on my soles, solid, but drawn and tired. But, but things sound...quieter? My head flicks around, ears testing the air. Really? Yes, the mono's riding smoother now.

We're moving flat now? Now's my chance!

I bolt for it. I fly. I flee. I dash and sprint and race and shoot and zoom. Squares of flittering lights pass me. I'm a flip-book image, flick through my pages and see me go.

I pass more poles, more seats. Triangles of nylon hang from the ceiling. More handholds. Whitewashed walls with no advertisements. Static-filled screens. Windows. Through the transitional, accordion-walled bridge between cars. More poles, more seats. Again. Car after car. Keep running!

More cars. All the same. Have I been here before? Doesn't matter, go!

It catches the corner of my eye, the outside looks distant. Another---

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

I hang on for dear life.

Clunk-thud, the world's flat again. I must roll on.

Running, running. How many cars? Four, six, eight? Seen one car, seen 'em all. A dozen? I look through the doorway. I see no closed door far in the distance, only more open thresholds.

Turn around. Head up the train. Every train has a beginning. I run again.

More poles.

Another car.

More seats.

Another car.

More no advertisements.

Another car.

More windows.

Another car.

More televis---wait, what's on?

Not static no, there's a picture. Looks like------

No time. Keep going.

Another car.

That one's sets are tuned in too. Keep going.

More television sets. They're showing the same.

They're playing video of a guy running through what looks like a hallway. I stop to look. He stops. There are flashing strobe lights around him. The lights around me continue to flicker.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

We're both swatted to the side by physics.

I watch myself haul myself back up on the screen. I stare for a second. Then I keep running.

Another car. Another two, three, four. I run down the center aisle trail, watching myself on camera. Where am I?

Endless.

Lungs refuse to inflate anymore, I have to stop. My hands grip my knees, clutching them, trying to burst them. Body heaving.

Am I?

I'm insane. But not yet crazy.

I hobble to the right-side windows again. Need to, have to. This time, I don't look for the rest of the train. I look to the other side. What's my universe?

My universe is dark and filled with black fog, pierced only by streams of sparks here and there.

Look down.

Oh gods, nothing! There's nothing, just a sheer drop. I can't even see, even the tower of stone we're riding upon fades away.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

The cab dips to one side, and my whole body falls against the wall. The train's angle descends. My face is plastered to the glass. We're leaning over the chasm. Oh gods, I can't see. We're still tilting. Oh gods, don't fall, don't fall!

The mono suddenly veers back, landing so hard it tips the other way. I hear rock break away and grind against the train, but I land flat on my a*s. I feel cold.

Look around. More seats. More poles. More handholds. More no advertisements. More windows (I don't want to look through anymore). I wonder if I've stained the aisle carpeting. I look up at the screen.

Blood drains out from beneath my fingernails. The television screens say "Don't even dare to mess with me."

Okay.

I get up and run.

Two cars later the screens flicker with static and the words change as I run by. Like a car driving down the road seeing billboards all pointing to a tourist trap.

Trap?

"Please take your seats."

I keep running.

"You'll stay with me."

Run faster.

"Be with me."

Faster.

"I'll be with you."

I shut my eyes and scream.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

I spiral into the air and my head connects with something metal.

...

Something hard strikes my chin. No. My chin strikes something hard.

I'm jolted awake. I'm on the floor. The floor's bouncing. My head feels wet. Reach up and pat it. Feels like blood. Bring the arm down. Looks like blood. Look up. Some of the looks-like-blood is on a pole. There's a dent in the pole though.

Funny.

I'm not laughing.

I rise to my feet, wavering, hanging onto the metal rods for balance. Everything's fuzzy. The plastic white walls are fuzzy. I think I see advertisements on the wall. I don't want to see what they might be. Stagger forward.

Why?

No other direction to go.

I glance at the screens as I stumble forward. All I see is me, holding my head and swaying like a drunkard. Okay.

One hand against the car divider threshold. The other braced against the other side. I look up, ready to cross.

There's feet in the other cab.

I lurch forward, already gaping desperately. I shouldn't. But I fall into the next car.

There he is. Some guy. Old, mid-50's at least. Gray around balding. He wears a bucket hat. Wearing some old guy fisherman's vest. Dark blue pants. Also sunglasses, rim-horned sunglasses. They look opaque. He's holding a newspaper, facing a newspaper. It's covered in glyphs, no Associated Press photos.

I grab onto a nearby pole and hoist myself up. Raise the misen-mast. I wrap myself around it, and stare. He says nothing, doesn't even look up.

Blink.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

I coil around the pole like a python as the car angles to one side. He just leans forward.

Clank-thud. Blink.

No sound or reaction. Nothing. Not even the flip of a page. (Are there more pages?) Just the noise of distant sparks flying outside somewhere and rocky bits crashing into dust.

Enough.

"Where are we going?" I say.

His lips do not move.

"Where are we headed?" I speak again, louder.

His head doesn't even look up.

"Where is this train going?"

Nothing.

Nothing?

"Where is this train going!?"

Silence.

The passing light from the windows flashes over us, framing the two of us. Strobing still figures. There's the dull whine of the mono sliding over the track.

Finally, the upper lip cracks open. The oscillating lights make it look jerky. The entire mouth splits apart and molds over exhaled air.

"The world has moved on."

I stare at him.

"Now it's time to go."

My hands slowly, calmly, release themselves. I pry myself off the pole. I start to walk away.

I get halfway done the cab. Then I hear him utter, "Enjoy the ride."

The screens ahead of me, throughout the entire distance down the length of the train, each say something different.

"You'll stay with me."

"Stay with me."

"I'll stay with you."

I run away.

I was wrong. So wrong. No fear is worse than...

I press myself against the window, face and nose and eyes and all. I try to squeeze myself through the tiny pinprick of a hole I know isn't there. I cram my whole body along that small porthole.

I'm looking away. Not the train. No, not anymore! Outside. Has to be! Looking not out, not down. I look up. There's light. I follow it.

Rays of light through the smoke, pale yellow beams. I trace along their path. Can there be a sun somewhere out there? Look farther up.

I see---I see--A ball of light and rock. It's not thousands of miles away. It's closer. It's a collapsed organ. A throbbing dead heart. Throwing light. Dead and dying. Disgusting and full of dread. Dripping with ichor, its molten decayed core. Beneath a demon moon.

Shuddering, trembling. My tongue dries, I feel hair falling out. My body's collapsing into the window, and not as I will it. No no no no! Gods sake, help me! I push, I try to pull away. The glass sticks to me, hugging me tighter. I can't turn my face around. The fluid in my eyes grows thicker. I'm trying to look away.

Oh gods, oh gods.

The whites of my eyes are hardening like cement. My heart is pounding against the glass. I feel rattling coming up from the window. My bones feel too jagged. I'm being stabbed in 206 places. I swivel my eyes up and away, and then I cannot move them anymore.

In the corner of my vision I can see the mono is going uphill. There are more mountains. We're on a mountain range. They wind on forever. And something is glowing from the maw of the farthest mountains. Faded, sickly yellow smoke over a dull smolder of noxious orange.

We're heading toward it. Beneath a demon moon.

ScrrEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCHHHHHHHHHH

Author's Note

I usually proofread my works, however as always I'm sure there are typos and syntax errors. I appreciate any and all notices of that, and will work to correct those. If I haven't do know that I did acknowledge your notice and try implementing it, but found that it detracted from the effect I wanted and so omitted it.

Reviews

[Gabriella]

I love this story for so many reasons. The first thing that caught my attention was the title because I've heard the song and I love it, I really think you capture it's fervent sound in this work. You capture terror.

The second thing I really like is the mention of how the train has become a world, a universe. I felt trapped when I read it, like I was really a part of this.

I also love the suspense and sense of panic you've put into this piece because it fits perfectly with the story. The whole time reading it was a surreal adventure and I couldn't wait to get to the end. You are indeed very talented and I look forward to reading more of your work.