Blink.

“You can be anything you can dream yourself to be. Do anything you can set your mind to! I know you will be a splendid young man someday. All you have to do is just set yourself to the task, and do your best!” 

My mother always had such a warm, loving smile. We all felt so empty, so drained. A malevolent force always permeated the halls of our home. I knew she was just trying her best, but even her encouragement never felt real to me. Just rehearsed for the third child, spoken as smoothly as olive oil spreads warmly over a frying pan.

Blink.

“Okay class, remember to do your homework! We have a pop quiz sometime this week, and the materials on your homework will be on the quiz! Good grades means good scholarships, and a good scholarship means a good college degree! Education is power, and higher education means better finances!”

It always just made sense to me. In hindsight, I really didn’t realize what was happening to me. The more educated I was, the better chances I had as an adult, that much was true. I just didn’t realize I was swallowing a pitch for a life that wasn’t going to exist by the time I was ready for it.

Blink.

A computer screen hummed softly in front of me. Colors danced in varied hues, line art threatened my ego with their harsh mediocrity. But I’m here to learn aren’t I? Why am I just so much worse at this? Why didn’t I practice art sooner? I just need a good grade, I will improve soon enough. I just need a passing grade.

Blink.

My compartment screams across grav steel. I can feel the passive stares of everyone in my train car. I have what could fit with me on the Mag Rail. At least the trip wouldn’t be agony for much longer. A much nicer city awaited me, one that might finally be somewhere I could be myself. My backside felt cold, the plastic cushion practically defied logic. I couldn’t muster any warmth, despite sitting for hours now. Almost home.

Blink.

I can feel the cool sheets underneath my palms. My back ached from lying down for so long. 6 AM. I had work in an hour. Ugh, another shift, but at least it wasn’t too bad. The work wasn’t strenuous, and it paid sorta well given how shit every other job in my area was. Triple the work, for less pay, gotta be thankful for not having to do that. My degree didn’t mean much for the job, but at least I wasn’t totally broke. 

I heaved myself from the bed into the cold room. Heating was expensive, and the cold embrace of the air, bereft from my warm sheets, would serve to wake me up well. Dazed, I stumbled into the bathroom. In the mirror a stranger glared at me. They had long hair, draping their shoulders in an auburn curtain, so frizzy it nearly looked like they skid their head along the carpet. There was a slight, noticeable blush upon her cheekbones, and a medium build that was wrapped in a barely over five foot package. It used to bother her being so short, but once she found herself, at least it was charming in a way. Many girls her age lamented being tall, and while she wasn’t proud to be short, she took some solace in that being small made her unassuming. Forgettable, invisible, and best of all, unassuming. She would be safer that way.

Teeth brushing, hair combing, jeans, a blouse, an olive yellow sweater, glasses, boots. No time to eat, I needed to catch the mag rail to get to work on time. My stomach growled at me in a nauseous protest. Even if I had time, I’ve had morning sickness since I was a small kid. Water is all I could down for the first hour or so in the morning. I pushed myself out the door and into the Pacific outdoors. Frost tinged the grass, and threatened to make the sidewalk feel its grasp. The cold air felt biting on the nose and ears. The mag rail trip wouldn’t be much warmer, but it was better than tasting the wind chill of the outdoors. 

The concrete clicked in rhythm with my black boots as I made my way from my apartment to the subway station. The humming of cars served to keep my senses about myself, pedestrians could easily get clipped by a car zipping across the crosswalks. 

“Fine by me.” I muttered under my breath. “Do it, and pay for my college loans.”

I grabbed onto the rusty railing that led me down the tiled steps into the mag rail station. A turnstile chirped in harmony as it let me through after paying my fee. I sat upon a metal bench as it sapped away more of my warmth. The cool interior of the tunnel felt foreboding. A PSA flashed on the monitors that lined the station. A young woman's voice pierced the quiet shuffling on the station as the morning commuters filtered in.

BZZZZT! “The next scheduled stop for Pearl Station may experience delays. Please be patient as our dedicated employees work hard to resolve the issue as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience, and please do not leave any luggage unattended.”

I rubbed my eyes. I better not be late to work over this shit. I sighed. To my surprise, with a sudden crash and warping of metal, the Mag Rail had arrived on time. It had a severely sloped cone conductors booth at the front. Its insectile structure, shaped to deflect debris and crumple on anything with enough mass to budge it on its journey. Grav rails could get you anywhere very quick, but its origins felt questionable. Fast acting public transportation was an incredible boon for the average joe. However, there were always reports of missing employees, workplace injuries, and fabulous expenses that Mag Rail companies spent a lot of time shouldering onto customers and any government that was willing to subsidize them. 

BZZZZT! “Next stop, Onyx district. Please board or disboard the Mag Rail now. Keep clear of the doors, and mind any small children.”

My feet stepped upon the marvel of engineering. The ribbed texture of the metal floor below my feet knocked loudly under my boots. Everyone else piled into the train car. 

BZZZZT! “Now departing, please keep the doors clear at all times. Do not attempt to hold open the doors. Weapons and tools are not allowed on the Mag Rail. Please enjoy your ride with Satur Corp!”

I slumped against my seat. Tired faces surrounded me, blurred and wrinkled, definitionless and weathered. The Mag Rail lurched quickly, my stomach leaping at the sensation of grav steel biting onto the tracks. The slingshot motion was never easy to get used to. It never felt great but once the train was in motion you could almost feel none of the movement. Electronic signs silently flashed advertisements for the latest fast food brand.

“Fast food, even faster delivery!,” it shone on the screen. “Sign up for the Department of Public Transportation! Benefits, a $5000 signing bonus, and a retirement plan after 20 years of service!”

“Yeah right.” I said, thinking aloud. “If you even can hold a job like that down for that long-”

A violent blur of people, luggage, and debris flung itself across the cabin. It was so dark. Everything hurt so much. A dull, throbbing agony sang across my body, threatening to expire its painful grasp if I just chose to relax and sleep. Sleep felt nice, and I needed it so much. My eyes peeled themselves open. Pitch black, inky oblivion. Red emergency lights sprang to life. Where was I? It hurt to move at all. My left arm felt so numb, and heavy as lead.

The left side of my head felt warm, and wet. My legs felt weak, my knees crying in pain that even summoning the strength to pull them closer to my core felt like the last repetition in a workout set that pulled every breath out of you. Metal began to bend and creak. Like a tin can shearing itself apart from the outside, a disembodied sinewed hand clawed its way onto the train car. It skittered gracefully across the floor, pulling its claws across crumpled metal. Was this a nightmare? Food poisoning? This felt too vivid, too painful to not be real. Why won’t I wake up? Please, just wake up!

The sinewed hand leapt off the cushioned seat to my left, and landed onto a dark mass. 

Oh gods, I thought to myself, completely stunned. I was lying in a pool of viscera and crunched bodies. The train must’ve crashed somehow. The hand got to work, peeling the skin-velope of the freshly crunched commuter. Skittering echoed from the opening where the hand had pried open the cabin. Alarms began to emanate from the tunnel.

BZZZT! “Please remain calm, and stay in your cabin. Do not approach the doors. Do not- Do not- Do- eave the cabin. Await– escue.” The intercom pierced the cabin's silence. More skittering of flesh. Two more forearms with hands attached pulled themselves through the gap in the metal walls. Another one, another three, a veritable group of limbs pulled apart the corpses to my side, a mere 6 feet away. I had to get away. Where would I go? Existence was agony, and the scene before me was paralyzing. Could I even get through the gap? Even if I could, how far would I make it in this state?

A gargled groan interrupted my thoughts. It wasn’t from the freshly pulped corpses, now shredded, to the side of me. Vermillion eyes glowed from the gap, like LEDs scanning the room ravenously. A face began to push through the gap, a distended jaw, skinless like the limbs that had preceded it. It throbbed and pushed its way into the cabin. A slimy mass of flesh hanging out its maw like a relaxed viper. It crumpled and tore steel apart as it continued its assault into the cabin.

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. And nothing to fight with. A stab at my side suddenly made me cry out in a writhing pain. One of the sinewed hands had worked its way to me, seeing me as another source of skin. 

“Fuck off!” I cried out. My face felt like hell, and my ribs hurt even just to speak. The hand recoiled back, seeming to attempt to rally with the other disembodied limbs. A gurgled shriek spilled from the monster, now a third of the way into the steel cabin. 

“Anything, something, please I need-...” I used my right arm to search for something to defend myself with. It hurt like hell but I could at least use it unlike my left. The steel bench bars near me were wrecked, but still welded firmly to the floor and wall. “There must be… anything!” My mind shouted. The arms and hands began to clamor to themselves, adjoining themselves to form long reticulated arms, grasping each other at the base of their joints. They began to claw and writhe their way towards their owner. The skinless host of my steel coffin. 

I felt something sharp, something firm. It was an arm. Compound fracture, bone snapped and protruded from the skin. It was mangled and dangling uselessly from its former owner. In a bid of desperation, I pulled with all my might to arm myself with a gruesome shiv. The crackle of tendon and cartilage shook the foundations of my soul, but the arm was mine. The creature pulled itself further inside, its shrieks turning into a roar. The enraged entity was seeking to claim its appendages, probably to rip me to shreds with, and it was getting closer.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” I yelped in pain, trying to desperately heave myself upward. Onto your shins and knees. Please just get up! The beast was mostly into the cabin finally. Its coiled body pressing itself into the floor, ready to pounce on a new skin-velope. I refuse! I cannot die here! I pulled the arm, bone protrusion forward like a makeshift spear. Anything, any chance, anyway to harm this… thing!

The sinewed monster pounced.

Seconds pulled away from its temporal coil, and stretched into minutes. Minutes felt like hours. The bare muscle and tendon of the monster, dripped in viscera and blood roaring past the arc it trailed. This might be it, I thought. I spent so much energy in my life, terrified of a boring death, alone and forgotten. Instead, I would die here, brutally and painfully, and forgotten. Another statistic that I was sure would be buried by whatever corpo-lite suit ran the labor bureau for the DPT. 

Then suddenly, a flash of brilliant light.

Time had finally resumed, and the beast slammed against the side of the steel coffin. It howled in furious pain. Another flash. The beast’s head and tongue slammed into the roof of the cabin. I could finally see. I saw a lady, clad in belted fatigues. Her fists glowed with a gold steam rising from her knuckles. The beast slashed down at her as it tumbled off the ceiling towards her. The woman flexed her body instinctively, and pulled her guard above her. Another flash of gold light. A parry! The beast’s chest and guard were wide open, and the woman used her other free hand to deliver a vertical straight blow. The creature immediately crumpled into the force of her strike and slammed once more into the ceiling, forming a severe dent. 

The beast did not fall this time, instead clinging with its claws into the roof. Its long tongue lashed out at its foe. The woman rolled her weight to her right, dodging the superior reach of her quarry. Using the time it had, the monster immediately pulled itself with inhuman speed towards the gap, screaming past the steel walls.

Another gold flash.

The cabin was empty. Only a howling dark, and the violent silence of gold that intermittently emanated from the torn gap in the wall. I collapsed again onto the cold steel floor. Alive, but for how long? It wasn’t any use, oblivion took me as I dipped into an inky slumber.