Whitney was bound for the beach to spend some time away from work. She had been swamped the last few days and was thinking of quitting soon. "Maybe I could just take a break and do a short trip" she thought, "maybe I could even meet someone!" So she had taken leave and headed out armed with a few books,sunscreen and her swimwear.
On the other hand, Tom had already spent time away from work for a few days and was returning home. He hadn't met anyone interesting on his trip. He had had a break up a few months back and was at the point where he had gotten over the relationship and wanted to finally date someone else. But as fate would have it, there was no one who wanted to go out with him.
The night had darkened considerably and a thick fog shrouded the hills and forests outside. Visibility had dropped to near zero and both trains were already running behind schedule.
Tom and Whitney, alien to each other, were on their smartphones. Both of them were on the same online dating app, swiping left and right furiously. There seemed to be no perfect match for them out there in the world. But all at once, Whitney landed on Tom's profile the same time Tom landed on Whitney's and both of them stopped. Scrolling through each other's profile details, they were both wondering the same thing, how they had been looking to meet someone and a dating app had been the solution all along!
They reached the end of each other's profiles at the same moment and within an instant both of them felt like they were lifted off the ground and spun swiftly into the air; the next thing they knew they were standing on a wide grey square in an empty city looking at each other across a fountain. After a few seconds of silence filled with surprise and shock, Whitney was the first one to finally speak,
"What just happened!!"
Tom stared for a few more seconds before he was able to speak.
"I don't know! What just happened?"
"I don't know either. That's what I just asked you.... wait, you're Tom, aren't you?"
"Erm, yes, how do you know who I am?"
Whitney paused, unsure of what to say. She looked around at her surroundings. Where were they? There were tall buildings all around them, each of them painted grey and without windows; the entire city seemed to be devoid of life. "Like Chicago without colors", she thought to herself, "and the wind!" as an afterthought.
"Hi, you are Whitney, aren't you?"
His voice snapped her back to the present - how did he know who I was?
"Yes, I am but how did you know that?"
"That's what I just asked you, how do you know my name is Tom?"
"Well, I don't know how to explain this, I was on a train and.."
"Wait wait wait wait, you were on a train?"
"Yes, why?"
"I was on a train too, travelling back from Sandbar Beach."
"I was on my way to Sandbar Beach!"
"That's weird, but how did you know who I am? We have never met and I am pretty sure we weren't on the same train in which case there might have been a chance of having seen you somewhere, but that's not it."
Whitney shrugged and said, "Well, I was in the train and on an online dating app scrolling through profiles...."
"..and you got to my profile and the next thing you know is you are standing here?"
"Yeah, wait, how.. ? Did the same thing happen to you too?"
"Yeah, I just got to your profile and found it mighty interesting and the moment I finished reading through it I felt like I was spinning in the air and here I was at the fountain!"
"The same thing happened to me, I got to your profile and found you pretty interesting so I started reading through your profile. The instant I got to the end, I felt the spinning sensation you mentioned and here I was!"
Both of them paused and looked at each other, breaking into a smile after a few seconds.
"She has such light brown eyes", thought Tom to himself as he smiled at her. There was definitely something about her.
"Well, I don't really know what to say right now, this is all a little too strange" , said Tom.
"Yeah, that's true, but I think let's just start with 'Nice to meet you' and take it from there" Whitney said and extended her hand towards him. Tom was pretty handsome in real life too.
"Yeah,nice to meet you too!" said Tom, and shook her extended hand.
"Well, now what?" said Tom, looking around, "what do you reckon this place is?"
"I have no idea, it's just buildings everywhere, I can't see a person anywhere nor shops or cars, is this even a real city?"
"I am as clueless as you are; even the fountain has no water in it. And weirdly, if you notice the five roads leading away from this square, they are all a little too black, isn't it? "
"Yes you are right, everything about this place is strange, kind of gives me the creeps"
"Well, you wouldn't be the only one to have goosebumps, even I am a little creeped out." said Tom, rubbing his hands together,"It's also a little chilly,isn't it? I wish I had a coat or something."
"Yeah I know, but it's summer, I didn't even have any warm clothes with me" , said Whitney, patting her own cheeks,"Wasn't really expecting whatever this is to happen!"
Then, still patting her cheeks, she said, "So what do you wanna do? Should we start walking up along one of these roads and see where that goes?"
"Yeah let's do that, it might just go somewhere where there are people; plus it'd give me a chance to get to know you a little better than your online profile."
Whitney smiled. He was charming in a way, this Mr. Tom Smith.
"Sure", she said.
As they reached the start of the nearest road they noticed that there was a signboard where normally the street name sign usually is in a big city. In bold capital letters it read, "DO NOT LOOK/TURN BACK TILL THE FIRST RIGHT TURN"
"This just keeps getting weirder. Maybe we should walk down one of the other roads, what do you think? said Tom.
Whitney was still looking at the sign and nodded, "Yeah let's".
They walked over to the next street. The same sign hung stolid over the pavement on this road too. Deciding to try the next one, they went around in a circle discovering that all the roads had the same sign hanging where they started.
"Well, I am really at a loss for what to do, maybe we should just stay at the fountain and wait?" said Tom.
"Wait for what? There's no one here!"
"Well then, what do you suggest we do?"
"I say let's just start walking down one of these roads, we'll keep each other company and talk to each other, that way we might not feel the need to turn back and wonder about the sign till that first right turn."
Tom shrugged and said,"Okay, there's really not much of a choice here huh? Let's do this. Take my hand."
She clasped her partially cold fingers around his, looked at him and they stepped on to the black road. And with that first step, they realized that the black road surface was not like roads they were familiar with- it seemed squishy in some places and brittle in others. Whitney's heels sank right into the road at one point but then the road itself crumbled at that spot.
"Whoa! what is this?" she cried and started fumbling. Holding hands, both of them started treading carefully as if they were walking in a bog.
"Whatever it is, don't look back, the road surface is just weird like everything else in this place we arrived, let's just go on" said Tom.
"Alright alright, don't let go of my hand though"
"No, I'm not letting that go!" said Tom and grinned.
As they walked down the road towards that first right turn, unknown to them, the road behind them began to move. Though they did not realise it, the entire road was made of charred human bodies- bodies that were not fully alive nor dead; the whole width of the road was covered with them. Each of these bodies started sitting up to watch Tom and Whitney walk further away.The entire stretch of the road was stirring, each body laid on the stretch sitting upright and then standing up slowly. The first of the lot started shuffling forward, pushing the others in front of them until an entire part of the road had emptied and all the charred bodies were moving in unison like zombies towards human flesh.
Tom and Whitney walked on for what seemed like an eternity before Tom spotted the turn.
"Hey look!" he shouted,"There's the right turn, c'mon quickly, let's see what happens over there!"
Both of them started walking as quickly as they could over the squelchy and brittle road surface.
The moment they reached the turn, they noticed that the road changed into the normal grey they were used to. The buildings had color and windows and they could even see shops, cars and people in the distance. What was happening?
Their hands were still clasped around each other's; Tom said, "Hey, we made it. Wherever this is, we made it."
"Yeah" Whitney said and smiled. "Let's see where this goes now, yeah?"
Tom grinned back.
As they turned in the new direction, out of the corner of her eye, Whitney spotted movement to her right. She looked to her right.
"Holy shit, what is that?!" she shouted.
Tom turned to where she was looking and let out a stifled gasp. "What the .....!"
But before he could finish his sentence, both of them felt an almost familiar tug and within a fraction of a second, they were pulled apart and spun into the air into darkness.
********
Aziz walked down to the deli like he did every day for his morning coffee and a fresh bagel. As he waited for his order, he took out his cellphone to get up to speed on the day's news. The first headlines and the news article caught him off guard-this was major news! It read:
TRAIN COLLISION NEAR SANDBAR BEACH
In one of the biggest railroad mishaps of this century, a railway track switch failed to work on the Western Expressway Line; two trains bound for and away from Sandbar Beach on the same railway track collided in a fatal crash after the switch failed to divert the two trains to two separate lines. One of the engines in one train's locomotive exploded propelling fire through most of both the trains. The fire is now under control and emergency crews are at work. Regrettably, all lives were lost to the massive fire and the collision except for two people who are now being treated at the nearest hospital after being flown away on medevac choppers. They have been identified as Tom Smith and Whitney Perrine. We extend our condolences to the families who lost their near and dear ones.
More details to follow on the incident. Keep watching this space.
