The subway station was not particularly clean, old gum and graffiti was on the walls. A man was waiting for a train, his name was Tobias. He had an old school bag on the floor placed between his legs. He looked down at his watch, the clock had just crossed midnight.
The train never followed the schedule and was often late, this was one of those nights. He was often alone in the subway at this time, midnight on a Tuesday.
The carriages on the trains were constantly changing colors, sometimes they were black other days they were silver-grey. Tonight they were grey. He could see the yellow front lights in the distance, he took up his bag and carried it.
He was looking forward to getting home again, home to his small apartment. He did not have much space and the building was not attractive to look at. His budget could not afford a rent too expensive so he had to settle with what he got.
The train began to stop slowly. He could hear the loud squeaking sound of wheels slowing down its speed. It stopped right in front of him. He pushed the button and the door opened. His door was the only one that opened that night. No one walked out and he went right in.
The train had five carriages. He went inside number two. The carriage was empty and he found a random seat, almost the entire train was empty. He sat down near the window and placed his bag between his legs. The chairs had no pattern, they were blank and had a straight purple color. He leaned back and slowly closed his eyes.
The station he had to stop at was forty minutes away. Five minutes after getting in he saw a woman walking, she had a white shirt and the rest of her clothes were dark red. She was carrying a trash bag, and cleaned the seats. This was the last ride for this train that night and when the train was clean, the staff could go home.
While she cleaned the seats her facial expressions were stiff and blank, she had pale skin. She looked at him for a short moment and said "Welcome aboard". "Thank you...." Tobias said. Thereafter she walked away and cleaned the next carriage.
Time went by slowly. He fell asleep and woke up half an hour later. He got off his seat because his station was the next one. He took his old bag with him.
He stood near the door. Close to him was an old lady. She was staring at him. She stared at him while he waited. Her eyes were wide and her skin was pale.
He looked back at her and asked "Can I help you ma'am?". She kept on staring and gave him no answer. He turned his head down and looked at the floor trying to ignore her. "The train never stops," she said. "What do you mean?" he asked with a small grin.
"I've been here for more than thirty years and the train hasn't stopped yet." she told him. "The train stopped at the last station and back when I walked in," he said.
"I couldn't see that, none of us could," she said.
"What do you mean by us?" he asked. Another elderly man appeared, they were both equally pale. "She is telling the truth," he said. The train continued at the same speed, no sign of it stopping. More people appeared.
The people began to rot and Tobias fell back in terror. Tobias could smell them. They reeked of something that had rotten for many years.
They slowly walked towards him. Tobias got up fast and threw his bag at them. The bag hit one of them in the head and the person fell down. Tobias ran back into the carriage and shot the door, he ran down towards the other end of the train. When he got into a new carriage he shut and blocked the door making them unable to get through.
When Tobias ran into the last carriage, another group appeared to be waiting for him.
At the moment he saw the others he fell to the ground and thought: "It's over now, I did what I could to stop them but I can't do any more".
The first group had gotten past his blockades and both stood on each side of him, making him unable to escape. The people stopped walking and forward came another young man, a tad older than Tobias. He took a hand towards him with the purpose of helping him get up.
The hand was nothing but bare bones. "Welcome aboard, we will not hurt you. None of us has gotten off this train yet and it doesn't look like we'll be able to anytime soon", the young man told Tobias.
Tobias hit his hand away and got up by himself. "Why did you chase me?" he asked. The other man said, "We do this every time a new passenger boards. I've been here for ten years and it gets boring pretty fast not meeting any new faces".
The train continued at the same pace and drove past the station Tobias was supposed to get off at. It did not seem like the train had any end in sight....