The train raced through the desolate land. Occasionally, passengers could see the ruins of buildings flashing by in the windowless frames. The wind, like one of the masters of this territory, burst into the train as quickly as it left.
Two hours had passed since the expedition left the burning depot. John and Samantha, sprawled in their seats, drifted away from reality and into the world of Morpheus. James continued to try to breach the gates, but Morpheus wouldn't let him in. Meanwhile, Alexa stared into the emptiness of the windows. While the Wanderers were occupied, Manuel and Amanda were in the control cabin smoking. As the Wanderers activated the depot gates, Manuel returned to the hill and retrieved the platform with the equipment. Once the train left the depot, Amanda connected the radar for the convergence points, taken from the Hawk and repaired on the train, to the train's systems. Due to radar deviations, they had to slow down to allow the radar to adapt.
Lighting another cigarette, Amanda remembered Ivan, with whom they had embarked on their first expedition as members of the Research Center. A second member of the Cygnus team had already perished in the Third District. Whether it was fate's games, Amanda didn't know, but she was more worried about Manuel than herself. She couldn't allow him to perish here as well.
Surprisingly, the train was still receiving data on the integrity of the rails. Fortunately, most of the tracks were intact. It was astonishing. It had previously been believed that everything had been destroyed. If the rails were intact, then the city must be too. Most likely, they would have to pass through the ruins of a city that had once been John's home. She was pleased that the journey would be relatively quick. By her estimates, they had about twelve hours left to the Cradle. After that, they would just need to find and retrieve the energy disk.
The train approached one of the stations. Amanda decided it was too dangerous to sleep during the journey, so she began the deceleration procedure. The speedometer's numbers started to drop. The train came to a halt at the platform.
Alexa entered the engineer's cabin.
"Why are we stopped?" the girl asked, surprised.
"We're moving through the depths of the Third District at night," Amanda replied, turning around. "The radar is picking up several convergence points nearby. In case of anything, even a second could make a huge difference. And you all are sleeping."
"What should we do?" Alexa squinted into the emptiness. Nothing was visible. Just a few meters around the train.
"Go to sleep. We will too. Today was tough, and it's only going to get worse. We need our strength." Amanda tossed her cigarette butt out of the shattered window. "At dawn, we'll be on the move again."
"Got it," Alexa didn't fully understand Amanda's decision to stop and just went back.
"Is this better?" Manuel asked the commander.
"Something's wrong..." the woman said quietly.
"What?" Manuel turned to her.
"Those marauders... Why were they so close to the border?"
"Has it become more dangerous here?" Manuel already knew the answer.
"Maybe... But..." The woman pulled out another cigarette. "About an hour ago, I noticed a strange structure in the distance."
"A structure? Why didn't you say anything?"
"I thought it was ruins. But then I remembered that I saw the exact same structure when we crossed into the Third District."
"What did it look like?" Manuel was intrigued.
"It looked like a metallic spire stuck in the ground, only it was tall. Very tall. Maybe ten meters."
"You mean someone installed it?"
"No, I don't think so. Most likely, it's ruins, but..."
"What if someone did install it?" Manuel didn't like this news.
"Then why?" The woman looked out the window; only an abandoned platform and emptiness surrounded the train. "And who?"
"Do you think that's why the marauders didn't venture further from the border?"
"And what if?" Amanda didn't know what awaited them further along the path. "You know... just in case, I'll shut down the engine..." The woman flipped the switch on the panel, and the engine went into sleep mode. The hum stopped, and the surviving floodlights turned off. Darkness enveloped the train.
"Why?" Manuel asked, puzzled.
"Well, if this is true, then someone installed the spires for some reason. At least two. And that means... they're still here."
"There's nothing here," Manuel pointed to the darkness beyond the train.
"If... I'll repeat... if someone installed the spires, then something exists!" Amanda squinted into the darkness behind the train.
"Who do you think it is?" Manuel whispered.
"I don't know yet. But I think we'll find out soon." Amanda extinguished her cigarette again and threw the butt out the window.
"Seriously?" Manuel asked disapprovingly.
"There's nothing here; at least let the cigarette butt remain."
Amanda leaned back in her seat, and Manuel followed suit. Both instantly fell into a deep sleep. The radar continued to show Convergence points.
Apparently, by some strange rule, there existed the world of Morpheus: if someone entered it, then someone had to exit back into reality.
John opened his eyes. For a moment, he thought he was blinded. Clouds had obscured the bloody moon, and all around was only darkness. For some reason, Amanda had turned off the train's floodlights, and darkness had poured inside. John looked at the sleeve of his suit: the watch showed four in the morning.
"Dawn is coming," he whispered, so as not to wake his friends.
Strangely enough, he felt the need to use the restroom. The last time he had addressed his biological needs, it had only been a trip to the depot. Now his body was demanding its due again.
Considering that the men's restroom car remained burning in the depot, John took the convergence points sensor and stood up from his seat. He slowly made his way to the exit of the car. The wind blew through the door that Manuel had broken.
The Wanderer was surprised why the train was stopped, as when he lay down to sleep, it was racing through the void. He stepped onto the platform and turned on his flashlight. An ordinary station. Nothing special. Although that was not true. The collapse and time had destroyed the main hall, and the shockwave had shattered all the windows and bent the metal walls.
John took a few steps. The darkness scared him, as did the trains. Though the young man had conquered his fear of trains, this oppressive darkness and emptiness weighed on his mind. His breathing felt so loud, and his heart was pounding even harder. After taking a few steps, the Wanderer stopped and looked at the sensor. It was silent. There were no dangers around him, if that could be said.
The Wanderer approached the entrance door to the station. The metal had rusted. John tried to open it, and with a loud creak, he pushed it aside. The remnants of glass on the door fell and shattered. The guy glanced back: it was still quiet on the train. Silence reigned around him as well. He stepped inside.
With a powerful beam of light, John illuminated the remnants of the station. He descended the cracked steps. Scattered newspapers, broken chairs, shattered glass... This was how he had imagined the Third District.
But there was something beyond his imagination. About ten skeletons lay scattered on the floor. The energy of the collapse had likely not turned them to dust, but simply killed them. Their bodies remained lying there, rotting in the station. John turned away. He had seen enough corpses today.
He headed to the men's restroom and opened the door. The plumbing was damaged, and dirty water flowed from the toilets for a long time until it finally drained completely. Then it remained there. The stench and filth were everywhere, and human bones floated in the puddle. John pressed his sleeve to his nose and left the room. He returned to the main hall, moved to a distant corner, and did what his body demanded of him.
Afterward, he turned around and saw a skeleton sitting on the bench. The skull was turned towards him, as if watching him with empty eye sockets. John quickly walked towards the exit. The light from the flashlight surged ahead, and the young man didn't notice when he stepped on the skull of one of the dead, breaking it into pieces. He glanced down and quietly whispered, "Sorry," knowing it would not respond.
This strange silence weighed heavily on the Wanderer. He wanted to return to the train more quickly, where the silence was broken by James's snoring. As he approached the car, he heard a child's voice.
"When will it arrive?" said a boy to the left of John.
The Wanderer turned sharply. The terror that gripped John was indescribable. His heart began to race a hundred times faster. His legs went weak. The young man shone the flashlight into the void and saw nothing.
"Dad, answer me," the voice echoed again from the emptiness.
Jonathan Brooks saw no one. Only darkness and emptiness. An empty station. A train with sleeping passengers inside. And the boy's voice, ringing out across the platform.
"Is anyone here?" John asked anxiously.
"It's late," the boy said again.
The child's voice sounded like he was seven or eight years old. But there was no one around. The light revealed nothing. The sensor was silent. John began to think he was losing his mind. Did he really hear a child, or was it just his imagination giving him a voice? What was it? Ghosts of the past? Or something that was inside John's mind — a forgotten, erased memory of a strange past? Hallucinations visiting the insane? The Wanderer took a few steps forward, illuminating the platform. But apart from broken benches, he saw nothing.
John turned around. Behind him, there were only railway tracks disappearing into the darkness. Ahead, there was only emptiness.
"It's already been three minutes," the boy said again, but there was no answer.
"Show yourself!" John commanded. No reply followed.
Then the Wanderer took a few more steps, and someone grabbed him by the shoulder from behind and covered his mouth with another hand. John screamed, but the hand prevented the sound from spreading across the platform.
"Shut up," a voice said from behind.
The Wanderer turned around. The light from the flashlight illuminated a woman before him. Amanda shielded her eyes with her hand.
"Turn off that damn flashlight," she ordered. The young man complied and clicked the button on the flashlight. "Why did you leave the train?"
"I needed to use the bathroom."
"Don't you dare leave the train. You're relatively safe there. If you can call it that."
"Did you hear that?" The Wanderer gestured toward the emptiness behind him. "Please tell me you heard it. I don't want to go crazy."
"Yes, Jonathan, I heard."
"Really?" The Wanderer felt a great relief, much more than he expected.
"A little boy was saying something." Amanda couldn't see the face in the darkness.
"But there's no one here!"
"I know. It's an anomaly." Amanda pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Most likely, a few minutes before the collapse, the boy was indeed here and said those words."
"Ghosts!" John exclaimed in a whisper.
"Don't be an idiot, Jonathan. Ghosts don't exist!"
"Then how do you explain this?" John pointed into the emptiness again.
"Why didn't it stop?" the boy said once more.
"Hear that?" The Wanderer moved closer to Amanda. Now his face was illuminated by the small light from the cigarette.
"This is a memory!"
"What?" John asked. "Whose memory?"
"A memory of reality," Amanda replied, taking another drag of smoke. "A few minutes before the collapse, the boy and, most likely, his father were waiting for the train. Then the collapse happened and erased them. But you know that the collapse erases the boundary of reality. It changes the laws of physics... creates anomalies."
"But how...?" John didn't have time to finish his question.
"The collapse pressed this fragment of history into reality, at least what's left of it here. I wouldn't be surprised if the boy repeats that phrase over and over."
"What is it, Dad?" a voice came from behind John.
"It seems he noticed the wave of energy rushing toward them," Amanda said, looking into John's eyes through the cigarette smoke. "And now he will fall silent."
After Amanda's words, John waited for half a minute, but all that surrounded him was silence.
"And what happens next?" John whispered.
"Nothing," Amanda replied, tossing the cigarette butt to the ground and crushing it with her foot. "Most likely, after some time, the boy will speak those words again. It's like a playback glitch... repeating the event over and over. Constantly. Without interruption."
"We need to do something..."
"What?" Amanda interrupted him. "Help? He died more than ten years ago. Right now, it's just an echo. A ghost of the past."
"That's horrible."
"Don't think about it. I'm sure he doesn't even realize he's saying this constantly. It's just a recording. Strange, but a recording."
"And how many of these anomalies are there? How many more people are stuck in..."
"Shut up!" Amanda ordered.
"What?"
"I said shut up," the woman pressed her palm to his mouth. "Do you hear that?" John shook his head negatively in response.
Amanda pushed him against the wall and pressed herself to it.
"Don't say a word," she whispered.
"If this is a joke..."
Amanda pressed his body against the wall. John began to hear a strange hum. So familiar, so recognizable. The Wanderer couldn't remember where he had heard it. The hum intensified and rushed right over the train. Amanda took a few steps toward the train and saw only a light in the sky.
"What is that?"
"That's the Hawk, John."
"Hawk? Like our Hawk?"
"Yes," the woman confirmed. "Like our Hawk. I was right. We're not alone here. And since Hawks are flying around, those spires are definitely not ruins."
"Spires?"
"Get in the train!" the woman ordered. "Lie down and sleep. We'll leave the station in an hour. I'll explain everything in the morning."
The Wanderer and the commander of the Cygnus squad entered the train, and the young man took his seat again. It was cold. John thought for a while about the boy and the anomaly, about the Hawk and some spires. But soon he tried to return to the world of Morpheus, but couldn't.