They say that before the mammock, trains sped across the land aboveground, affording passengers beautiful views of forests and mountains as they journeyed. But out Ali’s window was only blackness, interrupted occasionally by dimly lit rock walls.

Ali sat in a nearly empty train car across from his father, humming to himself. Above his father’s head, Ali could see an LED sign with several burned out bulbs, which read “Bastion,” their destination.

Ali wrestled with his feelings about moving to a new city. His gut told him that this move would be bad, though he wasn’t sure why. Unquestionably, a change would be positive in some ways. Maybe he could even reinvent himself. Ali was not very popular at his old school. Ali was not great at talking to people. He often found himself the butt of other people’s jokes, if not the target of outright bullying. He decided that at this new school, he would make some real friends.

Most would not consider Ali’s current friends to be real friends, as they had never met him in person. He often spent his evenings chatting on forums or on aNet Messenger. Even though a couple of his chat friends did live in Bastion, there was no way he could ever meet any of them in person. Ali had created a completely different persona for his aNet profile, and never the twain should meet. He would keep his secret about moving and continue to contact those friends only over aNet.

Ali breathed in, focusing on pushing his unease out with his exhale, just like his therapist had taught him. He focused on the positive changes he’d recently seen in his father. It was good. He was moving on. Ever since his mother died, Ali’s dad had been having a difficult time adjusting, hardly sleeping, and focusing entirely on his work as an administrator for aNet. Some nights, Ali would have to cook dinner for himself. He often made an instant meal and fell asleep watching pre-mammock movies waiting for his father to come home from work.

A few months ago, though, Ali had seen a change in his father.

During his sleepless nights, Ali’s father had been spending time on the forums and had fallen for someone. Someone in Bastion. A couple of weeks later, he had put in for a transfer and the next thing Ali knew, he and his father were packing to move closer to Tori, the woman his father had met.

Ali’s father stood up from the seat across from him, bringing him back to reality. “I’m going to head to the restroom, buddy.”

Ali shifted in his seat. Pet names like “buddy” and “champ” really got on his nerves. When his mother was alive, she would call him “pumpkin,” because he had been born on Halloween. That seemed better somehow, if a bit infantile.

“Please don’t call me that. I’m not a kid anymore, dad.”

His father nodded, running his forefinger and thumb through his stubbly chin hair. He had been trying to grow a goatee ever since receiving approval for his transfer request. “I suppose that’s a good point. You’re growing into a young man.”

This was somehow even worse than “buddy” had been. “Young man” didn’t fit Ali at all. He didn’t feel like a man, young or otherwise.

There was a long, awkward silence, filled only by the clackity-clack of the train’s progress toward Bastion. For some reason that he didn’t want to process, Ali’s body was now filled with adrenaline and his emotions oscillated from anger to embarrassment. Ali was suddenly appreciative that the rest of the train car was almost vacant. Unable to put his feelings into words — or even to understand them at all — he sat, looking at his dad, trying to convey the pain he felt through his eyes, until his father finally put his head down and walked to the restroom at the front of the car.

Alone and confused, Ali wished he had something to distract him from what he was feeling. He knew the train ride to Bastion was only a couple of hours, but now it was dragging on. Ali looked around the train car for something to amuse himself with until his eyes fell on his father’s carry-on bag. Perhaps there was something in there to make the time go by faster.

Ali alone on the train [https://imgur.com/zRRPsyr.png]

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ali jumped across to his father’s seat and pulled the bag onto his lap, yanking the zipper open. “Jackpot,” Ali said as he pulled out his father’s laptop. It was a work computer, so he didn’t have high hopes, but maybe there was a solitaire game or something he could do. Opening the laptop, Ali found it was in sleep mode. As the screen lit up, he saw a window was already open. A pane on the left side of the screen showed a list of names.

“What are these?” he mumbled to himself, trying to make some sense of the list and clicking on a name at random. A picture of a brown-haired boy with an awkward smile appeared. Ali read the text beneath the photo.

> Teófilo Ahiga Age: 14 aOnline Handle: Umbra Cadere

“Weird...” Ali clicked on another name and was greeted this time by a photo of a blonde girl with a serious expression.

> Skylar Barteau Age: 15 aOnline Handle: RuneKiss

Who were these people? They were all about the same age as Ali...

He started scrolling through the list of names to see if he recognized any of them, but heard the bathroom door at the other end of the car shut. He slammed the laptop shut and slid it back into his father’s bag, placing it back on the seat beside him before hopping back across to his own.

Ali’s father sat back down across from him. They sat in silence for a moment, Ali’s heart beat in his ears. Had his father seen him?

Finally, his father broke the silence. “Well, it looks like we’re almost there.” Ali let out a deep breath and turned to look back out the window, but found only the same dim rock wall speeding past outside.

His mind began racing again, pondering the files he’d seen. Could the people on the list be Tori’s students? Ali was pretty sure his dad had mentioned that she was a high school teacher in Bastion. Even if they were, though, that didn’t answer one other important question. What was aOnline? Obviously it had something to do with aNet, but what? Ali had been using aNet for his whole life and was pretty sure he would have heard of some new forum springing up, especially if it involved kids his age.

“Look, I know you don’t know Tori...” Ali’s father said. Ali looked over at his father, doing his best to put on a face that conveyed that he was paying attention, even though he wasn’t. He really didn’t have it in him to listen to another pep talk about the move. It was happening, whether he liked it or not, so Ali decided he would make the best of it. “Don’t look at me like that...”

Ali groaned inwardly. His dad must have taken his disinterest as a challenge.

“I know you haven’t met Tori and that you don’t appreciate being uprooted like this.”

Ali remained silent, hoping that it would be over quickly.

“But... You’re going to love her! Plus, there are way more kids your age in Bastion.” Then, second guessing himself, Ali’s father amended, “Well, not kids—I know you’re not a kid anymore. But you know what I mean.”

Ali nodded, deciding to throw his dad a rope before he drowned.

“Bastion is the largest city left, as far as we know. Obviously we haven’t heard from the west coast. Or more than a little bit of Canada, but...”

Ali gave his father another nod. He knew that the worldwide communication networks had all failed after the mammock, rendering it impossible to know what situation other parts of the world might be in.

“Anyway,” Ali’s father continued, “Things are going to be great. You’ll see!”

Seeing his father happy again was nice, but something about this situation still bothered Ali. “Don’t you miss mom?” He knew as soon as he’d said it, this was not the right thing to ask. Why couldn’t he think before he spoke? This was why he didn’t have real friends, Ali decided.

His father furrowed his brow. “Of course... Of course I miss your mother. But she’s gone now, and I — we — have to move on with our lives. We can’t just stagnate and never live. Your mother died, yes. But she’s dead, not us. She would want us to be happy.”

Ali was near tears at this point. His father had just moved over and placed a hand on Ali’s shoulder when the intercom made them both jump. The screeching of the train’s brakes and the accompanying shift of momentum sent Ali’s father back to his own seat just in time to grab his carry-on bag before it hit the floor.

“Now arriving in Bastion. Please prepare to disembark.”

Standing up, Ali’s father grinned sheepishly down at him, proud of himself for saving his luggage. “It’ll be good for both of us, I promise.”

Quickly wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, Ali stood up, glad that his father hadn’t tried to slip another pet name into that last comment. He and his father stepped into the line to exit the train and shuffled toward the exit. His father was right. His mother was gone, and he had to move on as well. He resolved to make the best of the move.

As he took the first step off of the train, Ali visualized himself stepping into an entirely new life.

Ali arrives in Bastion [https://imgur.com/gNaBR5C.png]

After a moment of Ali standing and consciously breathing on the train platform, Ali’s father put his arm around him and smiled. “What do you say we sample some local cuisine for dinner while the movers set everything up at the house?”

Ali wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, but reminded himself that he needed to stay open to the possibilities if he was going to enjoy it here in Bastion.

“Sure, dad,” he said, nodding and trying to smile. “Let’s do that.”