Emily didn’t move. She didn’t know what she had expected to see out there. A gruesome display of something too awful to describe in words, perhaps. Maybe monsters that were just waiting to jump her the moment the train stopped. Instead, Tower City’s central station was devoid of any movement, and its platforms looked as if they’d last cleaned the day before, not almost three decades ago. A freight train sat some distance away, equally untouched by time and instead looking like it was ready to head out on its next cargo run any minute now. That was never going to happen. All railway connections and all roads had been demolished in the initial panic, so now the only point of access was the lone line in service of feeding those who were curious enough into the city.

Emily still didn’t move. Her heart was racing, and so was her mind. To not get out was also an option. She was free to remain seated for two hours, and then let herself be carried back to safety. After all, what she saw here was what she was most likely going to see wherever she checked. Empty spaces strangely untouched by the passage of years. On top of that, nothing compelled her to go out and explore. There was no voice now, and no dreamlike visions of a tempting paradise, there was just an empty train station. Her fingernails dug into the palms of her hand and left tiny red marks. Her curiosity was sated, right? The mystery of Tower City, she’d got her answer. It was empty. The End. There may be some grand solution that would restore everything back to normal if somebody only turned over every last pebble, but Emily Wright wasn’t the kind of person who would turn into the heroine this city needed while most likely just pointlessly risking her life in the process. She knew that much about herself. No, she was going to stay right here on the train. It would bring her back to the outer station, she’d return the rental car at the dealership, and then settle into a mundane life unplagued by thoughts about Tower City. As a bonus she’d have the opportunity to brag about being the first and only person to feel the call here and return to tell the tale!

Emily stepped off the train and set foot on the platform. Fine, she didn’t feel like staying seated for two hours. It was more than enough time for her to stretch her legs and confirm to herself that the station building was as empty as the platform. Maybe even the street outside, but certainly no further than that. The air carried the nostalgic scent of solitary summers. It was a combination that was hard to describe, heated stones mixed with dry grass and memories long forgotten. All of it was distant, and in this dead and empty and quiet place just felt utterly wrong.

She was so lost in the sensations both mundane and bizarre to her that she didn’t even notice how her legs carried her to the doors of the station building. By the time Emily was in the present again she’d already crossed.

All the windows were the same. Frosted glass that broke the sharpness of daylight before it could touch the interior hall and converted it into a matted cover of light that robbed the room of both clear shadow and light. Only a vague approximation of brightness remained through which Emily trudged. The air was clean, it felt dusty though. There was nothing here either, only empty benches, empty concession stands that felt too clinical in a train station like this, and a train schedule frozen on meaningless arrivals and departures dated decades in the past. Emily walked past a bench with a cup of coffee sitting on it, and was halfway to the front doors when she stopped dead in her tracks. She already knew what she was going to see when she turned her head. She just really didn’t want to confront it. The door was right there. If she walked through it she’d get to see the empty streets and — in the distance.

Emily shook her head no. Her hand snaked its way into her backpack and drew a card. “Huh.” The sound of her momentary confusion carried far and bounced off the walls to make its way back to her. She wasn’t sure what to make of what she’d drawn. Not that she’d done it in the proper way anyway, but she found that no matter the exact ritual she usually got at least something useful out of it. Something that helped her clear her mind. This time the only sense she got was that whatever she chose, she wasn’t about to find closure. Whatever she did now, this wasn’t the end of her search. Which, given that she had only two hours to satisfy her increasingly worrying curiosity, didn’t reassure her at all.

That was why, after Emily slipped Death back into her other cards, she turned back. It had cooled down slightly in the minutes she spent deliberating, but there was no doubt. Steam rose in lazy curls from the cup of coffee.

The walls had eyes. The walls had eyes. Emily couldn’t see them, but she knew it deep down. Somebody was watching her? Cameras? No. The pursuer would have to be around personally. But why would they leave something so obviously visible for her to find? Emily found herself jumping and turning around without even thinking. It had to be a distraction, it couldn’t be anything else. But the hall behind her was just as empty as everything else had been. Nobody waited to jump her. She was facing the front entrance of the station hall again, so she could only hear the quiet sounds of the door leading out to the platform moving.

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Curls of her hair flew around her head as she looked over her shoulder, only to witness the first movement other than rising steam here that hadn’t been caused by herself. The door she’d heard fell back to its closed position with elegant evenness, and as it shut entirely it did so with a quiet clicking noise that rivaled the volume of an exploding sun. Emily ran.

Not towards the platforms, no. Even without seeing who - or what had passed her by, the distant presence made her listen to her oldest instinct. It was this instinct that screamed at her to run away. Her walking boots, and they were good boots, solid work, why was she thinking about those anyway, right, they hammered on the floor of the station hall with more noise than she’d dared to make at all until now. As Emily ran up against the front doors she was worried for a moment they may be locked, that she may be stuck in here with a monster or murderer or person or-

Emily should have been worried about the doors not being unlocked. They swung wide open as she crashed into them shoulder first. Pure sunlight pierced into the station hall for the first time in a long time, and Emily herself found herself unable to stop or find her footing before she crashed into the stairs leading down from the station building to the main road in front of. She hit the steps, covered her head with her arms, and kept rolling. It was likely she stopped long before the pain faded, but she didn’t dare look to find out.

When she felt sure that she wasn’t falling anymore, Emily opened her eyes. She saw darkness. As her view wasn’t interesting she took the opportunity to let out a pained groan. At least it didn’t feel like any bones were broken. That would’ve been a sorry end to her exploration. A few wiggles back and forth confirmed that nothing major was injured, although she already knew she was going to feel the bruises of her short flight for a while to come.

Her motions also confirmed what her nose had already picked up. She was face-down on the ground, and looking at the tarmac from right up close. It smelled like road, looked like road, and she didn’t feel like tasting it to make absolutely sure that it was road.

“No. Stop.” She hissed out those words to herself. This wasn’t the time to make light of the situation. While she was busy joking to herself, she could still feel how her heart hammered. Much like her boots had earlier. If she stayed here she was an easy target. For what? Whatever it had been that had shared the station building with her without her even consciously noticing, she just knew it was dangerous. What Emily didn’t know, couldn’t know, - and she was acutely aware of her inability to know this - was whether or not that one entity had been alone.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position, wincing as her beaten arms protested and the shifting weight of her backpack made her entire body cry out in pain. At least then, and after the pain subsided, she could take in her situation and confirm to herself that what had been true at the beginning was still true now after all. Emily was alone. She clenched one fist, held it for a moment, then forced herself to relax. The loneliness was more layered now. Because it wasn’t entirely true anymore. She wasn’t alone in Tower City. Something or someone was here. Which in turn was the reason why her present state of being alone was a comfort. For as long as she was alone like this, she could push away thoughts about what to do once she ended up in confrontation.

That confrontation wasn’t going to happen, either, Emily decided. She stood up. The road was empty. No car wrecks, no traces of disaster, and obviously no traffic. There was nothing keeping her here. So the course was clear to her. She walked back up the stairs, far slower than she’d fallen down them, and re-entered the station hall. It was quiet, it was empty, and as the double doors of the entrance fell shut, it was once again a realm of half-light. Emily wished she had a weapon on her. Not to use it, she barely would’ve known how probably, but just for the feeling of safety. She felt herself slow down as the door to the platform approached. With a trembling hand she pushed it open.

The platform was empty. There was no eerie presence, either. The familiarity of the sunlight and the empty view in front of her felt so alien now. At least her train was still there. Everything could still be okay. But the reassuring sight also made something dawn on Emily. It wasn’t something she could put into words, though. Not yet.

The moment she could put her dawning realization into words was the moment when the doors to the train slammed shut in front of her after she hesitated for a moment too long. She hesitated for a moment too long because something made alarms go off in her head. So the doors slammed shut before she could enter. And in that moment, followed by the view of the train slowly pulling out of the station again, made her finally understand. She was too stunned to try and somehow hold on to the outside of the train, which may have been her last chance of ever leaving Tower City.

Because now she understood that whatever had distracted and frightened her so had no interest in keeping her in the city. It had wanted to get out.