MICH : LEVEL 9

DAY 131 : C-DAY, FIRSTWEEK, EOS, YEAR 1

CENTRAL 9 : TERMINAL 1 : NEW HORIZONS

Walking into the massive train station, all the moving gears and lights make it hard to find Ross or Rachel, even with the ever-present green outline denoting teammates. But just as I spot them standing on the next platform over, our heads all turn in unison with nearly everyone on the platform towards the unfamiliar train pulling in.

Not because we haven’t seen this particular train before. The way they’re redirected and recycled by The System, no one here is likely to have seen any of these trains before. It’s just that this new one looks nothing like anything I ever would’ve called a ‘train’. I still wouldn’t know what I was looking at if not for the tracks underneath.

In fact, it looks like nothing so much as one of those old fruit roll ups I was enamored with as a kid. My parents made some for me, but the ingredients must have been off or something because the result was always so sticky and cumbersome. I used to watch the retro ads of kids eating them over and over just trying to figure out how that form factor could possibly work for candy. More intuitively than it does for trains, as it turns out. I know that now.

The interconnected flat wax-paper-like spiral rolls across the tracks, looking like nothing so much as a runaway ferris wheel about to crush all the trains in its way. But just as it enters the station without slowing down in the slightest, the outside end of the spiral stops moving. This causes the rest of the Fruit Roll-Up to unravel exactly where a train would normally disembark.

But no one steps onto the unmistakably inviting rainbow carpet of candy. Not to eat, or to ride. Instead, the candy itself oozes and ungulates and wads into distinct monocolor blobs. Those then pull themselves off the wax paper, and onto the train platform. They then follow each other out of the station in a single-file line in order of color. This leaves nothing to denote their passage but the big strip of wax paper still on the track with the word ‘Delegate’ repeated ad-nauseum over the entire length of it. Or I guess that would have to be The System’s universal translator at work.

I just stare at that, wondering whether those are even actual letters. “Huh…” I turn to Ross and Rachel, who apparently walked over to me while I was enthralled by the sight. But before I can say anything to my friends, my neck jerks back towards the thundering earthquake. That turns out to be the crinkling of wax paper, only magnified by about a thousand. Captivated once more, I watch as what is apparently a train, crumples itself up into a tight ball before rolling further into the station with all the other newly arrived cars.

Ross cocks his head. “Huh, indeed… Hey, so, Obviously not with whatever that thing was-”

Far too used to Jessie’s company, I interrupt on reflex. “Aliens.”

“Come again?”

“It’s an alien train. You can tell by the alien race that got off it.”

Rachel’s jaw drops. “Oooh! Oh my god, I thought they were monsters or something. I had no idea they were… Wait, does that mean each of those things worbled in the way of another one of them to get to Heaven?”

I snort at the oddly reversed self-deprecating thought. “Okay, Jessie. I’m pretty sure their society is more complex than that.” Then I blink at myself. I said it… I can’t believe I already said it.

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Ross and I uniformly sigh as we each both individually strategize on how to keep the conversation going while still avoiding the elephant in the room.

But Rachel addresses it before we can think of anything. “So about the kid…”

I erupt in a coughing fit. With my superhuman stamina, I get control of it fast. But not before they’re both staring at me. I stare back for a moment before electing to just rip off the bandaid. “She isn’t coming.”

“You’re certain?”

I nod through the knot in my stomach.

“Oh, thank god.” Ross and Rachel immediately relax into their respective chairs.

Actually, that sounds good right about now.

[ RARE CHAIR DEPLOYED: BENCH HALF ]

As I sit down, it occurs to me just how sudden their change of heart was once we got to Central. Ross, I can kind of understand. Especially if his and Jessie’s bickering was all real passive-aggression and not just banter. But… “Hey Rachel?”

She turns a vibrantly smiling face to me. “Yeah Mich?”

“So if you all hated each other so much, what was with all that ‘you-go-girl’ stuff?” I stutter when I hear myself. “I-I mean I don’t remember you actually saying ‘you go girl’ a lot. But you know what I’m referring to, right?”

Rachel winces out a stutter of her own. “Y-yeah… Sorry about the mixed messages. I was just really trying to stay positive. Keep the peace, you know? Mich… Don’t take this the wrong way? Please? But that girl’s crazy.”

But she hurries to continue, clearly not wanting me to respond to that. “By the end, the fact that she was, in fact, a girl, was literally the only thing I could identify with her on. That and the redhead thing. But that’s a stupid thing to bond over. She at least had that much sense, I guess. Which I guess is also admirable since I’m pretty sure she didn’t used to be one.”

My picture of how my friends view each other thoroughly shattered, I nod almost absentmindedly. “She didn’t.”

“That makes sense. So did she tell you that, then?”

Now it’s my turn to wince. “I may have…” Okay, there’s nothing for it. I didn’t want to do this here, but if we’re going to work together, this can’t hang over our heads. I take a deep breath. “I killed her.”

Ross chuckles. “Nice. Which time? Like right after we got here?”

I shake my head. “The first time.” I brace for impact. “Back when my name was ‘Michael’.”

They blanch.

Eventually, Ross breaks the silence. “…WOW.”

Rachel shakes from barely suppressed giggles. “Right?” Then she seems to think about it and stops laughing. “Did she deserve it?”

Since we’re apparently all about taking turns today, it’s now mine to blanch. “I… No, not…” No excuses. Not about this. I square my shoulders. “No.”

Rachel seems genuinely surprised to hear that. “Hm… Well, she’s got that going for her at least.”

And that’s all it takes. Neither of them even want to know more. Nothing about the details. Or even about how I can only have died at nearly the same place and time for us to run into each other afterwards. Which only begs more questions. I rehearsed all of them yesterday. But these two don’t even ask the first one. They skipped right to Number 15 and didn’t even care about the rest.

I guess they really did grow to resent Jessie. Goody for me? Now I’m left with nothing to do but swallow all this guilt over the lies I’ve already told by neglecting to even mention the truth in passing. But that’s for the best. The last thing that girl needs is for the details to come out. I think these two deserve to know at this point, but the least I can do for Jessie is not offer it up unprompted.

And with that excuse, I drop the topic. “So where are we heading?”

Ross grins. “You need to ask?”

So does Rachel. “Up for the Video Game Raid?”

So do I. “Hell yeah.”