My mysterious guide was right
With no guards in sight
I began my long desolate walk to the Merrimack
The North’s Rio Grande, Two Civilizations divided
By what, I still don’t know
Or if I even want to find out
To my dismay, I may not even have a choice
Upon seeing a fiery mountain shooting up plumes
Of smoke, exhaust, and the worst types of fumes
A pile of abandoned railcars, left undoubtedly as a tomb
Warning posts all around, telling defiant ones,
WE SHOOT ON SIGHT
Mass graves for the unlucky ones – who simply wanted out
Not even knowing how to turn back, I continue on in a rush
As a rickety railcar approaches, graffitied back to front
Hissing like a snake, seducing me to step on in
Captained by ghosts, how could this train be not?
And me? Do I fit the bill of such a bone-chilling prophecy?
I drum up the courage and enter the car furthest in the back
Newspapered windows, flickering lights, painted messages in languages illegible
I sit and try to gauge the editorials and what they may elucidate
The years are random 2030, 2040, all the way up to the late 2090s
No real news so to speak – opinion pieces catering to the niches
Not a surprise, journalism has always been a casualty to one click hysteria
Though one pieces catches my eye by a New Yorker named Lacroix
Shouting absurdities about spacetime wrinkles
Published in 2073
Suggesting there are those walking among us with answers from different times
I clutch at a sharp pain in my chest
Reading his words
Memories flooding back with a gigantic gap in between,
This present and my present, do I really know where I stand?
Atoning for some misdeed, required answers, or just a hallucination?
My conscious mind won’t let me think this is anything but a dream
Is this railcar, now picking up steam,
a wicked trick from deep in my psyche?
Who am I to say, as I begin to feel a longing
For wife, kids, and family lost at some other point in time
And then, a voice cautiously whispers deep in my right ear
Soothing me in an accent I know but never hear
“Please put your faith in me,
Far too long rationality has dominated your thought
Eschewing eons of years of progress to render Yourself down
To only what you can see”
“Fraught with destruction the course you’re on,
Only by losing yourself will you ultimately be found
The chaos engulfing you is immaterial
Its not part of your synchronicity
Deep down you know what to do,
For once, I beg, trust your iron will and instinct”
And like a punch to my heart and soul
It revives me for this heavy weight bout
Ready to step into the ether
And whatever it may hold
Alas, there’s no rest for the weary
As I’m suddenly woken by screams, whistles, and chants
Inside a station, I hadn’t realized we’d pulled in
Like a rapture banging on the door, it’d have shaken Peter to his core
Declarations to take no prisoners by the assailants at large
Yet here I am, the only one!
And like an olive branch extended from the front of the car
A cloaked figure grabs me by my sweaty hand, shouting
“Quickly. Follow me”
End of Chapter 2