The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
The Last Train to Nowhere
by Rie Sheridan Rose
Trains. Why’d it have to be trains…?
An old song from my misspent youth whines in my head as I wait to board the train. “Take the last train to Clarksville, and I’ll meet you at the station…” Well, this is the last train to anywhere, they say. Wonder if anyone is left to meet someone at the station. I rather doubt it.
It’s funny. As a kid, I would have killed to ride a steam train. It seemed so cool. Now, all the fancy bullet trains and other high-tech transports are moldering away in their depots, and only steam is available. Even they are limited to what the steam can do. No lights except gas-powered lanterns that may or may not reveal the deer standing on the tracks in time.
One EMP from our galactic overlords—who we didn’t even know were there to be displeased with us—and bang…back to the days we all had completely forgotten. And then they sent the phage. It didn’t seem harmful at first. Who cared about bacteria?
But once those were decimated, we began to care alright. Diseases that bacteria had kept at bay ran rampant, and new ones cropped up with none of the little buggers to help. Including the dreadful zombie virus we all were afraid would happen. It isn’t like the movies. No one eats your brains. They just wither away and die. You become a walking vegetable. Fun.
Only a few unaffected left. And we’re supposed to board these trains—though I’ve heard this is the last one the powers that be intend to run—and go somewhere. To do what? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter. The old world is dead, and we are too, most likely.
Oh, well. At least I finally get that train ride I always wanted…
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Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:
Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry
Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…
…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
Good story, Rie. I love trains, but I wouldn’t want to see the day that one shows up!
I know, right? Look to the skies. 😉
A superb story.
Thank you so much. 🙂 I really appreciate it.
I do love a good dystopian story and our dependence on electric power makes this particularly creepy – we had a 3-hour power cut at home the other night – oh the drama of an uncharged phone and no internet!