Train To East Academy

The train to East Academy. Zone had given Quistis his ticket, which she had thought was very nice of him, and they were all ready to go.

They waited in the dark, dank, dismal station. The train finally came in, and they all boarded.

The train slowly began to move along the weathered track. It began to speed up, doing about 60 miles per hour, and they all talked, Selphie singing to herself. Rinoa wondered where this adventure would take her, and whether she would ever return.

A drunken Galbadian soldier, though, was driving his car along the countryside, not knowing where he was going. He decided to get out for a walk, and parked his car, and began to stagger along. What he hadn't realized was that he'd parked his car on the train track.

Just at that moment, that train carrying those very same people, laughing and joking, and not knowing what was about to happen, it hit the car, and-

A smashing of glass, a hammering of fists, a million voices all seemed to cry out, and with a last mighty heave, the train fell onto its side, crashing to the ground.

Then all was silent and still, nothing and no one moved, all knocked down by the power of one drunken man in his car.

Rinoa slowly and shakily got to her feet. She checked to see if she was badly hurt. She had lots of cuts and bruises, and her right arm hung limply by her side. Everyone else was lying down on the floor; they'd all been knocked unconscious. She left them there, and she went into the other compartment, by cutting a hole with Squall's gunblade, she'd return it to him later. Then she saw Selphie.

She was sprawled out on the floor. The impact of the train crashing had thrown her head out the window and then hurled her across the compartment and she must have hit the wall. Glass was imbedded in her neck, blood on the face what had been so happy to be on a train again, but now so full of pain. Rinoa forlornly thought that the last words she had ever uttered were "Train, train, take us away, take us away, far away, to the future we will go, where it leads, no one knows." It had taken her far away, so far away she wasn't in this world any more, only her limp body left of the happy person she once was. That and all their memories of her.

Rinoa slowly pressed on, fighting back her tears. The pain she was feeling was acute even though she had barely knew her. Selphie was a fun-loving, happy sort of person, and it was sad that her life had to end this way, trying to protect Rinoa from the Galbadian forces that were trying to track her down. The glass in her neck, the blood on her body, the pain and terror on her face- all because she had tried to do the right thing and help to protect her friend.

Rinoa staggered to find some sort of way out of the train; there wasn't an exit she could use, so she cut another hole in the train. This time it took her several minutes, because she couldn't concentrate, she just kept thinking of Selphie's body lying in that other room, wishing there was some way to revive her.

Finally, when she'd finished cutting the hole, she clambered out, and surveyed the scene outside.

Rinoa looked around her. She saw the driver; he had been thrown straight out of the train though a large open window, sprawled on the ground. She shook him, gently, and he did not respond. She saw the East Academy train station in the distance, and then she saw the car.

It had ricocheted off the track, a large dent in its side. Rinoa walked up to it and looked inside.

There was no driver, but she found the Galbadian suit in the back of the car, and she knew someone knew they'd got on that train. They'd parked the car there deliberately, as an attempt to try and kill them, not caring what other lives they cost.

She stood there in silence, thinking of Selphie, staring vacantly off into the distance. How could people have done this? She knew that Galbadians were monsters, but not as bad as this. She walked away from the scene and into a forest, sat down by one of the trees, and wondered. She would make things better. She would make things right. She had to…

The End.