A/N: See! This chapter's a little better!
It was early morning when he finally got on the train, the sky covered completely in a blanket of grey. Avery seated himself down in a small booth, his small luggage seated next to him haphazardly. Few other passengers dotted the car, so he took the luxury of using any free space to his advantage and weakly tossed the bags off to the side of him.
His mind was elsewhere when they departed from the station. What would the town he was going to be like? Would it be boring? Would it be nothing out of the ordinary? Or maybe it would be a place like no other, with beautiful sites and well-kept buildings. He didn't know, and slowly started to drift off into sleep when he decided that he should just roll with whatever punches are thrown in his direction. After all, what did it matter in the long run?
It was some time before the train hit a bump and jolted Avery awake. His eyes flickered open and he let out a wheeze or two out of shock. The scenery had drastically changed, the crowded and polluted city had faded out into a mysterious and free collection of rolling hill and trees. It made him look on in awe for a good couple minutes. His dry, dusty cough had yet to come to him yet which he took as a pretty good sign.
However, in his daydreaming and distraction he nearly missed the movement of something large in the trees. As soon as he saw it, it was already too late to get a good idea of what caused the movement, but if there was one thing for sure, it was certainly not caused by something man-made. There were no buildings for miles, and it was too big to be from a lost human in the woods or a car. Even if it was something like the cranes he often saw in the city, it would be too big and poke out of the treetops. Not that the people of the country could get a crane, anyway. His mother had told him to expect the worst when it came to technology out here.
With all that said, he was sure that it had to be something interesting. A giant sasquatch or crazy lizard monster causing a stir just like in his favorite novels. He now was ready to find out what sort of thing he had just encountered, but stopped himself when he realized that it had already passed by in the train window and no longer was able to be seen. Avery nodded off to sleep, upset that he would not be able to find his mystery monster.
It was probably five minutes before he was woken by immense shaking, a tremor that was not unlike thunder that shook through his bones. Avery gingerly leaned up against the window and his eyes widened as soon as he saw what was causing the noise. Following the train's winding tracks was a gigantic… Gnome? No, it was a collection of small garden gnomes in the shape of a larger garden gnome.
Were his eyes deceiving him? Was he still asleep? Was he going crazy? All of these options were quickly exhausted when a hand tapped his shoulder, causing him to nervously look over. "S-Sir? Everything is alright, I assure you, but if you would be willing to move under your seat-" Without any hesitation, he carefully tucked himself under the leather chair. It was tight, but he didn't mind seeing as he could possibly be crushed by the strange gnome creature.
Avery began to breathe a bit heavier, but was still far from having an episode. His heart now raced as the crashing and shaking of the monster drew nearer. What was going on? Nervous whimpers and screams from other passengers only added to his anxiety. Why was this happening to him? Why right now? He was interrupted from his thoughts as the hand of the giant gnome crashed into the car. The teen whimpered and crumpled up into an even tighter ball.
Suddenly, all calamity seemed to halt.
He peeked out from under his seat and saw a young girl and boy, around his age, holding leaf-blowers. Somehow he could tell this was going to be a weird trip already.