Yoshioka stayed on the platform, and I was now standing on a steadily accelerating train. I kept my eyes fixed on her as she moved out of sight from the door windows. She looked sad. I ran to the rear of the car I was in, to catch one more glimpse of her as the train rounded the bend in the track. Soon the platform was out of sight from the train. Tall buildings and skyscrapers lined the tracks, and the train car swayed steadily back and fourth.
It was quite a distance from this station to the neighborhood station. There was no stations in between the previous station and Yoshioka and I's residential station, so this is where the operator was authorized to reach speeds of up to 80mph. It was more or less a straight shot for the train to travel on. There was a very minimal amount of bends in the track, and even then the curves had a very wide radius to them so the train did not have to slow down too much. However, there is a crossover section coming up in the track where a train can switch over to the parallel track. That area was my least favorite part of the trip, as hitting the crossover at 80mph usually gave each car a very jolly experience, as if the car were to jump the rails and run off the elevated track section. But even then, it is still a little entertaining as another train, if it runs on time, usually passes in the other direction simultaneously, and if you are qui. ck with your eyes, you can usually catch someone on the other train spilling their coffee or falling over from the jolts.
It was Yoshioka that told me that this line was the fastest way to the school, because of this non interrupted line with such a high running speed authorized. Every morning recently, we'd traverse this line between the neighborhoods and the Aohoraido station. I've had many memories with Yoshioka-San on board this train. Like once going to school, she was knocked clean off her feet from the jolt in the track and hit the wall so hard she passed out. She woke up two stations later and we were late. And another one was on the way home she forgot her blue school uniform coat onboard and we had to wait at our home station for three ours for the same train to return going the opposite direction. Then there was the time she fell asleep on my shoulder and I got annoyed... Ah, so many good memories.
I really feel bad now that I didn't get off this train to walk with Yoshioka back to school and get whatever it was she forgot. I felt as if, in another life I did, and that one choice of getting off would ultimately lead to better events in the future between us. Oh well, that's another parallel possibility.
Yoshioka does catch my eye everyday. She really does not know how much I think about her and how beautiful she looks everyday, no matter the fact that she doesn't put any effort into her appearance. I'm notorious for keeping emotions hidden, and I don't think I will show any emotions unwillingly in this lifetime. Dang, she almost caught me calling her by her given name, instead of the usual "Yoshioka-san." Futaba...that name does have a nice ring to it. How would the American's arrange names? It was given name first, then family name if I remember correctly... Futaba Yoshioka... Hmm... Either arrangement, it was a beautiful name. Oh well, she's gonna have to try harder if she really wants to see emotion from me. Sometimes people set up walls to see if anyone cares enough to break them down...
The lights in the car flickered. Slowly at first, then faster, until eventually, the lights gave out and the car was left without illumination. I looked across the cars. The lights in all of them were out. I then felt a slight fluctuation in the train's speed, dropping in rhythm, then picking up again. Everyone was rocked by this interuption, must have been the electrical contact with the rails.
"Attention passengers," the operator announced,"don't be alarmed, this is just the result of a slight shortage in contact with the overhead power wires. I'm not sure if I can power on the lights until the next station, but do not worry, this happens all the time on this old commuter line this is not the first time. Just sit tight and we will arrive shortly."
Hmm. This line is too old. It's only a matter of time before something serious happens. I'll have to recommend Futaba to take the 6:15 bus in the morning. It leaves earlier and is a little slower, but it uses the highway and maybe safer in the long run than this old train system.
I made my way up to the front of the consist, passing through the small connecting doors between the cars. Each pass through the connecting sections allowed me to hear the rattling of the steel wheels on the steel rails. Eventually, I reached the front of the consist. Through the forward window, I could see the crossover section in the far distance, and the oncoming train in e even farther distance, closing in as fast as we were. They were closer to the crossover than we were. I set my school bag and blue coat down on the vacant passenger seat and turned from the front.
SUDDENLY, the brakes were slammed and the train jolted and dropped much momentum. Everyone standing, regardless if they were holding onto a rail was knocked to the floor, including me.
"ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS! MOVE TO THE REAR OF THE TRAIN AS FAST AS YOU CAN THEN GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING!"
Everyone was struggling to get up as the train still desperately tried to grind to a halt. This was the emergency break. Even under emergency break, trains can take up a mile to stop. I got up and looked out the front of the train while everyone desperately tried to run as far back as possible, crowding the connecting passages. Out in front, the oncoming train was switching over to our rails at their high speed of near 80mph. The sparks emitting off the opposing trains sides were like a fire breathing dragon letting off fire in its breath. They were also trying desperately to halt, grinding up the rails but not seeming to slow down. Our train didn't seem to slow either.
The short circuit must have also been in the rails as well. It must have glitched the switch action into turning the points. The powered unit in the rear seemed to also be running, the short might have caused the rear unit to continue trying to cruise at 80mph! I tried to run to the rear of the train, but it was too late. Behind me, I felt and heard the opposing train smashing through the point of our train, crashing through the metal and plastic frame and running trhough the car towards me! I barely made it into the second car. Our driver was instantly killed. It was pointless to try to keep running, the momentum of our train against the momentum of theirs made the other train's task of ramming through the middle of our cars similar to shooting a bullet through a glass prism. I dove forward, hitting the ground flat. The opposing locomotive smashed through right above me, barely missing me. In a split second I could hear the rolling wheels, clashing and screeching metal, the engine, and the screams of passengers aboard that car whiz by over me before smashing out the side of the car and off the elevated track section. I tried to crawl forward but something caught me. That's when I felt a sharp pain at my legs. A jagged piece of metal had pierced through my left leg and pinned me to the car floor, and a strewn and halved railroad axel and wheel pinned my other leg to the floor, both had shattered none and tore muscle. IT HURT LIKE HELL!
The screams of terror coming from cars behind mine and on the oncoming train could be heard as the heavy passenger cars were thrown, flipped, and busted by the impact. Cars were rammi g through each other and crashing onto one a other, all with people inside them. The cars falling off the elevated track sections pulled our train down with them. My car was separated from the rest of the train and was pulled down with the wreckage of the point of the opposing train. The heavy axel and wheel moved, pinning, me even more. Blood soaked my school trousers. The rest of the wreck was still flying down the tracks, and was going to fall soon, onto me! Images and memories of Futaba began to flood my already dazed and shocked thought process. It was strength! If I wanted to see her pretty face again, I had to get away from this wreck. I was already on the street, I just had to get free! Pulling out the metal stake, a scream of pain left me. Then, brutally pulling myself free of the railroad axel and wheel, I was free. I still had my legs, that was a miracle, I wasn't legless, but I might as well have been, because I couldn't use them. Crawling over glass and jagged metal, and through blood was painful and traumatizing. Eventually, in what seemed like an eternity, but in truth were milliseconds, I was free and out of the car. I tried to scramble from the wreck, but in no time the rest of both trains came crashing over the edge of the elevated track section. I wasn't gonna make it.
"I should have gotten off Futaba! I'm sorry! I LOVE YOU!" I was shouting at the top of my collapsed and bleeding lungs with the remainder of my breath. As if she could hear me... Never again would I see her smiling face.
The rear car jumped the twisted and jagged rails and leapt into the air. It came toward me, all 20 tons of railroad car. I lied there hopeless. It was now appending in slow motion. I couldn't scream anymore. The rear of the large train car landed inches away from my head but, I was fine. Then, a wheel, airborne from one of the cars crashed down onto me, cutting into and coming to rest, upright, in my stomach, digging itself a mount into the ground. I had splits of milliseconds to live. I couldn't feel pain anymore. I closed my eyes, and a memory of Futaba's smiling face played only for an instance, then drowning out in light.
