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xp_logsMatt, Hope and Renee lose everyone else in the subway, and have to make their way back to the station. How can you lose an entire subway car full of people?
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Matt was used to the subways, despite their difficulty for his senses. They were always too much of everything, but he dealt with them, not simply because he had to, but because he was a New Yorker and therefore, he felt a sense of pride in using them.. Maybe it had to do with his sense of pride in being able to use them while blind when he was younger, just a little. Now though, he was cramped, stressed and generally unhappy about the current state of affairs. Holding on to the grab-bar, he sniffed the air a little, trying not to smell more than he had to.
Every shudder made Hope's hands tighten around her the purse she firmly kept in her lap. She had really believed someone at the mansion would believe Tandy when she called, but they didn't. Still, Topaz had said the tattoo would offer some protection and she tried very hard to have confidence in that. With a little bit of luck they would be safely back at the mansion tonight. The lights suddenly went out for a moment... Hope stiffened and only relaxed slightly when they came back on.
The subway train didn't smooth out as they clattered into the station, it was just that after they emerged from the tunnel, it was so much quieter without people leaning against poles or chattering at each other or pressed up against the doors impatiently. What had been a car full of tourists and teenagers before the lights went out was now a still quiet train with three occupants as it came to a jerking halt and the doors creaked open. If Matt never heard another heartbeat disappear, he'd be quite happy. It was possibly one of the most disconcerting noises ever. Drawing a shaky breath, Matt reached out against what was possibly his better judgment and grabbed Renee. "Are you still here?" He asked, not trusting his senses. Three heartbeats and shapes in what had been a full train car. No.
"AH! Yes, oh, god, I was until you gave me a heart attack." The silence and dark of the tunnel was unsettling as anything but nothing like being grabbed in the middle of, too. She felt her heart pounding in her chest but truth be told she was glad Matt was still there. Being alone in this would have been a fate worse than a hyperbolic heart attack. "Hope, are you here?" she called out, hoping she hadn't scared the other girl too much with her scream. Please say yes, please say yes.
"I am still here." Hope rose from her seat, glancing around her and stumbling to her fellow students. "What just happened? Where did everybody go? People don't just disappear!" Her voice turned a little shrill at the end and she shuddered as she clamped her hand firmly on Matt's arm.
Reaching out, he held both girls tightly, not wanting to lose them. "No idea," he replied, "Um....can you see anything?" From his perspective everyone died, which meant the train was now littered with corpses. Gross. And he did not want to step on them.
Not... oh, yeah, there go the lights." Renee blinked. They were alone in the car but it was open to the station--maybe everyone else had left and she just hadn't heard them? Of course, the chances of them having gotten out without Matt hearing them were slim to none. "The door's open, do we want to get out of here?"
Hope quickly glanced around her. "It makes no sense to stay here. Perhaps we can get out on foot?" Hesitantly she started to make her way to the door, throwing glances over her shoulder to see if her fellow students were following her. Pausing at the door she examined it. "I think that must be the emergency release?"
"Yeah, if nothing else we can get above ground. I'd feel safer there." She wasn't claustrophobic but being in a tunnel where a bunch of people seemed to have just mysteriously vanished didn't seem like a great idea if there was an alternative. "Go ahead and give it a pull. I mean, what're they going to do, throw us off?"
"Yeah, every door has one," Matt agreed, approaching with Renee. He reached out to examine it, "Does it have any sort of written instructions for how to use it?" the things were fairly simple in theory, but directions were good if they were posted there.
"Hmm." Hope leaned a little closer to the handle, frowning in the low light. "It seems to simply say push. Let's just give it a chance." She pushed on the handle and slowly the doors were cranked open far enough that a person could slip through
"I guess I'll go first," Renee offered. "Matt, you want to come second and then Hope can be third?" She wasn't entirely sure having the girl who was prone to fits of unconsciousness take the rear position was the best idea but on the other hand, she and Matt would be able to deal with anything that popped up in front of them on the way out. With that in mind, she turned sideways and edged her way through the opening Hope had made.
That didn't sound like the best idea, especially if Hope might pass out. "I'll take the end, Hope can go in the middle," he offered, this way if she did pass out he could catch her. Better that way than leaving her behind. "That work?"
"The middle is fine with me." She had caught her classmates' concerned looks and she understood. She had done a lot of ghosting out while stressed. "But let's just get out of here. This car is spooky." Hope gestured for Renee go ahead.
Renee nodded. Matt's plan really did make more sense. She slid between the doors and stepped out onto the platform, looking around.
"I don't see anything... or anyone." Was it really possible for a station to go completely empty like that? "Hello!" she called out, her voice echoing. Apparently it was. She continued out onto the platform, making room for her classmates.
"I don't hear anything either," this did not sound good, at all. "I'm not liking this." They were all thinking it.
"I am glad I am not the only one..." Hope quickly hopped out of the train, smoothing down her skirt and hair as soon as she had landed. "People just do not disappear into thin air." She stepped out of the way, enabling Matt to finally leave the car.
At least Matt couldn't look up her skirt or anything in else if Hope was forced to be less than lady-like. Jumping down with ease, Matt turned to catch Renee if she wanted it. "No, they don't," he agreed. "This entire place feels wrong. Really, really wrong. Are we still in the station?"
"I think so?" It looked like the station, but Renee had to agree with Matt and Hope. Everything about this was wrong. "If we're not then I don't know where we are, so I hope we're still in the station..." She started arbitrarily toward the left, hoping to see stairs or an elevator or a person, anything to tell her how to get to the surface or what had happened.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" Hope called out. The only reply was dead silence. "I do not think anyone is here... Can you hear anyone except us, Matt?"
Matt shook his head then pushed his hair from his face, "Nothing," he replied, "Normally there's wind, cars, all sorts of sounds. Nothing. I don't smell anything either, just you two." It was damn disconcerting, too.
Renee shivered at Matt's words. "But where is everybody? And everything? I mean it's not like we could've been... taken somewhere else. Is it?" She wanted very much for one or both of them to say no. Things like this didn't happen. They were just on the subway and there was no line for Midtown to Creepy Unpopulated Alternate Dimension. So it couldn't be that. She hoped.
"I really do not know. And I am not seeing any exits either... Not even a fire escape..." Hope scanned the space around them again.
"What's that?" Matt asked, hearing a whooshing sound, then heat bathing his face. "Fire!" he screamed, not knowing what else to do.
"Come with me," a heavy hand grabbed his shoulder, not one of the girls. He resisted, then relented, the fire separating him from the others.
"Matt?" Hope twisted around to see where he had gone, but he wasn't there anymore. And Renee had disappeared to, as soon as the fire had sprung up. She was all alone...
The sounds of footsteps was loud in the silence...
Except that Topaz and Maddie were in the same car. They're fine, except for the fact that every single one of their classmates, and all the passengers has disappeared. They get up into the city - but it is just as empty as their train was.
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Topaz fidgeted, her eyes shifting left and right, hands shoved into her jacket pockets. As a rule, she generally avoided public transportation - it made her uncomfortable. And somehow, taking it when they were being stalked by tall, faceless, magical creatures just seemed like asking for trouble. Her gaze moved to the floor of the subway car they were currently riding in, and she sucked in a sharp breath as, once more, a cold feeling washed through her, accompanied by a faint nausea, and something locked around her lungs, refusing to let her breathe. Her head snapped up again, eyes searching the car hurriedly.
The lights flickered in the car, but that was nothing new. Some of the older cars did that sometimes, and when that happened, you would find yourself plunged into darkness as the car traveled through the tunnels. Maddie paid it no attention, however, along with those used to riding the subway. She, and many of the other riders, had the light from their phone/mp3 player/handheld gaming device to soften the effect of milliseconds of the pitch black interior as they waited for the train to arrive at the next station.
It would have been nothing much to worry about - a typical subway ride - if the lights of mp3 players and phones and little handheld gaming devices hadn't winked out like stars on a dying world as the car sped into the tunnel. And then if the foot shuffling and sniffling and chatter of everyone around them hadn't faded into the background, replaced by the squeaks and roars of the trains and tracks. It wasn't a quiet car when they emerged from the tunnel, just empty, except for the two girls.
Well that's certainly not normal. The ridiculously understatement of a thought flashed through Topaz's mind as she looked around quickly, seeing only Maddie present. Another shiver rocked through her; she ignored it this time. "What?"
Not as oblivious to her surroundings as she seemed, Maddie realized that the other occupants of the car were gone when they emerged from the tunnel and the lights turned back on. "We didn't miss our stop." She turned off her iPod's screen and shoved it in her back pocket as she looked around. No. They hadn't missed their stop. And how did the other riders disappear?
Maddie shook her head. "Well I'm stuck in a Subway car with a British-Indian. So the obvious answer is that this is the Rapture and our heathen asses were left behind."
"Well I know what I did wrong," Topaz deadpanned as she stood up, crossing her arms and turning her full attention to Maddie. Focusing on the joke was better than panicking. "What's your sin?"
"I killed a man in Reno. With my pinkie finger." Maddie smirked. "Just to watch him die."
"Oh sure, leave the Indian witch with a murderer. That's gotta be discriminatory." Sarcasm was always a good refuge. "Our stop should be comin' up. Think we should get off?"
Maddie gave her a Look. "Uh. Hells YES. Come on, if this is the Rapture then think of all the empty pretzel carts."
"Well we certainly won't starve," Topaz murmured under her breath, looking around. "And what do we do if this isn't just the Rapture?"
"Hmmm...." The redhead moved toward her classmate, looking her up and down, sizing her up. "I don't need to do anything." The smirk deepened. "I can outrun you easy."
"Oh sure, sacrifice me. Remind me to never actually get stuck at the end of the world with you." Okay, chances were this wasn't actually the Rapture. Could it have something to do with those...things?
"Well then," there was a twinkle in Maddie's eye as the train pulled to a halt at the next station. The doors opened with their usual hydraulic hiss, and she leap over the threshold onto the abandoned platform. Here too, there was no one in sight, though newspapers, coffee cups and other scattered paraphernalia indicated that this had not always been the case. Life had been going on as usual, until everyone disappeared.
She took a moment to examine her surroundings, then turned to Topaz with a wide smile and said, "Last one out's a rotten egg!"
Topaz let Maddie go ahead of her, well aware that she'd lose a race with the redhead, and she was more focused on the complete wrongness that seemed to be hanging over them as they made their way onto the platform. She shivered, tightening her arms just a bit around herself. Ugh. She started to tell Maddie to stay close by, but something made her cut herself off before she could get the words out. "This isn't right," she murmured, her feet dragging along.
Across the platform, up the stairs, over the turntable, through the tunnel ran Maddie. There was still no one in sight. Surely in a city as big as New York there had to be other survivors. Weren't the street preachers always saying how the city was a bastion of sin and corruption? There had to be more to this situation, but she was clueless as to what it could be.
Curiouser and curiouser.
She pondered the possibilities as she pushed onward and upward, her footsteps echoing in the silent halls. Wormhole? Alien abduction? Was it her mind playing tricks on her? Or had she just fallen asleep and this was all a dream? It didn't feel like a dream, everything felt too real. The warm air being pushed deep underground, usually, packed in with other travelers it was suffocating, especially in the dead of winter when you were already bundled up, but now, it felt almost pleasant. It wasn't long though before the warmth was replaced by the blustering cold as Maddie mounted the final steps out of the subway.
Shit.
That was the only thing she could think once she reached the surface.
"Topaz...."
The young witch came to a dead stop just behind Maddie, her own eyes widening as she looked around, taking in the grey, ruined landscape that was New York City. A thick fog had settled over the area, the street lights above them flickered on and off despite the fact that it was daytime (or at least, Topaz assumed it was daytime), and electronic shop signs flickered and buzzed, a noise that seemed almost too loud in the absolute silence pressing down on them.
Just drawing a breath took more effort than Topaz expected, and she held it for a long moment as her eyes took in this bizarre scene, and a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold rocked through her. Not right, not right, not right, a scared, desperate voice in the back of her head repeated over and over. She shoved it away, saying the words she hadn't bothered with earlier: "Let's not get separated, yeah?"
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Matt was used to the subways, despite their difficulty for his senses. They were always too much of everything, but he dealt with them, not simply because he had to, but because he was a New Yorker and therefore, he felt a sense of pride in using them.. Maybe it had to do with his sense of pride in being able to use them while blind when he was younger, just a little. Now though, he was cramped, stressed and generally unhappy about the current state of affairs. Holding on to the grab-bar, he sniffed the air a little, trying not to smell more than he had to.
Every shudder made Hope's hands tighten around her the purse she firmly kept in her lap. She had really believed someone at the mansion would believe Tandy when she called, but they didn't. Still, Topaz had said the tattoo would offer some protection and she tried very hard to have confidence in that. With a little bit of luck they would be safely back at the mansion tonight. The lights suddenly went out for a moment... Hope stiffened and only relaxed slightly when they came back on.
The subway train didn't smooth out as they clattered into the station, it was just that after they emerged from the tunnel, it was so much quieter without people leaning against poles or chattering at each other or pressed up against the doors impatiently. What had been a car full of tourists and teenagers before the lights went out was now a still quiet train with three occupants as it came to a jerking halt and the doors creaked open. If Matt never heard another heartbeat disappear, he'd be quite happy. It was possibly one of the most disconcerting noises ever. Drawing a shaky breath, Matt reached out against what was possibly his better judgment and grabbed Renee. "Are you still here?" He asked, not trusting his senses. Three heartbeats and shapes in what had been a full train car. No.
"AH! Yes, oh, god, I was until you gave me a heart attack." The silence and dark of the tunnel was unsettling as anything but nothing like being grabbed in the middle of, too. She felt her heart pounding in her chest but truth be told she was glad Matt was still there. Being alone in this would have been a fate worse than a hyperbolic heart attack. "Hope, are you here?" she called out, hoping she hadn't scared the other girl too much with her scream. Please say yes, please say yes.
"I am still here." Hope rose from her seat, glancing around her and stumbling to her fellow students. "What just happened? Where did everybody go? People don't just disappear!" Her voice turned a little shrill at the end and she shuddered as she clamped her hand firmly on Matt's arm.
Reaching out, he held both girls tightly, not wanting to lose them. "No idea," he replied, "Um....can you see anything?" From his perspective everyone died, which meant the train was now littered with corpses. Gross. And he did not want to step on them.
Not... oh, yeah, there go the lights." Renee blinked. They were alone in the car but it was open to the station--maybe everyone else had left and she just hadn't heard them? Of course, the chances of them having gotten out without Matt hearing them were slim to none. "The door's open, do we want to get out of here?"
Hope quickly glanced around her. "It makes no sense to stay here. Perhaps we can get out on foot?" Hesitantly she started to make her way to the door, throwing glances over her shoulder to see if her fellow students were following her. Pausing at the door she examined it. "I think that must be the emergency release?"
"Yeah, if nothing else we can get above ground. I'd feel safer there." She wasn't claustrophobic but being in a tunnel where a bunch of people seemed to have just mysteriously vanished didn't seem like a great idea if there was an alternative. "Go ahead and give it a pull. I mean, what're they going to do, throw us off?"
"Yeah, every door has one," Matt agreed, approaching with Renee. He reached out to examine it, "Does it have any sort of written instructions for how to use it?" the things were fairly simple in theory, but directions were good if they were posted there.
"Hmm." Hope leaned a little closer to the handle, frowning in the low light. "It seems to simply say push. Let's just give it a chance." She pushed on the handle and slowly the doors were cranked open far enough that a person could slip through
"I guess I'll go first," Renee offered. "Matt, you want to come second and then Hope can be third?" She wasn't entirely sure having the girl who was prone to fits of unconsciousness take the rear position was the best idea but on the other hand, she and Matt would be able to deal with anything that popped up in front of them on the way out. With that in mind, she turned sideways and edged her way through the opening Hope had made.
That didn't sound like the best idea, especially if Hope might pass out. "I'll take the end, Hope can go in the middle," he offered, this way if she did pass out he could catch her. Better that way than leaving her behind. "That work?"
"The middle is fine with me." She had caught her classmates' concerned looks and she understood. She had done a lot of ghosting out while stressed. "But let's just get out of here. This car is spooky." Hope gestured for Renee go ahead.
Renee nodded. Matt's plan really did make more sense. She slid between the doors and stepped out onto the platform, looking around.
"I don't see anything... or anyone." Was it really possible for a station to go completely empty like that? "Hello!" she called out, her voice echoing. Apparently it was. She continued out onto the platform, making room for her classmates.
"I don't hear anything either," this did not sound good, at all. "I'm not liking this." They were all thinking it.
"I am glad I am not the only one..." Hope quickly hopped out of the train, smoothing down her skirt and hair as soon as she had landed. "People just do not disappear into thin air." She stepped out of the way, enabling Matt to finally leave the car.
At least Matt couldn't look up her skirt or anything in else if Hope was forced to be less than lady-like. Jumping down with ease, Matt turned to catch Renee if she wanted it. "No, they don't," he agreed. "This entire place feels wrong. Really, really wrong. Are we still in the station?"
"I think so?" It looked like the station, but Renee had to agree with Matt and Hope. Everything about this was wrong. "If we're not then I don't know where we are, so I hope we're still in the station..." She started arbitrarily toward the left, hoping to see stairs or an elevator or a person, anything to tell her how to get to the surface or what had happened.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" Hope called out. The only reply was dead silence. "I do not think anyone is here... Can you hear anyone except us, Matt?"
Matt shook his head then pushed his hair from his face, "Nothing," he replied, "Normally there's wind, cars, all sorts of sounds. Nothing. I don't smell anything either, just you two." It was damn disconcerting, too.
Renee shivered at Matt's words. "But where is everybody? And everything? I mean it's not like we could've been... taken somewhere else. Is it?" She wanted very much for one or both of them to say no. Things like this didn't happen. They were just on the subway and there was no line for Midtown to Creepy Unpopulated Alternate Dimension. So it couldn't be that. She hoped.
"I really do not know. And I am not seeing any exits either... Not even a fire escape..." Hope scanned the space around them again.
"What's that?" Matt asked, hearing a whooshing sound, then heat bathing his face. "Fire!" he screamed, not knowing what else to do.
"Come with me," a heavy hand grabbed his shoulder, not one of the girls. He resisted, then relented, the fire separating him from the others.
"Matt?" Hope twisted around to see where he had gone, but he wasn't there anymore. And Renee had disappeared to, as soon as the fire had sprung up. She was all alone...
The sounds of footsteps was loud in the silence...
Except that Topaz and Maddie were in the same car. They're fine, except for the fact that every single one of their classmates, and all the passengers has disappeared. They get up into the city - but it is just as empty as their train was.
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Topaz fidgeted, her eyes shifting left and right, hands shoved into her jacket pockets. As a rule, she generally avoided public transportation - it made her uncomfortable. And somehow, taking it when they were being stalked by tall, faceless, magical creatures just seemed like asking for trouble. Her gaze moved to the floor of the subway car they were currently riding in, and she sucked in a sharp breath as, once more, a cold feeling washed through her, accompanied by a faint nausea, and something locked around her lungs, refusing to let her breathe. Her head snapped up again, eyes searching the car hurriedly.
The lights flickered in the car, but that was nothing new. Some of the older cars did that sometimes, and when that happened, you would find yourself plunged into darkness as the car traveled through the tunnels. Maddie paid it no attention, however, along with those used to riding the subway. She, and many of the other riders, had the light from their phone/mp3 player/handheld gaming device to soften the effect of milliseconds of the pitch black interior as they waited for the train to arrive at the next station.
It would have been nothing much to worry about - a typical subway ride - if the lights of mp3 players and phones and little handheld gaming devices hadn't winked out like stars on a dying world as the car sped into the tunnel. And then if the foot shuffling and sniffling and chatter of everyone around them hadn't faded into the background, replaced by the squeaks and roars of the trains and tracks. It wasn't a quiet car when they emerged from the tunnel, just empty, except for the two girls.
Well that's certainly not normal. The ridiculously understatement of a thought flashed through Topaz's mind as she looked around quickly, seeing only Maddie present. Another shiver rocked through her; she ignored it this time. "What?"
Not as oblivious to her surroundings as she seemed, Maddie realized that the other occupants of the car were gone when they emerged from the tunnel and the lights turned back on. "We didn't miss our stop." She turned off her iPod's screen and shoved it in her back pocket as she looked around. No. They hadn't missed their stop. And how did the other riders disappear?
Maddie shook her head. "Well I'm stuck in a Subway car with a British-Indian. So the obvious answer is that this is the Rapture and our heathen asses were left behind."
"Well I know what I did wrong," Topaz deadpanned as she stood up, crossing her arms and turning her full attention to Maddie. Focusing on the joke was better than panicking. "What's your sin?"
"I killed a man in Reno. With my pinkie finger." Maddie smirked. "Just to watch him die."
"Oh sure, leave the Indian witch with a murderer. That's gotta be discriminatory." Sarcasm was always a good refuge. "Our stop should be comin' up. Think we should get off?"
Maddie gave her a Look. "Uh. Hells YES. Come on, if this is the Rapture then think of all the empty pretzel carts."
"Well we certainly won't starve," Topaz murmured under her breath, looking around. "And what do we do if this isn't just the Rapture?"
"Hmmm...." The redhead moved toward her classmate, looking her up and down, sizing her up. "I don't need to do anything." The smirk deepened. "I can outrun you easy."
"Oh sure, sacrifice me. Remind me to never actually get stuck at the end of the world with you." Okay, chances were this wasn't actually the Rapture. Could it have something to do with those...things?
"Well then," there was a twinkle in Maddie's eye as the train pulled to a halt at the next station. The doors opened with their usual hydraulic hiss, and she leap over the threshold onto the abandoned platform. Here too, there was no one in sight, though newspapers, coffee cups and other scattered paraphernalia indicated that this had not always been the case. Life had been going on as usual, until everyone disappeared.
She took a moment to examine her surroundings, then turned to Topaz with a wide smile and said, "Last one out's a rotten egg!"
Topaz let Maddie go ahead of her, well aware that she'd lose a race with the redhead, and she was more focused on the complete wrongness that seemed to be hanging over them as they made their way onto the platform. She shivered, tightening her arms just a bit around herself. Ugh. She started to tell Maddie to stay close by, but something made her cut herself off before she could get the words out. "This isn't right," she murmured, her feet dragging along.
Across the platform, up the stairs, over the turntable, through the tunnel ran Maddie. There was still no one in sight. Surely in a city as big as New York there had to be other survivors. Weren't the street preachers always saying how the city was a bastion of sin and corruption? There had to be more to this situation, but she was clueless as to what it could be.
Curiouser and curiouser.
She pondered the possibilities as she pushed onward and upward, her footsteps echoing in the silent halls. Wormhole? Alien abduction? Was it her mind playing tricks on her? Or had she just fallen asleep and this was all a dream? It didn't feel like a dream, everything felt too real. The warm air being pushed deep underground, usually, packed in with other travelers it was suffocating, especially in the dead of winter when you were already bundled up, but now, it felt almost pleasant. It wasn't long though before the warmth was replaced by the blustering cold as Maddie mounted the final steps out of the subway.
Shit.
That was the only thing she could think once she reached the surface.
"Topaz...."
The young witch came to a dead stop just behind Maddie, her own eyes widening as she looked around, taking in the grey, ruined landscape that was New York City. A thick fog had settled over the area, the street lights above them flickered on and off despite the fact that it was daytime (or at least, Topaz assumed it was daytime), and electronic shop signs flickered and buzzed, a noise that seemed almost too loud in the absolute silence pressing down on them.
Just drawing a breath took more effort than Topaz expected, and she held it for a long moment as her eyes took in this bizarre scene, and a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold rocked through her. Not right, not right, not right, a scared, desperate voice in the back of her head repeated over and over. She shoved it away, saying the words she hadn't bothered with earlier: "Let's not get separated, yeah?"
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