“Announcing the chosen Trainers for this beautiful year of 2084!” The PA system blasted into the halls and classrooms of Adam’s high school. Everyone has been anxious the entire day, awaiting curiously on if they would be picked or not. A few people crossed their fingers hoping they didn’t get picked, others prayed that they would. Meanwhile, Adam was conflicted if he wanted to get picked, and what would happen if he did get picked. His older brother Samuel was picked before, and their family has been making decent money from Samuel sending home some of the money he made while out there.

  Samuel occasionally calls his younger brother to check up on him, making sure that his family back home is ok, but never sharing anything that happens out there. Adam appreciates the calls, but gets worried because of the fact that Samuel never described the already mysterious things that happen with Trainers. Adam hopes that if he does get chosen, he goes into the same train as his brother so he at least knows one person there.

  The PA system announced names Adam didn’t recognize for a few minutes, until he heard his name get called. “Adam Wekonson.” His name ringed in his head for a few moments. He was one of the chosen high schoolers to become a Trainer! He didn’t know what to expect up there, would he be with his brother, would it be a different train entirely? What secrets would be discovered, and why couldn’t his brother ever share any of them?

  Adam didn’t realize he was thinking at his desk for so long until the PA system blasted out his name once more. “Adam Wekonson, please report to the train to become a Trainer. If you do not do so, we will bring you there momentarily.” That got Adam running down empty school halls until he reached the train landing area. The place was crowded with students saying their goodbyes to friends and family going on the train. Adam spotted a clearing in the crowd where students lined up to enter the train after being done saying goodbye.

  Adam rushed there and lined up behind the others. They all looked at him oddly, some laughing that he was that late to one of the most important events that could happen to someone.

  “Not the punctual type, eh?” The guy in front asked Adam. “What were you doing that made you late to lining up? At least you didn’t miss much since all that happened so far is the people checking if we’re supposed to be on the train or not.”

  “I sat at my desk for a bit long,” Adam replied. “I didn’t realize I was worrying about me being chosen for as long as I did so.”

  “You’re worried? Fair enough I guess. Hey my name is Alex by the way! I got to start getting to know the others on this train if I’m going up there you know? Wouldn’t want to be alone, right?”

  They shook hands and waited in line patiently. The line wasn’t that long, but the people checking to see if you were chosen or not took a long time verifying people’s identities.

  “I heard they’re now extra strict with identifying the chosen ones up there now.” Alex said to Adam. “Apparently, the governments have developed some technology that allows people to be disguised as someone else! I think that’s a load of bull, but who knows?”

  Alex and Adam eventually reached the train after everyone in front of them was in. The crowd around them was gone since nobody knew Adam or Alex, and their families couldn’t be bothered to go and say bye in person.

  Alex was asked a series of questions that were surprisingly personal and got on the train. Adam walked up to the train. The guy identifying people was a handsome young man wearing a trench coat and beret. The man had dark skin and lifted up a blue tablet.

  “Alex Wekonson, correct?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Don’t call me sir, save the formalities for the people inside. Brother’s name?”

  “Samuel Madison Wekonson.” Adam replied in a confused tone. Why would they ask for his brother’s name, and why would it matter?

  “How many bathrooms are inside of your house?”

  “Wait, are you sure these are the right questions?” Adam asked, extremely confused by the first two questions. “What does my brother’s name and the amount of bathrooms that are inside my home matter?”

  “We need to ask personal questions to make sure that you are who you look like. We have had people from your world’s governments try to sneak on as someone else.”

  “Alright, I guess. I think it's like 3 bathrooms?”

  “How old were you when you got your dog, Biscuit?”

  “5 years old.”

  The man proceeded to ask increasingly personal questions, including what color Adam’s underwear was, why hasn’t he had a girlfriend yet, what piece of technology did his neighbor break when the neighbors’ kid threw a rock through Adam’s window, and more. After all those questions, Adam was able to step into the train.

  Adam emerged into one of the train carts. It had a high ceiling, red couches everywhere, and students sitting on almost all of them. There was only one unpopulated couch, and it was the closest to a stage on the far right. Adam guessed no one wanted to sit that close to a stage where someone might be very loud. Adam made his way over until Alex intercepted him.

  “Hey, you made it on!” Alex greeted. “That guy had weird ass questions, right? You should sit with me dude, literally every other couch is taken. At least the couch I found was in a decent spot.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Alex led Adam to a couch directly next to the couch he was gonna go to, but this couch had a table next to it.

  “See, this couch is much better than that couch since this one has a table! I am totally the best at deciding if something is the best or not, no sarcasm at all!”

  They sat down and waited with the other students for something to happen. After a bit of time, a serious looking woman wearing camouflaged clothing and a military cap stepped onto the stage.

  “Listen up, all of you!” She announced in a surprisingly casual tone despite her appearance. “You guys are the new Trainers, so this presentation will just be us explaining what the rules are, when you’ll get your powers, gear, and what exactly goes on up here.”

  Another person walked up on stage. He was a short stocky man with fair skin and a bowl cut wearing overalls.

  “The rules of being a Trainer,” The man said. “First, you cannot tell anyone on Earth what happens as a Trainer. The reason behind it is because the people who made these trains and Trainers a thing found it funny to exclude a singular planet of the events that occur. They randomly picked a planet, and it happened to be yours.

  “The second rule is that violence against another Trainer is not tolerated, and will result in consequences that you’ll only know of if you break this rule. The third rule is that death doesn’t really apply outside of your planet. That's not really a rule, it’s just that your planet kind of makes it so if you die on it, you’re dead for good. Meanwhile on other planets, or on here, death means you get sent to a specific area on the planet or object, like this train here. If you die on this train, which is nearly impossible, you’ll be sent back to your dorm. If you die on other planets, you would be sent to that planet’s death box. That death box is a prison for those who were killed while being on that planet. It is possible to get out, but it’s tedious and sometimes the planet’s death box is guarded by a hostile faction. Sometimes the planet doesn’t even have a death box, and you’ll die permanently like on yours.

  “The final rule is to use common sense. If you think something you’re doing isn’t allowed, it probably isn’t. Now it’s time for you guys to get assigned to your dorms, and get your powers and gear tomorrow. Dismissed everyone.”

  Everyone on the train got a notification on their wristwatch. Everyone in the world has a wristwatch, including remote tribes and isolated parts of the world. Even religious groups like the Amish who were against technology have one. The wristwatches randomly appeared on everyone around the time the trains first appeared on Earth. The wristwatch acted mostly like a phone, with most of the wristwatches carrying some of the apps and files from the person’s old phone. No one knows how the wristwatches actually appeared, seeing that almost everyone who was on Earth at the time didn’t notice the wristwatch at first. The wristwatches also appeared on newborn babies coming out of the womb, which at first worried medical experts, until they realized that it wasn’t harmful.

  The new notification on the wristwatch of everyone on the train showed them a map of the layout of the train, and an area highlighted green, indicating where their dorms were.

  “Damn,” Alex said as he looked over at Adam’s dorm location. “We’re literally an entire train cart apart! Do you think they have elevators? Ooh, what if they have those things in airports that are basically flat escalators! Well, see you tomorrow Adam!”

  Alex and everyone else rushed to their dorms. Adam got up and made his way to his. His dorm was in the middle of the train carts, but since the train carts were massive compared to an actual train, it took him a good bit of time to make it there. He made it to the middle train cart, and stared in awe for a few seconds. The train cart had doors on both sides of the entrance, with one long hallway in the middle. The hallway had stairs leading up to the different floors of doors. He made his way up the stairs to the second floor and entered his dorm. He didn’t know until now that dorms were shared.

  “Oh hi!” A voice greeted as he entered the door. “You’re my dorm mate I assume?” The girl sat up from the bunk bed and made her way to shake hands with Adam. She wore a loose fitting white t-shirt and black pants. She had black hair leading into a ponytail, and fair skin.

  “Wait, the dorms are shared?” Adam asked.

  “Didn’t you see the notification?” The girl asked. She brought up her wristwatch and pointed at the notification. The notification said “Shared Dorm Room Location.”

  “I guess I didn’t see the shared part of it.” Adam said.

  Adam looked around the room. It was a decent sized room, with a tv mounted on one wall, two closets, two desks, two bathrooms luckily, and a bunk bed on another wall. The floor was carpeted and felt quite sturdy as Adam looked around.

  “I didn’t ask for your name, did I?” The girl asked. “How rude of me hehe. My name is May, you?”

  “Adam Wekonson.” Adam replied.

  “Damn, you say your last name when telling someone your name? Should I start doing that? Actually, scratch that, I don’t have one!”

  “You don’t have one?”

  “Was adopted, but my parents decided that having a last name wasn’t important I guess. Weird huh?”

  Adam noticed that on the top bunk was a luggage. He went up and opened it, and it had belongings from home that he didn’t bring. It had his Xbox 360, laptop, game collection, Nintendo DS, clothes, his piano keyboard, and more.

  “I don’t recall bringing these.” Adam thought aloud.

  “That’s so odd, right? May asked. “I wonder how they ended up getting all our stuff here! I’m not complaining though, my plushie collection is highly important!”

  Adam got down from his bunk and noticed that May had a lot of plushies on her bed. It seemed highly excessive to have that many plushies, but he didn’t judge seeing that his luggage contained some of his video game special edition collectables.

  “I can’t believe it’s already 20:30!” May said as she looked at her wristwatch. “It feels like I was just at my school in Colorado a few hours ago!”

  “I thought we were in California though?” Adam said. “My high school is located in California, does that mean that other people on this train are from other states?”

  “I guess so. I wonder if I’ll see my friend from Alaska here. I met her online and she said she’s from Alaska. I can’t believe people actually live in Alaska though, it’s so chilly looking there when I saw it online.”

  Adam and May chatted for a bit until they remembered it was 20:40. Adam went to sleep after unpacking his stuff, and in his dreams, he worried about becoming a Trainer once more.