Anna was the most normal between the three of us. I could barely walk. Rebecca became unresponsive. Anna was doing her best to drag us away.

  Sometimes, during a crisis, you might expect the horrific calamity of it all to be what kills people. Sometimes, during a tragedy, you might believe people might die very quickly. I feel as if the real killer often is inconvenience, poorly thought-out plans, and compounding issues over time. People can live for a surprising length of hours with terrible injuries. People with terminal diseases can live longer than expected. And when a stadium is being overrun by brainless zombies, what would really kill is the mundane and not some heroic act. This is the cord that struck through Anna’s mind as she was frantically trying to take two non-functioning people of interest out of a slowly evolving hazard.

  I could at least think, self-evidently. Actually, that’s extremely rude of me; I visibly look like I could think and process external stimuli. I could only crawl, at best, is the issue. My focus fizzled away whenever I looked at the drop. Anna took to my side and let the professional escape artists- ‘X’ Group- handle the hollow Rebecca. In this case, I took more to Anna’s side.

  What looked like hundreds of people assembled in the streets. Many of them looked panicked, although those who were looked more squished than those who kept calm. Multiple groups of a few dozen had coordinated outfits. People scurried in every direction but seemingly funneling out into buildings, sewer grates, or general elevation. Now that I was back to ground, I could see how orderly everyone was. There was even a group, I assume it was ‘X’ group, who were guiding pedestrian traffic and giving directions. Maybe it was their mess to clean up.

  “How much time do we have?” I asked in a tone that Anna believed was snarkier than what I would have preferred.

  She was audibly caught off-guard. “I guess…we probably have a few hours, to be honest,” Anna pointed to the giant stadium doors being pushed shut without hesitation.

  “Mind if we mingle?” I ask.

  “What- like, well like, about what? I know we don’t know each other-” She chirped.

  “No. I meant with other people. Being at this conference was my immediate goal. I wanted to find out more about things,” I started to pull away from her.

  “Can’t we do that like, a little later? You know, with everything that’s going on and such,” It’s like she changed accents.

  I took a breath in as I thought. I knew what I wanted to say, but clearly, there was a disconnect. The disconnect wasn’t about what words we were using, but I felt as if she suddenly thought she was interacting with someone else. I didn’t have the upper hand; I needed her, or else I was going to get lost. Plus, if I don’t have someone who’s a part of these survivor groups, I doubt any one of them would be easy to interact with. So, I stood. It’s not like she could move me. I stared. I tried not to give an evil eye, as that wasn’t my intention. She gave an awkward smile after time passed.

  “What about this. We find the biggest group that you know. You tell me about them. We join them. I’m sure this is a fair compromise,” I made cutting gestures with my hands with each sentence.

  “Uhh… sure! I think, let me think. I believe ‘J’ group should be- since they live around the central market streets- they should be the largest that I know. Everyone knows about them; I know I have a dozen friends who joined up with them.” She had that tone again like she were giving a lecture.

  So we went. I gave one last glance at Rebecca for now. She was a few rows of people away; didn’t notice us leave. Finding answers comes first. Becoming friends with whoever is not my priority.

  I had to coax out details from Anna. She knew a ton about the people who lived there, as well as the general location they were from. It felt like it would literally kill her to tell me anything useful about them. She didn’t struggle recalling information, nor her ability to present information itself. It’s like what I wanted was stuck to her, like a horrific mutant spider web.

  So, here’s what I got. They’re upper class: duh. They’re like one of three primary operators to the Metro. This means that they have the most Metro stops in their territory, deducing they have the highest incentive to keep them running. A lot of them have jobs in logistics, banking and finance, or urban planning: cool, could be helpful. They have a book club- now that is something I might be after. I tried pursuing that thread, but Anna seemed to short-circuit. The best I got was a name: Via. Couldn’t be any easier, just two syllables.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Anna then got on a tangent about shopping. I get it; the place is a shopping hub, but I’m not here to sightsee. I tried getting her back on track gently, but I couldn’t get a grip. The only other thing I got from her was their leader’s name, who I’ll meet, and who I’ll forget the name of. Great.

  Going back to Metros and Metroing, they were one of the first to leave. So were we. She slipped in with a few friends, and I introduced myself.

  Anna really meant ‘a dozen’. A few guys, a few girls, a few whoevers. I tried going after the ones who looked reserved first and then worked my way to small chats with the visibly outgoing ones. I had a simple line that I could repeat over and over. I got their hobbies, interests, jobs, and associations with people that I began to know by an increasing number. Life is easy when you’re a hammer, and everything is a nail.

  As we boarded the Metro- this one was a deep crimson- ‘J’ group alone took up three cars, and some of them stood. Boarding was efficient. Some coordinators had brass megaphones to shuffle everyone in their proper place. There wasn’t anyone guarding the doors, though- it seemed people generally knew where to go when told.

  Anna’s group got split up once inside. I stood while six of them sat at a round. Carpeting lined underneath the seating. You’d think the Metro served drinks with what luxury seating there was. It even took off nearly right after I held the grab handles.

  s. That was a change in scenery. Occasionally, I would see billboards lit up by warm light bulbs around them. It was mesmerizing, and I wanted to consume every little bit of information. To me, I got some insight how the City works. What the billboards are claiming doesn’t matter in and of itself, but it shows what people value, what makes money, and what people don’t take for granted. Banana. Oh, look, a billboard for bananas.

  An idea just possessed me. Being able to execute the idea to completion will be a different story, but I was compelled to try.

  “I have a joke. I have a joke. Okay, there was this guy, right? He loved trains. Huge fan. Big trains, little trains, anything he can get his hands on. He never passed the exam to be a conductor, though. He was so close, but he missed the passing grade. Didn’t stop him. He found a big steam locomotive unattended- just go with it, don’t worry about the details,” I explained while including hand signals; Anna’s group patiently looked at me, uninterrupting, as if they were staring at the wall behind me.

  “So he drove, he even had some passengers; they liked him, smooth ride and lots of charisma, for at least a couple of hours. Then, blam, he accidentally has a head-on collision. He made it out alive, but there were quite a few casualties. No good. Gets arrested. Gets sent to death’s row. Gets…a meal, one final supper. He says he wants a red banana, alright? They’re super rare,” I emphasized just how ‘super’ they were.

  “He said they can only be found in a really remote location, at one season of the year, and there was no way to just drop down and grab it. So, there were like one hundred elite soldiers who ventured out to this location- big ol’ jungle, hardly any way to see the sky, super hard to traverse. They get pummeled, and I mean absolutely destroyed by lions. Or, I think it was tigers. I forget. Anyway, most of the soldiers never make it out, but they got the red banana. There were, like, ten of these elite guys left, right? So, they come back, the prison warden says, ‘You better be thankful- our boys had to really stick our necks out for you.’ and this conductor got strapped to the electric chair. Death shocky scary lever goes down, a trillion-billion volts go off, huge laser light show, and…nothing. The conductor was fine. Didn’t die; didn’t even have a scratch on him. Everyone was surprised. He dusted himself off, the prison warden shook his hand, saying, ‘Well, I’m sure this is equal to a life’s sentence.’ and sent him on his way,” I was then interrupted.

  The Metro had escaped ground. It traveled across a bridge almost immediately after washing us in sunlight. I was blinded for a moment, nearly audibly yelping. Some of the group went back to talking amongst themselves. I gave an awkward laugh and moved on.

  Someone else jumped into a new topic, as they were keenly aware of what I wasn’t ready to experience: “Did you uh…see what happened in that stadium?” They asked, and I nodded with a slight scowl.

  They raised their hands. “Hey man, I just wanted you to be aware. If you haven’t been down on Central, it’s probably worse than what you’ve seen. You’re going to need to keep your head low and be looking around for anything.” He said.

  Am I being chastised and put into a particular social order? Is he trying to put me down right now? Is this a test?

  “Are you looking for me to reassure you of myself?” I asked.

  He looked around at the others, likely gauging how they were feeling. “Well, I wasn’t…doubting what you can or can’t do. I was just hoping to make you aware of what the circumstances are.”

  I wasn’t going to win. “Yeah, but you’re not telling me… never mind. When’s our stop?”

  They started asking me to keep going, now, of all times, being compassionate. Right when I want to burn a bridge, oh- they want to be nice. So when I snap back, if I snap back, they can pretend I reached out and bit them for no reason. I maintained my cool, as I had no reason to raise my tone, and eventually, they gave me the answer I wanted, saying we had a little less than an hour. Then they talked amongst themselves.

  …

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