The first thing I saw in this new railcar was the massive hole in the middle of the floor. What’s weird is that when I stepped closer to look down, I couldn’t see the train tracks. It was a black void. I do not want to fall into that. The hole almost spanned the entire width of the train railcar, but there was about a foot of floor that I could potentially shimmy across.  The hole was way too long to jump across.

Across the gap I could see a long board propped against the wall on the far side. It looks like someone was using that to cross the hole and then pulled it up to keep me trapped back here. Unbelievable. Aside from the board, there was nothing else in this railcar. The door was right across this hole and I just needed to weasel my way across this ledge without falling into the hole and all would be well.

I got close to the hole and put my back to the wall to slowly shimmy across. Inch by inch, taking it very slowly, because I did not want to fall to a void-filled death. My palms were getting sweaty. I made it a quarter of the way and I heard a cracking noise. Oh no. This isn’t happening. I sped up my movements. I shimmied as fast as someone could shimmy. CRACK. No. Please, no. Not today. I was falling.

One might think that if there is a hole in the bottom of a train railcar you would fall onto the track and underneath the wheels. Well, that’s not what happened. I fell into this void and did not hit tracks, but kept falling and falling. If I was falling, there must be gravity of some sort, which meant there was a ground. So, if nothing up here was going to kill me, hitting the ground certainly would.

One thing I noticed in my time of falling is that I could still see the hole I fell through, slowly getting smaller and smaller. I could see the walls of the train railcar. I could see the rocking of it. It didn’t seem logical. But this train didn’t seem too logical if it’s crawling with giant spiders.

As I fell, the surrounding black void turned into what looked like a night sky, that included stars. I fell through some trees, expecting my death to arrive shortly. I could feel the wind rush past me, the leaves of the tall trees brush me as I fell. The moment I was expecting was close, so I closed my eyes. Thump. I felt myself hit the ground. However, I felt no pain. Just the pressure of the collision. I must’ve hit so hard, so quickly, that it was painless. However, when I opened my eyes, I could still see the hole to the train in the sky. I was still alive.

I was in a small clearing underneath a canopy of trees which now had a hole through where I had fallen. Now I’ve done it. If I wasn’t already trapped in the train, I’m definitely trapped in here. In a forest. At the bottom of a hole in the train. My head was getting dizzy. I was starting to get a feeling that this is not your normal train. Far from it.

The forest looked like it went on forever in all directions, but what could I really see? It was dark in here and there was not a lot of visibility. I could see some glowing bugs of various colors here and there, but I was completely lost on what to do or where to go. Let alone how to get out. The hole seemed so far away in the sky.

I got up off the ground and picked a direction. As I walked aimlessly, I started hearing things around me; chittering and clicking noises. They got really close, really fast. Suddenly, I felt bites on my feet and legs. Ow! I ran for it. I ran in the direction of a glowing bug. That seems harmless. Once I made it, the bugs weren’t biting me anymore, but I could definitely hear them in the distance. It appeared the light from the glowing bug kept them at bay.

I looked up at the blue glowing bug and noticed that it was sitting on the tree horizontally. It almost looked like it was pointing in a specific direction. So, I looked to where its head was pointing and saw another glowbug in the distance. The only problem was that I had to run through the dark grass where the biting bugs were. Those bugs were too small for me to waste my time whacking them with the wrench.

I sprinted through the forest to the next glowbug. The biters were eating away at my legs where they could latch on. I don’t know how I’m going to survive this place with my legs still intact. I made it to the next blue glowbug, which was also in a weird position. I continued doing this for four more glowbugs.

When I made it to the fifth glowbug, looking in the direction that it was facing, I saw three separate trees with three different colored glowbugs. There was a blue, a red, and a purple glowbug. That’s new. It’s only been blue glowbugs up to this point.

I had a choice of continuing with the blue path or switching to a red or purple path. Since I could always follow the path back and I didn’t know where I was even headed, I decided to see where the red path would take me. So, I sprinted to the red glowbug. Once I made it over, with even more bug bites, I saw that this one was a little bit larger than the blue one. Must be a different species.

I followed the red glowbugs and each time they grew in size. It went from three to four inches, to nine inches, to a foot and a half, to the three-foot sized bug I was at now. They seemed harmless and were slightly out of reach, so I couldn’t touch them, which was probably for the best. They were starting to get intimidating.

I continued on and as I got to the sixth bug, I needed to wrap my legs with the last bandage I had. I don’t know if I made the right decision. I didn’t have any more bandages and these bugs weren’t leading me anywhere but to larger glowing bugs. The one benefit of them is that their glow was brighter, which meant running through fewer of the biting bugs.

As I stood there looking at this giant red glowbug hanging in the tree, I looked in the direction of the next one. My jaw dropped. The next glowbug was massive. It looked like it was the size of a truck. And it was not hanging on the tree, it was on the ground. And it was staring directly at me. I was not going over there. I don’t care how harmless these other ones looked, but I did not trust that one.

Just before I turned to head back, I saw a glint of something behind the giant red glowbug. It was slight, and I couldn’t tell for sure if I had even seen it, but it looked like a smaller golden glowbug. But when I tried to relook, the red glowbug shuffled, which frightened me, so I ran back to the previous one. Probably for the best, since I did not want to die today.

The run back was equally as difficult as the run forward and I got bit just as much. I needed to get out of here. I don’t know If I can survive. Once I made it back to the junction of glowbugs, I decided to follow the path of blue, the purple would have to wait. I wouldn’t be able to survive all of the blood loss from the bites.

Following the blue glowbugs was just as demanding due to the biting bugs in the dark grass, but these did not change in size or become increasingly intimidating. I gazed into the sky and could still see the hole from which I had fallen and wondered how I could possibly return. This path felt like the right one to follow to hopefully leave this place because the hole in the sky seemed to get closer.

Sprinting through the grass to the next blue glowbug, I saw another glowbug right beneath it. It was much smaller and it was golden. Was this the same one I saw next to the giant red one? It was also low enough to reach. I should catch it.

Just as I reached the space the glow encompassed, I reached forward to grab the golden bug, but it flew away! It flew into the dark of the forest where there were no other glow bugs to provide the protective light and it perched at a tree in the distance that I knew I could not reach without getting eaten alive. It did have a glow of its own, but if it flew away again, I wouldn’t have its protection.

I stared at it for a moment thinking about what to do next, but ultimately decided it would be best not to chase after it. My legs were barely hanging together and I honestly don’t know how many more bites I could take before they fell apart. I sprinted for the next blue bug.

Once I made it to the blue glowbug, I had noticed that this one was pointing up, not horizontally.  How am I supposed to go up?  I looked up, using the obvious answer, and I could see the hole I came from much closer than it was previously. It looked like the tall tree I was next to could actually reach it and take me out of here. I just needed to find the way up.

Luckily enough for me, when I had circled the tree hastily, which was about 15 feet in diameter, I had found a ladder going up the backside. The only problem, was that there was not a glowbug to protect me. I did, however, notice that halfway up the ladder, there was a faint golden shine. Hopefully that was a glowbug that could protect me and I could make it there before I’m eaten alive.

I dashed to the ladder and started climbing as fast as I could. The bugs were biting ceaselessly and I could feel my blood being drained. As I went higher and higher, the bugs bit fewer and fewer. Once I made it to the glowbug, they stopped entirely. Thankfully I could still manage to climb, but it was very strenuous and I knew that any more biting would be the end of me. I was slowly draining away and needed to find more bandages.

I took a brief pause at the glowbug as I climbed up. It was indeed a golden glowbug, much smaller than the blues, but this one did not fly away. I went to touch it and as my finger tapped it, the glow stopped. It went pitch black. Oh no. I quickly tried to tap it again. Thankfully the glow started up again. What was this, a lightbulb? I thought about grabbing it to keep on me and use it so I could walk around the forest freely, but I was leaving this place and saw no use for it. So, I continued up the tree.

The biting bugs were no longer present after the golden glowbug. Thankfully.

The ladder wrapped around the tree and eventually stopped at a long horizontal branch. Midway along that branch I could see another ladder. That one reached directly up to the hole. How come I couldn’t see this tree or ladder before? What was this place? That was the exit and I made my way to it.

I climbed up the ladder and made it to the floor of the train railcar. The subtle sway of the railcar and the sound of the tracks resonated in the background. It felt like forever since I had been in the railcar. I sat on the edge of the hole, recuperating, trying not to bleed to death.

I looked at the board that was propped up against the wall and noticed something that I hadn’t seen before. There was a bandage roll right on the ground slightly hidden behind it. I snatched it up and wrapped my wounds and felt immensely better.

I took the board and dropped it across the void hole so that I could cross without having to go through the forest again. I wasn’t sure if I would survive the fall again. And I also wasn’t sure if I would land on the branch or the ground like before. That forest was confusing.

I made my way to railcar 97.