Chapter 4All Passengers Gone, Agent Said the Train Never Left

Ten minutes later, a call came through from an unknown number.

“Is this Ms. Anna Reid? This is Detective Morgan.”

“Detective! Help me! I’m on train G404, and all the passengers are gone!” I clung to his voice like a lifeline.

“Ms. Reid, I need you to remain calm.” The detective’s tone was strange, as if he was trying to suppress some strong emotion. “We’ve just pinpointed your phone’s location.”

“You see it, right? I’m moving! The train is heading toward my hometown!”

“Yes, we see that,” he said, pausing for a beat. “Your phone is indeed moving at approximately 190 miles per hour, and its location is tracking along the main North-South rail line.”

“But…”

“But what?” My throat tightened.

“But we have the real-time dispatch map from the national rail network. At this very moment, there are no trains operating on that line. Not even a freight train.”

“What does that mean?” My tongue felt thick and clumsy.

The detective’s voice hardened. “Ms. Reid, are you carrying some kind of illegal signal jammer or GPS spoofer? I need to warn you, disrupting the rail network during the holiday season is a federal offense.”

“No! I’m on the train! It’s a bullet train! It’s white! Why won’t any of you believe me?” I screamed, tears and snot streaming down my face.

“Ms. Reid,” the detective asked suddenly, “do you have any history of mental illness?”

His question was like a bucket of ice water.

Last time, that’s exactly what they had asked.

“I have a history of depression, from work-related stress,” I said, my teeth clenched. “But I’m not crazy! I can tell the difference between reality and a hallucination!”

“And I have my ticket!”

“Tickets can be faked.”

“I have a video!”

“Your mother showed it to us. You’re alone in it.”

“I have an orange! The man next to me gave me an orange!”

“You can buy an orange anywhere.”

The world had built a perfect, logical prison around me, and the only conclusion was that I was insane.