A portal opens up in a different dimension. The van goes through it. The group sees they're in a cave. Even in the van the air feels cold. There is an entrance to the cave. To get out of the cave they have to drive up a long hill. That's easy enough. A meteor must have caused this cave to form. There's a few trees and patches of grass growing in the cave, somehow. At the back of the cave is a small pond. Most likely it's there from rainwater entering the cave and trickling down the hill to the back of the cave.
The group gets out of the van. It's much more colder out of the van. Lincoln slides out of the van via the back doors.
“Holy shit, it's cold out here. I guess that why this thing exist,” Tristan comments. He proceeds to put on the coat that Brandon threw at him whilst in the previous dimension.
Ryan shivers uncontrollably. He had a coat, but it was destroyed last year. “T-this i-.”He chuckles. “…is like M-Michigan weather.”
“How is it not snowing out there?” Ray comments.
“I don't have a coat anymore; it broke,” Ryan states.
“I have a spare jacket, but it's thin,” Monica mentions.
“Please,” Ryan begs.
“Alright,” Monica replies. Monica proceeds to pull out a jacket from her backpack, and she hands it to Ryan. He quickly puts it on. It's big on him.
“Thanks!” Ryan chirps.
They start walking around the cave. On the walls are drawings, but not of a primitive manner. Some of the drawings are at graffiti levels of detail. One is a straight up mural of what looks like a neighborhood. “What the hell are these doing in a cave? This is straight up Detroit and Chicago level of graffiti,” Monica wonders.
“This one looks like a neighborhood,” Misty comments.
“This must be a tourist spot. I don't blame theme. There are trees growing in this cave,” Ray points out.
“T-there's a p-poem on the wall,” Ray states. “Fuck, it's cold,” he thinks to himself.
At the center of the light
There is the dark
No matter what we do
We can't split them apart
Both help in their own ways
Don't be afraid of either
The things in the shadows
Can guide you through
And out in the light
A path shines out bright
Guiding you
Where you need to go
And the shadows will follow
Acting as your psycho-pomp
Through the paths of life
There is beauty in light and dark
“A peculiar, yet uplifting poem, to say the least,” Svetlana comments.
Ryan falls. “I can't.” He laughs quietly. “It's too fucking cold. Even the van is cold.” Lincoln runs to Ryan and pick him up. “Hi, Lincoln.”
“You’re freezing,” Lincoln replies.
“Sorry,” Ryan responds. Lincoln holds Ryan to his chest to try to warm him up.
“I should have grabbed another coat back at that Macy's. I wasn't thinking,” Brandon states.
“We should probably get out of the cave,” Riley demanded.
“Yeah,” Flotsam agreed.
Svetlana runs back to the van and enters the driver's side. “So, we're just going to drive this out of the cave.”
“I guess,” Brandon replied.
Lincoln carries Ryan as Svetlana drives up the long hill to get out of the cave. Everyone eventually reaches where Svetlana is. “You couldn't wait for us to get in the van?” Brandon complained.
“Sorry. Had one thing on my mind,” Svetlana responded.
“Look at the cave, though,” Misty pointed out.
“Yeah, it's a beautiful sight, if a bit vandalized,” Tori commented.
“This is a sight to behold,” Ray murmurs.
“I have a camera in the v-.“
Something small jumps into view, causing Brandon to jump and roll back down the cave. “What are you doing here?!” someone shouts.
“Ah, god damn it! Fuck! Shit! Tits! Bitch! Cocks!” Brandon keeps say expletives as he continues rolling down the cave. He then sees he about to roll into the pond. “Ah, mother cum tits!” He rolls into the pond.
Tori goes to the ground, crying from laughter. She wheezes. “I can't fuckin' breathe! That's goddamn hilarious!”
“Get up,” Tristan orders.
“Fuck.” Tori tries to take a deep breath, but she chokes because she starts laughing.
“You're going to asphyxiate yourself from laughing so much. Calm down, Tori,” Riley demands.
Tori wheezes again. “Holy shit!”
“You better not be infected!” the mystery person yells. Their eyes are red.
“No, we’re not,” Ray answers.
“Oh, okay,” the person reacts. They look over to Tori. “Why is that thing laughing so hard?”
“Sorry, just…” Tori takes in a deep breath. “Brandon rolled down the cave!”
“Oh yeah, the crater cave,” the person responds.
“Who are you?” Ray asks.
“I’m Whitticus,” the mystery person replies.
“You’re quite small,” Flotsam comments.
“I’m nine,” Whitticus answers.
“Uh, t’ah-. Oh.”
“You’re brandishing a weapon,” Tristan noted.
“I’m sorry. I’ll put it away,” Whitticus apologizes. He puts away his short sword. “You always got to have a weapon on you,” he states.
“I think I’m going to like this kid,” Tristan thinks to himself.
Brandon eventually gets back to the group. He's soaked in water from rolling into the pond. “At least I got my cardio. Now I'm fucking freezing.” Ryan is holding on to Lincoln. Brandon looks over to Whitticus. “Hello, whoever you are. Wow, you are small,” Brandon greets.
“Their name is Whitticus,” Riley replies.
“Hi,” Whitticus also greets.
“How are you doing, Whitticus?” Misty asks.
“Oh, you know. I’m just getting through the days,” Whitticus responds.
“Are there people you are supposed to be with?” Ray questioned.
Whitticus goes quiet for a moment. “Yes.”
“You sounded hesitant there,” Tori reacted.
Whitticus’ eyes turn blue. “I had to kill my last friend. He got infected, and he was turning on me. I still can see his face as he was terrified to die,” he explained.
“Oh, I'm sorry, kid,” Ray responds.
“Where…” Tori rethinks what she wants to say. “Do you have a family left?”
Whitticus stays silent for another moment. “No.”
“Sorry to hear, bud,” Flotsam reacted.
“That’s a heavy burden to bear,” Lincoln noted.
“For like a couple of weeks I've just been on my own,” Whitticus announces.
“Uh, do you need to eat something?” Monica inquired.
“Yes,” Whitticus replied.
“Okay,” Monica responds. She pulls out an energy bar and hands it to Whitticus.
“Thank you!” Whitticus exclaims. His eyes turn green. He tears at the wrapper and takes a bite out of the energy bar.
“How much do you have in that backpack?” Brandon interrogates Monica.
“I lived in a mall for a year. I stock up on things,” Monica answers.
“Fair point,” Brandon responds.
“Did your family abandon you?” Ryan asks Whitticus.
“No, they died.”
“Oh, okay. My parents couldn't care more about me. They just straight up left me to die. Ray saved me, and basically raised me,” Ryan explained.
“I'm sorry to hear that,” Whitticus replied.
“At least you had a family that cared. My family didn't care about me. I consider this group my family,” Ryan went on.
“Oh…” Whitticus went quiet again. “Uh… If you guys aren’t infected can I tag along?”
“Go ahead,” Tori states.
“Thanks!” Whitticus reacts as he smiles.
“May I ask, why is your planet so cold?” Ryan asks.
“We’re kind of far away from the… star?” Whitticus responds.
“Okay,” Ryan replies. “I guess that makes sense.”
Whitticus looks around the scenery, scanning the area for any horde coming their way. He doesn't see anything. He heaves a sigh. “Be on the lookout for hordes,” Whitticus mentions.
“Oh, we have a ton of practice on that. I and Ryan alone have been looking out for hordes for a decade now,” Ray points out.
“Okay,” Whitticus responds.
“I mean, you still got to be careful. They can sneak up on you. We can't let our hubris get the best of us,” Ray continues.
Whitticus climbs up a tree kind of precariously. Tori yells out for Whitticus to be safe. Svetlana finally gets out the van by climbing out of the window for she refused to exit like a normal person.
Whitticus studies the area again, now with a wider range. He spots a crowd far off in the distance. He climbs back down the tree. “There's a crowd far out in the distance, so yeah, we got to watch out for that,” he announces.
“Alright,” Riley replies.
“What is that?” Whitticus points at the van.
“It’s a van,” Ray tells him.
“What’s a van?” Whitticus asks.
“It’s a vehicle. It’s a form of transportation,” Svetlana explains.
“It’s a special one. It jumps dimensions,” Ryan adds on.
“Dimensions?” Whitticus replies, confused.
Now it’s the group’s turn to go quiet. “It’s a confusing topic,” Riley states.
“Do you know what a vehicle is?” Tori questions.
“Like a train?” Whitticus responds. He earns a nod from Tori. “That’s all we have here,” Whitticus adds.
“Ah.” Tori nods her head again
“You ever have a warm day on this planet?” Ryan complains.
“I guess… I don’t know,” Whitticus replies. He glances over to somewhere. “There's some train tracks over there. We can go there if you want. The crowd, though, was a distance away from the tracks. You have a big group, though. I imagine we can manage it.”
“Alright,” Brandon replies.
Svetlana goes to run to the van, but Ray stops her. “I’ll drive,” he states.
“Okay.”
Mostly everyone gets in van. Whitticus questions it still. When he gets in the van, he notices a change of temperature. It's warmer than outside, but it's still a bit cold. “So, what's the direction of the train track?” Ray acts. Whitticus points to somewhere off in the distance. Ray proceeds to drive in the direction Whitticus pointed towards, carefully driving around trees and such.
“I kind of saw something earlier that kind of looked like this van, but it had a different shape,” Whitticus mentioned. Upon hearing that, Ray heaves a sigh because he knows what that means. Trouble is brewing. “What’s wrong?” Whitticus inquiries.
“Let's hope we don't run into them,” Ray mutters. Ryan stares at him, a look of worry painted on his face.
They see the train tracks. Monica, Brandon, Whitticus, and Tristan exit out of the van, and walk to the tracks. “So, where was that crowd?” Monica asks.
“Way off in the distance,” Whitticus answers.
“Do the trains still run?” Brandon questions.
“Occasionally,” Whitticus replies. “There are still survivors around, but safe cities and town are few and far between, you know?”
“So, train is your world's only form of transportation?” Flotsam queries.
“I-I g-guess? It's our main one that I know of, and it's the only one I know of,” Whitticus responds.
In the distance, there is a faint horn blaring. Tristan looks down the tracks. He think he notices something. Tristan says something to Brandon. “Give,” Tristan orders.
“What?” Brandon reacts.
“I need to use the binoculars really quick,” Tristan presses.
“Uh, okay?” Brandon hands over his pair of binoculars to Tristan.
Tristan looks down the track. He sees that a beam is missing. He looks up and sees a train in the distance. He slams the binoculars on Brandon's chest, as he freaks out.
“Argh! You could've just-“
“Everybody back in the van! The train is about to fucking crash!” Tristan shouts.
“C-crash?” Whitticus reacts. Tristan grabs Whitticus and runs back to the van. “Wah?!”
“Ray, drive away from the tracks!” Tristan demanded.
The train reaches the missing beam. It derails as Tristan expected. Riley notices Monica is still outside, running to the van. One of the train carts are flung towards the group. Riley tells Monica to jump. She does so, and Riley grabs her right arm, and he pulls her in the van, as Ray turns the van, and drives the van backwards, avoiding the train cart. The rest of the train carts that were ahead of the train cart that flew pass them, continue going down the track for quite a distance. The other carts have already stopped by then. “Oh, my fucking god!” Monica yells.
“Holy shit!” Riley shouts.
“God fucking damn,” Tristan whispers.
“What the fuck?!” Tori reacts.
“How the hell did I dodge that?!” Monica exclaims.
“What just happened?!” Whitticus cries.
The van goes to a halt. The group slowly gets out of the van. They look at the wreckage. “Are there any survivors?” Misty wonders.
“Look in the windows. Is there anyone moving?” Flotsam notes.
They look at the carts. There are figures still moving in the carts. One of the figures starts to beat on one of the windows until it breaks. The figure crawls out of the train cart. Whitticus stands back. “That's not a person anymore. That's an infected,” he states. More start climbing out of the window. When they get to their footing, they charge at the group. Whitticus pulls out his short sword and goes into a stance. “Come on!”
One of the infected charges towards Whitticus. He slashes at them with his short sword. Riley fires at said infected, taking them out.
Svetlana goes to grab her semi-automatic. Misty pulls out two pistols and fires at an infected. Lincoln puts Ryan on his back, and scratches at an infected, incapacitating it. Ray shoots another infected. Tristan stabs another infected, bringing it down, and then he stabs it in its head. Svetlana returns, and empties a clip, killing four more infected.
Then someone is heard screaming further down the track. Not every cart detached from each other. Some were connected with each other still. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! How am I going to get out here?!”
“I think someone is stuck in one of the carts!” Riley yells.
“Ah, fuck! We need to check!” Brandon states.
The group make their way over to where the shouting is coming from. Infected are still climbing out of windows. Some even go out of the front doors of the carts. Whitticus takes down another infected. Monica takes one down by throwing a knife into one of the infected's head. Ryan holds onto Lincoln as Lincoln runs ahead of the group, knocking over a few infected, which the group proceed to take out. Lincoln stops at the front cart. “The voice is coming from over here,” he points out.
Around the cart are a group of infected trying to get to whoever is inside. Misty fires at some of the infected. Ryan gets an idea. “Hey, Lincoln. Put me on top of the cart. I'm going to try to get that person out of there. Does anyone have something I could use to bash in a window?”
Monica pulls out a baton and throws it to Ryan. He catches it. “Thanks,” he reacts. “Okay, Lincoln.” Lincoln carefully puts Ryan on top of the cart. Ryan proceeds to smash in a window with the baton, scaring who is inside. He reaches inside, but almost gets stabbed by the scared individual. “I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to help you,” Ryan tries to comfort the individual.
“Oh? Okay? You're not infected?” the individual asks.
“No,” Ryan replies. The group is still fighting the packs of infected. The door to the train cart starts breaking down. “Now, come on! They're going to break through any second!”
“Yeah, yeah!” the person reacts.
They start climbing up the seats that are now at a ninety degree. The door finally caves in and a few infected climb in. The uninfected lady, who you can tell by her voice, reaches out for Ryan. He gets a hold of her hand, as the infected reach out to grab her. He pulls her up out of the cart before they can grab her. Ryan and the lady quietly laugh to release nervous tension.
“Th-thank you.” The lady suddenly hugs Ryan, who wasn't expecting that. Ryan hugs her back, visibly confused while doing so.
“You're welcome,” Ryan replies. “Uh, Lincoln. I got her out. We're getting down.
“Okay,” Lincoln responds. Ryan and the lady jump off the train cart, and Lincoln catches both of them.
The group takes out all of the remaining infected in the area. Brandon threw grenades in the train carts to be safe.
“Alright, we need to go back to the v-.“ Ray gets interrupted by a vehicle pulling up. An RV. The group goes silent.
“No, no, no, no…,” Ryan murmurs.
Somebody exits the RV. They do a slow clap. “I'm impressed. You survived that bullshit.” They look over to Ryan and grin. “Hi, Ryan.”
“A… A… A… A…” Ryan staggers to get a name out. The other person laughs. “Amber, you fucker!” Ryan bellows.
“I thought our action would have taken out our little ‘stalker.’” She looks over to Whitticus. “We know you saw us.”
Ryan charges at Amber. “Don't you fu-.” Amber launches out a ball of water towards Ryan, sending him flying backwards.
“Anyway-.” Amber gets interrupted by someone else in the RV.
“Aren’t we taking-.”
“Shut up, Lane!” Amber orders.
“Okay,” Lane falls silent.
“Anyway. I don't feel like having a quarrel at the moment. You'll be seeing more of me later. Goodbye, Ryan,” Amber comments. She gives him one last smile.
“Don't you talk to me, you fucking cunt!” Ryan gasps for air, winded by the water ball.
Amber walks back to the RV and enters in it. Her team drives off.
“Ryan!” Svetlana runs up to him.
“I hate that fucking bitch,” Ryan mutters, crying a bit. Svetlana helps him up.
“Are you alright?!” the lady from the train asks.
“Not particularly,” Ryan responds.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s not your fault.”
“My name is Emmatina. I was the conductor,” she greets Ryan.
“Hi, Emmatina,” Ryan replies.
“We got to go to the van,” Ray demands.
“Alright,” Svetlana reacts.
Monica helps clean off Lincoln's claws. The group then goes back to the van, Emmatina following behind Ryan and Svetlana.
“This… is a van?” Emmatina questioned.
“Yeah. It's our mode of transportation we've been using for eight years. It jumps dimensions too,” Ray explains.
“Oh,” Emmatina responds.
Monica cleans off her hands. “I guess we're going to jump another dimension.”
“Yeah, especially now that we know that Amber and her crew is back,” Ray replies.
“I hate Amber... so much,” Ryan growls.
Everyone gets in the van. Ray gets into the driver's seat. He drives the van in the opposite direction of where the remains of the train is, running over an infected, and he drives alongside the track. There was a field not too far from the cave, and they drive pass it.
Eventually, they see a town in the distance. It looks empty, but it might have some survivors remaining in it. Whitticus stares down at the floor. His eyes turn blue.
“Are you okay, kid?” Emmatina asks Whitticus.
“That was my town,” Whitticus answers. He starts thinking of his parents, and his friends, all of which he's lost. He begins to cry. Emmatina hugs Whitticus, trying to comfort him. He looks up at Tori. “Thank you for letting me join your group.”
“No problem, kid,” Tori states.
Whitticus looks back out the window. “The apocalypse is all I’ve known. I was born years after it happened. The community tried to hold back the infected to let the citizens at least have a glimpse of a normal life, but it was all fruitless in the end,” he described.
“I’m sorry, kid,” Tori responds.
They continue driving alongside the train tracks. Ray turns on the radio.
“You're listening to Incidental Radio, RTWN 84.6; The only place that plays your inter-dimensional, incidental music,” a radio DJ announces. Tubthumping starts to play.
“Wow, this is incidental,” Ray comments.
Eventually, the song ends, and “Shut-In Tourist” by Band of Horses starts playing. Ray quietly sings to the song.
Every time you try to pick up just the pieces,
Feelin' bad for yourself.
Watchin' all the foreign cars or flags and breezes
From a window instead
From a window instead
From out of the van, you could hear the song playing from it
Find it hard to see the good or face the music
Looking backwards again
Over-sentimental staring half-way horizontal...
The van drives away from the view of the town, which is on a hill. A portal opens up, and Ray drives into it. The town, and the train tracks, go silent again as the van drives through the portal and the portal closes.
[Lyrical excerpt from Shut-In Tourist, written by Ben Bridwell and Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses.) I know this may ruin the immersion, and I don’t really care. This is the end of the chapter, anyway.]