The Train by Anonymous Chapter 1: “The Train” “Max, hurry up! It leaves in eight minutes!” Zoey shouted into his bedroom. “Hold on!” Max shouted back as he hastily packed essential belongings into his school backpack. He packed everything he thought he would need: extra clothes for any kind of weather, toiletries—like his toothbrush and comb—first aid supplies, his phone and charger (although, based on where he, his mom, and his sister were going, he didn’t know if a charger would be of any use), random books to keep himself entertained and sane just in case if his phone died, and more random things he thought he might need. He threw his backpack on his desk and felt a twinge inside him that he was forgetting something. At this point, his mind was racing. Here he was trying to remember what he was possibly forgetting instead of getting onto a train that might save his life. He thought about how there had been a considerable amount of tension between the United States and a couple of other countries for quite a while now, and those countries had just reached their breaking point with the U.S. Bombs were said to be dropped at any minute now, right in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was all because climate change had gotten so bad, particularly in the U.S. for some reason, and they just felt the need to blame other countries for it instead of coming together and saying that it was everyone’s fault it was so bad. And it was very bad; it was near autumn in 38 | Spring 2022
Pittsburgh and it was still around 7080℉, but that’s only Pittsburgh. As far as North America goes, the place is like a desert. Higher than normal temperatures for every season, more wildfires, bad air quality because of the high temperatures, and wildfire outbreaks. Then some of the states near the coasts are literally almost underwater because of how much the ice caps have melted and the sea levels have risen. There are more frequent and worse thunderstorms, including more destructive hurricanes. The worst one so far was Hurricane Ozzy, whose name has since been retired. Because of all of the destruction, there has been food, water, money, electricity, you-name-it shortages, and Max and his family felt all of it. Focus, he thought as he tried to calm down and think about what he was forgetting if anything. He went through a mental checklist, checking everything off that he’d packed, but it still felt like there was something he was missing. But then he saw it. Right next to the lamp on his desk, there was a slightly rusted, gold locket necklace. Even though it was a necklace, he usually kept it in his pocket because he couldn’t stand wearing any kind of jewelry, except maybe a watch or a bracelet, because he knew he would constantly play with it. It was perfectly circular and fit securely in the palm of his hand and had an engraved scrolling foliate design on either side. He, Zoey, and his mom all had the same locket with correlating pictures in them, and Zoey and his mom always wore theirs on their neck, the way Max should have been wearing it. Max picked it up and
