The subway train came outside.
It ran along the maintenance track, passed through the narrow ascending route leading to the high-speed rail… and burst out onto the surface.
Sunlight poured in through the windows.
And yet, instead of warmth, a freezing tension and silence settled over the cab.
Now,
we had emerged into the heart of an extinction-class disaster.
—Oh my God!
—Uuuhhh? Uuuhhh?!
A commotion began behind the cab as well. The people riding in the train shelter had noticed the anomaly too.
Of course they had. If sunlight was pouring in through the door, it would leak through no matter how much newspaper had been pasted over it.
I staggered to my feet.
The front window of the driver’s cab.
“…….”
I could see a blue sky.
But when my gaze dropped below it… something was wrong.
‘Ah.’
I could see the tracks.
But everything around them that ought to have been visible was twisted into bizarre forms, like a film that had burned away while still being projected.
It made my stomach turn. Wasn’t it only grotesque? And yet, strangely, it felt as though I had seen something that should not exist, and an unbearable anxiety made my heart pound while a chilling tension surged through me.
And, and….
Blue sky was visible even beside the tracks.
“…Huh?”
It was the floor beneath the train, and yet I could see the sky.
‘What.’
What kind of structure was it outside?
Reflexively, I tried to look again at the distorted surrounding scenery I’d glimpsed earlier, trying to understand the situation.
What is that right now… what
whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat…
Something shoved me.
“Do not stare.”
“…!”
I reflexively lifted my head. Manager Lee Jaheon had shoved me down below the control cabin, away from the window.
When I looked up, all I could see now was blue sky and sunlight.
At least the blazing sunlight still looked undistorted, exactly as it was.
“Do not look outside.”
Manager Lee Jaheon’s vertical pupils fixed on me.
“Leave it unseen.”
“…Yes.”
Breathing hard, I nodded.
Screeeeeeech!
I could hear the train running over densely packed rails.
I focused on the sound of it running over something…