Worse than Dinosaurs

I picked a direction and started walking. I was worried that if it was this warm now, it would only get warmer during the day, and there was no shelter to be seen.

When I looked down at what I was wearing, my jeans, t-shirt, and jacket had been replaced with cargo trousers, a white tank top, and a long blue coat. It was almost like that god had tried to match a ticket controller outfit with a mechanic’s. It came with a pair of fine-fabric gloves as well, which I promptly took off to put in my pocket.

I ran my hand over the white fabric and sighed.

I should have asked him for a bit more in the chest department when he told me he was going to create a new body for me…

I decided to climb up a dune to get a better vantage point. The task proved most difficult, as sand constantly got into the shiny black dress shoes the god had given me.

The grains were all so big I could swear I could feel each individual one roll against my ankles as they dove into my shoes. When I made it to the top, I was out of breath.

I looked around, and saw nothing but long linear dunes of sand. They were all almost parallel to each other, diverging from their paths and flattening out over large dead tree trunks, and what looked like roofs. The roofs were all clustered together, and I only pondered it for a second before half-running, half-gliding the side of the dune to get closer to them. Hurried signs of civilisation were better than no signs of civilisation.

Suddenly, my feet sank into the sand at the bottom of the dune, and I fell face-first into tiny grey grains. I spat them out.

“Curse you shoes,” I kicked into the dune, releasing some frustration.

< Faulty equipment detected. >

A message suddenly appeared before my eyes. It looked just like the caption of a news broadcast, or perhaps one of those chat texts in a video game. It disappeared, and similar white letters on a greyed-out background appeared in its stead.

< Adjusting personal equipment. >

< Conductor shoes upgraded to working boots. >

I couldn't believe what happened next. The black shoes morphed into heavy leather lace-up shoes, the kind one might wear on a construction site.

So that god also gave me this, huh?

I got up and hopped a few times in places, testing the shoes. They fit nicely, and were tight enough around the ankles to prevent any sand from getting in. I wondered if the rest of my clothes would change as well, because it was starting to get rather warm.

But before I could test that out, I heard a shuffling noise coming from one of the buried houses.

With all the strangeness of the past few hours, I didn't even question it twice. Instead, I called out:

“Hello? Who's there?”

More shuffling came in reply.

Maybe they need help.

I took a step forward. Without warning, a giant centipede burst out from inside the dune. Its head was at least the size of a car, and I couldn't see more than ten meters of its body. It was covered in large purple scales, and lined with two rows of arms. Smaller ones seemed to be used like legs, while larger ones had very pointy talons on their ends.

I screamed.

It shrieked at me and ran towards me. I started running without thinking, first up the dune, then along its side when I realised I was wasting too much energy trying to get up.

My behaviour briefly confused the centipede, as it dove in and then out of the dune, but now it was chasing after me again. It was catching up fast.

“Train, train!” I yelled, remembering what the god promised me.

I had no idea how the magic he described worked, but if it was anything like the shoes, I was desperately hoping that just wishing for it to be there was enough. There were no rails, and nowhere for me to go, but at least the centipede couldn't get inside a wagon.

Right?

A cart attached to a locomotive fell out of thin air in front of me. They landed on rails which had also appeared out of nowhere. The sand under the rails barely puffed away, almost fully undisturbed by the new arrival.

The locomotive was an older wood and steel model, the kind you would find in rural north Asia, and the cart was a plain livestock shipping container with the number ‘1’ painted on its side, but it was better than nothing.

I struggled as I climbed into the locomotive, using the wheels and their shielding as a stepping ladder. I slammed the door just as the monster centipede reached the train.

It shrieked again, before diving into the locomotive.

All the gear in the cab was also outdated. There were switches, levers, dials, and valves, most of which even a train nerd like me didn't recognise. It smelled of wet wood, and it took my eyes half a second to adjust to the light that was ever so slightly yellow-shifted by the cab’s glass windows.

But I could hear something hissing in the pipes on my left, so I pulled onto the largest of the levers, hoping it was the accelerator.

The train huffed, vibrated, and moved forward.

Just like the floor back in that place the god had taken me to, the rails appeared in front of the train and vanished behind it.

I kept my hand on the throttle, constantly glancing outside to see the centipede following me. But as the train gained more and more speed, it lost ground. Finally, the centipede dove into the line-like dune to the left and disappeared for good.

My knuckles had turned white from holding onto the lever, and I couldn't remember the last time I'd taken a breath, but I was alive!

I allowed myself a few minutes to calm down.

The train continued moving down between the two long dunes. Both of them were too steep for it to go over, so its path remained straight.

***

Now that I was safe and moving, I wanted to experiment with my clothes. But first, curiosity got the best of me. I started examining the control board. Some of the switches were labelled in Japanese, some in English, all of which I understood despite the technical terms.

This power that the god gave me is working too.

At the back of the control part of the locomotive, there was a wooden door. I pushed it open, and found myself in a barren metal room with dirty glass windows on either side. There was a door at the back. A simple sleeping bag lay on one side of it, and a few metal drawers lined the other side.

I could still see the dunes outside, although from here it was hard to tell that I was moving, since all the sand looked so alike.

I tested a few things to make sure the train wouldn't stop or derail if I left the cab. When I was sure that it wouldn't, I went to check out the drawers.

I would be lying if I said that my heart was only beating this fast because of the close call with the giant monster.

I can't believe that god thought that a world with giant centipedes was okay! I should have been more specific. This is almost worse than dinosaurs!

But that aside, this whole magic train that appeared out of thin air was quite exciting. There was no space in the locomotive for any engine, so I assumed it worked with magic too.

I opened the first drawer. It was full with an assortment of multi-coloured vials. All had a different shape, and there were a few dozen of each. Enough to last years or even a lifetime if I knew what any of them did.

The next drawer contained dry food. It wasn't anything fancy, just the kind of mixes that stayed good forever and you could take camping or have as dinner after an exhausting day of work. The contents of the next few drawers were similar and not of much interest.

The last drawer only had my water bottle in it. For a second, I worried that this was all the water I would have, but then I saw a note pinned under it.

It read:

Dear Miss Chiyo Hara,

I hope you don't mind me upgrading your water container a little. I wasn't sure how else to provide you with enough supplies to survive.

Yours sincerely,

Paul DuVirage

I was a little surprised to see the god had a name. He hadn't introduced himself in between all of those apologies. It was all rather strange.

Did he label the potions too?

I opened the first drawer again, and carefully lifted the vials in small batches. I quickly found an explanation sheet tucked under them. He’d given me a little bit of everything, ‘for all possible physical woes’. Among those -

<Creature slain: wild snake.>

<Creature slain: wild snake.>

<Creature slain: elder wild snake.>

<EXP +50>

I almost jumped at how suddenly the messages had appeared.

What? Did I kill a snake? No, I must have run it over…

I rushed back to the cab and pulled the throttle in the opposite direction.

It took a few seconds, but the train eventually came to a halt. I practically jumped out and ran back, retracing my tracks. They were easy to retrace, as the rails had created two deep trails in the sand.

This just further confirmed in my mind the magic nature of this place, as rails just by themselves, without the gravel underneath to redistribute weight and vibrations, would not have been able to support a train, especially not in sand.

I finally reached the unfortunate site. Three snakes lay on the ground, and it was very clear that my train was to blame.

I felt a little bad for them, but I left them there for nature to reclaim.

I'll be more careful in the future.

Before heading back to the train, I wanted to check something. The message had said that I gained EXP, and although I wasn't an otaku, I could still put two and two together.

“Experience,” I said, thinking back to how the train had appeared when I called for it.

Several grey boxes with white letters appeared before me. As much as that god had put effort into everything else, these seemed to have the most generic font and the bare minimum style to be legible on any background.

The text read:

<Name: Chiyo Hara>

<Level: 1>

<MP: 700/1200>

<EXP: 50/100>

<Race: Human, Otherworlder.>

<Class: Summoner.>

<Speciality: Train.>

<Bonded items: Train, Conductor suit.>

<Companions: None>

I struggled to believe what I was seeing. My breathing suddenly became faster as I glanced between the stats and the train. I spun around, hoping that someone would come out from the crest of the dunes to help me. Because I needed help. This was starting to be too much to process. Was it just me, or did everyone have these stats? If so, how far did the video game logic go?

Something shuffled inside the sand to my left.

I snapped towards the noise. A primitive instinct kicked in, and I started running, but that same giant centipede emerged from the sand, cutting me off from the train.

It lifted its front side up, with full intent to crush me.

I ducked to the side, and it came down. It didn't touch me, but the shockwave from the impact sent me flying into the cargo carriage and created a small cloud of fine dust around it.

My back hit its wooden walls, and I grabbed at my ribs in pain. Nothing felt broken, but a big bruise was going to form there, if I survived…

< Faulty equipment detected. >

“Not now…” I muttered. “Unless you have a miracle solution to this.”

The centipede shrieked and backed away. It coiled its body, readying to lounge at me.

< Adjusting personal equipment. >

< Conductor jacked upgraded to shock-absorbant conductor jacket. >

I take back what I said.

This was helpful. Padding similar to that of a fencing outfit replaced my jacket.

I glanced down, and in a split-second decision, ducked under the cart.

I began crawling towards the locomotive; my only salvation.

The centipede hit the cart, and it tilted backwards, its left set of wheels lifting off the rails.

For a painfully long second, I thought it was going to tip over. Thankfully, the wheels fell back onto the rail.

I continued crawling, ignoring the sand getting into my clothes, the scratches made by the wooden sleepers, and the pain in my back. I got to the edge of the wagon and jumped out.

With the centipede on one side of the locomotive, and me on the other, I hoped it would forget about me. But instead, I felt it dive into the sand under the train.

I hastily half-climbed, half-jumped into the elevated cab, and grabbed the red throttle lever.

The centipede shrieked as it emerged and slammed itself into the wagon once again.

But the train was already moving, and this time I wasn't going to let it catch up to me.

Hand still on the lever, I glanced through the side window at the giant arthropod chasing after me.

Despite the stress and the fear, I couldn't help but wonder if I would be able to get rid of it for good if my level was higher.

Finding other people was my first priority, but understanding this magic I'd been given, and becoming stronger to defend myself, was close second.