The Trees (Do Not) Speak

“You cannot destroy what has not been built.”

Shinji Nara

Tōhoku COMTRAC, Tokyo

It was 5:00, time for Tamzin and Charlie to begin the night shift at the Train Traffic Control center in Tokyo. All of the shinkansen lines in Japan were controlled from this central point. While the entire system was automated via a sophisticated computer network, it still needed people to oversee individual systems, check for hazards, and perform maintenance. Tamzin and Charlie were instructed to oversee the Tōhoku lines tonight. Tamzin was a Fairy (as opposed to the broader category of fairies) male, eighty years old but looking half his age. Charlie was a human woman, fresh out of college, part of an exchange program designed to train people to operate similar mass transport systems in other countries.

After showing Charlie what all the systems and their associated buttons do, Tamzin sat down in his favorite chair, free to simply allow the trains to run themselves for a while.

“You know, Charlie, it's not the prettiest job in the world,” Tamzin told his trainee. “But there is a certain pride that comes with knowing you're helping keep the safest mass transport system in the world up and running.”

“You must really like your job to think of it in those terms,” Charlie replied.

“How's the high-speed rail system in Australia?” Tamzin asked her. “I hear it'll be opening up by the start of summer.”

“Winter,” Charlie corrected him. “They're already doing twice-a-day commutes along the east coast and a once daily route from Brisbane to Perth. Gotta ease into things to make sure everything runs smoothly for the big launch in July.”

Tamzin smiled at her, a sign of approval. He then took a quick glance at the express route’s vitals. “Ah, nice. Making a nice southerly headway at 310 kilos an hour, about 25 away from Sendai. All systems appear to be running efficiently. As usual.”

Or so he thought.

The smile on Tamzin's face quickly turned sour as he spotted a shiny black ooze spreading across the track.

“There's a hazard on that line,” Tamzin said.

“It looks like an oil spill,” Charlie replied.

“I sure hope not,” Tamzin replied back. “That's going to be a very expensive cleanup.”

“The trains can just handle that themselves, can't they?” Charlie asked.

“Of course,” Tamzin answered quickly, attempting to reassure himself that everything would operate smoothly as intended. But something was wrong. One of the screens started flashing red. The southern route's brakes were supposed to automatically activate once COMTRAC spotted anything wrong. They were not activating.

Tamzin slid his favorite chair over to another area of the control console.

“What's the plan?” Charlie asked him.

“Initate manual override,” Tamzin said, partially to her, and partially to the console. As he furiously pressed buttons on the console,  he continued, “Override code: MOMOTARO. Passkey: 2-3-1-9. Sweet sauce! We're in.”

Tamzin was now in control of the southern route train.

Turning to his trainee, Tamzin asked her, “Have you ever driven a train before?”

“Maybe once or twice in the simulator,” Charlie answered.

“It's actually a lot easier than the simulator tells you it is,” Tamzin explained. “It's just a matter of remembering which button or knob is which. The blue knob is the accelerator, the yellow button is the brake, and the red one is the emergency brake.” Tamzin pressed the red button once. “Very simple.”

It was not very simple. As soon as he finished speaking, several more red screens popped up at once. He slid his favorite chair over to the other end of the console.

“The fluff does it mean invalid manual command, no hazard detected?” Tamzin asked himself. “That icky black goo is right there!” He slid back to the far end of the console and pressed the red button once more. Nothing worked.

“Shouldn't we be calling Central Command on this?” Charlie asked Tamzin as he fiddled with more buttons.

“Not enough time,” Tamzin replied instantly. His favorite chair spun all the way to the exit door of the control room. There, a giant plug had been placed next to the door. “This is how fairies deal with mechanical problems. Boundary Release!!” The spell caused the giant plug, which would have been a hassle to remove manually, to be removed from its socket with ease.

•

Approaching Sendai, Miyagi

Inside the train in question, Melody, Kenta, and dozens of other passengers felt the train shudder and shake slightly, saw the power go out, and noticed the train slow down to a complete stop. Frustration and confusion soon took hold amongst the train's passengers.

“Why have we stopped?” Kenta asked.

Melody only glanced out of her window in an attempt to see if anything was amiss. And there, her eyes locked onto it: a stream of sickly black goo flowing down into the mountain valleys and rice paddies.

“Kenta, do we have oil drilling in Japan?” Melody asked.

“We have some,” Kenta answered, “but the vast majority of it is offshore. My dad used to work on a rig off the coast of Okinawa. Why do you ask?”

Melody motioned for Kenta to observe the flowing goo. His face immediately curled into a look of horror and disgust.

“It looks just like in my dreams…” Kenta realized. “You don't suppose it's Gloom-related, do you?”

“I've never seen The Gloom do this before,” Melody replied before making her way to the door separating their car from the one in front of them. “Boundary Release.”

The car in front of them was full of people speculating what happened.

“We've decoupled the front cab, I tell you!” one man said. “I was on the Tokaido line in the summer of ‘83 when the same thing happened!”

“Don't be silly,” a woman tried to correct him. “The trains are a lot better than that now. We've simply lost power.”

Several people were furiously trying to call the emergency services, but to no avail. Something was preventing their calls from connecting.

“This is ridiculous,” an older woman complained. “These shinkansen trains are just getting worse…”

“What do you mean the number is no longer in service?” another man shouted at his phone. “I'm only trying to call 119 over here!”

“My boss is going to kill me if I'm late for this shift!” yet another man complained.

“This is one serious magical anomaly if I've ever seen one,” Melody whispered to Kenta.

“What do we do?” Kenta asked.

Melody interrupted the commotion inside by shouting, “Hey! Is everyone alright?”

“Who's asking?” a bald man asked her in response.

“Don't worry about that,” Melody told the bald man.

Another man stepped up to her. “You know, you look awful like that one fugitive,” he told her.

“I assure you, you have confused me for someone else,” Melody weaved a careful lie. “We have to get out of here. It's not safe.”

Only a few passengers decided to listen to Melody; the rest decided instead to stay put. As one of the men put it, “It is safer to stay here and wait for help to arrive than it is to venture out into the cold, snowy mountains.”

The few passengers who listened made their way into the next car behind them. Melody put a hand to her face, trying to hide her disgust. “Help won't be arriving if the help doesn't know we're here, let alone in any danger. You can't even call the emergency services out here. I worry something terrible is going to happen.”

“You don't know what you're talking about, fairy!” The bald man stood up from his seat and tried to impose his presence on her. “If you want to go out there and freeze your tail off, then be my guest. The rest of us will be sensible and wait.”

Melody was not fazed by the bald man's threatening posture. “I'd strongly advise you don't step up to a fairy like that. Keep Away Blastoff!!” A blast of air suddenly knocked the man back into his seat upside-down.

Kenta and Melody then made their way to the rear door once the remaining passengers who wanted to escape did so. Kenta suggested Melody go first, “Ladies first, as they say.”

The train was rocked by a sudden shaking motion. Melody, now halfway through the door, tried to motion for any more passengers to take the chance to escape. Glancing through the windows, she barely caught a glimpse at what was happening outside.

The ground itself was opening up.

A massive sinkhole was forming…

Despite her best efforts, she found herself getting blasted through the next train cab by a strange push. The door separating Melody and Kenta slammed shut. Fighting through the constant rocking back and forth the train suffered, Melody made her way back to the door.

“Boundary Release!!” Melody shouted.

The door did not budge.

“Damn it! I said, Boundary Release!!”

Through the door, she heard the screams of hundreds of passengers and a raucous roar. The train itself was being ripped apart by something… In no time, the roar stopped, and the passengers’ screams began to fade. Melody used every ounce of physical strength she had to force the door open. But it was too late. Every single train car in front of the one she was in had plummeted, possibly for dozens of meters into the inky black abyss created by the sinkhole.

The door slammed itself shut once again.