Public Transit: A Tale of Trust and Tragedy

Public transportation is one of those things that we trust will get us from point A to point B with no problems. We occasionally hear stories about planes crashing or trains derailing, but we shrug it off, thinking that it could never happen to us. These thoughts run through Luke’s mind as he arrives at the station. He puts the car in park and removes the keys from the ignition. Luke gets out of the car and heads toward the building, the air feeling as warm as it did the last time he was here. He pauses for a moment; it is days like this that he is reminded of that fateful day last summer. It was late June, and Luke and his friend Ben had just finished up their day in Chicago. The great city had so much to offer, and they were reluctant to

Following the screams was a loud, ear-ringing, sound. Luke did not want to believe what he had just heard to be real. People began to scream and cry out louder as someone came up the stairs. One frantic passenger approached the man coming up the stairs, and he was quickly silenced. He fell to the floor, his body limp; the passenger had been shot. Luke had recognized this man, for he was part of the family that Luke and Ben had run past earlier. The gunman was in the upper level of the cabin, his gun pointed down the aisle towards the remaining passengers. Luke could see that the gunman was the conductor. He still had that glassy look in his eyes, but this time there was more; there was anger in his eyes. Luke had wondered what his motive could possibly be. Why would he do this? The conductor made his way down the aisle, executing anyone who moved even the slightest. By the time he had reached Luke and Ben, he had already killed three more passengers, bringing the death toll to four. He had turned toward Luke and Ben, with his gun aimed at them. The two of them just sat there, trembling at the thought of what the conductor was going to do. Instead, the conductor just gave them the same weak smile as before, and he continued down the aisle, executing more people as he