Kendall Forbes

Fourteen steps up, ten steps across, fourteen steps down. The daily commute began and ended with this crossing over the train tracks.
The wait was always different though. Sometimes Megan would have to run across the bridge and hope she didn’t slip and fall before stumbling onto the platform and leaping onto the first carriage. Other times it was a slow and cold wait at the station before the train eventually rolled in.
This morning was going to be the latter, clearly, as there were just a few people waiting when she arrived, meaning she must have just missed a train minutes earlier.
More businessmen and women gathered in the station shortly after Megan took a seat in the glass shelter, along with a few sleepy-eyed students. She was vaguely aware of them but kept her eyes on her cellphone, her headphones in her ears, trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone else. She played no music while she waited, instead the headphones were to dissuade anyone wanting to chat idly about the weather or how busy her day was likely to be.
She shivered as the icy wind whipped around the station which was fast becoming busy with bodies, and empty of transport. Megan was beginning to feel uneasy about the length of the wait, and as she looked up from her phone, she noticed the others waiting were beginning to look concerned and confused about the delay, too.
That quickly turned to panic and clear distress though, as finally coming from the south towards the station was her train. Engulfed in flames. And not slowing down…