The Shrink Program

Chapter 80

It is in places like the Shrink Program that you learn the most about yourself.

Discovering that I have a somewhat ridiculous, yet extremely intense fear of trains was something I really could have done without...

After a small wave goodbye from Reece, I had continued my Elevator trip down to the Station.

The Station was unique. In that, it was set in under the floor of the Facility room instead of the walls. Though it could only be a meter or two in width, for us miniature citizens, The Station was the largest part of the Facility. The platform and railway circled around the entire room and was the lowest stop on every elevator.

Including my own.

With a sigh, I stepped out of the safety and calm of the elevator, and into the crowded Station.

Of course, my meeting with my Supervisor just had to finish in time for rush hour. Every patient in the Facility had to be here, on their way back to the accommodation wall.

That's over two thousand angry young adults... All trapped in the same space.

Unlike some of the interesting characters around here, I wasn't exactly made of muscle... and I didn't have and Tattoos or piercing or even battle scars.

Most of my success in fighting came from being fast, smart, flexible... And yea, stubborn.

But to the casual eye, I just looked like a wimp... Though that didn't stop me from pulling scowls and puffing out my chest with the best of them.

Attitude was my first line of defence when making my way through the Station's crowd, ensuring that no one saw me as an easy target... Or at least more effort than its worth.

Luckily, most people here were just as keen to unshrink and return to society as I was... So fights rarely happened unprovoked.

Now if I could just figure out how to stop provoking people, I'll be set.

Puffing a golden strand of hair out of my face, I sent a grim glare upwards.

The ceiling... or floor, depending on your perspective... was made of the same strange glass as the room's walls, allowing the Supervisors to look down into the Station.

If I couldn't learn to get along with my fellow patients and behave... I would have to win the sympathy of Supervisor here before they would ever let me out of this place.

Which would be hard... Considering half of them thought I was a complete pain and the other half... Well, still thought of me as a pain in the ass, but funny to watch anyway.

Yep. I'm pretty much doomed to live the rest of my life here.

That being the case, I had best get used to riding the train, if I didn't want to spend ages walking from one side of the room to the other.

The seriously big room, One that quite literally took up an entire floor of the Shrink Program building.

I didn't have the patience for that. Not now, not ever.

There were eight stops around the room, located at the middle and corners of each wall. Every stop was named after their relative compass coordinate.

The south wall was the one designated to accommodation, my own room being closest to the South West stop. I could go there, and unwind a little before they started serving dinner.

With that in mind, I headed towards the North East stop.

Luckily for me, the Train system and layout of the Station was simple to remember, just the way I liked it.

Instead of having individual routes, the trains made rotations around the room, all of them travelling in the one direction, anticlockwise.

Really, all you had to do was get on one at your closest Station, and ride it to the desired stop. Simple

So much in fact, that I was even able to recognise the individual Trains, named the Sun, Earth, Moon and Star, by their respective colours.

My stomach twisted as the loud thunder of an approaching train reached my ear, and I looked over to see a huge train zoom rapidly past.

The gold train was the Sun, the rose gold train was the Earth, and the white gold Train was the Star. On top of being the fanciest trains in existence, each one had the bright neon blue light running along its side

And the Silver Train, the Moon Train, the one I was supposed to be catching right now, had just passed me.

"Crap!" I cried, breaking out into a run. If I didn't make this train, I would have to wait fifteen minutes for the next one. Sure it wouldn't exactly be the end of the world... But still...

This brought me back to the point where I hate Trains.

Trains, unlike Cars, don't stop. No matter how badly you need to get off, then they would not pull over until they reached their next destination.

Once you got on a train and those doors closed, you were trapped.

In my case, trapped on a train full of delinquents. Even if they weren't picking a fight with me, bullying was common here, and it took a lot of will power not to get involved.

I may not be afraid of a fight, but I had been trying my hardest to avoid them here, which wasn't easy when you're trapped on a train.

Hence, my fear of trains

As bad as my day had already been so far, there was always room for worse. By nature, it was hard to run through a crowded platform, and inevitably, my luck ran out.

Just as I drew close to my stop, I tripped, probably on my on own stupidity, and crashed into someone's back.

Destiny had us both sprawling face down into the platform.

In my case, my fall was significantly less painful, softened by the convenient padding I had managed to acquire at the last moment.

That "Padding" however, wasn't so lucky.

"Sorry! Sorry!" I apologised breathlessly, awkwardly untangling myself to climb to my feet.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" A punk with a purple Mohawk.... probably one of my Padding's friends... Barked down at me in outrage. "You stupid Bi-"

Padding struggled to get up, tangling his legs in my own and causing me to stumble. Unceremoniously tripping over again, not to mention stepping on Padding, I fell forward for the second time in as many minutes.

My hands shot out, instinctively grabbing for something to stop my fall.

I felt my fingers tangle in denim, my fall slowing a little as I clutched the material.

Only to plop onto the ground as my handhold gave way.

Wincing in pain, I opened my eyes to see two hairy legs right in front of my nose... and my hands wrapped in a pair of jeans that hung around those hairy leg's ankles.

Gulping akin to a cartoon character, I slowly looked up to see the Punk guy staring down at me, his mouth opens silently and his purple boxers raffling in the wind of the suddenly quiet Station.

I blinked at him in surprise.

"They match," I noted, looking between his boxers and his Mohawk.

Before either of us could say anything more, a sharp whistle came from the Moon train, signalling that passengers only had a minute to get on the train or get left behind.

"Ah!" I cried, leaping to my feet and quickly apologised to the Punk for dacking him in public
... thankful that he was too stunned to react at the time.

Not waiting for him to recover, I backed away... Changing course only after stepping on Padding one last time.

In my defence, I thought he would have gotten up by now...

Polite smile frozen on my face jumped past the purple... Haired Punk, running flat out for the train.