The subway station was always so crowded during rush hour that it made people question their lives. The crush of bodies inside the cars could even create the illusion that every person in Boundary City was trying to squeeze onto the subway. If he had a choice, Song Cheng really did not want to take the subway at this hour.
But he had no choice. Under normal circumstances, the "Train" only appeared reliably during the second run of the morning rush. Although there had been sightings at other times, they were impossible to predict.
Song Cheng's burly frame was wedged among the packed passengers. As he felt the subway sway while slowly accelerating after leaving the station, all he could see were office workers hurrying to their companies during the morning rush. The gaps between people were filled with a mixture of smells—
The steel cage was crammed with compressed, overlapping flesh. In the darkness underground, it burrowed into a concrete-supported tunnel and thundered from one place to another. Artificial lights could dispel the darkness within that "tunnel," but in the soil outside it, darkness and the unknown were the true nature of the underground world.
Song Cheng slowly closed his eyes and repeated the association in his mind. He imagined this steel "meat-transport cage" burrowing through the dark soil like a grotesque, blind worm. He imagined the suffocating soil rushing toward him, its coldness tinged with the smell of decay.
With his eyes closed, he slowly made his way through the people in the car. It remained crowded, yet everyone unconsciously moved aside, creating a path. Song Cheng, tall and powerfully built, unhurriedly reached the rear of the car, then opened his eyes and looked around.
A sign on the door indicated that this was the end of Car