By: Jy Hung Ong

Timen was confused about transportation in New York City. He remembered there were things called “taxis” before flying cars took over, but he forgot how to summon one. There had to be an easier method of transportation. Maybe some sort of train? He didn’t see any train stations though, and there would be no room anyway. They were obviously not in the air, so maybe below ground? He just had to find some sort of hole to enter the ground.

He examined his current location. He was in the middle of a road, right next to the New York Stock Exchange. It was boarded up with a fence, so there was no hope in getting in (not to mention the two security guards watching him). A look at the street sign told him it was Broad Street. He figured he would walk around the street to find anything with a hole. About three seconds later, he found it. It was labeled “Subway” — Oh! That was what it was called! — and there was a staircase leading down.

After heading down the staircase, Timen found some sort of machine requiring money. Luckily, Timen had come prepared. Removing his any-time, anywhere credit/debit card from his pocket, he inserted the card into the machine. Clicking the machine multiple times, he managed to pay and receive a “MetroCard”. Once the staircase reached the end, he saw what could only be described as a cave with people. Upon further investigation, he saw what looked like a ladder on the ground. He was about to step in and climb it when a lady stopped him.

“Sir! What are you doing?!? The train is going to arrive very soon!” she shrieked. “What do you mean? I’m just trying to use the ladder—”, Timen started, but stopped when he realized a train was indeed headed his way. Frantically rushing to the side with seats, he looked back and took a seat as the train arrived on the “ladder on the ground”. Now that Timen thought about it, it was kind of stupid to climb the ladder without checking what its purpose was first.

The train was colored gray, with a blue, red, and white flag on the front. Timen guessed it was the “U.S.A.” flag. There was also a person in front, who Timen guessed was the driver of the train. The doors opened, and Timen went inside. The inside was the same as a bus in 4200. It was yellowish grayish, with yellow handles at the top. Timen knew enough about the handles to grab on to them as the train gathered speed and raced off into the unknown.

After getting off at The Bronx (Timen honestly had no idea how he managed to get here; all he remembered was taking all the trains in the direction of “The Bronx”), he decided to ask a local how to signal a taxi. Although the local was quite surprised Timen didn’t know, Timen managed to figure out he needed to wave a hand at a car with the word “TAXI” on top.

Finding one such car, Timen waved his hand and the car slowed down.

“Where is your destination, sir?” the taxi driver asked him.

“The CDC Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia,” Timen replied.

“That will be almost quadruple the usual fare, are you sure you want to continue?” the taxi driver asked.

“Yes, I will be paying with card,” Timen said.

“Alright then, let’s go!” the driver said.

As they started to move towards the highway, Timen wondered about the success of his mission. It was probably close to zero.