Slow train to Exeter

It was a warm July afternoon that brought home what scientists had been telling us quietly, and Greta had been screaming at us for a number of years. Matt was regretting that he hadn’t taken enough notice of the timetable when he booked the trip. He’d ended up with three and a half hours on a stuffy, noisy local train instead of two, in air conditioned comfort following the route of God’s Wonderful Railway , built by his hero, Brunel.

Suddenly his phone pinged and he looked at his messages.

[UNKNOWN]……..”Help me Matt!”

He wasn’t expecting to meet anyone nor was there anyone he could think could need his help. Intrigued, he replied…

[MATT]…………..”Who are you?  How can I help?”

[UNKNOWN] …‘I think that you may find this hard to believe but I seem to have been searching for you for at least half my lifetime.

MATT……….….But who are you?

[UNKNOWN]…..I have had many names over the time from my concept to my birth and beyond but none mean anything now, I just need your help

[MATT]………..Please tell me how I can help…… where are you?

[UNKNOWN]….... I am nowhere and everywhere, and have managed to observe you in glimpses from afar, since you were born, but my communication fields became frayed as I changed lives.

[MATT]……….. “Now you’re scaring me!”

[UNKNOWN]… Now I’m complete, my communication facilities have  finally located you

A chill ran through the stuffy train, like a blast from an aircon

[UNKNOWN]…….I would really love to meet you Matt.’

[MATT]…….When do you want to meet?

[UNKNOWN]…..”Now”

[MATT…..Where?

[UNKNOWN]…..Here

[MATT] ….But how?

[UNKNOWN]…..Relax!

[UNKNOWN]…..Breathe…….!

It had taken almost five hours for the Paramedics to reach Matt under the wreckage of the train just outside Shaftsbury. Even with their new Artificial Intelligence search tool to guide them they’d struggled to locate him. They shouted in the dark, shone their torches in to the wreckage  while the Artificial Intelligence pinged and probed, looking for the feint signal from his mobile phone. …………