You hear the faint screams of a rat echoing off the walls.
There is a tram line nearby in this direction. Maybe the Geldin line?
There are a few more blocks of apartments, but they gradually give way to storefronts, then a formerly industrial district dotted now with high rises.
There was a park at the end of the Geldin line, it'd be nice to see it again.
You find your way to the stop, running diagonal to the street you were on. On the flush platform, the LED tickers say it's 30 minutes until the next train. Shit. Well, it's not more than 15 to the next stop, might as well walk to that one while you wait.
Following the tracks, you pass a huge concrete building shaped like a low barn, or an aircraft hangar. It's a military building, but on the sidewalks on all sides are long strands of teens, dressed for warmer weather. When you pass the next intersection, you see a line stretching down at least to the next block. You ask the closest person, a boy (dressed as boring as you could imagine: gray tshirt, white shirts, forgettable flat sneakers) what the show is, assuming the place has been gutted and turned into a venue space.
"Damien Fike!"
"oh. Thanks."
He seems startled, then excited, then a little confused.
You've never heard of 'em.
You keep walking along the tracks.
The next stop is across from a lovely fountain, surrounded by a ring of a pit that exposes an inaccessible basement level, all in front of a looming glass government building split down the middle.
This ticker says 30 minutes too...
Might as well keep going, You're pretty sure the next stop is the park anyway.
It's not.
There's caution tape blocking your path on this side, surrounding a sheet of glass bare and curled on the concrete. It must've been from a tram. You duck into the corridor recessed into the adjacent high rise, picking your way past the shimmer of anti-shatter granules. Smells like piss.
Is this not the line you thought it was? The fountain was definitely familiar. Maybe it was just one more stop.
People pass you with grocery carts. Someone is coughing violently. Someone is shouting, someone else is shouting too. You see a group forming in a ring ahead of you and decide to turn right and around the next building.
On the street over, parallel to the tracks, is another high rise, this one with a wide square opening. You see green inside, so you figure why not head in and sit for a while.
It's a nice spot, kind of an atrium passageway entry to the building. A square of tiled concrete surrounded by lush bushes, ferns, and scraggy trees. There's a bench here, so you have a seat. Pretty quickly, clean-looking people coming in and out start giving you mean looks, which makes it hard to relax. You leave and head parallel to the line, hoping to see the park.
The sun is straight above you. A few clouds pass overhead. It's several blocks before you see anything familiar, but eventually a tall
oak tree stirs something in you. You knew you were heading the right way, this is the one that watches over the corner of the park you had in mind.