With the march of technological advancement ever-present, so have the number of companies attempting to one-up each other in indiscriminately incorporating the newest generations without much oversight. The current generation of technology has utilized a heavy-reliance on artificial intelligence to aid in processing information, and to theoretically be self-sustaining by actively improving through experience and random human variables.
Of all the companies that upgraded their hardware to match the software, the Deutsche Bahn Intercity-Express replaced their human variables to have everything be AI operated. Although the German train line found some success in optimization and a more consistent train schedule, there was still the issue of variables occurring outside the comprehension of the algorithm.
From Cologne to Bonn, a 15-car passenger train was riding through its designated line as intended, and only marginally late. The capacity of each passenger car was meant to hold 54 occupants, with this specific line possessing a dining car as part of its service. Currently, the time frame is late in the evening. Nearly to capacity, the occupants mostly consisted of tourists, university students and a few working Germans that had irregular schedules.
Even though this line was intended to reach its destination within 30 minutes, a few tourists and university students only needed a few minutes to turn this ride into the longest evening of their lives. This small group of young people went on a self-destructive bender across Cologne right before boarding the train. Though they were actually strangers, they were united in having one brain cell left between them all. In their infinite wisdom, this group managed to get access to the room that contained the air handling unit that ran all the HVAC across the train cars.
These drunken vandals began dumping all manners of fluids down the unit. Laughing from uninhibited merriment, everything from piss bottles, beer, and vomit had started affecting the efficiency of the Air Condition system. The AI in charge of the train attempted to resolve this issue by filtering the contaminants and aerosolizing everything it could to prevent airflow from stagnating.
During that attempt, one of the university students dunked several vials of failed experimental fluids down the unit. They were supposed to be inert, so he stole them from his lab to use as a drinking game, but he forgot about them until now. Due to mixing with the other contaminants, the actual nature of this experimental chemical bypassed the safety measures and became an entirely new substance when it got filtered then redistributed across the entire train.
At first, nothing happened. Some people were in the middle of chatting, some took power naps, and others were wandering the cars just to walk. Then, the effects of the aerosolized solution struck all at once. Due to the sheer magnitude of the physical change taking place, no matter how strong they were as an individual, everyone had gone unconscious all the same.
Whether it was their seats, the wooden ground, or even their plates for those eating in the dining car, 736 human lives were slowly reduced to a size less than ants. Fortunately, their attire and some of their personal items had miraculously shrunk with them. The lucky ones were a few passengers who had already perished due to outside forces. Drowning in a soup they shrunk into, their body rolling off the side of their former seat because of the train rumbling or even shrinking straight into the HVAC vents. The ones who got caught directly into the bents had their miniscule body flung like dust particles then were promptly splattered into a table leg or side of the seat. For the unfortunate ones, the vents at the bottom blew their bodies into the center aisle. That is where all the survivors were corralled
By the time many of them began to awaken, the boom of the AI announcing their arrival to Bonn scared them to full consciousness. Every single soul left on the train comprehended their surroundings. Confusion, horror and existential dread. The awe of seeing tables and seats towering greater than skyscrapers, and a train car ceiling that stretched farther up than clouds had spun people into an emotional break. For some, they were worse off due to understanding the micro damages the wood flooring had from constant use; something they had never bothered noticing from normal commuting.
Then, the train doors began to open.
The machinery that controlled the doors could be felt across the entire floor. Something so benign, and it felt like the world was rumbling. The vibrations caused all of the passengers to lose their balance and fall down onto the floor. When the doors fully opened, every passenger anticipated the worst.
By pure happenstance, the stars aligned and it seemed that the Bonn Hbf was empty. Almost every single carriage celebrated with some form of luck coming their way, except the last car.
Stepping onto the train was a single woman. For all intents and purposes, she was an eye-catcher, and attractive in all the right ways. Both men and women would glance at something of this caliber, no matter how shameless. She wore a half-black, half-blue cutout maxi dress that transitioned to purple at the bottom; pantyhose; black stiletto heels; and long white evening gloves. The woman had her black hair tied in a bun with her bangs concealing bright brown right eye. The only thing on her person was a small, blue clutch purse.
To the tiny people at her feet, this individual felt like a Goddess that descended down to earth. In the midst of their mixed feelings of amazement and apprehension, the woman began to move further in. The movement of something so massive destroyed their miniscule brains. It was in equal parts impossibly fast and smooth. The first tens of passengers who broke out of their mental stupor realized too late that this woman’s monolithic heels were descending upon them.
Tens of passengers did not even give a concept of resistance against the heels. Their bodies were unceremoniously crushed into the worn wooden floors. Their clothing and organs had been compressed so thoroughly, that their only proof of existence was either a leftover uniform stain, or they became nourishment for the wooden floor.
For the passengers that saw that happened, they screamed and were disgusted at how easily their lives could be extinguished. To the woman, she was none-the-wiser.
The person who boarded the train was a well-off woman named Allison. She was in the middle of visiting some locations across Bonn, and she decided to take a train to Frankfurt to visit that place as well. By pure chance, no one seemed to be at the station. When she boarded the train, Allison was even more surprised to see how empty the carriage was.
She looked forward and back in the carriage. A smile slowly crept on her face.
“Hello?! Is anything here?!”
The sound of her voice sounded like an explosion going off. The closest people to her held their ears in pain from their eardrums being ruptured.
“Hallo, jemand hier?!”
Yet again, the tiny passengers near her were reduced to a quivering mess of tears from the pain being accidentally imparted to them.
Just as the train doors were closing, the fancy-looking woman smiled fully and jumped up from excitement.
Even though they knew she was still a normal sized human, the tiny humans farthest from her were far too gone to comprehend someone of that size jumping up that high into the air. The closest people who just had their ears drums destroyed were thrown up high off the ground from the ungodly energy Allison put into the ground to jump.
The tiny humans hit the ground first. Many of their bodies had been bruised from the impact at best; at worst, some suffered broken bones or a dislocated joint. When Allison came back down to the ground, the difference in air pressure blew back all the passengers near her.
Those who were survivors of Allison stepping onto the train were reduced to chunks of meat and bone from the sheer air forces alone. People who were further out had their bodies violently picked up and thrown like a tornado had run through them. Their tiny screams could hardly be perceived, and they fruitlessly flailed around in the sky before reaching the ground again.
The lucky ones immediately died on impact and splattered, but less fortunate humans struck imperfections in the ground; tearing apart limbs and shearing their bodies further up where they landed.
Beyond that, the ones who believed they were safe didn’t realize what debris deplacement just occurred. Dust bunnies, miniscule pebbles, or even dandruff. The specifics didn’t matter, but the results did. Tiny particles had been flung further than anyone could imagine. Dirt and tiny rocks were turned into veritable cannonballs; rendering some people into dismembered corpses. Other people were caught or rolled over by boulder-sized dust bunnies. The irregularity of each bundle of debris either crushed them like actual boulders, or they were forced to become part of the bundle; torn apart by hairs like they were razor wire, or suffocated by dust and spider webs.
Just like that, every passenger had died within minutes of the woman arriving.
“Awesome! I have the whole train to myself!” The woman cheered out loud. Her healthy, child-like laughter echoed throughout not just her carriage, but the closest cars attached to hers.
The ones that heard her took a knee and prayed. They knew the time tables; It took about an hour and a half for the train to get from Bonn to Frankfurt.
The rumbling of the train moving to Frankfurt felt like a taste of what was about to befall the rest of the passengers.
Allison’s first action was to visit the dining carriage. When she opened the door wide, the tiny passengers in that location looked on in trepidation. Though the well-off woman looked ecstatic, the way her eyes looked around, she wasn’t there for them. Technically speaking, it made things worse.
When she began to walk through the dining car, it was with a purpose. There was no steady, methodical way of stepping through; Allison rushed through towards the station the dining car curator would stand.
Because of her pace, aside from the people that were stepped on, humans who weren’t anywhere near the path of her heels were picked up by the powerful backdraft her tower-like legs caused. Like her initial appearance, more humans were splattered against the seats or tables, or they were smashed against the floor by gravity.
The dining car soon became a wasteland. Allison got behind the counter to look for a specific control system. After some searching, she found a screen that was meant for a technician to help troubleshoot the AI. Through her past knowledge with this system, Allison accessed the controls, then double-checked to see if anyone else was actually on the train. When Allison saw that it only registered her as the sole inhabitant, she proceeded to open all the doors separating the carriages from each other.
The tiny passengers throughout the rest of the train felt a primal dread when the doors opened. Those who could see in the back of the train witnessed the beautiful woman step out and prepare herself in the aisle.
She stretched her legs, while maintaining a friendly smile on her face.
“Man, I’ve always wanted to do this.”
Due to the open doors, her words reached out farther than her initial outburst. Even then, the energy emanating from her voice maintained such power that it felt like a Goddess proclaiming her intentions to the world.
When she began to assume a runners starting position, the tinies who were within eyesight held their breath. Some hoped and prayed that this gigantic woman would make a mistake and fall because of her heels, but those who knew more realized that there was nothing they could do.
Her form was genuinely immaculate, and textbook. The moment she went into a perfect dead-sprint in spite of wearing heels, and her dress, there was no entertaining survival. The dining and initial carriage were crossed in less than 8 seconds.
The moment Allison ran into the new train carriage, it almost looked like she was flying through the air. Humans who were watching her could only comprehend a massive blur, before their lives suddenly ended. The forces at play no longer turned nearby people to gore; they were burned. Charred. Tens of humans were subject to such a magnitude of power far beyond what a single person could endure, that any and all sources of fluid in their bodies evaporated, then their bodies were reduced to particles.
When Allison’s heel finally made contact with the ground, the pressure was incomprehensibly worse than her first appearance. It was not just the humans below her heel evaporating into the wooden floor. It wasn’t even the nearby people that were instantly reduced to blood and meat. People, as far away from the epicenter as possible, were launched up into the air. The sudden level change was enough to kill some from pure shock, but those who were still maintaining consciousness witnessed either the brown embrace of pantyhose or the tip of her heel barreling towards them.
Humans caught by the goddess’ pantyhouse were butchered by the fibers so thoroughly that whatever gore and blood left behind were instantly washed away by swear and oils. Those caught by her heels were splattered against the powerful genuine leather. The amount of care put into the footwear was obvious, as the humans’ miniscule bodies became an additive for future shoe shining endeavors.
An apocalyptic event passed by the carriage within 4 seconds. In those precious seconds, 50 people became sustenance for inanimate objects; not even fit for food for insects that might come along. Three cars were cleared, with twelve more to go. That was barely a goal to accomplish for someone like Allison.
By the time she reached the end of the train, the woman barely broke a sweat. Her breathing was barely stagnant. She placed her hands on either side of her hips while donning a bright expression.
“That felt good. I wonder if there’s anything good to eat.”
Allison went to go back to the dining car, revisiting the path of death she inadvertently caused. In one minute, she traversed the space of the entire train. In one minute, outside the two initial train cars, 736 people became less than forgettable stains.
When the sole inhabitant of the train went to the dining car, she took a seat and examined her heels to see if she caused any structural damage to the footwear. Seeing the near-microscopic blood stains on the tip of her heel, and even the bottom of her outsole and top piece
“Huh.” Was all that Allison expressed before grabbing a nearby napkin and clearing off the blood.
With a napkin in hand, Allison got up, went behind the counter, and while searching for something to eat, she mindlessly tossed it into the trash can.
For the rest of the train ride, Allison chilled for the next hour and remained completely ignorant of the catastrophe her heels caused.
“Breaking News! On the evening Deutsche Bahn Express Train between Cologne and Bonn, 736 passengers mysteriously disappeared with little to no trace. Local authorities conducted an investigation and discovered tiny traces of blood that contained a mixture of DNA of some of the passengers. No information could be gained from the interior cameras due to the AI conductor having an unprecedented glitch. Currently, only one passenger has been confirmed to have entered and left the same train where all 736 passengers disappeared. Authorities are on the lookout for this unknown woman. Anyone who has information on this individual, please contact your nearest authorities.”
The Deutsche Welle TV broadcasting station was the first news agency to report on the mysterious event that occurred on the train. Despite the international attention this event had garnered, no one was able to figure out where Allison disappeared off to or how hundreds of people just disappeared in a contained space.
Speculation had turned into conspiracy, and the once-serious affair devolved into a breeding ground for people talking about the supernatural or a government coverup.
Weeks after the incident, there was an evening DB express train going from Brussels to Frankfurt, a three-and-a-half hour trip. Like the last train, it was a 15-car design, but did not possess a dining cart due to an unrelated accident. The ride was packed to the brim with an excessive 810 passengers. Normally this would be unacceptable, however, this was due to the existence of multiple inspectors, IT specialists and several local university students performing work-studies with said members.
The press that DB received caused several agencies to descend upon the railway company. Part of the resulting public relations nightmare was a multitude of people performing penetration tests and live inspections to make sure the train operated within specifications.
While the hours-long ride was smoothly going underway, one of the inspectors gathered a few of his coworkers into the area that controlled the air conditioning.
The inspector that gathered them was holding a draeger hand-pump atmosphere monitoring tool and had a PhD-6 gas detector strapped to his belt. The device on his belt was beeping red and whining loudly; there was even ear plugs shoved into the holes where the sound came from. While he was pumping individual tubes for different gasses, he had several tubes on-hand that had turned a different color due to the limits being exceeded.
Before any of his team could argue that they should get out, the safety inspector pointed his draeger at the metal filters into the train HVAC system.
“This wasn't like this when we left. Atmospheres were within limits. Something happened. Does anyone know anything? Or feel different?”
The small detachment of workers looked at each other in confusion.
“We should all be passing out from these numbers, but we aren't--” Before the safety inspector could finish, all the lights throughout the train went dark. Everything, except exterior electronics like the IT laptops.
Sounds of confusion rang out throughout. The ITs who were performing penetration testing quickly discovered their own gear's security was breached. The more experienced professionals managed to call out a warning on their radios,
“The AI has gone rogue!” Then, the radios went silent. All electronics onboard the train had been compromised or intercepted. All the ventilation began to run at the highest possible setting.
All the lights returned, but were dimmed. Every person onboard was silent, with the only sounds taking the space being the train itself and the vents. Everyone ooked at each other in confusion, until pain set in. Everyone's bodies heated up, perspired and felt an agonizing compression on every bit of their body. Some passed out from agony, but those who were capable of hanging on witnessed their fellow man reduce in size.
Nothing about the train was shrinking, but everything the people had and were slowly reduced. Those that maintained consciousness were struggling to move, and the only things that they could do was get into safer positions. The strongest of the passengers willed themselves to drag other unconscious people into the safest places they could end up in.
Surely the shrinking would stop, everyone thought. As their size diminished, a special primal dread began to loom over them.
When they began to reach the size of ants, some passengers took solace in the fact they could, at least, see each other. When they began to go beyond that, isolation began to settle, then emotional devastation.
The passengers were reduced to 1000 times smaller than their original size. A simple train became an alien landscape at the micro level. Those with their minds intact slowly attempted to fathom the utterly monolithic structures before them; tables that could possibly hold a town with ease, vents spanned out like valleys, and a ceiling that loomed so far above them that clouds would be lingering there.
Only a few things gave them relief. No rampaging dust bunnies were crushing anyone, or massive predatory insects. It was strangely clean in spite of the amount of people that were on the train earlier. Even the vents were slowly dialing down.
The slow rumble of the train felt like the Earth’s continental plates were shifting. The hour the minuscule passengers experienced was nothing more than some cruel joke from reality.
Then, the lights fully turned on. From being kept in dim lighting the entire time, everyone became blinded. Making matters worse, they were deafened by the conductor AI announcing their arrival to Frankfurt.
Since it's a train ride from Frankfurt to Paris, many passengers were anticipating to just be trampled by city block sized footwear. Instead of all the doors opening, only one entrance did that. The ventilation activated where the only set of doors was opening.
The doors opened like some massive gate to heaven. Seeing the outside world from the perspective of a micro felt like seeing a new frontier In space. What was particular about this stop was the lack of people, with the exception of a young couple.
One was Allison, who was wearing a sparkling black cutout maxi dress this time, but otherwise maintained the same clothing as her last adventure. Her companion on the other hand, Wei, wore gold thigh-high stiletto boots, khaki pants tucked into the footwear and a white hoodie. Aside from his choice of clothing, his side swept red hair was the most noticeable thing about him.
A small group of people who were at their feet witnessed the city-block sized footwear taking up their horizon. When they first moved, the sheer magnitude of them could barely be comprehended and the speed of such massive beings equally perplexed the tinies.
The young couple made their first steps into the train. It was just two steps for the both of them, but to the unfortunate minuscule group down below, the sky itself was collapsing.
While the rumbling of the train felt like a live continental drift, it was manageable. The steps these two took felt comparable to meteors crashing against the world.
All together, the initial steps completely wiped out the tiny group. Whether boot or stiletto heel, it had the same effect. The minuscule humans who ended up underfoot had so much force pressed upon them that all fluids that comprised the human body had evaporated from pure pressure.
What equipment or clothing they had endured a force far beyond their breaking point; both clothing and metal from other sources were smashed apart into strands. They became dry, reddened stains; nearly imperceptible on wooden ground and shoes. A twist of a heel would have been enough to disperse the dry remains into obscurity.
For the others near the epicenter, the blast overpressure from the footfalls put them all to the ground. Though they were not blown across the floor, the barotrauma they suffered dealt fatal injuries.
The closest ones immediately keeled over. Their internal organs liquified, bones fractured; from the air in their bodies reacting violently to the pressure exposure, those individuals' bodies bloated instantly.
Even for people not near the two titans entering, their diminutive size was still affected by the deceptively large influence their steps caused.
Some fell over from internal injuries, while others had eardrums rupture or their eyes burst. The lucky ones were able to avoid too much injury by suffering from blindness, deafness or nausea.
A scene straight out of hell developed within a matter of seconds from four nonchalant steps. While people writhed in unbelievable pain, those who could still see stared straight at the monolithic beings.
With the evening sun and overhead lights no longer blinding them fully, whoever was left alive in the train car were struck in horrified awe.
They believed the gigantic structures that loomed over them put into perspective how tiny they became. Yet, with the appearances of this young couple, their understanding of the new world broke even further.
The ones closer to them trembled at the overbearing presence these two naturally created. Their high heels alone dwarfed many skyscrapers these people were accustomed to. Beyond that, the couple's height was so overwhelming that the passengers’ eyes stopped processing details.
For the ones at the far end, these two dominated the horizon. The distance, and how substantial they stretched far above their view, if these two beings were actually scaled up then all of Frankfurt would be accidentally trampled in minutes.
What seemingly dragged on for an hour was actually just a few seconds as the doors finally closed. All the terror the people felt that would last multiple lifetimes had come within moments.
The couple looked at both ends of the enclosed train car. The Filipina grinned to herself as she began happily skipping to the front end of the car. While she hummed a merry tune, the people who were below had either been unceremoniously crushed or suffered fatal internal injuries.
After opening up the door wide open, the people on the other side experienced a sudden change in air pressure. To Allison, she experienced a slight breeze. For the others in the next car, they were carried up by an updraft and were forcibly pulled to the foot of the door. While some managed to get away with minor bruises, several people instantly died from landing at a bad angle. For a few, because Allison lingered at the door for a few seconds, they smashed straight into her heels, causing a near imperceptible wet stain on the black footwear.
The woman turned around and proceeded to do the same for the other door. Like before, the same thing happened; the rest of the tiny humans were exterminated inside the car, the door opening caused a large human pile, and Wei stared at her in confusion.
“What are you doing?” The young Singaporean questioned. His voice carried far, almost booming for the people left alive in the adjacent cars and serving as an early warning for the cars beyond that.
Allison turned on her heels and went up to Wei.
“It's like last time! When I rode that train from Cologne, there was no one there. Now, it's the same here! We're lucky that we have an entire train to ourselves. It's peaceful, *and* I don't have to smell some weird person's stuff.”
Wei's eyes darted from the open entrance of both cars before landing back to his girlfriend. He crossed his arms before awkwardly looking up at nothing.
“So…we have about four-and-a-half hours to burn. What did you do to pass the time?”
Allison grinned at the taller man.
“I just ran through the train multiple times and looked at…oh, wait, let me show you something.” Allison grasped Wei's hands and dragged him along towards the back end of the train.
When they entered the new train car, Allison completely missed the concentration of tinies at the foot of the door. Even though her heels completely went over their heads, the magnitude of the size and speed made the air roar to them. Their ears almost burst from that alone.
Unfortunately, Wei did not miss. His massive gold stiletto boots shadowed over them before crashing down on their congregation. The group became nothing more than a momentary dried stain on the boots. When he took another step, proof of their existence was cleaned up with the friction against the wood floor.
This pattern continued. Sometimes it was Allison, other times it was Wei. It took a solid three minutes to get to the last train car, and in those few minutes, the couple had casually snuffed out 810 passengers.
When Allison tried to find the console and monitor that allowed some control over the train, she found that someone had already gained access to it and left it open.
Trying to manage what the last technician attempted to clear, Allison could not make much headway. All she knew was that the cameras were down and the logs said that Wei and Allison were the only people currently on the train.
Little did the woman know, the AI created its own clickjacking method to hide permissions and admin access. It concealed them behind links or applications the average layman would select. Due to Allison basically clicking on everything, she inadvertently allowed the rogue AI full admin rights and permissions to cross platforms. After creating duplicates of itself, it began to rapidly infect other systems untouched by its influence.
Soon, the AI would become a much more harrowing existence that delighted in seeing humanity be crushed like insects, or less. Perhaps more than just isolated incidents like a train, but that is up to the AI's future state of algorithms.
Meanwhile, Wei looked over Allison's shoulder; completely ignorant of the far-reaching ramifications the future holds. Despite that, he enjoyed the moment of seeing his girlfriend get frustrated at the slow speed the applications were giving her.
For the next four-and-a-half hours, the couple made their own fun on the train. If there was a trace of evidence remaining on the train, these two eventually erased it by happenstance. While the AI specifically left them alone, it kept them in mind for future plans.