Silence grips the air. It stifles everything around and holds you hostage. Scared to make so much as a whisper, you focus on making yourself as inconspicuous as possible. Yet you’re in no danger. It’s just another day – 3:00 in the afternoon, in fact.
The stillness enclosing on you leaves its lonesome feel. You’re surrounded by unknown people, every seat and standing space taken. Only the hiss of compressed air from below and the muskiness of dampened raincoats gives any indication of life.
Everyone refuses to make so much as a noise. Heads bowed down, minds transfixed on their screens; the various images reflecting off their motionless eyes. The eerie blue light of each device acts like a magnet, drawing each person closer and closer while detaching them from the real world.
A chilling wind sweeps through routinely as the doors beside you slide open. It rattles your chest and passes right through like a ghost. But even then there is no response from them, no recognition of change.
If they were to pause and listen to the deafening silence, it would surely surprise them. Yet they remain unaware, headphones in each ear repelling the constant nothingness.
The chime from the speakers above does little to break their trance. Eyes still focussed on their screens, each passenger one by one mindlessly exits on schedule. Sometimes, another drone takes their place. Blink, and you’d miss their seamless replacement.
Gently rocking like a cradle, you rumble forward, the rhythm under the click-clack of the tracks never skipping a beat. Besides the occasional vibration of a mobile phone, no other noises break through the silence.
As you escape from the subterranean tunnels, pale sunlight struggles to break through the clouds above. The glow of the nearby gardens makes up for what the sun cannot, and gives warmth to the lifelessness around. Rain brushes against scratched windows, the constant pattering providing another solitary sound for the journey onward. It is at last a sign of life, and yet all is still inside.
It is as if they are defunct as human beings. Instead they operate like mindless machines sticking to routine on their commute home, to plug in and recharge. All in order to repeat for tomorrow.
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