Putting a hand to the thick, cold glass of the train’s window, Dominick watched as a slew of strange-colored snow slid past his window. It was another thunder-snow storm, and The Express was in a panic.

Dominick hated cold weather. It was hard to avoid, living on The Express, but he still despised it. As a child, it was his favorite. To him, there was nothing better than waking up to white, fluffy powder blanketing the ground. But eventually, snow became poisonous, ruined by all that mankind pumped into the sky before The Winter. Now glowing an unhealthy shade of some color nobody could really identify, it became the bane of humanity. When the gigantic blizzard came, the rich hastily boarded the fortress of a train called The Express.

Dominick, however, was not one of those rich. He had snuck aboard, when all the trouble and confusion masked his dirty face. He lived in an abandoned railcar, stealing food from the kitchen, and generally living a decent life. But today, that was going to change. Since the train was running low on fuel, it became necessary to detach some cars in order to reach the bunker that could supply the population of the train for seventy lifetimes.

He, and everyone else on the train, was sitting in the middle of the world’s largest snow storm. Set off by an inexplicable and sudden reversal of global warming, this storm was eerily in tune with the snow poisoning. Simply nicknamed “The Winter’’, it was quite easily the largest storm of any kind the world had seen before. Complete with lightning, hail, and acidic rain, the storm was an amazingly huge thundersnow party. The only reason The Express was still running was the fact that it was underground. When scientists  predicted the storm, the government quickly assembled the world’s largest and most fortified subway train, then cobbled together a track from New Brittania all the way to Alexandra. All who could afford passage rushed down to the station and boarded the train for the 13-month trip to the safe house halfway across the globe.

Sitting in the derelict grey car, Dominick nibbled away at his last muffin. He was forming a plan to get to another car, but so far, he couldn't think of anywhere that he wouldn't get caught. Sighing and leaning his head back against a rattling table, he began to re-run all of his possibilities. He could either stock up on supplies and live in the car, or find another one. Stay or leave. Fight or flight.The blond-haired youth chuckled mirthlessly. This is what the world has become, he thought. An endless storm of either-or. Tossing the last of the crumbs into his mouth, he made sure to wipe away any bits that would reveal his presence.

And then he saw the security camera flicker to life for the first time in 5 months.

Five minutes later, the ragged urchin was creeping silently through the air ducts. He didn’t need the hushed conversations he’d already heard in security rooms to confirm he’d been caught. His one goal right then was to reach the only man who had half a chance of getting him off the train: The Hunter. The Hunter was the only person on the train that had ever left it and returned safely: his job was to report back on the mutations of animals every couple thousand miles. This required a special suit that blocked the chemicals from entering a human’s system, but the Hunter had the only one in existence.

2 months after boarding the train, the mysterious scientist had seen Dominick after hacking the security cameras to spy on everybody. Nobody knew it, but The Hunter was from Atlas. Atlas had pumped the chemicals out, setting up for The Winter, and getting a bunker of their own ready. This was meant to solve global warming by both snow and poison. He planned to blow up the train, except he never was let out of the watchful eye of all the security guards.

Dominick planned to get off the train before security made the long haul to Car 100, and this required the suit. Kicking in the vent with precision that only came from weeks of practice, Dominick silently dropped into the room. Not stopping to look around the quarters, the boy went straight for the suit. It was held in a flawless glass bubble, but it was no match for the technical skills Dominick had from an old job. He placed a small box he had made on the electronic lock that shot out tentacles and began opening the bubble. While waiting, Dominick decided to check around the room. He knew he didn’t have to worry about being seen, for the Hunter required privacy. The results of his walks above the surface were exclusive to him and the Leader at the bunker. The room consisted right then of  simply 4 walls, but the boy knew that one wall was chock full of sliding doors that spat out various fixtures. Dominick secretly wished to open up the computer and see what was going on everywhere else, but was stirred from his thoughts when the top half of the glass bubble hissed and rose. Within seconds, he was back up in the vents, crawling for Car 100. Kicking in the vent once more, he dropped down, and donned the suit.

Took awhile to say goodbye to his dark hiding place.

Threw open the door.

And was hit with a tranquilizer dart in the small of his back.