“5:55
pm,” I took a peek at my mobile phone’s digital clock. “Five
minutes left, and I am still three stops away from my destination!”
An
important event awaits me when the clock strikes 6’o clock sharp. A
candlelight dinner at in Marina Bay Sands with my sweetheart whom I
have not seen since a year she left for her studies abroad.
“I
am definitely going to be late.” I thought furiously to myself, and
wishing I had left home earlier – even 5 minutes earlier would have
been good enough. My fingers began to fiddle with the train metal
pole in an impatient and random manner. “If only the train could go
faster…!”
As
I mentally countdown to the minutes till 6, the familiar voice
recording started playing through the crowded train.
“Next
stop, City Hall Inter…”
I
knew what station was next even without the recording telling me so –
it is probably something that one will automatically learned after
riding through the same train line for the last 10 years. But
something was amiss this time round. Why did the recording stopped
halfway during its broadcast?
As
sudden as I asked the question to myself, an almost too-clear of an
answer was delivered in face value.
Teeeiii……
The
sound of a now dead power source, which was then quickly followed by
the absence of the usual running noise of the air conditional system.
Total darkness blanketed the entirety of the train which had ceased
movements.
“Wha…
what happened?”
“Black-out?
Train can black-out?!”
“Mommy!!”
Voices
filled with a mix of fear and anxiety erupted from all possible
corners of the train. I merely stood among the voices of the people I
could not see; not knowing what to do myself. My mind could only
thought of the much awaited dinner that awaits me outside the doors
of the train that I was now stuck desperately within. I took some
time to process and make sense out of the sudden turn of events.
The
emergency back-up lights, as dim as they were, were now activated.
And this made things even clearer – we were facing a real
emergency incident. Something that has never happened for as long as
24 years in Singapore history, and I am freaking
caught in it!
“So
hard to breathe…”
Indeed,
I could feel the air getting heavier, as well as my breathing. But
that was to be expected, with hundreds of us passengers being
entrapped in a closed area with barely any ventilation. We need to
evacuate quick, or risk getting suffocated. However, what could we do
except wait for outside help to come?
CRASH!!
The
noise of what sounded like the shattering of glass. Has help arrived?
No…
Someone had instead decided to use an on-board fire extinguisher to
smash a glass panel of the train’s door. I don’t know who that
was, but I… no, we probably felt grateful for such an action, as
rash as it may be, for it help ease our discomfort even if a little.
I
don’t know how much time had passed since then, but eventually the
train staff reached us and led everyone out of the halted train. Of
course, the whole lot of us had to still make our way through the
train tunnels on foot to reach the outside, but I was not bothered by
this. All it matters that I was finally out and free.
A
crowd of people flooded through the exit passage, and just when I
thought my crisis was over, an all too familiar vibration shook
through the inner walls of my jeans pockets. I was so caught up with
the entire ordeal that I have not taken the time to use my phone
earlier.
And
at that very moment I knew what other trouble was awaiting me.
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