raspberries and dirt

1. a flash of blue

Dream looked out over the empty train platform. The pale light of the moon streamed in through the canopy of trees overhead. The abandoned train, crooked on the rails, welcomed him with a warm glow. Dream walked around the poison ivy growing along the ground. He brushed the ivy hanging over the entrance of the train and stepped inside the doorway. His companion, a tabby cat, sat on his unmade bed. The faint green-tinted light shone in from the dusty, ivy-covered windows. Moss and mildew covered most of the floor, and the entire train car smelled of lavender. Dried stalks of the flower hung on every wall. The lone candle on a scratched table gave off rays of warm orange light, illuminating the car.

Dream placed his worn backpack on his bed and leaned over to pet his cat, Patches. Patches purred underneath his hand, her green eyes staring lovingly into his. He scratched her head for a moment more before beginning to unpack his things. Dream zipped open his backpack, pulling out assorted supplies. He dumped his belongings on the bed, startling Patches. The tabby jumped up and moved to the corner of the train car. Dream sorted through the mess of items on his bed. He pulled out a cracked polaroid camera and placed it on the table.

Dream pulled out a small cloth pouch, containing an assortment of wild mushrooms. He grabbed a crinkled hardback book from the small stack on the floor. He rifled through the pages, referencing the mushrooms with book to make sure he didn't ingest anything toxic. he put a few into a pile by his side, and when he has sorted through all of the mushrooms, he dumped the pile outside in the overgrown grass.

Dream took the edible mushrooms and munched on a few, placing the rest back in the cloth pouch. He gave Patches a small piece of dried meat, which he had stored in the front pocket of his backpack.

As Dream whistled to himself, he looked out the window to see the bright stars shining in through a hole in the canopy of leaves above. He knew a few of the constellations, the Big Dipper and Orion and Andromeda. The Milky Way galaxy shone above in a bright white streak across the dark sky, glittering with stars. Dream had always loved the stars. They comforted him.

When he was a child, the stars weren't very visible, due to the light pollution that comes along with living in a major city. They were visible now. With almost no electricity left in the world, anyone still alive could see billions of stars. Dream would've preferred electricity, if he was given the choice, but he wasn't. Almost no one, except for the extremely wealthy, could afford electricity. But people could always afford stars.

Dream rattled around the train car noisily, cleaning up, while Patches perked up her ears at a faint shouting. She jumped gracefully onto the table and stared out the window. Down the tunnel, Patches saw movement. Quick, purposeful movement. Not the movement of an animal, either. The people weren't coming towards her, though, and she couldn't be bothered to care for much longer. As Patches leaped off the table, she saw a bright color in the corner of her eye. It was brief, but there. Patches saw a flash of blue.