Welcome Aboard. (Prologue)

There was a blinding white light, hearing reduced to naught but a shrill ringing. The man's body felt numb, and he tasted blood. Eventually, the light faded and the ringing muted itself, and the loss of feeling was replaced by a rough surface. There was a deafening silence as he stood up wiping his mouth. He was met with a streak of blood staining the side of his hand, gasping slightly. He felt his chest with his palm, feeling like it was sharp and shattered, yet he felt no pain. His memory was cloudy, but the last thing he recalled was a car speeding towards him as he stood in shock. He looked down and was met with a raggedy teddy bear, gasping as he crouched down to pick it up. This bear meant the world to him. It was with him at nearly every moment, including the time of impact. He noticed a strip of tape around the bear's body, encouraging him to inspect his bear a bit more thoroughly. On the fuzzy back of the doll was a card, with the shape, size, and texture of an ID card. It was a pretty simple card, bearing the man's name: Arthur Bentz. Below it was a line of text, saying: "Fatally struck by car". As he read that, the memory had returned to him. He remembered strolling about at night, bear in his clutches as he walked along the street carelessly. It was only when a sudden bright light invaded his peripheral vision, along with the jarring cry of a car horn that he turned to face what would be what sent him here. He shook his head, turning his head from side to side. There looked to be definite end or beginning to the train platform, clearly being subterranean. The train platform was lit by a menagerie of dim lamps dangling from the ceiling on thin metal cords. Arthur turned back to look at his card, reading it more. There didn't seem to be much else, save for his birthday, April 16th, 2003, his height, a mere 5'6", and an image of him. It rather accurately displayed his lithe figure, along with his shaggy, dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and sickly pale skintone. On the top of the card, outlined in a deep purple were the words: 'Mortememento Metro'. Before he could even repeat it to himself, the silence was broken by the roar of a train pulling through the tunnel, nearly avoiding the side of the platform as it slowly came to a halt, the sliding doors opening themselves. Arthur stared into the open doors, confused and scared. Where were his parents? His friends? Anyone he knew? They were all absent in this peculiar world he found himself in. Sitting on the inside of the train, a rather stocky man frowned and impatiently gestured for Arthur to enter. "Come on, kid! Ain't got all day!" He barked, furrowing his brows. Arthur instantly heeded the command, too scared to challenge his unknown authority. He stepped through the doors and sat down on one of the dirty, bench-esque chairs. Inspecting his surroundings, the train seemed fairly standard, albeit dirty and dingy. In his train-car, he saw  the stocky man, baring short black hair in tight curls, as well as a tanner skin tone. Further into the caboose was his only other car-mate, a rather shy girl baring darker skin than the man, her hair long and black, going past her shoulders. He noticed that they were each holding something. The large man was holding a rubber mallet, and the girl was holding a slightly singed book. He wondered if they were in a similar situation to himself, so he looked closer. The man seemed to have a few layers of gauze around his neck, but he couldn't see anything wrong with the girl quite yet. The left of her body was facing him, blocking view of the right. He shook his head and leaned back, watching as the doors squeaked closed to his side. The built in intercom produced a scratchy noise as it was turned on, soon followed by a deep and somewhat eerie voice. "Welcome aboard. Today, you will be riding with me. I am your conductor, and this is my train. Feel free to ask any questions by pressing one of the marked buttons on the walls of each train car. Do not do anything foolish. I see you." And with that, the intercom flicked off. Where exactly... was he?