“If you survive that far,” she adds, “the water can take you all the way to Toledo. There’s an old train station there, built during the war as a way to transport coal down south. There are tracks running all the way to Texas.”

“Really?” I gasp, my voice rising several pitches at the stroke of luck.

She nods in her typically emotionless way. It takes all my willpower to contain my excitement. General Reece and the Commander have no idea how grateful I am to them for the information.

The tracks aren’t on the ancient map, so General Reece leans forward and draws a straight red line from Toledo to Chicago, then all the way down to Houston, Texas.

“This is your first main danger point,” she says, tapping Chicago. She runs her finger down to St. Louis, Missouri. “This is your second one.”

“Why?” Zeke asks.

“They’re both major cities and the tracks run straight through them,” the Commander explains. “And where there are cities, there are arenas.”

I shudder at the thought.

“So we go around them,” I say. “Adds a day or two to the journey, but it’s not worth the risk.”

General Reece frowns. “You can’t go around them,” she states, blandly. “You’ll be on a train.”

I pause and draw my eyebrows together. “We will?”

“Well yes, of course,” she replies. She taps Toledo again. “The train station is relatively new. It operated throughout most of the war. The chances of it still being operable are highly likely. Especially since all you need is coal. You’ll just need to find an engine still on the tracks, fire up the coal, and you’ll be away.”

Molly lets out a little squeak of surprise. I shake my head, unable to comprehend.

“I’m sorry, you want me to drive a train?” I stammer.

“A coal-powered train,” General Reece says with a nod, as if that makes any difference.

I take a seat as I try to catch my breath, completely stunned by the enormity of the journey ahead of me. This journey is going to take me entirely out of my comfort zone.

The Commander looks at me curiously. “If you don’t think you can handle it, Brooke,” he says, “maybe it would be best not to go at all. You’ve made a decent life for yourself here. There’s a group about to head out looking for survivors to start their own colony. You could always go with them. Take your sister. Your friends.”

I shake my head, determined. “No,” I say, forcefully. “I can do this.”

“You can,” Molly agrees.

“We can,” Ryan adds.

I look up at my friends’ faces. They all seem to have so much faith in me, so much belief. They’re willing to leave their home to help me follow my dream.

“Any of you guys ever driven a train before?” I ask.

Everyone breaks into a smile.

*