“Yes. Fallen trees. And once, a dead herd of elk. We think they went mad.”

“Mad…”

“There are stretches this train passes in which hundreds of creatures roam.”

Malorie thinks to turn around. She thinks to take the teens and walk straight out the back of the train and leap back to the tracks. They could brave the walk again. They could be back in Yadin in a few days.

But she doesn’t want to leave. Not yet. She trusts just enough of what she hears in Dean’s voice to make her stay. So instead, she asks more questions. And it feels a little like she’s dipping a toe in the new world after all.

“How do you know that?”

Dean breathes deep, and Malorie braces herself for something she doesn’t want to hear.

“Well, two ways,” he says.

“Yeah?” Pressing.

“Yes. One is similar to what I’m understanding about John here. We’ve had young riders who can hear much better than you or I ever will.”

“And the other?”

Dean spills it.

“Passengers have gone mad. Riders who perhaps took the train for an opportunity to watch the world pass.”

“But how?” Panic rising in her voice. “The windows are blackened, right?”

“Of course. But—”

“Then how?”

“Between cars. If one really wanted to look…they could.”

Malorie steels herself.

“How many passengers have gone mad on this train?” she asks.

Dean doesn’t hesitate.

“Seven.”

The shape of panic now. In the vicinity. So close to her.

“And what happened to those people?”

Dean doesn’t hesitate again.

“Myself and David escorted them off.”

“You tossed them off the train?” Olympia asks.

“Yes. Without a bit of debate, I’m sorry to say.”

Malorie likes this answer. But she’s far from feeling safe.

“They didn’t ask to go mad,” she says.

“I know that,” Dean says. “Believe me. I’m haunted by every one of them.”

Malorie tries not to think of Gary. She tries to shove him as far from her mind’s eye as she can. But there he is. In a distant corner. At the far right side of the darkness.

He waves.

“There’re two open cars this way,” Dean says. “Come on.”

Malorie decides, here, now, to continue. Dean didn’t try to hide the past from her. This means something.

She can tell he walks slowly for them. She reaches both arms out, feeling the walls of the hall as it sways with the motion of the train.

“So, like I said, this is a storage car,” he says. “This and the next. There’s a bathroom here, too.”

Malorie thinks of what he said about transporting dead bodies. Are there caskets on the other side of this wall? Dead people swaying even as she does?

“All sorts of stuff in there,” Dean says. “Survival stuff.”