“It’s actually quite nice,” Dean says. “If you decide to remove your fold, you’ll find red cushions on a bench. Two twin beds. A mirror. And I’ve learned that, at this slow speed, it can sometimes feel like what a hotel once did. Do you remember those, Jill?”

“Of course.”

But Malorie is feeling around the room, learning the dimensions. Her fingers alight upon a broom handle.

“For the more anxious set,” Dean says. “You can sweep the room to your heart’s delight every time you return to it.” Then, as if needing to explain the possibility of her leaving the car in the first place, he says, “There’s a second bathroom in the next car up. Just knock is all we ask.”

“This is amazing,” Malorie says because she has to. Because she can’t keep it in anymore. Of course tracks are the answer. In a world gone blind, the only safe roads are the ones that grip the vehicle and tell it where to go.

She thinks of the man Michael, alone out front, searching for debris in whatever way he does it.

“Thanks,” Dean says. “We’re extremely proud of it. And like I said…no money. But what are you gonna do? Sit in the dark your whole life? Not me. Not us. We gotta try something, don’t we? And I have an idea or two.”

“Yes,” Tom says.

Malorie is so swept up in the moment that she doesn’t allow herself to get angry at Tom for speaking. It strikes her that she’s already trusting Dean after all.

She remembers, briefly, feeling this way all the time.

“I have a feeling you have more than an idea or two,” Malorie says.

This is good, talking like she used to, back when every word wasn’t tethered to survival.

“I admit it,” Dean says. “I do. But for me, and I’m not just saying this to placate you, for me the absolute key is safety. There’s simply no way around that. A train, today, has to be much safer than it was seventeen years ago. It simply has to be, or there’d be no reason for it to exist. It’s ironic, no? That in a world with no litigation, we’ve become even more careful?”

“Thank you, Dean,” Malorie says. Because that’s enough for now. That’s enough loosening up.

Dean’s eyes are open. Dean could see something. It feels like she’s standing near a bomb. Something could go wrong. Everything could explode. Any second. Other people have their eyes open on this train. She has so many questions. Has a creature ever made it on board? Into one of the rooms?