He taps the End Day message across my shirt. “Ask yourself if it’ll make you happy to do it, and heartbroken if you don’t.”

When I’m on my deathbed later, looking back on my life—my End Day in particular—I want to feel like I made the most out of it. That I made my dream come true, and got the chance to live it before I die. I should honor my heart before it’s pulled out of my chest.

The train doors open, and I turn around, running straight toward the car while yelling at Orion to follow me. We squeeze in right as the doors close. If I had space to jump and pump my fist, I would. I’m so empowered by Orion’s words. Before I can thank him I smell something horrible. I look around to identify the source when I realize why it’s so crowded. Everyone is cramming together on this side of the car because at the other end is a massive pile of vomit, probably courtesy of someone who got sick from Death-Cast partying. I’m immediately nauseated, and my appetite has been killed. I hold my gray shirt to my nose, breathing in the Hugo Boss cologne I spritzed on it back in Arizona that smells like plums and citrus.

“Welcome to New York,” Orion says with a smile before hiding behind his nose inside the hoodie.

This is not an experience I was particularly interested in having.

Unfortunately, the train is running express and holding us hostage for several stops, so when the doors open at Sixty-Eighth Street, we get out and switch cars. Orion wants distance from the overflow going directly into the next car, so we jog down the platform and hop back on the train before the doors close. This time we’re able to sit, our backs to a map of New York with blue, red, green, orange, yellow, purple, brown, and gray lines that each represent a different path.

“We’re on the green line,” Orion says, tracing where we started and down to Union Square. “And here’s where we’re getting out.”

I gesture at the map. “Do you think I could travel all of this in one day?”

“I don’t know, but honestly, why would you? The trains are mad gross. That hellhole we just escaped from is not rare.”

“I originally dreamt about visiting every corner of New York. At least by riding the train I could say I passed through them.”

“But the best parts of New York are out on the streets.”

“Like when I got shot at?”

“Like when you got shot at!”

“Terrifying.”

“Fucking terrifying.”

I hope they catch that guy.