Chapter 26

Jake looked at the map, which was basically a set of crudely drawn lines, “I think I know where this is.”
“Do you?” Stacie asked grabbing the map from him. “Because to me it looks like a set of crudely drawn lines.”
“It is,” Jake said. “But I’ve heard rumors of this place and I think I know where it is.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Robert looked at the map, “See, here’s Rome and there’s the prison and that’s the train station.” He pointed to a spot on the map near where the railroad tracks crossed. “That’s the safe house. It shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
“So who’s going?”
‘Weren’t you ‘oing to find me a ‘ome?”
“Right,” said Robert. “ Me and John have the best connections at C.E.W.L., so we should probably take care of that.”
They decided that all of them would go to the safe house because nobody wanted to be left behind while they were looking for Jenn.
They had some trouble at the train station. “Sir, that’s an intersection. We don’t have a stop there. The closest stop is in Glass City.”
“How far away is Glass City?” asked Starr.
“About five miles,” said Jake. “We’ll take 4 blue tickets to Glass City.” They used the fake id’s to get the tickets, which bought them an empty box car.
“No seats,” Josh was surprised.
“Blue tickets,” said Stacie, poking him in the side. “Cheap passage, minimal comfort.”
The ride was comfortable if somewhat bumpy.
“How are we going to get to the safe house, if the train goes all the way to Glass City?” Starr asked.
Jake pulled out the map, “There are 3 or 4 intersections and red lights near the safe house. The train is bound to stop at one of them.
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I guess we’ll go all the way to Glass City and find our way to the safe house from there.” Almost as soon as he had finished speaking the train stopped at a red light. The four of them scramble to open the door. It was stuck. It took all of their effort to crack it open. Jake was the first one out, when the train started moving again.
“Pull me in, quickly.” He was all the way inside, when the train passed by the safe house.
“Maybe the train will stop again before we get too far,” Stacie said hopefully. It didn’t and before long they began to see huge glass buildings glittering in the sunlight.
“Wow!” Josh said. “It’s so beautiful. What is it?”
“Glass City,” Starr said.
“How do you know?"
“The glass, the buildings. And the big glittering sign that says ‘ Welcome to Glass City’ helps. Starr pointed to a huge gateway above the train.
The train was coming to a halt in front of the platform of a huge glass building that appeared to be a train station. They could see all the people inside coming and going, bustling about the station, walking running, standing, sitting or otherwise waiting. Josh, Starr, and Stacie were amazed.
“Last call for Glass City.” The call came over the intercom and the doors opened.
“Well, this is our stop,” Jake said. “Let’s make the most of it.