Mimi looked at Kingsley questioningly, wondering why he was so nervous all of a sudden. It was just a matter of catching a train, after all. “Let’s go. What are we waiting for?”
Kingsley hesitated. “This is what I meant earlier when I said it was complicated. You can’t just walk on. The train’s crawling with a hundred trolls, and demons guard every door.
It’s Charon’s line. The only way souls are taken to the Dead’s kingdom, faster than the old ferries. The train arrives full, but always leaves empty. I think they’d be a little suspicious if they saw the three of us hijacking our way back to the surface. Once you’re down here, you’re supposed to stay down here.”
“Great!” Oliver said, smacking his forehead.
“Helda never mentioned this!” Mimi fumed.
“Why would she?” Kingsley said amiably, not the least bit disturbed.
“So we’re stuck here!” Oliver grumbled. He’d had about all he could take of Hell. He was ready to get back home, back to earth.
He was going home, right? Mimi had been acting odd that morning…. She hadn’t met his eyes when he’d said something about looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again.
“Not quite.” Kingsley walked the length of the platform and found a staircase at the far end of the tunnel. “We’re going up. Come on, we need to move quickly.”
The stairs took them to an empty sidewalk on the edge of the city. There were no cars on the street, and the buildings looked empty and abandoned. metal screens were drawn across the storefronts, and black bars covered the upper-story windows. Right above them was steel scaffolding that stretched three stories into the sky, casting a web of shadows across the street. The structure housed a platform on either side, and railway tracks that disappeared far into the north.
“That’s the train we want.” Kingsley pressed his back to the cold metal grille that covered the closest store window.
Mimi and Oliver followed his gaze. The black tower was covered in dense barbed wire, and a mountain of trash clogged the bottom half of the tower, closing off all of the stairs.
“How does anyone even get in or out of that thing? It looks impossible,” Oliver said.
“The trolls just bash through, pulling the souls with them.
Like I said, it’s a one-way train. No one boards from this end, and the return train is always empty.” Kingsley glanced up as a train roared into the station, its engine releasing a billowing cloud of black smoke. It lurched to a stop, the wheels sending red hot sparks flying into the air.
Oliver watched as the doors opened and a crew of trolls popped out, carrying the dead with them. Suddenly the platform was filled with guards and their captives; the place went from ghost-town empty to rush-hour jammed in only a few seconds. The trolls kept walking straight down, disappearing into an underground stairway. meanwhile, the train sparked into motion, its ancient engine firing a second dark cloud into the air as it powered out of the station, speeding forward underneath the thick black smoke.
The three of them watched it leave.
“What now?” Oliver asked.
“Hmm, not quite sure,” Kingsley said, scratching his chin.
“I think Hell’s starting to rot your brain,” Mimi said, shielding her eyes and peering down the line. “See how it’s passing through that building?” She pointed to a dilapidated brick building a few blocks from the station. “We can hop on the next train once it’s outside the station. It’s only a few blocks out; the train won’t yet be at full speed.”
“Did you see that thing leave the station?” Oliver asked her. “There’s no way I can run that fast.”
Kingsley smiled. “Let’s do it.”
Oliver shook his head. “You know I can’t move like that.
Got any other ideas?”
But Kingsley was already running ahead, and Mimi glanced back at Oliver as they dashed down a side street.
“Don’t worry. I’ll hold your hand.”
Oliver grimaced for a moment, then fled after them.
They ran across a pair of abandoned lots covered in junk and overrun with weeds. Mimi held her nose as they leapt over the wrecks of rusted-out cars and refrigerators. “Hurry, Oliver!” She looked back. The next train was just about to rumble into the station.
Kingsley disappeared ahead of them through a broken opening in the side of the building. Mimi followed him up and over an iron fire stair to the third story, Oliver lagging behind.
Kingsley picked up a chair and threw it so that it shattered the glass of a tall window, bursting the pane. “Come on, it’s time to jump the train.”