We walk through the sewers, each step making a small echo through the caverns of the sewer. Every time Molly's crutch hits the concrete, it sends a deeper and more bombastic sound bouncing around us. I can tell she's trying to take more ginger steps. We snake through the tunnels like rats in a maze. Occasionally, a truck rumbles over our heads, causing loud rumbles around us that sound like monsters lurking in the dark and waiting to grab one of our ankles. Leo seems to have the same thought in mind, instead of venturing ahead or lingering behind us, he holds tightly onto my shirt.
At a certain point I start to wonder if Justin even knows what he's doing. In the dim light of the flashlights I can see his face twisted into confusion, or maybe determination, who knows?
After what feels like an hour Justin finally shines his flashlight upwards, and lo and behold there's another manhole for us to climb through.
"This should be it." he says as he hands me the flashlight and pushes up on the manhole, a halfmoon gives us a little extra light. He hoists himself up, looks around, and hops back down.
"Everybody out. Sorry to cut our urban corn maze short, I know you're all very disappointed."
Corinne gives him a peck on the cheek, "Sarcasm is on point as always, babe."
Justin smiles, makes a step with his hands, and shoves her up so she can climb out easier. We lift Molly and her crutch up to Corinne, and then push Leo up as well. Once we get everyone up Justin tells us that the train will be here at 10:45, and he has us all turn our lights off to better hide ourselves.
We all follow Justin as we walk down the sidewalk parallel to the train tracks, trying to blend into the shadows. When we're a few blocks from the actual station he has us stop and crouch down.
"We need to find somewhere to get in, like a tear in the fence or something. It's too high for us to climb."
"We also have to make sure it's not an electric fence." Molly says, and Justin nods. "I think we can test it by throwing something metal at it. If it lights up like a Christmas tree, it means it's on."
Justin looks at each of us, "Do we have anything metal?"
"You can use one of my necklaces." Corinne says, reaching into her bag and pulling out a long chain. Justin takes it, walks over to the fence, and chucks it. The necklace hits the fence and intertwines with the metal, but causes no reaction. Justin reaches out to the chain, and untangles it without getting fried. He calls softly over his shoulder to us.
"Perfectly safe, but we need to hurry."
He tugs at the fence, and it's pathetically pried up, leaving a gap big enough to crawl under. We all shimmy under the fence, and Justin follows behind. He tells us to sit tight and wait for the train to pull up. The cold gravel digs into my legs, and when I look in the distance I can see the bright lights of the train station. It looks warm over there, and the thought of temperature makes me shiver. I pull my legs up and into my hoodie. Hopefully it will be warmer in Laja.
Justin gives us more instructions for when the train arrives.
"It has to stop all the way before we can get on it, and we need to climb on fast. Molly if you need to I'll carry you up with me and someone else can take your crutch. We'll get on one of the end cars, and we'll have to flatten ourselves out until we go past the border."
We all nod, and sit in silence and shiver as we wait for the train to arrive. I close my eyes for a moment, and I open them when the ground beneath me starts to shake violently. The train's close by.
A blinding light hits us and a loud rumble grows louder and louder until the train is whizzing by. It's a couple tracks away, but I've never been so close to a train before. I've only seen them from a distance or on tv. It moves so fast that it stirs up wind that makes my hair whip wildly around my face and sucks the air out of my lungs. I grab onto the fence so I don't end up being sucked under the train's wheels, I can't believe we're going to be riding on top of this thing.
The wheels screech from the train suddenly breaking, and it gets slower and slower as it pulls into the far off station. Before it can even reach a complete stop we all jump up and gather our things. Justin pulls Molly up onto his back and rushes towards the train cars. The rest of us try to keep up with him, and I stumble over the other tracks. By now the train has reached a complete stop, and Justin climbs up onto a train car. He reaches down to help us up, and we all climb up a second ladder onto the roof. We all crouch down and try to situate ourselves as best as we can, fortunately there's a rail on either side of the car for us to hold onto.
The train suddenly jerks forward, almost making me topple over. It only takes a few minutes for the train to reach its old speed again, and I grip onto the railing and my backpack so I don't fall. I try not to think about the rushing ground beneath me.