Chapter 011 - The Infinite Train 11

  Elliot fell into a moment of recollection, clearly uncertain. After a pause, he finally asked, “What made you bring that up all of a sudden?”

  “That old woman just said that ‘Waterbloom’ means ‘mirror’,” I replied, tapping the glass bottle, dining knife, metal plate, and assorted objects scattered on the table. “If among all these glass surfaces there’s one that acts like a mirror, that’s the door we’re looking for—the door that severs the M?bius strip and lets us escape.”

  Elliot paused, then said, “There are plenty of glass surfaces—more than just one mirror.”

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  He sat down and spoke slowly, “In the dining hall, the kitchen, at the sinks, in the changing rooms—glass is everywhere. Even the hall is lined with it. But can you pinpoint which one is the mirror? We only have five minutes.”

  I answered, “No, we have an entire night.”

  He looked at me and asked, “You want to get off and spend the night at the station?”

  I tapped the nearly empty meal box with my fingertips and said, “Do you really think we’ll have enough supplies to survive the next cycle? Or even if we do, what then? With no food left, resorting to feasting on our companions’ corpses might keep us going for another week—but what about after that? Are we doomed to be trapped on this train forever? So, do we bet, or not?”

  Elliot stared at me in silence for a long moment before finally uttering one word: “Bet.”