The time has come to risk it all.
What remains of Pine Lake is a dead end, and the best hope for Chris, the women he loves, and the denizens of the settlement now lay in a town of preppers living on an island a few hundred miles to the north. All of their faith is now being put into that settlement, and the train that Chris discovered and Fay repaired.
Even with a mostly functional train and a lot of luck, it will still be a long journey. Any number of dangers, environmental, animal, and human...