Gloria and Robert leave the swamp behind under Miz Lottie’s protection and reach the Tallahassee train depot after dark. They change out of their blood- and mud-soaked clothes, say a tearful goodbye to Miz Lottie, and board the train north carrying their money and the large envelope Robert stole from the warden. Both children are badly shaken by what they survived, and Gloria focuses on one goal: reaching their father in Chicago.

As the train starts moving, Gloria remains tense, convinced every white person is watching them and every noise might mean danger. In the segregated Negro car, she notices the filth, the smell, and the stains left by racist train workers, which shows that even while escaping the South they are still trapped inside Jim Crow. Robert sleeps through much of the journey, clutching a sketch of a smiling boy; Gloria understands he is somehow dreaming of the dead friend he lost.

By the second day, Miz Lottie’s food is gone and the children are hungry. When the train enters Illinois, Gloria feels the first real sense that they have crossed into a different world, and she decides to lead Robert out of the Negro car into the dining car despite his fear of getting in trouble. There, white passengers stare, but no one stops them. A kind Black railway worker from Florida serves them, accepts Gloria’s money, and welcomes them with the words, "Welcome home."

When they arrive at Chicago’s Union Station, Gloria is overwhelmed by the scale of the city, the mixed crowds, and the responsibility of protecting Robert in a place she does not understand. Although Miz Lottie had told them to use the information desk, Gloria still hesitates, carrying her Southern fear of white authority with her. She chooses instead to ask a confident Black man standing nearby for help.

The man turns, and Gloria and Robert realize it is their father. Robert runs to him, and the reunion releases the strain of the entire escape as father, son, and daughter embrace and weep together. Gloria does not yet reveal everything about the Reformatory or the evidence they carry, but she finally allows herself to imagine a future in Chicago with her family restored; Robert, seeing a brief vision of their mother, understands that the dead remain beside the living.