Jenna stared into his eyes as Balto thought about Aleu.

"you miss her don't you" said Jenna.

"of course i do" said Balto "but she would've wanted to leave anyway"

"yes" said Jenna, suddenly she heard Rosie calling from the town. she nuzzled Balto, said goodbye and left. Balto was tired, it had been a long day and he eventually drifted off to sleep.

 

Suddenly he woke up, he was being thrashed about and he was in a crate.

"where am i" he whispered to himself but he was suddenly interrupted by a long shrill whistle coming from one side of the crate, Balto jumped and decided to look out a small hole in the crate. He was on a train and by the looks of it the train was just leaving Nenana.

"HELP!" Balto howled but the whooshing, hissing and whistling of the engine was too loud for anyone to hear him. He suddenly was rocked to one side of the crate, he was shook by the jerk but soon was back on his feet again. They were moving, faster and faster, louder and louder was the whistling and they were going further and further away from Nome.

Balto woke up in his boat, he jumped and, thinking he was still in his dream, he charged the side of the boat but came to instantly. It took Balto a few seconds to realize that it was all just a dream, he sighed with relief and decided to go and see Jenna in the town.

The town was lively, especially since it was market day and everyone Balto passed seemed to say a friendly hello to him. He soon sniffed the air and caught Jenna's scent, he followed it as quick as he could. Jenna was at one of the market stalls with Rosy, they were looking at toys. Balto soon caught up them,

"I'll leave you two alone" laughed Rosy, and she walked off to see another stall. Balto and Jenna were walking through the town centre when all of a sudden Balto heard that same whistle he had heard in his dream. He ran over to the noise with Jenna following curiously behind him.

Balto ran over to find something metal in the snow, he sniffed it but then he heard a whistle, much too close for his own comfort, he looked up and saw a train heading straight for him, he tried to jump out of the way but his paws were glued to the floor. The train whistled time and time again but Balto couldn't move, the train started to slow down. Balto suddenly realized this thing wasn't going to stop in time, the train was whistling, whooshing and hissing all at the same time. It rolled on it's own and stopped just in front of Balto, it was all just too much for a dog and Balto was out cold on the rails. The last thing he remembered was he heard a man running up to him and he felt the man pick him up.

He woke up again in a noisy place, but it was warm, Balto opened his eyes, he was in the cab of an engine, he got up and sniffed the place he was standing. Over in the corner was a man, he had his hand on one of the many controls Balto looked at him cautiously. The man looked at Balto,

"Hey boy" he said "that was quite a nasty shock you had there"

'he's nice' thought Balto, he sighed with relief and looked out of the front window, everything was going by so fast. He loved it, he stuck his head out the side of the cab and let his tongue fly in the wind.

"Sorry i almost hit you" the man said "they should have fences put at the side of the line"

Balto looked ahead and the little town of Nome was over in the distance.

"My name is Dan" said the man "you seem to like looking out of the side of the cab don't you"

Balto went back into the cab and curled up by the fire. Dan looked at him lovingly

"My dog would like you" said Dan "he is almost as mad about trains as i am but he does need some company sometimes"

Balto was warm now and he fell fast asleep.

When he woke up he was at the station in a basket, he opened his eyes and saw a brown dog sleeping next to him, He was tired and wanted to go to sleep again, but the brown dog suddenly saw Balto was awake.

"Morning" he said walking over

"Good Morning" Balto yawned

"So you almost got hit by the train did ya" smiled the brown dog "Nasty shock when one of those things creeps up on ya, my name's Sam"

"Oh hey Sam" said Balto "My name is Balto"

Sam's jaw suddenly dropped open, he could not believe what he was hearing.

"Balto?" stuttered Sam "A- as in THE Balto" Balto nodded

"Oh i have heard so much about you mate" said Sam "you're the towns hero it's not often you come across a town which was saved by dogs"

Balto and Sam talked for the rest of the afternoon, Sam was asking questions about the serum run, like

"Did you run straight from the team to the town?" or

"Were you alone?"

and Balto answered every single one of his questions in the most detail he could. By the time that evening came Sam had just run out of questions and Balto had just finished answering them.

"Well nice to meet you at last Balto" said Sam "i've got to get my train back home"

"where do you live?" asked Balto

"I live in Anchorage" said Sam, but at that moment a whistle echoed through the station grounds, Sam ran over to the station platform and dissapeared behind a cloud of steam.

Balto was on his way home when he passed Rosy's house and couldn't help but overhear a conversation between Rosy's father and mother,

"I just don't understand it"

"Don't worry"

"People always used to travel by bus at Nome"

"Well maybe you could work on the railway"

"Not the job for me"

"But the railroads are driving you out of buisness"

"What can i do"

Balto was shocked, Rosy's father was a bus driver and the railroads were driving him out of buisness, he was still shocked when he saw Jenna, she immediantly ran over,

"Oh Balto are you alright" she cried

"I am" said Balto "but Rosy might not be"

"Why not?" asked Jenna

Balto then explained everything he had heard earlier that evening. Jenna told him to tell Sam but Balto was worried that Sam would be angry since he had such a supreme interest in railways. But he decided to go and see Sam the next day and tell him about it.

"Morning Balto" smiled Sam as Balto walked slowly in "What's Wrong?"

"I'm afraid" said Balto "That your railway is driving the buses of nome out of business"

"Yeh well" laughed Sam "That's because nobody wants to travel by that stinkin' bus anymore"

Balto growled "It's not stinkin' it's"

"It does tink, especially the drivers they just..."

"that is enough" snarled Balto

"Don't tell me you're on the buses side" said Sam starting to get edgy

Slowly, Balto nodded. Sam was taken aback,

"I thought you liked the railway" he growled, "Well if that's the way you feel..." he jumped onto a moving carriage and Balto saw his angry eyes leaving the station. Balto began to get quite worried,

He was on his way through the town, when he heard voices coming from inside the post office. He looked in and saw that the railway businessmen and the bus businessmen were shaking hands

"Right" said the railway side "We'll start first thing tomorrow, 19 tons of coal from Nome to Anchorage"

"Your on" said the bus side "May the best Business win."

***

"Yes!" grinned Sam, when his owner told him the news "I'll show that howling bus dog, the railways will win this i know it"

Balto was watching Sam from the window of the station, he snarled but had a trick up his sleeve, he went to see the mail team

"US?" said Kodi "Against that thing?"

"Listen" said Balto "it's gonna be blizzardy tomorrow so if the bus gets stuck we'll be there to get it out"

"It's not a bad idea" acknowledged Dusky "We'll just need to have enough room to get on the bus tomorrrow"

"Don't worry" smiled Balto "Rosie's dad will make sure we're on there"

"So" smiled Kodi "If the train gets stuck in the snow, then it'll only be sam and the crew to help it out"

"Exactly" smiled Balto "They won't win with us on the bus' side"

When Sam heard this from Balto he was furious

"We may not have a dog team!" he shouted after Balto as he left "But we have determination"

****

The next day was busy, Sam kept checking on the locomotive while Balto and his team kept checking the bus to make sure everything was in order. The bus then parked next to the station where the train was already waiting, the loads were measured and they were ready.

"Alright people" shouted the two business men "You may now start"

The bus had trouble starting in the cold weather, but the locomotive started almost immediately, It went firing out the station with a roar and left the bus far behind. Balto saw Sam's face as they roared out of sight.

"Come on" said Rosie's dad, the bus soon started though and they started with a will, they were soon drawing level with the train. Sam looked out the cab and saw them

"Open her out Ben!" he shouted

"Steady now, steady" said the fireman

The bus and train then crossed over each other and the train went straight into a tunnel whilst the bus had to shoot up and

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