by Amy Cross
“I’m going to look in this corridor,” he said finally, turning to her. “I don’t like the idea of splitting up, but he might double-back and try to get to the surface, so one of us needs to stay here. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.”
“Sure,” she replied, feeling her heart pounding in her chest as Ben hurried toward the far end of the room. Taking a few steps forward, she kept a finger poised on the rifle’s trigger, ready in case the stag-headed man appeared at any moment. There was no music on the eighth level, at least not anymore, and any customers that had been there earlier must have fled. She took a few more steps toward the far end of the room, and after a moment she realized she could see another door in the corner, which meant that there was at least a ninth level. She was starting to feel as if the Border never ended at all.
Suddenly she was pulled back and a hand covered her mouth, and she felt the tip of a blade pressing into her back. Twisting her head, she just about caught a glimpse of the stag-headed man behind her before he forced her head back down and slammed her hard into the wall, causing the rifle to drop from her hands.
“You’re going to get me out of here,” a pained voice whispered in her ear. “Now!”
“Tom?” she stammered, recognizing his accent immediately. “Tom Lanegan?”
“There’s not going to be any debate over this!” he hissed. “I refuse to be the last -”
Before he could finish, she slammer her elbow into his gut and spun around, kicking him away before he had a chance to swing the knife at her. As he stumbled, she reached down and grabbed the rifle before raising it and aiming straight at his head.
“You can’t do that,” Tom replied from behind the mask. “You’re a cop, not an assassin.”
She pressed her finger against the trigger, desperate to fire but still holding back. She knew he was right.
“Let’s talk about this,” Tom continued, taking a step forward. “Jane -”
She pulled the trigger.
The shot hit him in the forehead, blasting the mask apart and sending him slumping back against the floor. Staring in horror, Jane saw that not only had the mask been obliterated, but most of the front of Tom’s head had also been blown away, leaving blood and bone sprayed across the floor, even reaching as far as one of the nearby tables, the surface of which was spattered red. The dead man’s left hand twitched slightly before falling still.
“Jane?” Ben shouted, hurrying through but stopping as soon as he saw what had happened. “Was it him?” he asked. “Did you get him?”
“Tom Lanegan,” she replied, too shocked to keep from staring at the corpse. “You know, the manager of that company that Bob worked for?”
Nodding, Ben looked at the mess for a moment before turning to her. “Was it self-defense?”
She shook her head.
“Good,” he continued. “I’m just sorry it was you who got him instead of me. I mean, I’m used to killing people. I crossed that line a long time ago.”
Nodding, Jane finally managed to look away from Tom’s body, but a moment later her gaze fell upon the door in the far corner.
“I guess that leads down to the ninth level,” she said finally, her voice trembling slightly as she realized she could barely hold the rifle properly. Her hands were shaking and her mind was filled with replays of the moment she’d shot Tom Lanegan, and finally she had to turn away from Ben as she felt her chest starting to tighten. “I can’t breathe,” she stammered, stepping forward and leaning against the wall. “Something’s wrong, I can’t -”
“You’re having a panic attack,” Ben told her, hurrying over and putting an arm around her. “It’s okay, I think you just need to get out of here.”
She shook her head.
“Jane,” he continued, “you’ve been through so much. You need to go find your kids and be with them right now.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“You can come back when you’re ready,” he replied. “I’ve got a feeling it’ll take a few days to get this done, so I’ll come back up with you to get some supplies and then I’ll come down and get on with it while you take some time out. And then when you’re ready, if you’re ready, you can come help out again.”
“No, I -”
“You lost your husband,” he added. “You lost the man you love, the father of your two children. I lost my brother a long time ago, I’m used to the idea of him not being around.”
“This place has to be shut down,” she replied, already feeling as if she could breathe more easily now.
“It’s already shut down,” he pointed out. “We’ve cleared out the top eight levels, now we just have to finish off whatever’s left below. The hard part’s done, Jane. All that’s left now is for us to scrape out the human garbage at the very bottom.”
“I’m not leaving until it’s done.”
“Take a break and come back in a day or two.”
She turned to him, and after a moment she realized he was right. She couldn’t go on, she needed to go and find her sons and grieve with them.
“In your current state,” Ben added, “you’re more of a liability than a help. Please, Jane, take some friendly advice from your brother-in-law. The stag-headed man’s gone. That’s the most important thing, isn’t it?”
A little under an hour later, once they’d headed back up and grabbed some supplies from the vending machine at the bus stop, Jane walked with Ben back to her car. He had both guns slung over his shoulder, and the sun was rising as he stopped and looked toward the office building. After a moment, he turned back to her and allowed himself a faint smile.
“Tell those kids their Uncle Ben is gonna come back some day and make sure they’re on the straight and narrow,” he said. “Tell them they can’t go using their father’s death as an excuse to be assholes.”
“I’ll be back down with you in a day or two,” she replied. “If you’re not done by then, anyway.”
Stepping over to her, he gave her a brief hug before turning and making his way toward the steps.
“Good luck,” she whispered, watching as he entered the building. She waited for a few more minutes, debating whether or not she should just go after him anyway and get the job done, but deep down she knew that she’d seen and done enough for one night. The Border was finished, and that was the most important part. Climbing into her car, she replayed the moment when she’d shot Tom Lanegan, and she realized she didn’t feel bad at all. She felt good. She’d killed the man who’d killed her husband, and along with Ben she’d managed to rid Bowley of a terrible blight. Starting the engine, she turned the car around and headed home, while trying to work out what she was going to do now that Jack was gone.
***
“He’s going to need a lot of physiotherapy,” the doctor explained, keeping his voice low as he talked to Ruth in the doorway, “but you mustn’t lose hope. I’m sure your husband will be able to walk and talk again at the end of it.”
“He can’t go back to work, though, can he?” she replied.
He shook his head.
“The stroke…” She paused. “He’s always been such a proud man. I don’t know how we’re going to manage.”
Turning, Ruth looked toward the bed, where Alex lay with his head to one side, staring into space as if his mind was filled with a million other things. Even as his wife and the doctor stood discussing his rehab options, Alex’s thoughts were lost in an aching sense of regret. For him, just as the horrors of the Border had been shut down, they had also become shockingly apparent. Now, finally, he understood the nature of the evil that until that night had only existed at the edge of his perception.
***
“What are you doing up?” Bob asked, stopping in the doorway as soon as he saw Beth sitting on the sofa with her arm around Lucy. The little girl was asleep now, having spent the past few hours listening to her mother telling her that everything was going to be okay.
“It’s complicated,” Beth replied, keeping her voice low
.
“Why’s there blood on the kitchen able?” he asked.
“Complicated.”
“Why’s there blood in the hallway?”
“Complicated.”
He paused. “I have nowhere else to go.”
“No kidding.”
He looked over at the Christmas tree, which was slowly rotting in the corner by the window. The angel was up there, its head still impaled through on the tree’s top. After a moment, he turned back to Beth. “You know how you said you inched across the line toward doing bad things?”
“That’s something of an over-simplification,” she replied, “but yeah, sure. I know.”
“Well, I was wondering…” He paused again. “I was wondering if you thought maybe you could inch back? If maybe we could inch back?”
“How would that work, exactly?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
He took a deep breath. “Can I at least use the spare room for a while? I was going to stay with Tom Lanegan, but the guy’s a complete asshole.”
“He’s not the only one.”
“Can I please use the spare room?” he asked with a sigh. “I know I have no right, but… I can’t afford to move into a motel.”
Beth opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell, before feeling Lucy shift slightly. She waited in case the girl woke up, but after a moment she realized her daughter was sleeping soundly now, which felt like a miracle after the images she’d seen on the phone.
“You can use the spare room,” she told her husband finally. “After that, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“It’s all you’ll get.”
They both waited, each of them assuming it was the other’s turn to say something, before Bob took his bag and headed up to the spare room.
“Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart,” Beth whispered, kissing the top of Lucy’s head. “I promise.”
***
“What do you mean, leaving?” Mary shouted as she followed her daughter out the front door. “Where the hell do you think you’re gonna go? And what the hell happened to you, you look like a complete mess!”
“I’m getting out of this place,” Katie said firmly, opening the trunk of her car and shoving a couple of hold-alls inside before slamming the trunk shut again and heading to the driver’s door. “I’ve been saving money. I have to get away, I have to get as far from this place as possible.”
“But -”
“It’s physical!” she shouted, turning to her mother, almost trembling with rage. “It’s a physical thing! It’s not mental, it’s not emotional, I have to physically get away from Bowley or I’m going to lose my mind!” She took a deep breath, feeling a pain in her injured shoulder but determined not to let it show. After all, her mother knew almost nothing about the previous night’s events, and she figured that was how things should stay.
Taking a deep breath, she turned to look at her car. The low morning sun was casting an orange glow along the street, and for a moment Katie felt a sense of fear at the thought that she had no destination in mind. She was just going to drive away from Bowley and hope that somehow she slotted in somewhere else. At the same time, she knew there was a danger she’d just get lost and run out of money, and then maybe end up slipping through the cracks of life. The fear was invigorating, however, and after a moment she felt a new sense of purpose.
“You don’t seem right,” her mother said finally. “You’re worrying me.”
“I’ll call,” Katie replied, with tears in her eyes as she kissed her mother’s forehead and then climbed into the driver’s seat. “Or email, or something like that. It might take a while before I know where I’m going but…” Pausing, she stared at the road ahead. “I’ll find somewhere. Not every place can be like Bowley.” She took a deep breath. “Everything’s gonna be fine, Mom. I promise.”
With that, she pulled the door shut and started the engine. Five minutes later, she was on the interstate, trying to work out where exactly she was going to go. As she watched the road ahead, she felt her fear starting to grow, except that it wasn’t just fear. There was anger too, and rage and fury. And sorrow. And wonder. And curiosity. And regret. And joy. And something else that didn’t even have a name.
Finally she lost control of the wheel as she floored the accelerator and screamed.
***
Kicking open the next door, Ben made his way down into the darkness, with only a few red lights on the wall. When he got to the bottom of the steps, he looked across the main room of the Border’s twentieth and saw a shape moving in the shadows, twisting as if it was trying to get away. Raising his shotgun, Ben made his way across the room and made short work of the figure, not even looking it in the eye before blasting it. Once he’d checked that there was nothing else around, he headed to the door in the corner and kicked it open, and then he began to make his way down to the Border’s twenty-first level.
All he knew was that he had no intention of stopping until he reached the bottom.
Epilogue
Twelve years later
“No, you’re a dumbass,” Lucy replied, before taking a sip from her milkshake. Fixing her cousin with a frown, she slowly raised her middle finger in his direction.
“Oh, you’re gonna be so popular when you get to college,” Stuart replied with a grin. “Everyone’s gonna love you.”
Rolling her eyes, Lucy looked across the diner for a moment. A damp Saturday morning had turned into a rainy lunchtime, with a downpour during the afternoon, and now finally darkness had fallen and brought a wet evening; it wasn’t raining anymore, but there were puddles all across the parking lot, reflecting the bright lights of the nearby stores. Still, there was no place she’d rather be, especially since she’d be leaving Bowley in less than a day’s time, heading off for her first semester at college on the west coast. She was scared, sure, and she knew she’d miss life in Bowley; at the same time, she wanted a little excitement, a little adventure, and she knew she had to go somewhere big and lively for that.
Bowley was the kind of safe, boring town where nothing ever happened.
As her cousins Stuart and Oliver continued to talk, Lucy turned and looked over her shoulder. She’d knew she’d miss the regulars at the diner, especially the ones she never talked to but who nevertheless were a constant presence. There was the new owner, who’d really turned the place around and made it the center of Bowley’s resurgence; there was Daniel, the editor of the local paper and a guy on whom Lucy had enjoyed a little crush, even though she knew he was too old for her; there was even Mrs. Cook, the town widow. After a moment, however, she spotted old Alex Gordon sitting in the far corner, staring with haunted eyes at his coffee. He’d never been the same since the stroke, and his wife’s death a few years earlier had left him a somber, desperately sad figure. There was something about Alex that always gave Lucy a chill, and she knew she wouldn’t miss seeing him around.
She turned and looked out the window, and suddenly she spotted a familiar figure hurrying past, heading toward the dark office buildings.
“Hey,” she said, leaning over and tapping Stuart’s shoulder. “Isn’t that your Mom?”
Stuart glanced at the window. “So?”
“So where’s she going so late?”
He shrugged.
“Mom’s an asshole,” Oliver added, with his arm around his girlfriend’s waist. “Ever since Alex retired and she took his job, she thinks she’s all that.”
Ignoring her cousins, Lucy got to her feet and carried her milkshake to the door. She stepped out onto the steps and watched as the dark figure got further and further away, and then she thought for a moment about the date, and then finally she realized.
“She’s going to see him,” she whispered.
Hurrying down the steps, she made her way across the dark parking lot, taking care to avoid the puddles of rainwater. When she got to the far side, she coul
d see Jane slipping through the shadows in front of the office building, and she thought for a moment to call out to her aunt before realizing that there’d be no point; she’d asked Jane so many times about what was really happening beneath the streets of Bowley, and every time she’d been fobbed off with a non-answer. Now, on her very last night in town before heading off to her new life, she figured she needed to be a little sneakier, so she finished the last of her milkshake, tossed the cup into a nearby trashcan, and then hurried after Jane, while making sure to keep far enough back that she wouldn’t be spotted.
A few minutes later, she watched as Jane unlocked the door to the abandoned building and stepped inside. After a moment, seeing that Jane hadn’t switched on the lights, Lucy hurried over and slipped through the door herself, at which point she could see Jane at the far end of the corridor, stepping into a side-room.
With her heart in her mouth, Lucy knew what was about to happen.
She made her way carefully along the corridor, keeping deathly quiet until she stopped outside the door. Peering through, she saw Jane setting a backpack on the desk and starting to pull things out.
And then, slowly, the door in the far corner began to swing open.
Lucy held her breath.
Ben stepped into the room, gaunt and old now, looking more tired than Lucy had ever seen a man look. His hair was gray and he was painfully thin, and the bags under his eyes had their own bags, reaching almost all the way down his cheeks to his mouth. Without saying anything, he set a shotgun on the desk and glanced at Jane, who hadn’t even acknowledged him yet as she continued to set out various tupperware pots from her backpack.
“So, then,” Ben said finally, his voice sounding harsh and little-used. “How’s tricks?”
“I brought you some extra this time,” Jane replied, still not looking at him, still focused on the pots. “Lots of vitamin pills, lots of nutrient bars, lots of freeze-dried fruit and -”
“That’s great,” he said, interrupting her. “What about stuff I can’t eat? What about ammunition?”