The Fox and the Pigeon hole Chapter 25

25. Drastic measures

 

“Please report any suspicious behaviour”

“Station staff are here to help, if you have any questions or queries please make yourself known to them”

“Please be aware, it has been reported that several fugitives may be active in the area”

 

The woman’s voice is painfully cheerful, it emanates from the entrance of the station as Jackson and Katie walk towards it. The entrance is unfortunately narrow, the endless flow of people huddle together. In their paranoid state the two fugitives notice every face, every glance in their direction, luckily most people are too self absorbed to waste precious time on noticing anyone else or reporting anything ‘suspicious’. Jackson and Katie join the flow of people slowly edging themselves towards the monotonic announcements. The noise and commotion are welcome, what better environment to lose track of people. That encouraging thought is diminished as the station comes into view. From the street all that is revealed is a row of glass doors, with machines between them read peoples ID cards. The people move together as all the doors open in unison, it’s robotic. Katie looks sideways at Jackson, with only three people in front of them. She looks horrified. Why had they not considered this? Having both ridden trains all their lives. They would have to use their cards to get into the station, they would be found. Instantly.

 

Still trying to remain calm and appear undisturbed Jackson pulls Katie out of the line and they casually walk together past the entrance to the opposite side. They stop, leaning against the wall to the left of the station, while the queue files in from the left. “What do we do now” Katie asks in a strained, jovial tone. “We-“ He hears footsteps coming towards him from behind “We’ll just have to wait here for them” He replies, a little too loudly. But the couple walk past, hand in hand staring into each other’s eyes, oblivious to the world. “I don’t know” He says quietly, “Why didn’t we think about this?”

“I know” She covers her face in anger, but Jackson slowly pulls her arms downward and smiles to remind her of their precarious position. “Shall we leave?” She breathes,

“No. That’s too obvious” He retorts, “We’ll just have to wait and-“

“Wait for what?” she wails, “Nothing’s going to change. That station is the only way out of here and we can’t get in without giving ourselves up. But” She looks at nothing in particular in a terrified stare “We can’t stay here, we-we.” She sobs “We’ve already stayed here too long”

“Shhh. Stop. We can get out of this” But even as he says it Jackson knows that there is no way out, no solution. There is nothing to do but wait to be found” As if in answer to their desperate hopes, a metal door just along the wall in front of them suddenly snaps open. Katie’s heart leaps, finally a way out. But just as suddenly it drops like a stone. Out of the double doors comes a jogging line of officers, they are grasping guns with both hands. In the second she has to react she grasps Jackson, who is about to turn around, and pushes him up against the wall, passionately kissing him. Jackson is shocked but, glimpsing the officers running past them he lets it happen. How could they not notice? But then again, is this how two guilty fugitives would act, in plain sight.

 

Katie pulls away, the officers have passed. They jog into the distance, not one of them looking back. Katie sighs, but then, looking up at Jackson realizes what she’s just done. Both of them stand there in silence, forgetting for a moment their present situation. Its awkward, to say the least. “I’m sorry” Katie blurts out, “I was just- I thought that it would- you know. I thought it would make us look-“

“No” Jackson breathes “It was...good” He stares down at his feet “Good idea, I mean” He says suddenly. “Yeah, good” he trails off. The tension is broken by Katie’s gasp, she suddenly leaps sideways and catches her arm between the metal double door before it snaps shut. Opening it she looks back, beaming. “Come on” Jackson looks carefully behind him but the line is smaller and nobody is looking in their direction, so he follows her into the passage.

 

After the daylight they are both standing in complete darkness for a while as the door closes behind them. But, as their eyes adjust, a narrow tunnel comes into view. It may be some kind of maintenance tunnel but, like the rest of the city, is perfectly clean. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea” Katie says looking down the long passage, “We have no idea where this might go”

“Better in here than out there though” Lance assures her, “Let’s just see where it goes” They walk down the passage. It gets steadily darker, they can see the day lit door where they entered and a small pinprick of light ahead, but there are no lights in between. “What’s that?” Katie breathes, Lance hears it too. In the distance, a small tinkering sound, like somebody tapping a fork on a metal can. “Its water”

“Dripping water” They walk on, more slowly now. A reflection on the ground catches Lance’s eye, it’s a small puddle of water, it faintly reflects the daylight behind them. “Look here” In the gloom they can just make out a thick pipe and the echoing sound of steadily dripping water. “Come on we should keep going... Lance come on!” She pleads.

“Wait” Lance is feeling the walls around the pipe, like a blind man trying to find his way. “Yes, Katie come back. There’s a way out, a passage behind this pipe. Look here” He sticks his arm out beside the pipe but it meets no wall. Barely visible in the darkness the thin passage seems to run perpendicular to the original. “I don’t know...” Katie eyes the passage cautiously.

“What?” says Lance incredulously “This leads in the direction of the station, we must be so close. KATIE come on!”

“But...”

“But nothing” He squeezes into the passage sideways, pulling her in along with him.

Clearly, nobody ever conceived this thin passage to be used by people. The other passage was dark but now they are in almost pitch black. Slowly, they walk sideways. The walls are damp, in places water trickles down their necks and onto the pipe which continues at their feet. “My dress is ruined” Katie sighs after a long silence. “Well when we’ve escaped and have to live in the forest like animals, I’ll make you a new one. Out of leaves” He chuckles.

“That’s not funny” She says bluntly, before laughing. “Have we even thought this through? Even if we do get out, which would be a miracle? What then” Jackson can sense she is on the verge of tears but he can think of nothing to comfort her. “We’ll just live in the tree’s and eat-tree bark... or whatever it is they eat. Oh it’ll be great we can just live out our lives in the dirt and give up everything. Never see anyone we know again and probably die within days. But no! You’re right everything will be f-fine!” Now she’s really crying, she stops to lean against the wall hopelessly sobbing. Lance holds her arm, he would hug her, but in the cramped space there’s not enough room. They cling together in helplessness, in the pitch black. The only sound being the regular noise of water dripping onto the metal pipe, and Katie’s slow wheezing sobs.

 

Progress is slow, but they make it to the end, the narrow tunnel opens out into a small alcove where the pipe disappears into the stone floor. They are in another passage, almost identical to the one they had just left but it’s much brighter. Some small bulbs illuminates a row of doors along the wall facing them. Jackson looks up and down the corridor, “Let’s try them all, it won’t be long before more officers come down here” They both rush to try each door in turn. Working their way from left to right, but they’re all locked. Katie is becoming increasingly frantic as she pulls on the handles. Then when they had both lost hope Katie pulled on the third door from the end. She almost falls over backwards, having opened the door with such force. She’s bathed in white light. “Lance” She cries in delight, he rushes over to her. “It’s a bathroom”

 

Katie washes the dirt off of her face immediately; Lance closes the door behind him. “But Kat...This is a woman’s bathroom”

She snorts, “As if that matters”

Lance see’s himself in the mirror which makes up one wall of the gleaming bathroom. The sight of him, dirty, unkempt, his trousers in tatters revealing a bloody wound beneath, reminds him how unimportant this is. Just as he leans down over the sink to clean his own face they hear the sound of the door opening at the other end of the bathroom. Katie moves quickly, grabbing Jackson by the scruff of his neck pushing him backwards into one of the stalls. She closes the door behind him, the sound of it echoes off the stone walls. “Oh” says an unfamiliar voice, it sounds like a woman around twenty, light and airy. “You alright there?” The woman asks.

Jackson can feel the awkwardness as Katie replies slowly, “Ahh, yeah. Yeah I’m fine. Its-its my friend” She continues more casually “She’s” Katie laughs, or it could be a strange sort of cough “not feeling very well” Speaking as if it would make an excellent story for a party.

“ohh” The girl laughs “ Don’t tell me, drank too much”

Katie replies with a somewhat more convincing laugh. Meanwhile Jackson is breathing slowly, waiting for the moment the girl recognizes Katie. Or at least her dirty, ripped clothes. “I’m just on my way out too, yes. I’m meeting a friend and we are going to see, Zebediah Cross. Can you believe it? I mean, I meet lots of interesting people around, don’t you know...” The girl continues to talk with Katie faintly interjecting “oh really” and “wow” wherever acceptable. She went on for some time, apparently oblivious to the fact that Katie’s ‘friend’ hadn’t made the slightest noise. “WELL, then he says, ‘Ill report you to the government unless you get out of this house and take your nephew with you’ I mean, can you believe it? The cheek. But, I am a journalist you know, so...what can you expect”

“mmm” Katie agrees.

“So what do you do?”

“Me? Oh I’m...I’m you know, between jobs right­-“

“Is your, er. Friend alright in there?” The girl interrupts, apparently not willing to forgo hearing the sound of her own voice for more than a few seconds.

“Oh, yeah. Jacks-“ there’s silence “Jackie” Katie continues shakily, “Um. You feeling better?”

Jackson panics, what can he do? He can feel the gaze of the woman outside, every moment she stays makes it more likely that she’ll recognize Katie, or someone else will come in. His heart pounding, Jackson makes a faint “hmmm” of agreement in the highest pitch he can manage. There’s a tantalizing moment of silence before the woman laughs, screeching at the top of her lungs, “Somebody’s had a rough night. Anyway, I’ve got that train to catch in...oh, three minutes. I’d best be off” Jackson breathes a sigh of relief “Didn’t catch your name?”

“Alice” Katie says a little too quickly.

“Well, lovely meeting you anyway. Moira” Jackson can faintly see her shadow move towards Katie, they must be shaking hands. But then, finally she walks away.

“It’s funny. I could swear I’ve seen you somewhere before”

“Oh really?” Katie laughs, Jackson can hear her fear, “You meet so many people, perhaps we have”

“Perhaps” Her footsteps are loud, probably the result of heels or some other impractical footwear. Jackson finally calms down, he hears Katie turn the tap back on. But then the footsteps stop.

 

“OH MY GOD” her voice is changed, now one of pure terror. “OH, MY. It’s you! You! I’ve seen- I’ve seen you on the news. You’re that- that one! On the run! Your a- a criminal”

“Moira” Katie says cautiously, trying to calm her down “It’s not what you think. I’m not her. Moira, just listen to-“

“No, you are! You’re her” The woman seems genuinely terrified, Jackson wonders what crimes the government have blamed on them. Jackson makes up his mind and rushed out of the cubicle. The woman screams “IT is! You’re the other one! OH MY-”

“Moira!” Katie shouts. But the woman screams and runs for the door. Encumbered by her high shoes Katie catches up with her, she pulls her back by the arm “MOIRA! Stop! No just LISTEN!” Moira grapples go get free crying out hysterically.

“Please!  NO! Let me- let me go!” Katie drags Moira back from the door, she struggles frantically.

“We’re not going to hurt you” Jackson pleads weakly. But she struggles still, suddenly Katie cries out and releases her, Moira has stamped a sharp heel into Katie’s foot. She sprints to the door with Katie not far behind. They are both sobbing now. They run down the length of the bathroom. Then, just before the door. Moira slips, falling forwards. With a loud, sickening crack she collides with the blunt door handle, and collapses in a heap on the ground.

 

Katie just stands there. Her hands covering her mouth. Staring down, Moira’s hand is still leaning awkwardly against the door, as if she is still reaching for the handle. Jackson walks quickly towards them. “Is she...” Katie doesn’t move “Katie is she...” Jackson reaches them, his question is answered. The woman’s eyes are still open she stares blankly ahead. She’s dead. “No, no. Oh Jesus, oh- Katie” He hugs her, she still doesn’t move.

“It’s okay, we didn’t mean to. Shhh” But she pushes him away.

“What did we do?” She sobs, “What did- I do?”