The Fox and the Pigeon hole Chapter 26

26. Freedom

“Should we hold hands?”

“Let’s just keep going, we’re almost there” Katie fidgets, looking around at the thinning stream of commuters.

“Don’t keep looking around” Jackson hisses, Katie grits her teeth.

“I’m wearing a dead woman’s dress Jackson, nothing you can say will make that alright”

They turn a corner into a white tiled corridor, they hesitate, it’s enclosed. Nowhere to run.

“It’s only one train to the outer rim, we can make it” they continue. Hand in hand. It looks like a clear path except for an old couple walking on opposite sides. Jackson knows people like this, the kind of couple that isn’t close and has a tendency to be suspicious of everyone, not an ideal encounter. They walk closer, Jackson can feel Katie becoming tense beside him, she squeezes his hand.

“Do you have the tickets then?” The man inquires, not looking at anyone in particular.

“Of course,” replies the woman sharply, “I don’t forget important things. Some of us have a memory spanning longer than an hour” He doesn’t reply. The old woman is almost upon them, she wears the superior look associated with arrogance and the bitterness of an unhappy marriage. She catches Jackson’s eye, but he tries to look away slowly. Trying to act natural always seems to bring out the most suspicious behaviour possible.

They reach the platform, thankfully its quiet. The old couple seemed to have forgotten their suspicions in their hatred of each other. “Your leg is showing, face the wall” they wander to the end of the station,

“we should talk. About ... something”

“Nobody talks at the train station Jackson- “

“We need a plan, for what we do when we get out of the city- “

“-if” she interrupts; he gives her a sarcastic look.

“We should go somewhere, as far away as possible. Maybe we could get away, survive. I’ve heard about people leaving the city. They must go somewhere” He winces, the pain in his leg is slowly returning, “Maybe... there’s another city”

“I’ve heard those stories too. They always seem to end in ‘unexplained deaths’ that is not exactly how I imagined spending my 27^th...” She looks at him knowingly, but it takes him a moment to catch on.

“Ah. It’s today?” Another look, “No, it’s... soon though” There’s a tense silence

“I can’t believe you don’t know when my birthday is, how long have we known each other?!”

“I am sorry Kat, but honestly birthday celebrations aren’t exactly the most pressing issue at the moment, in case you haven’t noticed!” A group of woman walking onto the platform cast reproving glances in their direction, Katie turns her back to them. “We are not going to get caught after all this because we were arguing about birthdays” They look into each other’s eyes, Jackson unsure of how seriously to take her. He hadn’t taken her for someone to be worried the potential of a missed birthday in the face of such danger. But she is soon laughing, a little too hard considering their precarious situation. A sudden gust of wind along the platform signals the approaching train. It enters the station behind a series of hisses and clicks from the tracks below. The carriages seem to be mostly empty, they must have missed the evening rush hour. With a renewed hope they enter the train and take a compartment close the rear, the soft clinking of the train as is moves away from the station is the first hint of freedom they’ve had in a long time.