The Schwarzschild Radius (47 page)

Let this lead somewhere, anywhere
, thought Rachel. The air seemed to be getting more stagnant, not fresher. Eventually he would catch up to them, even if all he had was a flashlight.

“I can’t take this stench,” said Sonia, bending over. Soon after, Rachel heard the sound and smell of vomiting.

Olivia leaned on her sister. “I’m getting really weak.”

“You’ve got to go on, you hear me? I didn’t come this far to find you, so you’d die, so you just hang on and keep going.”

It was getting hotter, which meant they were descending. They reached a mound of concrete rubble, a dead end. Their hands probed the surrounding walls for an opening. There was none.

“Boost me up,” said Rachel. Sonia made a sling with her hands as Rachel tried to get a purchase on the loose mortar. Sonia stepped back as chunks of cement rolled toward her feet.

Rachel felt movement in the air, not quite a breeze, but definitely the boundary of something. She pulled away some mortar.

She cleared enough debris to fit her body through the opening, then began to climb down the other side. A small landslide sent her to the ground.

“Rach! Rach!” whispered Olivia.

She had landed on a sharp chunk of concrete.

“Come on,” said Rachel, still trying to get up. “Olivia first. Help her.” With one girl pushing and the other pulling, Olivia made it through the opening. Sonia followed and Rachel grabbed her waist to slow the descent.

Rachel felt the walls, which were now smooth tile, the kind used in bathrooms.

This portion of the tunnel was still abandoned, but it appeared to be built more recently. Rachel could hear dozens of rats scurrying. Something hairy and sharp fell on Rachel’s face. She screamed and covered her head while flailing with the other arm. They had disturbed the hundreds of bats that lived down here. Their bare feet sank in two inches of bat guano.

“Bats leave their roost every night. That means there has to be a way out of here,” said Rachel.

The scream didn’t go unheard by their pursuer. It was difficult to judge distance in this world, but it wasn’t far away. This had to be brought to a close soon. Brazos proceeded swiftly in the darkness. Still, they had gone farther than he had thought they would in the allotted time. Many had wept down here and these girls would be no different. The lassos were ready. In the dark, it would be easy to flick it over their heads. It had been a long time since he was this far in the tunnels. He was getting near the end of the old tunnel. Where were they? There was no place to hide.

He got to the rubble where there had been a collapse. There was enough room at the top of the pile for someone to fit through.

Now he was angry. Once past this, there were ways of getting to the surface. There were even some homeless people who might be witnesses. He would have to kill them right here as soon as he found them. Brazos quickly scrambled up the mountain of concrete, enlarged the opening and lowered himself to the other side.

“I can hear him,” said Sonia.

“Keep moving,” said Rachel. There was more debris on the ground. They stepped on glass and bottle caps, human excrement.

They made it to another station platform and climbed out of the tracks. They felt around in the dark, finding a stairway blocked by a gate and padlock. They lunged at it.

Suddenly, they were caught in the beam of a flashlight.

The figure didn’t react to their screams that echoed in the tunnel for several seconds. Rachel smelled him before she saw him. The beam reflected off a wall and dimly illuminated the man. He was large with an Old Testament beard and rags that hung shapelessly from his frame.

“Please help us,” said Sonia. “There’s someone after us.” He seemed to have forgotten language; he just stood there in disbelief that three school girls would wander into this world.

“Which way is out of here?” demanded Sonia.

They walked around the stranger without taking their eyes off him. When they got to the end of the station, they climbed back down onto the tracks.

“Stay off the third rail. If you see a train come, duck into one of these,” said Sonia, putting Olivia’s hand into a maintenance recess.

Rachel fell, hitting her head against a railroad tie. Her chest heaved. She staggered up and hopped on one foot. A broken bottle lay at her feet.

The laceration was deep and blood oozed out. “Oh shit, this is bad.” She ripped a piece of her skirt off and wrapped it around her foot. “Keep moving.”

A gunshot rang out with deafening echoes.

“Oh my God,” said Sonia.

The only way out was to get to the next station and hope that there was an unsealed exit. Rachel wished for a train to come now, but no one was going to come here to rescue them.

“Run! Run! Dammit,” screamed Rachel, pulling her sister by the arm, running her hand along the wall to guide them in the dark.

The heat was intense, their mouths parched. This was a city beneath the streets, another plane of existence within New York. The three girls held hands as they stumbled ahead. The next station was at least four blocks away. The pain of their ravaged feet gave way to terror. She could feel a curvature to the wall. This was a turn.
Please let this lead to somewhere
. As they rounded the curve, Rachel turned around and the flashlight was gone. This was their chance to lose him if they could get to the next station.

“Faster.” Olivia tripped over a tie and the others held her up. They were now almost dragging her. Rachel looked behind her. The flashlight was back and closer than ever.

“Look, there’s light ahead,” said Sonia. It was true. The faintest glow appeared in the distance. Rachel could start to see tracks several feet in front of her if she kept her eyes moving.

Brazos turned the homeless man’s face with his foot, now that he had extracted the information he needed. There was a sheer ray of light filtering down from two levels above.

How he’d love to work them over with a knife, but there was no camera to record it. It was too far to drag all three back to his lair. He would have to end it here. What a waste.

Over the next two minutes, he cut the distance in half. Brazos was just a few hundred feet behind them. He’d been careless to let things get out of his control. Now he’d have to retake control, but give up a major payday. He reloaded, then closed in on them.

They were bent over panting, and when Rachel stood up erect, he was facing them. He leveled his pistol at Rachel. From a hundred feet it was an easy shot.

Sonia dove to her left, pushing Rachel to the ground. The shot rang out and the three girls fell. When Rachel scrambled to her feet, Sonia didn’t move. There was a spout of blood coming out of her temple and Rachel kneeled, screaming, cupping her hand over the mortal wound.

Rachel and Olivia staggered through the low light. He pulled the trigger again and again, emptying the gun. That was all right because he knew what was ahead.

The sisters reached the platform and ran to the end. The tunnel had been sealed here.

There was no way out.

razos started to put the weapon in his belt, then he changed course and slipped it into the small of his back as though he would soon be using the front of his body.

They stood ten feet apart. He threw Rachel to the ground and straddled her. Olivia jumped on him and he slammed his elbow into her stomach, crumpling her.

One hand was around Rachel’s throat and the other was up her skirt. He ripped off her underwear. She thought of her parents, of Joules. All the things she didn’t accomplish in her life. They would read about her in the papers. When she managed to bite his wrist, he slammed the heel of his hand across the side of her head, making her see lights.

“I want you to have a pretty face while I fuck you, then I’m going to turn it into pulp.”

He probed her with his hand, once again gathering information. Then he pinned her to the ground with one arm while he pulled his pants down around his knees. After prying her legs open, he lowered himself onto her crotch. As he was trying to force himself into her body, she hooked her arm around his neck as she would a lover. With the other hand, she plunged the dull point of a discarded hypodermic needle into his carotid artery.

He struggled, breaking the needle. Olivia jumped on him from behind and sent the hypodermic that Brazos had given her into his neck. His fist slammed into the side of Rachel’s face. He threw Olivia to the ground again, breaking the needle. The entire insulin vial that Olivia had sewn into the hem of her skirt was emptied, but was it coursing through Brazos’ veins?