Into a subway entrance

"Come on, RUN!" the woman screamed at David. She seized his hand and yanked him into a jolting run down the street. David was surprised that even bloodied and beaten, she was able to pull him along. But before they reached the end of the block, she started to limp and slow down.

David looked back and saw the tall man and short man hobbling after them, waving the twice-bloodied length of wood.

The woman pulled David round the corner and the dark maw of a subway entrance opened in front of them. They stumbled down the steps, and David automatically fished out two tokens and paid them through the turnstile. The regular subway passengers parted to give them room as they staggered to the edge of the platform.

The woman's hand tightened on David's, and she said, "We're on the wrong platform."

"What?" David said. His injured head felt two sizes too big.

"We have to cross the tracks," she said. "Help me down."

He stared. Below the platform, a shiny set of rails extended either direction. A skeletal set of pillars separated the near track from another in the middle, and then a third in front of the opposite platform. It was damp and dirty, and he could see a box of rat bait by the side of the tracks.

"Now! No time to play stupid," she said. She knelt by the edge and put her hands up for David to steady her.

David heard shrieks behind them, but he could also hear the low rumble of an approaching train. He grasped her hands and lowered her to the tracks, then looked around to see Carnie and his tall friend trying to bull their way through the turnstiles. He couldn't see another way out, so he grabbed the edge and dropped to the tracks. The woman took his hand again and led him across the first track, vibrating ominously under his feet.

"One more," she said. "Stay very close now." They picked their way through the pillars and across the next track. It seemed to gleam blackly in the dim light. "Touch wood I did it right," she added. The rumble and rattle of an approaching train filled the air. She trembled, leaning against David for support. The train noise grew louder, but strangely, seemed to sound more hollow and distant. She cupped a hand to her mouth and spoke loudly in David's ear. "Our train's next. No platform, so get ready to boost me in and climb up."

The train pulled up by the platform where they entered, but the hollow rumbling echo continued. David started when another train pulled up beside them on the middle track, running with dim orange headlights. The doors opened as if this were a platform stop, and David boosted the woman up. She held out a hand and he painfully pulled himself aboard. The woman collapsed into a seat and put her head in her hands. The doors closed quietly, and the train began to move

David stood in a daze, looking around the subway car. They weren't alone. Sitting in ones and twos were what looked like someone's idea of commuters. Something like. A man with a suit, a striped tie and a briefcase, but his alligator shoes had teeth at the ends. A young woman with a dreamy expression, wearing what looked like a nun's habit, but instead of black and white, it was bright red and orange. David tried to talk with her, but he had trouble holding her attention. Her eyes drifted off to the side as if he were a dim phantom she couldn't quite make out. There was someone with checked trousers, their face hidden by an enormous newspaper...but when David tried to read it, the print swam like guppies and his head hurt again.

He sat down next to the woman who started all this, hoping she might be able to make sense of what was happening. But she was sobbing, her head in her hands, and he couldn't get her attention by gentle words or touches.