She crouches and pulls the knife from her boot and straightens and raises it over Bardem and stabs down. He has already fired the rifle, and he swings around to face her with the handle of the knife sticking out of the left side of his neck. He looks into her eyes. Saying nothing. Making not a sound, he drags the knife from his neck. The blade glistens. She turns and sets off at a run into the woods. Away from Bardem, away from the cabin. Away from Matty and from Jack.

Her mind, as she runs, is almost quiet. Almost calm.

X

I run.

I know he’ll follow.

I tear across the snow into a stand of dark trees and crash through branches and out onto open ground and cross into more woods on the other side. The deep furrows. I look toward the cabin, but I can see nothing. If I run he’ll come for me. He won’t go to the cabin for Matty, and he won’t go for Jack. If they’re alive, there’s a chance for them. At a higher ridge I fall to the ground and swing my chin up over the snow to see.

And I am right. He follows.

IX

Jack shoved and heaved against the hatch, but it didn’t budge. The pitiful light. Something heavy there, blocking it. He listened, holding Matty with difficulty. Ache of his shoulder. Beneath him, the stairs were moving. He could hear nothing. Where is Ava, where is she? He sat Matty on the wooden step and tried to put the hammer in his hand. “Take it,” he whispered. “Take it.”

Matty shook his head. He was about to fall over.

Jack heard the sound of the rifle report as if through several feet of water. He put his arm around Matty and held him. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I have to go look for something to help us open the door. I’ll come back. Do you understand? If the hatch opens, you swing the hammer and hit him. Do it hard. Do you understand? You can’t hesitate.”

Matty didn’t answer.

Jack shone the phone on Matty. His ashen face. “Okay. It’s okay. We’ll go together.”

He put the hammer in his belt and descended the stairs, holding Matty. The cellar was walled with stone. The phone was beginning to dim, and he pushed the button again. He could see nothing but the aluminum box. Rasp of air. The cold. He bent and coughed, rage filling his chest. There is nothing. There is nothing. She’s okay, he thought. She’s okay.

She’s okay.

He started toward the steps, holding out the light. Leaning against the wall in a corner was a spade. He shifted Matty on his hip and grabbed the spade by the handle and headed up the steps. Matty unmoving, quiet as a stone.