“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

Ash takes a good look at herself in the restroom’s mirror, searching her own eyes for the answer to the question, “Is this really what I want to do?”

The voice on the other end of the call speaks up again. “Hello? Please state your emergency.” Her phone sits on the small counter by the sink, teetering to fall off with every bounce of the train. In her hand, the detonator to the bomb.

“9-1-1, are you there?”

There’s a bomb on the train.

“I need you to speak up. Are you in danger?”

“There’s a—” Once she says it out loud, there is no going back. But there is a goddamn bomb on this train, and she helped put it there. All to stay in her aunt’s good books, stay out of jail.

“Miss? What is your situation? Can you hear me?”

“There’s a bomb. On the train—this train. Right now.” Ash squeezes the detonator tight in her fist. The only way out of this is through. This is not the job she signed up for. Billy was right, this is too much, goes too far.

“Alright, Miss. I need you to stay calm and explain, slowly, what is it that you are saying.”

And so she does. Ash explains the bomb on the train, the job. She doesn’t name names, of course. Instead, she lies about having seen a strange man placing a device in the back in the train. When asked which train, she hesitates for a moment.

Truth is, Ash had thought about using this opportunity to leave before the job even started. The moment she was given the money to buy the tickets, she looked at the route of the train, made sure she knew where she was going if she decided to stay in it. That was before she knew about the bomb, about Jay or Billy. And if it wasn’t for the bomb right now, she would just stay in the train, let it take her as far away from home as possible. From this life. From her.

At least she remembers the planned stops along the way, so she can be certain she’s giving them the right name of the station after next. “That’s where we’re headed,” she says, and it’s only half a lie. She’ll get off the train at the next station, as was the plan for her job, and the police can deal with the bomb one stop later. After she’s long gone. Not the getaway she was hoping for, but as long as there is a bomb on this train, she would like not to be on it herself. Even if she’s the one with the control over if and when it blows up.

Billy will be waiting for her at the next station. She and him can get in his car and drive as far away from here as possible. Billy will know that it’s the right thing to do; even before they boarded the train, he seemed strongly against going through with this job.

The voice on the call urges her to stay on the line. Ash hangs up, instead, then turns off the phone.

She sits in silence for some time, gently swayed by the uneven motion of the train. Without a window to give her any frame of reference, her gravity seems to shift back and forth, like being half asleep in a rocking chair on the front porch on a lazy afternoon.

There’s something nagging at the back of her mind about all of this. Not this job, directly, but her place in it. Something subconscious is screening at her, but her conscious mind can’t quite put it together. As if she’s failing to connect crucial details between that day her aunt walked her out of the county jail, and the moment she decided to call the cops.

A loud bang on the restroom door tears her from her reverie.

“I know you’re in there, Ash,” says Jay in this strange juxtaposition of wanting to scream but needing to keep his voice down so as to not draw attention to himself. A whispered yell, or yelled whisper, all muffled by the thin door. Then, another knock on the door. “I’ve searched up and done this damn train twice already. What the hell’s going, man? Feels like you’re hiding from me.”

“Go away, Jay,” she says. “I really don’t want to do this, right now, understand?”

“Understand?” He hits the door with both fists by the sound of it. Leaning closer to it with his head. His voice, still muffled, calms down a bit. “We’re almost at the station. The, um, package is set. We need to get off this train, like now, see?”

Jay actually did it. He set a bomb on a moving train with people on it, however few there may be out here in the middle of nowhere. Somehow, this vindicates her decision to call the authorities, even if it also scares the shit out of her. It’s just now that she catches herself still squeezing the detonator, which, suddenly, appears much heavier in her hand.

She could have blown the whole train up by accident, just by being careless. Caught in her own thoughts of wanting freedom, she nearly blew it all to hell for real.

“I don’t wanna kick down this door Ash. People are already looking at me funny. Just come out, let’s talk.”

Ash puts her hand on the door lock, hesitating. “We can’t do this, Jay,” she says, moving her hand away again. “It’s not worth it. You can’t really believe this job will do anything for you or me to make our lives better, can you?”

Another thud against the door. Ash pictures Jay’s head smacking against it. “Too late for that, Ash. Everything’s in motion now. Best you and I—”

The sound of the train whistle, and then the unmistakable shift of weight as the train is coming to a controlled stop. They have arrived.

“Alright, Ash. We’re here. Come out now.” She unlocks the door before he’s done talking; his eyebrows are pulled up in surprise. “Oh, good.”

They stare at each for a moment. His hair is all disheveled, his jacket covered in specks of snow. Like he’s been outside recently. “What happened to you?” she asks.

“Long story. We’ve got to leave. Now.” He reaches for her empty hand—the detonator rests safely in the other one, behind her back.

She tries to pull away, but he’s already holding on tight. “There’s something I need to tell you.” I’ve called the cops. They will find and disarm the bomb at the next station. We just need to get away, and do not follow through. We just take Billy and drive as far away as possible. All night, all day. Cross the state line. Something. Just get away from all of this.

She wants to say all of this. All these thoughts racing through her mind. Yet, her lips stay closed.

“No time for this, Ash. We have to get off, find Bill, and get clear, see?” He pulls her down the corridor toward the next exit door.

That’s when both of them see it at the same time; just outside, on the platform, maybe a few cars ahead. Billy, a gun in his hand, keeping the Boss in a tight grip before him. Several of the Boss’s men approach slowly, their guns also drawn.

“The fuck is he doing?” Jay asks, watching this all play as helplessly as Ash.

“I don’t have a clue.” Ash wants to yell out at him, call his name. But even if she could, to what end? “We have to do something.”

Jay, caught in some morbid fascination and unable to turn away from the spectacle, says, “Like what? I don’t even know which side we’d be on here.”

They both can’t do anything but watch, as Billy throws the Boss at her own men. They scramble, giving him enough to fall backwards through the door and into the train. The men struggle to get back up and run after the now moving train, but it’s no use.

Ash, Jay, and Billy are now stuck on this damn train, stuck with this damn bomb, and headed to be greeted by the police at the next stop.

All thanks to her.

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