The Sandman

153

The ambulance arrives, its blue lights flashing across the snow. Joona stands up as the trolley is wheeled past the old buildings. He explains the situation to the paramedics, the whole time keeping his pistol aimed at the entrance to barrack number four.

‘Hurry up,’ he cries. ‘She’s running a really high fever, you’ve got to get her temperature down... I think she’s lost consciousness.’

The two paramedics lift Felicia out of the snow. Her hair is hanging in black, sweaty locks over her impossibly pale forehead.

‘She’s got Legionnaires’ disease,’ he says, then starts walking towards the open doorway with his weapon raised.

He’s about to go back inside when he sees the flickering blue light of the ambulance playing over the remains of the last building. There are fresh footprints in the snow, leading away from the building and into the darkness.

Joona runs towards them, thinking that there must be another exit, that the two buildings share an underground shelter.

He follows the footsteps at a run, through clumps of grass and scrub.

As he rounds an old diesel tank he sees a thin figure walking quickly along the edge of the pit.

Joona is running as quietly as he can.

The figure is leaning on a crutch, limping, then realises he’s being pursued and tries to move faster along the steep cliff.

There are sirens in the distance.

Joona races through the deep snow, his pistol in his hand.

I’m going to get him, he thinks. I’m going to arrest him and drag him back to the waiting cars.

They’re approaching an illuminated section of the gravel pit containing a large concrete factory. A single floodlight is lighting up the bottom of the steep crater.

The figure stops, turns, and looks at Joona. He’s standing right on the edge, supported by a crutch, breathing with his mouth open.

Joona slowly approaches, his pistol pointed at the ground.

The Sandman’s face is almost identical to Jurek’s, just much thinner.

Far in the distance Joona can hear the police cars arrive at the old barracks, but only thin arrows of blue light reach that far.

‘It all went wrong with you, Joona,’ the Sandman says. ‘My brother managed to tell me to take Summa and Lumi, but they died before I got the chance... fate sometimes chooses its own path...’

The strong beams of the police officers’ torches are circling round the old barracks.

‘I wrote to my brother and told him about you, but I never found out if he wanted me to take anything else away from you,’ he says quietly.

Joona stops, feeling the weight of the weapon in his tired arm, and looks into the Sandman’s pale eyes.

‘I was sure you’d hang yourself after the car accident, but you’re still alive,’ the skinny man says, shaking his head slowly. ‘I waited, but you just went on living...’

He falls silent, then smiles suddenly, looks up and says:

‘You’re still alive because your family isn’t really dead.’

Joona simply raises his pistol, aims the barrel at the Sandman’s heart and fires three shots. The bullets go straight through his skinny frame, and black blood sprays out from the exit wounds between his shoulder blades.

Three gunshots echo round the gravel pit.

Jurek’s twin brother falls backwards.

His crutch remains where it is, stuck in the snow.

The Sandman is dead before he even hits the ground. His emaciated body rolls down the slope until it hits an old cooker. Light snowflakes drift down from the black sky.