She peered into the dark, unable to see anything past a few feet. She was shaking. The moment she had seen the glow in the distance—such a soft, strange light, briefly glimmering and then eclipsed—her body had begun to tremble. It was real. Somebody was out there. She stood waiting, trying to breathe calmly. She listened intently, but there was no sound. She flashed the minibeam twice and listened more. There was nothing. The night was still. Then she heard it. A faint rustle of grass, just once, somewhere straight ahead of her. She squinted into the distance but saw nothing. Another rustling, to the left this time, closer. A denser darkness rose there, shambling forward. Rachel couldn’t discern anything but movement for a long time. She held her breath, listening as the sounds got nearer. Slowly, a form began to take shape—a human form. It was extraordinary to see it, out in the meadow where nothing had ever been but birds and trees, on the other side of the Line. At first, Rachel couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
