“Congratulations,” said the border guard. He looked at the distorted area reaching into the city. He held his hand to his ear. “Count Varn is down. We need cleaners and hold crews.”

Sara nodded. She holstered her weapons. Something had happened with the pistol, but she didn’t know what. The color on that last blast was wrong. She put it aside. The guard wanted her to keep moving.

A shape appeared in the sky above. It resolved into a plane that resembled a giant bird. Dots dropped out the back. She realized that soldiers were dropping into Varn’s former holding.

The guard pulled a pistol from his belt. He shot the milling zombies before they decided to attack. They had paused for the duel, and never quite restarted. Putting them down with short bursts of fire seemed better than letting them run loose.

Sara started walking. The tower beckoned and it wasn’t going to come to her. She wondered if the forces of the land kept vehicles out of the hands of freelancers. That would be something she could see them doing.

A smile crossed her thin face. Things had worked out better than she had thought, and she was still moving. She checked behind her when she heard an explosion. It looked like the Light wasn’t claiming the rest of the land without a dispute.

That wasn’t her problem. She had three bubbles to skirt around to get to what looked like a wall cutting the ground level off from the next section holding the tower. She would have to think about trying to get climbing gear, or punching through a gate, if she wanted to move on to the next ring.

She doubted she would be able to climb over with the lion paw she wore. The

climbing threads probably wouldn’t reach the top of the separating wall.

A helicopter would make things too easy for freelancers.

Sara followed the standing stones. Another dark bubble formed up on her right. She kept an eye on things as she walked. The sudden conflict had left both sides ignoring her while she moved away from the situation she had caused.

She spotted a river winding through the distance. Maybe she could use that to get to her destination. It would be nice to not walk for miles and be too tired to fight when she reached the end of the road.

On the other hand, a helicopter would make her a big target if she was in the air high enough for weapons to be used. Did they have missiles here?

She decided she didn’t want to find out when she was the one being targeted.

White towers reached for the sky on her left. Another plane lifted into the air. It looked like reinforcements were going to clear out the bite of Varn’s land she had seized for the light.

She wished them the best of luck with that.

Sara knew she wouldn’t be welcome in the Light city. She wondered if she was supposed to kill zombies for food. She frowned at that.

Did she even have to eat? She was dead, right?

She saw a gray place ahead. It sat close to the border stones. She wondered if this was a bit of darkness trying to creep over the line. She doubted it, but what was it doing there?

Should she go around?

A mixed group walked out of the place as she watched. They crossed over the line and headed into the Dark bubble that existed in that square. They didn’t have the glowing cuirass and helmet of soldiers of the Light, or the black of Dark.

She decided to take a better look at the place in front of her. Maybe someone in there had answers to her questions. That would be better than what she had right now.

Sara walked up to the place. It was a rectangle with large windows in the front, next to a glass in metal frame door. The door window proclaimed the place as Joe’s. People crowded the booths against the wall, tables in the center of the open dining space, and the counter in front of the kitchen. The walls were covered with pictures of people armed to the teeth, and a big clock. A jukebox played Night on Bald Mountain for the diners.

It looked like something from Happy Days but she didn’t mind. Maybe they had a cheeseburger and a milkshake she could get before she went on her way.

And she felt tired after the events of the day so far. She needed to take her mind off the hours and miles ahead of her to reach the tower.

Sara walked inside as a freelancer and his bird walked out. Both eyed her, but only one had both sets of eyes. He gave her a small salute before heading out into the dark. She waved back.

She wondered if he lost the eye before he wound up here, or after, as she stepped inside Joe’s. She headed for the counter as a guitar version of the William Tell Overture kicked out from the jukebox.

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“How’s it going?,” asked the bar man as he handed a large float to a woman dressed like Genghis Khan’s daughter. The woman nodded as she sipped on the straw in the float. “What can I do for you?”

“I don’t have any money,” said Sara. “I just came in because I was surprised at seeing what looked a freelancer place at the edge of the Light.”

“New here?,” asked the bar man.

Sara nodded.

“All right,” said the bar man. “Money is no good. Don’t trust anyone who says they will pay you. Gold is a little better, but again it isn’t that much better than money.”

“Then how do you pay for all this?,” asked Sara. She waved to indicate the diner around them.

“You don’t,” said the bar man. He went down to the end of the bar and handed over a plate of sandwiches to a waitress struggling with an order. He came back with an excuse me. “Everything is provided for free. We give you some companionship, then you have to go back to doing what you’re supposed to be doing as a freelancer.”

“The Light doesn’t harass you?,” asked Sara.

“Why would they?,” asked the bar man. “Freelancers inflict injury on their enemies for nothing. All they have to do is stand away, and lawyer their rules to their advantage.”

Sara nodded. She realized that was what had happened with Varn. The Light was willing to move their border back in place until she killed him. Then they decided to take as much of his territory as they could before his peers could get involved.

The two armies still might have clashed over the new boundary, but that wasn’t her responsibility. Once the new line had been embraced, there could be no backing down.

“Is there a safe way to get to the Tower?,” asked Sara. “I’m trying to get home.”

“Not really,” said the bar man. “Cutting across the enemy land is the fastest, but there’s no way to get to the inner ring without dealing with one or two of the demon lords. Voit is a heavy weapon flier who can reach any spot in his territory in seconds, and rain death from above. His territory is the closest to that wall on this side.”

“Is there anything else I should know?,” asked Sara.

“There’s probably tons,” said the bar man. “The most important is don’t let them kill you. You’ll come back as their plaything until a freelancer, agent of the Light, or another demon lord kills you again.”

Sara figured that. She wondered if she had freed any freelancers when she killed Varn.

“Are there any other places like this for freelancers?,” asked Sara.

“Not that I know of,” said the bar man. “There wouldn’t be on the Dark side of things. They barely respect the neutral ground of the hospitals. If I tried to set up over the line, I could expect visits from the local Dark lord every day until one of us killed the other.”

Sara nodded. Being trapped in the hospital was just business as usual. This was better than the Light telling her to go around instead of letting her cut through the center of their city.

“I do need a map of the barriers ahead,” said Sara. “I don’t want to get bogged down trying to get through places I can’t go with what I have.”

“That’s brilliant,” said the bar man. “We don’t have any of those. Freelancers don’t map the areas they are fighting in because mostly they are running away from dangers.”

“I should have thought about that,” said Sara. “Is there anything you can tell me?”

“What’s your name?,” said the bar man. “Mine’s Joe.”

“Sara,” said Sara. She extended her hand to be shook.

“What do you know?,” asked Joe. He turned and grabbed a sandwich and small salad combination to hand to a waitress.

“We’re dead and we have to sign up with one side, or the other, or go alone,” said Sara. “There is a closet and armory hidden behind mental doors. If I want to get home, I have to make it to the top of the tower in the center of things.”

“That’s a good overview,” said Joe. “But there are a few things missing. The most important thing is it’s almost impossible to get to the inner courtyard, much less to the tower. You’re going to need to get a team, or be really fast if you want to make it to the Separation Gate.

“And the realm is always growing,” said Joe. “If you can’t get to the Gate in a few days, forget it because there’s no way to get to the Tower because everything is stretching away from the center like an expanding universe.”

“That’s crazy,” said Sara.

“The only way to slow things down is kill demon lords,” said Joe. “That always

forces a new shape in things, and the Light acts like a solid wall to slow down the expansion.”

“All right,” said Sara. “I just killed one. The Light expanded into his turf. They

seemed to be fighting for control while telling me to move on.”

“All right, that’s good and bad,” said Joe. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Could I have some coffee?,” Sara asked. “Why is it good and bad?”

Joe poured her coffee from a pot on a heater. He put the cup on a saucer for her before handing her the bottles for creamer and sugar. She sipped the bitter brew without anything else in it.

“It’s good because the Light set up shop in his territory, expanding in to block his neighbors,” said Joe. “If they took the local hospital, freelancers will get a better briefing with a longer time limit on how long they can prepare before they have to head out.”

Sara thought about her brief talk with the recruiters and Doubtless. Then she had been forced to start running for her life.

How much better off would she be if she been able to choose weapons more suited for her, and not had to face the horde of zombies that had infested the hospital before she started? Would she be in the diner drinking coffee, or halfway to the Tower?

“The bad part is every Dark lord is going to be looking for you so you won’t take them by surprise and kill them too,” said Joe.

“And that makes everything harder for me,” said Sara. She frowned at her coffee as she sipped at it. “Any suggestions?”

“Hug the edge of the border as much as you can, be ready with whatever weapon you grabbed from the armory, shoot first,” said Joe. “In some places, you’re going to have to cross their territory. When you do, run as fast as you can and try for the closest edge of the opposite border.”

Sara thought about that inner wall. Could she get there on foot? She needed some type of car. Where could she get one?

“The Dark lords aren’t like the Light,” said Joe. “They’re individuals, so they won’t band together to get rid of you. You won’t have to worry about that.”

“That makes me feel better,” said Sara.

“On the other hand, they’ll be more serious since you killed one of theirs. There’s no telling what they’ll do if they see you on their turf,” said Joe. He handed a cup of coffee down the counter.

“I’m glad I made this world a better place,” said Sara.

“If I were you, I would get something to eat, and then head out before the rest of the local lords stabilize from the Light taking up more of their turf,” said Joe. “There’s always petty fighting until they recognize they aren’t getting their space back without some kind of major upheaval.”

“All right,” said Sara. “Let me have a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake. I might as well enjoy my last supper.”