Chapter 4: The Rules of the Road

The toll booth materialized like a tumor growing from the bridge's surface, its wooden frame warping into existence with the wet sound of bones breaking. Leo watched in horrified fascination as reality bent around the structure, the asphalt flowing like liquid to accommodate its impossible presence.

It looked exactly like something from a 1950s highway—weathered wood painted in faded red and white stripes, with a single window that glowed with sickly yellow light. But the proportions were wrong, too tall and narrow, stretching up into the perpetual twilight sky of the bridge realm like an accusation against God.

"Payment time," Clara whispered, her countdown timer now showing 4 minutes, 33 seconds. Her hands shook as she clutched her phone, the Homebound app displaying options that Leo couldn't quite read from his angle—the text seemed to shift and crawl whenever he tried to focus on it.

Leo's own phone buzzed with an update. New text had appeared on his screen: "BRIDGE REGULATIONS - PASSENGER MANUAL" followed by a dense wall of text in that same crawling font that hurt to look at directly.

"It's a rulebook," he said, scrolling through the incomprehensible legal jargon. Most of it was gibberish, but certain phrases jumped out at him with awful clarity: "Passenger debt accumulated through unauthorized bridge access... Collectors authorized to claim overdue accounts... Payment may be rendered in currency, memory, flesh, or proxy substitution..."

"Proxy substitution," Clara repeated, reading over his shoulder. "What does that mean?"

Before Leo could answer, a voice drifted from the toll booth—pleasant, almost cheerful, but with an underlying wetness that suggested the speaker's mouth was full of something that wasn't saliva.

"Next customer, please step forward!"

Clara's timer hit 3 minutes, 47 seconds.

"I have to go," she said, taking a shaky step toward the booth. "Maybe if I explain that I don't understand how I got here, that I didn't mean to—"

"Wait." Leo grabbed her arm, his mind racing through the forum posts he'd read. "The survivors, they all mentioned rules. There has to be a way to—"

A new sound cut through the air—the wet slithering of something large moving across asphalt. Leo turned to see their doppelgängers approaching from both directions, his own twisted reflection grinning with teeth that looked more like broken glass than enamel.

"Passengers are reminded," the voice from the booth continued, now tinged with mild annoyance, "that collection agents are authorized to retrieve overdue accounts by force if necessary. Please proceed to the payment window in an orderly fashion."

Clara's phone buzzed. Her timer: 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

Leo's device chimed with a new notification. The Homebound app had opened to a screen titled "PASSENGER CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM." Below it, two profiles appeared:

Clara Hendricks - Status: Standard Passenger

• Toll Debt: 1 passage
• Payment Due: Immediate
• Collection Priority: High
• Available Options: Memory extraction, essence transfer, proxy designation

Leo Vance - Status: Standard Passenger

• Toll Debt: 1 passage
• Payment Due: 14 hours, 52 minutes
• Collection Priority: Standard
• Available Options: Currency payment, debt transfer, Collector application

"Collector application?" Leo stared at the screen. That option hadn't been there before.

A grinding sound echoed from the toll booth, like massive gears turning. The yellow light in its window began to pulse, and Leo realized with growing horror that it was keeping time with Clara's countdown.

"Step forward, Miss Hendricks," the voice called, and Leo noticed that Clara had stopped moving voluntarily. Her legs carried her toward the booth with the mechanical precision of a marionette, even as she struggled against the invisible strings.

"I can't stop," she gasped. "It's pulling me—"

Leo lunged forward and grabbed her hand, his own feet suddenly feeling the same inexorable pull. Together, they were dragged toward the toll booth's window, where something that might once have been human waited behind the glass.

The toll collector had no face, just smooth skin stretched over what looked like a collection of clockwork gears and meat. Its voice emerged from speakers mounted somewhere in its throat, crackling with static.

"Payment required for unauthorized bridge access," it announced, consulting what appeared to be a ledger made from human skin. "Miss Hendricks, one standard passage fee. Current balance: negative one unit. Payment options available."

The window display lit up with a menu that made Leo's stomach lurch:

• MEMORY EXTRACTION: 10-15 years of personal history
• ESSENCE TRANSFER: Permanent personality modification
• PROXY DESIGNATION: Transfer debt to willing substitute
• FLESH TITHE: [PRICING VARIES BY QUALITY]

"I don't have money," Clara said, her voice barely a whisper. "I don't understand what any of this means."

"Currency payment not available for your classification," the collector replied with what might have been sympathy if sympathy could sound like grinding metal. "However, proxy designation is available if a qualified substitute volunteers."

The creature's eyeless face turned toward Leo, and he felt something cold probe at the edges of his mind.

"Mr. Vance, your toll period has not yet expired. You are eligible to assume Miss Hendricks' debt in exchange for accelerated Collector consideration. Do you accept?"

Leo's blood turned to ice. "What does that mean? Collector consideration?"

"Employment opportunity in debt recovery services. Attractive benefits package including bridge access, enhanced physical capabilities, and job security. Initial contract term: eternity."

The doppelgängers had stopped their approach, Leo realized. They stood just outside the toll booth's circle of yellow light, watching with hungry patience. His own reflection caught his eye and mouthed a single word: "Choose."

Clara's timer hit 1 minute, 30 seconds.

"Leo, don't," she whispered. "Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I got myself into this mess."

But Leo was remembering the forum posts, the missing persons reports, the bodies that were never found. Clara Hendricks had been reported missing, but she was still here, still alive. The toll booth wasn't just collecting payment—it was collecting people.

"What happens if she can't pay?" Leo asked the collector.

"Standard collection procedures apply. Subject becomes bridge property. Consciousness preserved for debt recovery purposes."

The creature gestured toward the bridge's surface, and Leo saw them now—faces in the asphalt, mouths moving soundlessly beneath the surface. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, all trying to scream through the barrier of hardened tar that had become their prison.

Clara would become one of them. Another face in the road, aware but helpless, unless—

"The proxy option," Leo said quickly. "How does it work?"

"Volunteer assumes all debts and obligations of original passenger. Original passenger receives free passage home. Volunteer enters accelerated Collector training program. Very generous terms."

Clara's timer: 47 seconds.

"Leo, no," Clara grabbed his arm. "There has to be another way. The app, the rules—"

But Leo was already reaching for the payment window, his decision crystallizing with awful clarity. The forum posts had mentioned Collectors, survivors who'd paid their toll and lived to post about it in coded language. Maybe this was how you survived the bridge—not by escaping it, but by becoming part of it.

"I accept," he said, pressing his palm against the scanner that materialized in the toll booth window.

The scanner felt warm, then hot, then burning as it read something deeper than his fingerprints. Leo gritted his teeth against the pain as the device seemed to reach into his very soul, cataloging parts of himself he didn't know existed.

"Payment accepted," the collector announced with what sounded like genuine pleasure. "Welcome to the team, Mr. Vance."

Clara's countdown stopped at 12 seconds. Her phone screen flashed green, displaying a single message: "DEBT CLEARED - PASSAGE HOME AUTHORIZED."

But Leo's screen was updating too, showing his new status in letters that seemed to burn themselves into his retinas:

Leo Vance - Status: COLLECTOR (Provisional)

• Training Period: 72 hours
• Quota: 3 passengers per cycle
• Territory Assignment: Pacific Northwest
• Benefits Active: Enhanced durability, bridge access, prey detection

The toll booth began to sink back into the bridge's surface, its job complete. As it disappeared, Leo felt something fundamental change inside his chest—a hollowing, as if part of his humanity had been carved away and replaced with something cold and efficient.

"Leo?" Clara's voice seemed to come from very far away, even though she stood right beside him. "Are you okay?"

He turned to look at her, and for a moment, he saw her the way the Collectors must see all passengers—not as a person, but as a resource to be harvested, a debt to be collected. The thought should have horrified him, but instead, it felt perfectly natural.

"I'm fine," he said, and his voice carried harmonics that hadn't been there before. "You should go home now, Clara. The bridge will show you the way."

As she walked away, following a path that materialized beneath her feet, Leo's phone buzzed with his first assignment. Three names, three addresses, three people who had no idea they were about to receive toll receipts in their dreams.

The collector who had once been Leo Vance smiled with teeth that were already beginning to look like broken glass.

His training had begun.