Getting Home

Part 21

I only caught a flash of the figure that grabbed me—orange clothes, masculine figure. Everything was so blurry and smoky.

But there was no freezing up this time.

I instantly jammed my hands into both sides of his torso; no hesitation, no thought—I just punched my hands together against him as hard as I could.

All I really saw was a flash of lightening in the dark—the smell of burning hair immediately hit my nose. I was let go of so fast that I almost fell. It was still hard to see—I caught a hazy image of a figure disappearing back into the smoke. I don't know if he fell, or ran, or died, but...

At least he was gone.

I looked down at the AED wires cradled in my palms. Well, that worked.

The stairwell behind me suddenly collapsed.

The sound was so loud and violent and heavy, my entire body jolted; I launched forward into the smoke. The air was hot, the floor under my bare feet even hotter.

I was completely lost in the smoke—and could see a couple feet in front of me at best. The air was thick and choking. I looked around helplessly, feeling the panic began to take hold, my lungs burning...

Then I heard Henry's voice.

Or at least I thought I did.

I looked up—

And saw a sign that said MAX-SEG UNIT.

With a huge arrow.

I heard Sean's voice in my head: "He's safe downstairs in his own max-seg cell," Sean said, looking around to take in the decimated office.

The smoke began to clear as I got closer. There wasn't as much fire here... but there was dim emergency lights, and lots of rubble. Whatever that thing was, it had really damaged the building.

Like bad.

I didn't see anyone else.

But I could hear them—yelling, screaming, shouting.

I came up against an iron-barred door, blocking the way to the MAX-SEG unit. There was a little officer's control room next to it, the display port glass broken. A series of iron-barred sliding doors continued on sequentially behind the one that blocked me—probably six or seven of them.

Dammit! I thought. What the hell am I going to do now?

Someone suddenly yanked me into the control room.

I was able to immediately get an elbow into some part of him, giving me at least enough space to whirl myself free of his grasp. I spun around, holding my hands out in front of me, my heart was beating like crazy.

"Stay away from me" I said, trying to control the panic. "Or I'll zap you, man, I swear to God I will."

He wore an inmate jumpsuit, his head shaved bald. He backed away slowly.

"Woah, woah, easy little girl," he said, holding his hands up in the air. "I don't give a fuck 'bout all that. This place is comin' down."

To confirm his sentiment, there was a huge explosion somewhere far off—so loud and violent it shook the floor, almost making me scream. There was a massive rumbling that slowly faded away.

Not to mention that thing is still coming.

"We need to get out of here," he said.

I kept my hands up in front of me. "I need to get into that MAX-SEG thing. Through there." I jerked my head out towards the iron gates, not taking my eyes off him.