Gyrus

Chapter Eighteen: Extreme Measures

I turned to leave the room but the whooshing sound of the fire caught my attention. I stared at the yellow flames that outlined the skeleton of the once plush leather chair, mesmerized by its beauty. The conflagration was growing, its tongues licking the ceiling with gusto. I felt a little proud; I'd actually done something towards fulfilling my promise of ending the tyranny of the people who 'hijacked' Fortuna. I gagged as I tasted smoke. The entire ceiling was obscured by the smoke; all I could see was the faint red blinking of the screaming smoke detector. I rechecked my pockets to ensure its contents were secure and wrapped my right hand around the butt of the Beretta and clicked off the safety. If this ended in a skirmish, my dad's clay shooting lessons weren't going to be a total waste after all.

I crouched by the door and gently turned the knob so as to minimize the sound and the smoke escaping. I peered out of the opening out into the corridor. The guards had heard the noise from the smoke detector and were alert and whispering to one another. I saw one point the other in the direction of the exit and the other stalked off. The guard left behind was the one who had arrived while I was spying earlier. I cursed silently. The first guard had seemed a little green around the edges but this one was more self assured and had a swagger that only came from confidence in his abilities. He waited until the second guard had gone and then took his sidearm out and began to walk in my direction. I gently closed the door and shut the lock on the knob, keeping as low as possible to avoid inhaling too much smoke and getting disoriented too soon. I listened for his steps, they were slow, cautious. He probably thought a malfunction had caused whatever was triggering the alarm but didn't want to take any chances. The gun wasn't going to be of any help to me in close quarters; I needed a proper weighted weapon.

Clicking the safety back on, I crawled over to the other end of the door and pulled myself up to my feet. I waited beside it with bated breath, my hand placed flush against the wood of the door so I would feel even the slightest vibration. It wasn't a moment too soon, because I felt the door rattle as knob was gently shaken to see if it was locked and then turned. I raised myself on my toes and leaned slowly into the door, generating a minimal resistance. I unlocked the door and allowed the guard try again, and he opened the door slightly only to have me push it closed again. I felt the force on the door increase as the guard tried to force it open with his shoulder and I increased my resistance on the door, hoping he would take the bait. The force increased again and I let up for a second, allowing the guard's head to slip through the crack before ramming into the door with all my strength. The guard screamed, the pain of being sandwiched between a door and doorframe muddling his common sense. I eased the pressure and rammed again, repeating it twice more till the screaming reduced into whimpering. I backed off the door and avoided the guard as he fell into the room and his hands flew to his face. His eyes were already tightly shut around his swollen lid and there were several bruise marks on his forehead. I kicked his pistol away from him and into the other end of the room consumed with fire and hopped over his body and into the corridor.

As I ran for the open door at the far end of the hall, I felt the sprinklers go off above me and my clothes become instantly drenched. I could hear shrieking from beyond the hallway. The fire must have spread into the vents to trigger a fire drill this quickly. I took the money, the photograph and poster and buried them inside the waistband of my briefs. If I did manage to get out of here unscathed, they wouldn't be of any use to me wet and fall to pieces. I reached the end of the hallway and rounded it in fluid motion and had to stop abruptly a wave of vertigo hit me. The hallway opened into an elevated walkway made entirely of metal grills about twenty feet high overlooking the factory pit. From where I stood the entire pit could be observed from end to end.

The pit was in chaos, as the industrial sized fire mechanism was engineered to spray a kind of foam instead of water. It hadn't been disconnected when the factory was overtaken by this new crop of owners and it was obvious that whatever the foam was made from was in no way gentle to humans. The pit was slowly being covered by the foam and I could hear shrieking and thrashing as the foam got into eyes and mouths and other orifices and caused severe pain and irritation. I backed away from the end of the walkway and slowly made my way across it to the end where I could spy the hint of a staircase. The guards that had been manning the pit waded into the foam, barking commands and generally trying to restore order, all their posturing to no avail. Some of the workers seemed more alert already and were forcing their way through the thick foam which had already risen above their ankles and turned the pit into a frothy lake. They seemed surprised to see the guards pointing guns at them and were yelling back at the guards. We all panicked as the ground suddenly shook from the force of a loud explosion. I turned in the direction of the sound, my eyes widening with surprise as they fell on one of the over head pipes spitting flame instead of gas.