Escape, the Complete Trilogy

by David Antocci

  She did.

  The fire danced in his eyes as he turned to her. There was no kindness, no remorse, not the slightest hint of humanity in the way his gaze pierced her, though it was his smile that sent a chill from the base of her skull, down her spine, and into her toes.

  “She’s gonna die, Abby. Burning. You made sure of that.”

  Panic washed over Abby as her head spun on a swivel looking around the room. “What? She’s here?”

  Bryce let out a deep, evil, hearty laugh. “You dumb, fucking bitch!”

  With Abby distracted, he freed his hands, and as she looked around the room trying to figure a way out, he leapt up and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground, choking the life out of her.

  Abby had learned so much about hand-to-hand combat over the past few years, but none of her training came to mind at this very moment. Instead, schoolyard instincts took over, and she slammed the toe of her leather boot straight into his crotch.

  He dropped her as he yelped like a wounded dog. Abby sprung from the ground, grabbed a chair, and smashed it on the back of his head. She looked down at his motionless body as the flames crept closer. “Burn in hell, you piece of shit.”

  She scanned the room. The path to the front door was still clear though the dining room and hallway leading to the kitchen were almost wholly in flames.

  At that second, her ears picked out a distant sound only a mother could hear. Through the roar of the fire, from down the hallway, she heard the faintest of screams.

  Ava.

  21

  DONNY HAD BEEN CAUGHT completely by surprise. One moment he was getting ready to step out of the car and go into the restaurant, satisfied Bryce didn’t have any backup in the parking lot, and the next moment a flood of patrons began running out. He hadn’t heard a gunshot but assumed that someone must have opened fire. Why else would everyone run out?

  He jumped from the car and ran across the parking lot toward the restaurant, having to slow his pace as he navigated through the large crowd gathering in front of, and continuing to exit, the restaurant.

  A beefy older man in the crowd grabbed him as he neared the front door. “Where ya goin’, young fella? There’s a fire in there.”

  “A fire? My... um... my girlfriend is in there.”

  “Don’t worry. Everyone’s coming out. She’s probably out here somewhere.”

  “Thanks,” Donny brushed him off and started scanning the crowd. A fire?

  His eyes darted from face to face without seeing Abby. As the last of the patrons filed out and the doors closed behind them, he realized he didn’t see Bryce either. It’s probably a distraction. He’s taking her out the back!

  Donny pushed his way through the crowd and raced to the back of the restaurant where Bryce had gone in. As he ran down the side of the building, he saw smoke starting to filter through the windows and roof. Once around back, he found the kitchen staff, and a fair amount of the wait staff, milling around and on their phones.

  No Abby, no Bryce, and he didn’t know if he could trust any of Bryce’s employees.

  Donny ran to the back door, but a couple of men in aprons stopped him.

  “Sir, you can’t go in there. The place is burning up.”

  He shoved one of the men aside and swung the door open. A ball of flame leapt from the doorway and knocked him off his feet. The intense heat singed his hair and left minor burns on his cheek.

  One of the other men rushed to help him up and drag him away from the door. “Are you crazy man?”

  “My girlfriend is in there!”

  “She’s probably out front.”

  “I didn’t see her out front.” Donny got to his feet and brushed himself off. He looked through the open door at the kitchen completely engulfed in flames, trying to figure if he could run through them.

  The cook held his arm. “You’re gonna kill yourself running in there. Don’t do it.”

  The sound of fire engines rang faintly in the distance.

  “They’ll be here in a few minutes. Let’s go out front. Come on.”

  Though the employees all started moving around the building toward the front, Donny didn’t walk with the group. He ran ahead to scan the crowd in front again.

  No Abby, no Bryce. She had to be inside.

  The crowd was well away from the door now. With no one in his way, he made a break for it. No one was going to stop him.

  He heard a few people yell as he ripped open the front door and ran in, but it closed behind him. No one followed him.

  “Abby?” He did his best to quickly take in the surroundings. There was a small hallway straight in front of him behind the hostess station leading back to the kitchen. To his left, at a large dining room. To his right, there was a good-sized bar. Sections of ceiling had fallen in the hallway and dining room, and the smoke immediately burned his eyes.

  “Abby! Where are you?”

  Hunched over, he searched the floor, expecting her to have collapsed from smoke inhalation. It wasn’t long before he saw a foot in the bar area. He ran over and knelt down next to the body. He didn’t have to flip him over to know who it was, but he did anyway.

  He’s totally out.

  Donny leaned his ear to Bryce’s face and felt him exhale. Still breathing, but who gives a shit. Where’s Abby?

  He quickly looked around the rest of the bar and saw no one.

  Turning back to Bryce, he slapped him hard across the face. Come on!

  “Bryce! Wake up!” He slapped him again, sharp, right on the cheek. “Wake up!”

  His eyes fluttered open, only to reveal confusion.

  Donny leaned in, shouting, “Where’s Abby? Where is she, Bryce?”

  A section of ceiling behind Donny crashed to the ground, sending up a spectacular cloud of sparks and ash.

  Bryce smiled and closed his eyes again.

  Fuck it. Let him choke on it.

  Donny crawled along the floor to avoid the smoke. There was no one else in the bar, and he was guessing she wasn’t in the dining room either.

  He looked down the hallway, engulfed in flames. There was a wide opening on the left that clearly went to the kitchen. But straight ahead stood a wooden door, slightly ajar. That’s got to be his office.

  Donny saw a slim path through the flames toward the right, and quickly crawled along, though he barely made it a third of the way before half a wall and a large section of ceiling collapsed at the end of the hallway, sealing off the office door and sending a wave of smoke and ash toward him.

  “Abby! Abby!”

  The smoke stung his eyes and lungs as he coughed, gasping, unable to catch his breath through the thick smoke.

  “Abby!”

  As his eyes closed, his last thought was that he hoped she had somehow made it out.

  * * *

  Abby stood in what she assumed was Bryce’s office.

  I swear I heard her. He said she was going to burn; she’s got to be here somewhere.

  “Ava! Ava! Can you hear me?”

  She heard the faint scream again but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It sounded as though she was close, but not in this room. How is that possible?

  Abby looked around the room and saw another door, a closet. She ripped it open to find a few old coats and boxes of files piled on the floor.

  “Ava! Where are you? Keep yelling!”

  She heard it again, louder, right in front of her. The screaming seemed to be coming from behind the bookcase. It took her just a second to realize that Bryce had built a secret room and she grabbed onto the edge of the bookcase and started to pull with all her might. There was just the slightest bit of give, but it budged.

  Ava heard her try and intensified her yelling.

  “Mom! Mommy! I’m down here!”

  Abby flung the books from the shelf to reveal a handle and a deadbolt hidden behind them.

  She quickly looked around the office, eyes settling on the desk in the center. She ripped open the top drawer
to find a key ring. As she ran back to the bookcase, she thought she heard a man’s voice yelling outside the office door.

  Is that Donny?

  She didn’t see him as she looked back toward the open door, but she did see flames licking their way up the doorjamb. She couldn’t waste any more time. She tried the keys one after the other. Finally, the fifth key turned the lock. As she swung the bookcase on its hinge, there was a crash in the hallway and the office door blew wide open to reveal a pile of collapsed wall and ceiling blocking the only way out.

  Flames shot through the open door and immediately climbed the walls and ceiling of the office. Abby ran down the cramped spiral staircase and burst into tears as she saw Ava lying on the floor, tied to a chair and screaming.

  “Ava, honey, it’s OK. I’m here! Mommy’s here!”

  She righted the chair and held her daughter’s face in her hands, taking her in.

  “Are you OK, honey?”

  Ava couldn’t speak through the sobs, and the glow at the top of the staircase told Abby she didn’t have a moment to waste.

  She ripped her knife from its sheath and quickly cut Ava’s hands and feet free.

  The little girl fell forward and collapsed into her mother’s arms, sobbing.

  Abby’s heart raced as she stroked her daughter’s long brown hair. “It’s OK sweetie, it’s OK.” She pulled away and looked her in the eyes. “We’ve got to get out of here, honey. Can you pull it together?”

  Ava nodded, holding back the tears.

  Abby looked around, panicked. “How do we get out of here?”

  Ava pointed to the spiral staircase as flames licked the edges of the doorway, having completely engulfed the bookcase. “That’s the only way. Oh, my God, Mom, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!”

  Abby grabbed her daughter by the shoulders. “I’m not going to let that happen. We’ll find another way.”

  She scanned the room—no other doors, but there were two boarded up basement windows at the ceiling of the room.

  “Look around. Find something we can use to bust those open. Come on!”

  Mother and daughter started going through the desk drawers and stacked boxes. It wasn’t long before Ava held up a hammer and yelled, “Here, here!”

  Abby grabbed it and began pounding on the boards. They dented but didn’t break.

  She pounded harder and harder until her hand was numb from repeated blows, but all she managed to do was put a bunch of dents in the thick old boards.

  Ava screamed as pieces of the floor above began to drop from the ceiling. One flaming piece of debris hit her on the shoulder.

  Abby quickly patted her down to make sure she wasn’t going to catch fire, then took off her leather jacket and slung it over her daughter’s shoulders and held her tight. Abby couldn’t believe it had come to this. All the years of protecting her little girl—all the years of running, all the training—and for what? To die in a basement in a fire that she caused?

  They closed their eyes as the smoke began building up and stinging them.

  “I love you, Ava. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry... for everything.” Her mother squeezed her tightly.

  “It’s OK, Mommy, I love you, too. We’ll be OK,” she said, trying to be brave.

  Abby shook her head. She knew they wouldn’t be. Ava was still of the age that if she said it, she believed it to be true, but Abby knew better. The only two exits were blocked, and the fire was growing.

  It won’t be long now.

  She hoped that Ava would at least pass out from the smoke before she felt the sting of the flames on her skin.

  Tears streamed down Abby’s face, flowing like a river.

  Ava felt her cheek becoming wet from her mother’s tears and found the strength to comfort her.

  “We’ll be OK, Mommy, we’ll be OK.” Ava squeezed Abby as hard as she could. Abby gasped just a bit as the handle of her .45 pressed into her ribs.

  A split second later her eyes shot open, and she pushed Ava away.

  Abby ripped the gun from its holster and checked the magazine. It was full, and she had two more full magazines on her belt. She looked around the room and pointed to the far corner. “Ava, go over there, quick!”

  The little girl did as she was told without hesitation.

  Abby raised the gun, and from just a few feet away, fired eight successive shots, emptying the magazine into the boards of the window. Slamming a fresh magazine into the gun she repeated the exercise. Shards of wood flew around the room as the thick slugs tore into the boards, sending shrapnel flying into the smoke-filled room.

  She grabbed the old metal chair Ava had been tied to and slammed it repeatedly into the shattered boards. With the third strike, they gave way and Abby felt a rush of air from the outside, which also fed the flames, giving the fire a renewed vigor.

  “Come on, come on!” she shouted as Ava ran toward her.

  She shoved the child through the window, and then jumped onto the chair to climb out herself. Looking around, they found themselves in the back of the restaurant, the blaring fire engines right on top of them. They were pulling into the parking lot right out front.

  “Are you OK?” she asked Ava.

  The little girl nodded. “Yes, I think so.”

  “Good. We’ve got to run now, alright?”

  Grabbing her daughter’s hand, the two made a sprint for the woods behind the restaurant where they disappeared, just as a fire truck pulled around back.

  * * *

  As Donny’s eyes opened, he found himself on a gurney in the parking lot, a safe distance from the burning restaurant.

  It took a moment to realize that he was looking at Bryce, sitting up on another gurney ten feet away and speaking with a fireman.

  He sat up a little, trying to hear what the fireman was saying.

  “So a bunch of people are saying that some woman threw candles at you, and that’s what started the fire?”

  Bryce nodded his head. “They were the little glass lamps with the oil and the wick.” He shrugged.

  The fireman continued. “No one saw her exit the building, but you’re saying she’s not in there?”

  “No,” Bryce shook his head. “She ran out the back, through the kitchen. I saw her. Must have ran off that way.”

  Donny tried to sit up. He knew full well that Abby wouldn’t have left without Ava, nor would she have left Bryce alive. What if she’s still in there?

  “No, you don’t, sir,” a heavyset woman behind him put her hand on his shoulder and eased him back onto the gurney.

  Donny grabbed at his mask, ripping it off to speak, but started choking immediately.

  The woman put the mask back on. “There you go. Rest a few more minutes, OK, honey?”

  He glanced at Bryce and they locked eyes. No doubt Bryce knew Donny didn’t just happen to be there, and would kill him with his bare hands right now if there weren’t so many witnesses around.

  The fireman continued speaking with Bryce. “That makes sense about the oil candles. This thing got out of hand really fast. It’s an old building, and she was literally pouring fuel on the fire. It’s gone, you know.” He shook his head.

  Donny looked around trying to figure out what the fireman was talking about. The hoses weren’t pointed at the building, which was simply a thirty-foot tall bonfire by now. They were pointed at the wooded areas around the building. Other firemen directed cars away from the building. The restaurant was too far gone to save, and they were going to let it burn to the ground. Their only concern now was keeping the fire from spreading to the nearby trees and reaching the homes beyond.

  Donny looked at Bryce and saw what he could only describe as a twinkle in his eyes. Abby had to be in there, and he was letting her burn.

  That son of a bitch!

  Donny forcibly sat up and ripped the mask off, but couldn’t catch his breath to speak. The fireman looked over as Donny waved for him to come over.

  “Are you OK, sir?” the fireman a
sked.

  Donny shook his head no. He tried to speak, but only coughed, unable to catch his breath.

  The fireman looked back at Bryce. “Who is this guy?”

  “I dunno,” Bryce lied. “I assume he was here for dinner like everyone else.”

  Donny managed to shake his head no while he gathered his breath to speak. I’ll tell them the truth. They’ll go in after Abby, and get the cops here to take care of this piece of shit.

  Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he felt the throwaway phone in his pocket vibrate. Only one person in the world had that number. Donny looked at the fireman, the heavyset paramedic, and Bryce, all waiting for him to speak. He gasped and coughed a few more times, then meekly managed to say, “I was here... for take-out.”

  * * *

  Matt had left Buffalo minutes after speaking to Agent Vines, but found himself stopped on the street across from Buena Sera, unable to enter the parking lot being blocked off by a line of firemen. Apparently he had already missed something important, but he wasn’t sure what. His badge would have gained him entry, but Agent Vines said to lay low on this for now, so he thought better of it.

  He parked and walked into the parking lot from the side, going up to a large group of onlookers. “What’s going on here?” he asked to anyone listening.

  The beefy man who had stopped Donny from running into the building earlier spoke up. “Some crazy woman was screaming at the owner and chuckin’ candles at him. Place went up like tinder. She was yellin’ something about their daughter. Must be an old girlfriend or something.”

  Matt nodded his head. He spoke with a couple others and got the same story. He also gleaned that the fire department intended to let the place burn, as everyone had gotten out and it was too far gone to save.

  He called Vines to fill him in.

  On the other side, Vines was quiet, processing the news.

  “You get a good look at him?” Vines asked.

  “Yes, sir. I compared him to the photos you messaged me. Different haircut, different glasses, but it’s definitely the same guy. You found your man.”

  “Good, good.”

  “You want me to take him into custody?”

  Vines thought about it. Bryce was going to be a huge get, the biggest of his career. He intended to redeem himself just in time for his retirement with this story. But Bryce and Abby would be an even bigger story if he could get both of them. Technically, he didn’t have enough evidence for a warrant on Abby, but just bringing her in for questioning would be enough of a story.