Sensing a change in my demeanor, Blake took my arm, guiding me towards the alleyway that ran parallel to the warehouse. “I know they say you should meet your challenges head on, but I think we can make an exception in this case.”
“He knows we’re here.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t afford us room for recklessness.”
“I’ve never wanted to do such bodily harm to another person in my entire life,” I uttered. Concern spread across Blake’s face. “What is it?”
“That’s exactly what Liam said.”
“I’m not Liam.”
“Liam wasn’t even Liam until the last thirty seconds of his life.”
“You don’t trust me at all, do you?”
“No, I do trust you. I just don’t trust myself. You scare the hell out of me.”
I smirked at Blake. “Well, let’s hope The Man in Black shares that sentiment.” Blake assessed the building before us. The side we were standing before was solid brick, perfectly vertical and lacked any noticeable footholds.
“I say we scale it.” He flicked his wrist, propelling his grappling hook out towards the heavens. His line met resistance when the hooks gripped the roof. Jumping horizontally, his feet planted themselves firmly against the wall, the wire reeling itself back into its source within his wrist with each step. One flick of my wrist and I, too, was scaling the warehouse at a right angle, quickly catching up to Blake so that we were climbing in sync. Unhooking the grappling hook, I folded the metal bars inwards, allowing them to fit nicely back into their pouch on my wrist.
Blake proceeded to walk around the perimeter of the roof until his attention was caught by a skylight in the center of the building. I walked over to him to peer over his shoulder.
“See anything?”
“Sure do. Empty pallets, shelves, garbage…”
“Sadistic psychopaths?”
“No, haven’t come across one of those yet. Of course, he’s not going to exactly roll out the welcome wagon for us. Give us a firm handshake and offer us a plate of brownies and whatnot.”
“Darn. I really like brownies, too. So, we’re going in, then?”
“You bet.”
He grabbed a small blade from his utility belt. Holding it against the glass, he guided it along the edge of the pane. “Jab this into the section I just cut,” he ordered, tossing a rubber wedge-like object to me. Following his instructions, I jammed the wedge into the sliver he’d cut into the glass. A distinct cracking sound creaked through it. Blake continued running the blade along the edge of the pane until he made it the rest of the way around the perimeter of the square. “Okay. Lift the wedge up and grab the glass as it pops.” Carefully, I pulled on the wedge, bringing the top of the window up with it, effectively shifting the window downward toward the floor of the warehouse. Blake grabbed the other side of the glass and, together, we lifted it from its frame and set it down on the rooftop.
“Ready to go spelunking?” I asked.
Blake chuckled. “Let’s just hope this cave doesn’t have a bear in it.”
“Oh, come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?” Standing with our backs toward the edge of the empty window frame, Blake and I flicked our wrists to release our grappling hooks, making sure they had a firm hold on the window frame.
He looked at me, smiling his rugged grin. “Let’s go hunting.” Without hesitation, he jumped backwards into the warehouse, disappearing within the darkness below. Taking a deep breath, I allowed my body to fall backwards into the abyss, my wire securing me like a puppet on a string, gliding me safely to the concrete floor where I found myself surrounded by pallets. Blake stood next to me with an aura of heightened concern emanating from his body.
“I must say this place is positively charming.”
“Stay close,” he ordered. “Keep your eyes open. His eyes never give up their vigilance.” Blake walked across the concrete floor with me following in tandem. It was the last place I would have ever thought an evil mastermind would have as a hideout. Of course, that may be the exact reason why he chose it. We were surrounded by pallets. Empty pallets, pallets containing boxes of unshipped and abandoned supplies encased us, watching our every move. The dust billowed off their wooden exteriors, blowing in my face
We passed forklifts, work benches and desks, none of which were willing to give up their secrets to us. But despite finding nothing out of sorts, I continued to feel like a very evil set of eyes were burning deep into my soul. Perhaps I was going crazy, but if there was one thing I’d learned about myself, it was that my intuitions were hardly ever mistaken.
Just as I leaned in to say something to Blake about this whole thing being some perverse wild goose chase, something caught my attention as it blew past my peripheral vision. Spinning around, I fully expected to see a bird that had flown through our freshly made entrance. Instead, I was greeted with a hand lunging forward, firmly gripping my throat, lifting me up until I felt my feet leaving the ground. Gasping for air, my eyes met the image that had haunted both my dreams and consciousness. Finally, I was living face to living face with The Man in Black. The invisible evil whose presence I only just suspected was now boring a hole into my very being. Those eyes, those evil eyes were staring directly into mine. Unrelenting and with zero empathy, they were hollow, soul less.
It felt as though there was no air left in my lungs. Surely, I would soon pass out. I tugged on the unrelenting fist firmly grasped around my neck in a vain attempt to pry it open. Finding myself unsuccessful, I was beginning to feel dizzy; the world around me was steadily growing darker. Right as I thought I was about to pass out, I saw Blake’s body, a blur in my eyes, ramming into the side of The Man in Black, throwing him off kilter just enough for him to let go of my neck, flinging me into a pallet behind him.
After crashing into the wooden pallet, I lay motionless on the concrete floor watching helplessly as The Man in Black pinned Blake against a wall. A piece of broken wood he’d fashioned into a spear was pressed against Blake’s jugular.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Twist of Fate for Chase Matthews
It played out just as she’d described to him; on one of the many nights she’d been abruptly arisen from her slumber from the images plaguing her mind. There was an explosion with a roar so powerful his ears felt as though they were imploding within their canals. Then there was the smoke, followed immediately by the screams of the terrified and the moans of the injured, dying, and the trapped. And just as he was beginning to recover from the first explosion and regain his bearings, a second one threw him from his feet into a wall. Dazed, he picked himself up from the linoleum floor of the Intensive Care Unit.
Evacuations had commenced but he’d ignored them in the hope that he would be able to catch her before she left the building, walking out on him yet again. Madison wasn’t one to exaggerate, nor was she easily excitable about many things. Those facts alone led him to believe that she’d in fact seen Celaine. Unfortunately, instead of the answers he was hoping to gain by a chance encounter with her, he was left with even more questions. Why was she in the ICU? Why did she alter her appearance? Was it because she didn’t want him to recognize her? Did she even want to talk to him at all?
The floor beneath him shuddered, forcing him to make the decision to call off the search for his lost love. He just hoped that she was among those who’d managed to escape Hope Memorial before the devastation began. For the most part, the second floor had been emptied. However, there were still those patients who were too weak to leave their beds and thus had not been evacuated yet. There were also those family members and physicians who were too devoted to leave their posts even in the midst of the chaos and confusion transpiring in the wake of the explosion.
Smoke, heavy and black, seeped in at a million miles a minute, forcing Chase back onto the floor for fresher air. The emergency stairwell, he knew, was in the thick of the smoke and most likely blocked by debris that made escape from certain suffocation seemingly impo
ssible. His lungs were quickly filling up with smoke, causing him to cough uncontrollably. Around him, he could hear the screams and persistent coughing of others, those like him who were trapped.
It had never been in his nature to lie down and accept defeat. Before Celaine came along, he’d never accepted “no” for an answer, nor had he let the possible become impossible. Death was not an option for him. He would not die on the second floor of Hope Memorial today. Looking around him, he saw that the others on the floor were crawling, frantically looking for a way out, only to become increasingly more frustrated with each failed attempt. Like Chase, they too failed to accept an alternate fate. Scouring the halls for an exit, an idea suddenly occurred to him as he crawled in front of an empty patient room. It was a thought of which he despised himself for thinking, but one of which he knew would work. There was no reason for those who were healthy to die today.
“Everyone!” Chase shouted through the panic. “Gather around me now!”
A voice came up from behind him. “Do you know a way out of here that I haven’t tried yet?”
Chase turned his head to see a large framed, balding man in a gaudy Hawaiian-print shirt crawling in his direction.
“I think I might.”
“I’m all ears,” the man said, wheezing uncontrollably.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah…just…kind of hard to…breathe in…in here.”
Those left who were still able to crawl appeared around Chase, their eyes pleading at him in desperation.
“Okay…” he began. “We’re all going to gather in this room.” He pointed to a patient room a couple of feet from their positions on the floor
“I want the last person in to shut the door behind them. We’re going to break the window and the door needs to be shut as the excess oxygen will attract the smoke, bringing it into the room with us. Once the door is closed, we will stick a bed sheet under it and break the window open with whatever we can get our hands on inside the room. If you stand up, hold your breath. Rescue departments should be here by now and the best case scenario is that they see us and extend the ladder up to our window, effectively rescuing us.”
“Yeah…well, what’s the worst case scenario?” A young woman chimed in amidst a barrage of coughs.
“Worst case scenario is that we jump.”
“I’m not jumping out of a window! One of the men from the group retorted. “Are you crazy?”
“What,” the balding man chimed in. “Do you want to stay here and suffocate to death? Well, that’s your choice, as I sure as hell don’t. Come on, Doc, let’s break that window.”
Chase led the group of a dozen into the patient room, where the door was promptly shut.
“What about our families?” one of the women asked, jamming a sheet under the door. “We’re just going to leave them here to die?”
He looked at the salt and pepper haired woman. A look of sheer guilt was reflected on her face.
“No…” he began, trailing off. “I promise you I will do what I can to get them out of here.”
The balding man stared at him partly in admiration and partly in disbelief until finally adding, “As will I.”
Chase looked at him and smiled. “Does anyone here know an exact head count of those still in their rooms?”
“There are three of them,” a resident answered. “All three are towards the end of the hallway.”
Of course they are, Chase thought. He turned to the balding man, who seemed even paler than before, “Are you up to it?”
“Do you know who you’re speaking to? Of course I’m up to it.”
“Well, in that case…what do you say to us breaking a window?”
Chase took a deep breath, stood up and grabbed a chair in the corner of the room. Together, he and the balding man secured it up in the air and, using it as a modern battering ram, shattered the window. The smoke that had collected inside the room rapidly escaped into the air outside. Gathering around the open window, the group filled their lungs with the fresh oxygen.
“How far of a drop would you say that is, Doc?”
“Somewhere between thirty and thirty-five feet, I guess.” Chase scanned the horizon, locating emergency personnel who were already frantically engaged in battling small fires all over the hospital. “They aren’t going to notice us here. One of us is going to have to make a jump for it and tell them to get a ladder.”
“Is that possible?”
“Sure. If you land right.”
“I’ll do it,” a man around Chase’s age volunteered. “I’m into BASE jumping and the like. I’ve broken a few bones in my day. It doesn’t faze me much anymore. Besides, it’s not like I’m not surrounded by doctors, right?” Chase moved away from the window, allowing the young man to draw near. “Just make sure to land on an extremity, right?” He shot Chase a smirk.
“You’re an expert in injury.”
The self-proclaimed daredevil stepped onto the empty window frame, balancing precariously over the edge.
“See you on the other side,” he said, letting go of the ledge, allowing his body to free fall to the ground below.
Afraid to look out the window, but knowing he should, Chase glanced down to see the man lying motionless on the cement.
Oh, God, get up, he thought as to not instill panic in the room.
After a couple of seconds, the man slowly started to stand up in noticeable pain. Chase observed an obvious injury to the man’s leg and wondered, as the man looked up at him, shooting him a “thumbs up” while proceeding to hobble towards rescue personnel, whether or not the government would give out a purple heart for valor and injury outside of the military.
“I’m Paul, by the way,” the balding man extended a hand to Chase.
“Chase,” he said, taking the man’s hand.
“Well, Doc,” Paul stated in a hushed tone as to not alert the others of what he was about to say. “I hate to say this, but if we don’t get those patients out of here soon it may be too late. Heck, chances are that it is already too late.”
“I know, but we still have to try.”
“You’re the Doc…” Paul again coughed uncontrollably, the wheezing in his chest becoming more audible.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine…I’m fine…” Paul was obviously brushing his question off in favor of putting on the strong-man front.
With relief filling her voice, another resident exclaimed, “They’re coming!”
Cheers erupted from the room.
“Thank you, doctor!” The young woman wrapped her arms around Chase.
“Yes, doctor. If you hadn’t thought of this, we’d probably all still be lying out there in that hallway, dead.”
Chase blushed. “Don’t thank me until your feet hit the pavement.”
A loud clang sounded through the room, signaling that the firefighters’ ladder had struck the window frame.
“All right,” Chase ordered. “Everyone line up single file.” He turned to Paul. “Once the last one is on the ladder we’ll head down the hall. Just remember to hold your breath and hit the floor when it’s necessary to breathe again.”
“Can do, Doc.”
Single file, they headed down the ladder to the safety and fresh air below. Chase stood looking out the window, ensuring everyone made it down without incident. Paul locked eyes with him.
“It’s now or never.”
He nodded, and together they dislodged the sheet from underneath the door, took a deep breath and ran out into the hall in the direction the resident had indicated the remaining patients were located. Flames were fanning out across the second floor, creating even more of a hazard for Chase and Paul while they struggled to ration the precious oxygen they’d stored in their lungs. Near the end of the hall, Chase glanced in room after room, hoping to catch a glimpse of those who’d been left behind. Finally, as their oxygen was running on low, they located the first of three rooms. Chase motioned to Paul to ta
ke the first room while he ventured a few feet down to the second one, turning around when Paul spoke, his wheeze far more profound now.
“What…if they’re hooked…to machines?”
“Unhook them.”
“Won’t that…kill them?”
“Either they die here from smoke inhalation or they die outside where they at least have a fighting chance.”
Paul nodded, and the pair entered their respective rooms. The smoke stung Chase’s eyes, his lungs burned in his chest. He hit the floor. The air down there was becoming too saturated with smoke that what little oxygen had clung to the floor before had now almost been depleted. Coughing, Chase crawled to the side of the hospital bed where he carefully unhooked the arterial line, catheter and ventilator from Ms. Branigan, the elderly widower whose fall down the stairs had landed her in Hope Memorial’s Intensive Care Unit nearly two weeks ago. Unhooking her now would most likely cause her condition to decline resulting in her demise, but he couldn’t bear knowing that a person had perished in such a cruel and inhumane manner under his watch. Carefully, he lifted Ms. Branigan from her hospital bed and ran back into the hallway. The heat from the flames rising up from the floor below all but scorched his exposed flesh in the process. Upon entering the room leading to freedom, Chase breathed a sigh of relief. Rescue workers were making their way back up the ladder.
“Doctor, you need to get down here now; the whole building is about ready to collapse,” one of the rescuers commanded.
“I will as soon as you take her.” Chase leaned out the window with Ms. Branigan, transferring her securely into the rescuers arms. “Did the other two make it down all right?”
“What other two? Do you mean the group that came down earlier?”
Chase’s heart sank to his stomach. “No, there should have been two more right after that. A middle-aged man carrying another patient.”
Enigma Black Page 27
