by Sean Patten
Then they flickered, and went off.
That was it. The generator was dead.
At first there was total quiet. It was a quiet that reminded me of the first few moments after the outage at the Medley. No one seemed to know what to say or do, seemingly figuring that if they simply stayed still and waited, the power would come back on.
Out of the corner of my eye a flickering light remained—the fire held in the hands of the jugglers.
“It’s off!” someone finally shouted.
That did it.
Panic ripped through the crowd, people jumping from their seats and rushing in a mad dash to get somewhere, anywhere. It was the same brainless stampede that I’d witnessed time and time again since the EMP. All it took was the slightest tinge of panic for things to go completely off the rails.
Screams and cries filled the air, and I hurried to the side of the events room to get out of the way of the people storming through it.
Through the low light of the fire I watched as the guards abandoned their posts and took part in the rush, grabbing and pushing people out of the way as they tried to get out.
And then those on stage joined the fray. One of the trapeze swingers fled, screaming, bumping into a fire juggler. The flaming baton fell from his hand and slowly, slowly rolled across the stage, coming to a stop at the bottom of the blue satin curtains.
“Oh, no,” I said out loud, realizing what was about to happen.
Before I could get ready, the flame traveled up the curtains, illuminating the events hall with a bright orange light. Then the fire jumped to the other curtains, and soon the stage was bordered by a raging fire.
As awful as it was at that moment, it was the distraction I desperately needed. I had to move, fast.
I hurried towards the now-unguarded stairs, pivoting through the crowd as they rushed out of the events hall. The bouncers attempted to keep control, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the mob. Through the flame-illuminated darkness I could make out a few of them withdraw their guns, but none had a chance to get off even a single shot as the crowd swarmed.
Over the course of the last few minutes, the Troika had gone from possibly the last safe haven in the city to just another mob-ransacked building, the trappings of civilization vanishing the moment the power flickered out.
Once through the doors I headed up the stairs to the second floor. I knew I had some ways to go until I was on Oleg’s level, but that wasn’t about to deter me—I wasn’t leaving here without Kelly. I wasn’t going to lose her again.
The elevators were down, so that meant the service stairs would be the only way up. Beams of light cut through the darkness as guards stumbled their way through the halls.
With each step the scent of smoke in the air grew more pronounced. Off in the distance, the shrill chirp of battery-powered fire alarms sounded over the low roar of the crowd.
“Come on,” I told myself as I hurried up the stairs. “Move, move.”
I knew that the further I went up in the building, the worse my chances became of being able to flee the fire that was spreading through the lower floors of the casino. As soon as the flames reached the fuel stores in the basement, the lower floors would be consumed in a fireball.
Here and now.
Finally, I reached the top floor, my legs screaming out as I bounded up the last stair. My lungs burned but my mind was focused. I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything stand in my way.
And as soon as I opened the door to the top floor, the flashlight clicked off, I realized that was the exact frame of mind I was going to need.
On the other side of the door were two guards, visible only by the cones of light from their flashlights. I hurried through the door, closing it behind me before they had a chance to put the lights on me.
“What was that?” one of them said.
“Who’s there?” asked the other.
Two on one. Not the most favorable of odds, but the best I was going to get. Flashlight in hand, I rushed towards the rightmost guard, slamming into him with my shoulder. I felt the rush of air from his lungs, and before he had a chance to react, I slammed the flashlight into the side of his head. He dropped like a sack of stones.
The other guard, realizing what was happening, pulled out his pistol and clicked off the safety.
“Here’s the deal,” I said before he had a chance to raise it, my disembodied voice speaking through the darkness. “Your friend’s out cold and there’s a fire down below. Each second you waste with me is a second that you won’t get to escape. Make your call.”
There was silence for several long moments, followed by the sound of his gun tucking back into his hostler. The guard rushed past me, dropping down to the ground and helping his friend.
“Come on, asshole,” he said.
After some grunting, the guard dragged his friend through the door to the service stairs and was gone.
Once I was alone, I scanned the mental map I’d constructed when I was here before. The light ahead of me, I made my way down the hallways of the top floor, finally arriving at the large double doors of Oleg’s office.
“Get your hands off me, prick!”
It was Kelly—no doubt about that.
“We’re leaving now,” the boss’s distinctive voice sounded out. “And you’re coming with me! Stop making this difficult.”
I positioned myself to burst through the door, and right at the moment I was ready to make my move, a scream cut through the air, followed by the crack of a gunshot.
Oh, no.
Chapter 14
After several hard slams of my shoulder, the lock of the office doors finally gave.
I was ready for the worst, half-expecting to burst through the doors to see Oleg standing over Kelly, a smoking gun in his hand.
But what I saw surprised me.
In front of the massive windows of the office, the darkened city behind her and the silver light of the moon shining through, stood Kelly. At her feet was Oleg, his body still, his usually perfectly styled blond hair a mess around his head.
Kelly’s gaze was fixed onto him, her chest rising and falling. And in her hand was something round, something that she let drop to the floor where it landed with a heavy thud.
“Kelly,” I said, not sure what to make of what I was seeing.
Her eyes shot up.
“Oh,” she said, as though she wasn’t surprised to see me in the slightest. “There you are.”
A small smile spread across her face as she took in the sight of me.
“What…what happened?” I asked.
She gestured to Oleg on the ground.
“Asshole expected me to keep him company as the world ended. He didn’t take my ‘hell no’ very well.”
So much for rescuing a damsel in distress.
“What’s going on out there?” she asked me. “And why do I get the distinct impression that you had something to do with it?”
“I may have sabotaged the generator while I was downstairs,” I said.
“That’d do it,” she said, a small smile playing at her lips.
“The main casino floor is total chaos,” I said. “And there’s a fire on the first floor.”
“Shit,” she said. “That’s where all the exits are!”
“No kidding,” I said. “We need to get out of here, and fast.”
Kelly glanced at my body, and I was confused at what she was looking for.
“The backpack,” she said, pointing to me. “Where is it?”
My gut sank as I remembered that after everything I’d gone through the get them, I’d lost all the medical supplies. Steve was still where I’d left him, and I’d be coming back empty-handed.
And this was all assuming he was still alive.
Here and now. Here and now.
“I lost it,” I said. “But we can’t worry about that now. We need to get out of here.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Good call.”
“Did Oleg say how he was
planning on leaving?” I asked.
My eyes flicked down to him, lingering on his body for a long moment to make sure he wasn’t moving. He was still as a stone, but his chest still rose and fell.
“No,” Kelly said, shaking her head. “No idea what his plan was.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then let’s get moving and figure something out on the way. Standing around is the worst possible thing we could be doing.”
“Right,” she said.
Before we left, I glanced down at Oleg once again, this time noticing the silver pistol in his hand. I lunged over to it, scooping it up and giving it a look.
It was a Beretta M9, custom-made with a gaudy carved inlay on the handle and barrel. Pointlessly flashy, but it’d do. I couldn’t believe that I was actually holding a working gun in my hand.
“Come on!” said Kelly. “Let’s move!”
I tucked the pistol into the back of my waistband as I tried to think of our next step.
“The balcony!” I said.
“What?” she asked. “What about it?”
“We take the balcony to the roof. Come on!”
I hurried over to the large glass door leading to the balcony and pulled it open. The cool evening air rushed around me as I stepped out. After taking a look around, I spotted a small service ladder that led up.
“There!” I said.
“Are you kidding?” asked Kelly. “Justin, that’s got to be at least a two-hundred-foot drop down to the street!”
“Then we’d better not fall.”
“Shit,” hissed Kelly under her breath.
I knew that going to the roof might not end well, but heading down to the fire at this point meant almost certain death. I hoped that up on the roof we’d find a fire escape that could take us to the street level. At least this way, we had a hope of getting out alive.
After stepping over to the balcony railing, I took a look down at the drop. Sure enough, it was high enough to splatter anyone who might be unlucky enough to fall from such a height.
Carefully, I placed my right foot onto the balcony railing, grabbing onto the first rung before placing my left foot on another. I took a moment to be sure of my grip before taking my foot from the balcony.
A cool wind swirled around me as I held onto the ladder, my heart thumping. Slowly, I ascended, making sure my hands were wrapped around the cold steel of the next rung before heaving my body up.
“Shit, shit, shit,” said Kelly from behind me.
But I stayed focused. The ladder wasn’t tall—only ten feet or so—but the drop down made every foot count. As I made my way up I heard the sound of Kelly grab onto the ladder, the soft clanging rising above the low howl of the wind.
Before too long I arrived at the roof. With a heave, I went up over the top of the ladder and fell down onto the concrete of the roof, still warm from the heat of the day. Quickly, I scrambled to my feet and helped Kelly with the rest of the way. Once both of us were safely on the roof, we took some time to recover from what we’d just done.
“I never want to do anything like that again in my life,” Kelly said, her hands on her knees as she shook her head.
I stepped over to the side of the roof and began looking down for any sign of a fire escape. After spotting one, the next thing my eyes settled on were the orange flames flicking out of the windows about halfway down the building.
I grimaced.
“I wish I could tell you won’t have to, Kel, but the fire’s spreading,” I said. “We’re not going to be able to take the fire escape all the way down.”
“Are you serious?” Kelly asked, going pale. “Then how are we going to get out?”
“Give me a second,” I said.
I ran over to the other side of the roof, laying my eyes on the parking garage next door. The distance between the two buildings wasn’t that far, but I needed some way to bridge the gap. I turned around and took stock of what I had at my disposal.
There.
A long steel service ladder had been left on the roof, one that looked like, once extended, it’d be long enough to cross.
“There!” I said, pointing to the ladder.
“Huh?” asked Kelly. “There’s no way that’s long enough to get down from here.”
I shook my head.
“Not down,” I said. “Across.”
Kelly stepped to my side and looked down before snapping her attention back up to me, a look of total shock on her face.
“No way,” she said. “You can’t possibly be thinking that—”
“It’s the only way,” I said. “Unless you know where to find some full-body flame-retardant suits.”
“Justin,” she said. “This is insane. You want to use the ladder to climb over to the parking lot?”
“It should be fine,” I said. “We go one after another and move slowly. If we do it right, it might even be easier than going up the ladder was.”
“Oh, I bet,” she said. “Except for the part where we cross a huge gap on a wobbly ladder.”
“I know it sucks,” I said. “But we don’t have a choice.”
Kelly took a slow breath, then nodded.
“Yeah,” she said. “You’re right. Let’s do it and be done with it.”
I didn’t waste any time in running over to grab the ladder. It was heavier than it looked, but between the two of us we managed to get it down the fire escape, down to what appeared to be the eighth floor. The drop off wasn’t nearly as bad as from the roof, but it’d still be more than enough to be fatal.
The air was warm from the fire below, smoke billowing through the air.
“Come on,” I said to Kelly. “Let’s get it across.”
Together we propped up the ladder onto the fire escape, extending it and slowly pushing it across until it reached the concrete barrier of the parking garage. The other side landed with a clang. It was long enough, but just barely.
I put my hand on the ladder and gave it a shake. The middle portion sagged a bit as it wobbled.
“Is it going to work, you think?” Kelly asked.
“I hope so. But we need to go one at a time.”
She nodded.
“I’ll go first,” I said. “If it falls, I’d rather you weren’t the one on it.”
“Justin—” she said.
A beat passed and I spoke again before awkwardness could set in.
“We’ll beat the fire if we move now. Just follow my lead. Take it slow and steady, and make sure you’ve got a good grip before moving on.”
She nodded, her eyes on the ladder.
“Good luck,” she said.
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what was ahead, then leaned forward, grabbed onto the rungs, and heaved myself onto it.
The ladder let out a groan as it sagged with my weight. I winced, knowing that if it was going to fall, it’d be right then. But it held. And slowly, slowly, I began to make my way across.
“Be careful!” Kelly yelled, her voice cracking.
I said nothing, focusing on the task at hand. One rung after another, I inched across the ladder. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, and down below I could see the crowds of hundreds of people pouring out of the front of the Troika. Flames flickered and crackled.
Once I reached the middle of the ladder, relief took hold as it held under my weight. That meant as long as it stayed in place, it’d be able to handle Kelly’s weight too.
I reached for the next rung, ready to finish the job. But right as I prepared to wrap my hand around it, a sudden sharp wind caused my fingers to slip. My grip failed and my balance was thrown off. My body rocked on the ladder and I felt myself roll of the side of it.
Kelly let out a scream as I began to fall, and as I turned I caught a glimpse at the ground below, the hard gray surface that I’d soon be crashing down upon.
Chapter 15
My hand shot out, and at the last possible moment my fingers grabbed hold onto the rung of the ladder, the one that’d caused me to sl
ip. The ladder jerked as I grabbed it, the metal sagging so hard and deeply that I worried it might snap in two.
Kelly let out another shriek as I dangled from the rung.
“Justin!” she shouted out.
I had it. But there was still the matter of pulling myself back up.
I swung my free arm up, but wasn’t able to reach. A creak sounded from the ladder, the steel not designed to handle such a load.
“I’m fine!” I shouted back. “Just need to…”
I swung my arm up again, my hand coming short. This time, the awkward movement caused the gun tucked into my waistband to come loose and slip out, the silver weapon tumbling end-over-end down into the crowd below.
“Stay there!” shouted Kelly. “I’m coming to get you!”
“Oh no you’re not!” I shouted back.
“Stay there!” she repeated.
“Kelly! This thing’s not going to be able to hold us both!”
I glanced over in her direction to watch as she climbed on, ignoring me.
“There’s no way I’m going to stand here and watch you fall!”
The girl was stubborn, but I already knew that.
She pulled her slender body onto the ladder, slowly making her way towards me. My arm began to howl with pain as I hung there. And I realized that Kelly was right: there was no way I’d be able to get myself up without help.
The ladder sagged more as she reached the center of it, the material creaking, a soft pop sounding. Before too long she was above me, her blond hair hanging down from her worried face.
“Come on!” she shouted, reaching down and offering me her hand. “This thing’s about to split!”
I summoned the last bit of strength I had to reach up, my hand barely reaching to her slender fingers. Suddenly, Kelly had a hold of me, and we both heaved with all we had to get me back onto the ladder. After some struggling, I was close enough to grab onto the side and pull myself up onto it with both hands.
The ladder didn’t like this one bit. It bowed even more as it strained to support the weight of both me and Kelly.
“Come on!” I shouted. “We need to move, now!”
She nodded, turning her body and climbing across the ladder to the other side. Kelly soon reached the parking lot and clambered over the side. I followed her, reaching the ledge just in time to watch the ladder buckle once last time as I heaved myself off of it, the joints snapping and the two portions falling down below.
