Time Bomb

by Joelle Charbonneau

  “Here,” Z said, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it to her. “You can use this, too.”

  “Okay,” she said, putting her hands under Kaitlin’s slight shoulders and wishing she wasn’t in charge of this part. But it wasn’t as if Cas was up to the challenge.

  “Are you ready, Kaitlin?” Z asked. Kaitlin clenched her teeth, shut her eyes tightly, and nodded as Z wedged his board in the space between the floor and the metal near the end of the air conditioner. He stood on one side, while Frankie stood on the other. They set themselves, and Frankie yelled, “Here we go. One. Two. Three.”

  The guys grunted and pushed down on the lever. The box edged up. Diana dug her fingers into Kaitlin’s armpits and held her breath as it moved again. Then she pulled.

  Kaitlin screamed, and Diana almost let go. Kaitlin was still being crushed. The boys groaned, and the box edged up a fraction of an inch more. Diana tugged again. Kaitlin let out another yelp as Diana pulled her backwards.

  “She’s free!” Frankie yelled as the air conditioner crashed back to the ground. He quickly helped Diana wrap Z’s shirt and paper towels around her legs while Z bound the makeshift bandages with duct tape.

  “Now, does anyone have an idea of how we can get out of here?” Frankie asked.

  “We could go back down the way I came up,” Diana said, trying not to look at Kaitlin’s injuries as they worked. But it was hard not to. There was some blood coming from a puncture in one of her thighs, but not as much blood as Diana had feared there would be. Still, the shape and odd angle of both of Kaitlin’s legs made it clear the damage inside them was severe. Frankie wrapped ripped pieces of T-shirt and paper towels around the puncture wound to stop the bleeding, then told Diana to look for something they could use for splints.

  “I’ve got it,” Z said, grabbing two pieces of splintered two-by-fours off the ground before Diana had a chance to move.

  Every second that Frankie and Z spent winding duct tape around the splints felt like an hour.

  Diana checked the time on her phone and shoved it back into her pocket.

  Hurry up, she thought. They had to hurry up if they were going to get—

  A loud boom shook the building. As Frankie shoved her to the floor, all Diana could think was that they were too late, as somewhere a third bomb was exploding.

  12:41 p.m.

  Tad

  — Chapter 34 —

  THERE WAS A FLASH, and everything exploded.

  Tad slammed to the floor.

  Metal lockers flew open.

  The ceiling fell from above.

  He put his arms over his face. A blast of heat seared his skin and his lungs as he inhaled the scorching air. Somewhere, someone screamed. There was another rumble, and the screaming stopped.

  His heart leaped into his throat, and he scrambled to his knees. A hand appeared in front of his face. He didn’t think twice before grabbing it and letting Rashid haul him up. Together, they bolted down the side hallway. The shaking floor made them stumble, but they stayed on their feet and raced back to the side of the school where they’d come from.

  It wasn’t until they reached the end of the next hall, near one of the collapsed stairwells, that they stopped running. Tad’s lungs were on fire. He gulped air, and when he coughed, he tasted soot. His ears rang. Beside him, Rashid sank to the floor and put his head in his hands.

  And that’s when it hit Tad. Rashid might not like him, but he had made sure Tad had gotten out of harm’s way. It was hard to believe that someone who was involved with this would have cared if he’d gotten caught in the blast. Not that Tad had really thought Rashid was behind any of this. Not really. He just wished Rashid had told him who he had called.

  Tad shook the ringing out of his ears and pushed the thought to the side. All he really knew was that they were back where they had started. Still stuck in this hellhole, with God only knew how many more bombs ready to go off at any minute.

  “If we get out of this, I owe you for saving my life.” Tad’s throat burned. The water dripping in the distance taunted him. He would sell a piece of his soul for a drink of cold water.

  Rashid slowly rose to his feet. He frowned as he looked up and down the hall as if searching for something.

  “The smoke’s getting thicker,” Tad said, breaking the silence.

  Finally, Rashid said, “I think we should find a fire extinguisher.”

  Tad laughed. “You think a fire extinguisher is going to put out that?” He pointed down the hall at the black smoke billowing their way. “Are you crazy?”

  “Yes.” Rashid turned and started down the hall, away from the smoke. “I thought you already had that figured out.”

  Yeah. He’d earned that.

  Tad shot one last look down the hall in the direction of the fire, then followed Rashid, who had found the fire extinguisher in this part of the school.

  Rashid grabbed a thick piece of wood and smashed it against the fire-extinguisher case. The glass shattered, but he cocked back and took another swing at it before dropping the wood. Finally, he yanked the extinguisher from the holder and took several deep breaths.

  “Feel better?” Tad asked with a smile.

  Rashid looked down at the fire extinguisher in his hands then the shattered glass on the floor among the rest of the wreckage and shocked the hell out of Tad when he flashed a grin. “Yeah. I do.”

  “So,” Tad asked again, “what’s the plan? It’s not like we can climb out a window and jump.”

  Not from the second story, which was technically three stories up from the sidewalk because of the school’s design. Even if they managed to squeeze themselves through the narrow windows, they would have to drop thirty feet or more to concrete and brick below. If they could get to the east side of the building, they could jump onto the grass, but that part of the school was currently on fire.

  Breaking a leg on the concrete would be better than burning to death, but there was also a good chance he’d split his head open. “Do you have a plan other than holding a fire extinguisher and hoping for the best?” Tad repeated.

  “Yes,” Rashid answered. “I plan on using the pressure in the fire extinguisher to propel us from the school like a jetpack. How about you test it first?”

  Tad stared at Rashid, who shook his head, then laughed. “I’m joking.”

  “You’re joking?” Tad didn’t know the guy even knew how to joke, and here he was doing it with the building coming down around their heads.

  “The smoke is getting worse, which is probably more dangerous right now than the fire. I think we should barricade ourselves in one of the rooms as far away from the fire as we can get and wait there until help arrives,” Rashid said, all traces of laughter gone.

  “So we just sit around and wait for the fire or another bomb to kill us?” This plan left a lot to be desired.

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  He would give anything to say yes. “No, but . . .” He cocked his head to the side and held up his hand. “Listen. Do you hear something?”

  “Hear what?”

  He looked around and waited for the sound to come again.

  “Is anyone down there?”

  Voices. People were calling. The voices were muffled.

  “Hello?” Tad yelled back. Then he turned to Rashid. “I think the voices are coming from above. Maybe the firefighters or the cops are here after all. Come on.” He thought he heard someone shout back, but the sound was too faint to make out the words. “Can you tell where they are?”

  Rashid shook his head. “Maybe somewhere closer to the middle of the hall? It’s hard to say. Hello? Are you there?” he shouted, then froze as he listened.

  Tad held his breath as he waited for the voices to come again. “That way,” he said. He ignored the smoke that was billowing around the corner as he sprinted down the hall. Rashid followed, trying door handles along the way.

  “This one is open,” Rashid said as he pulled. A desk crashed through the
opening. Everything inside the room creaked. Debris rained on top of Rashid. Tad bolted forward, grabbed Rashid’s arms, and pulled him out of the way.

  “You okay?” He coughed, then squatted down next to Rashid.

  “Never better,” Rashid said as he wiped at the blood streaming from a cut on his face. Tad started to unbutton his shirt to use as a bandage, but Rashid was already tearing a piece of his own shirt away and pressing it to his head. When Tad moved to help, Rashid leaned back. “I’m fine.”

  Tad heard the voices again, which sounded as if they were coming from the open doorway. “Hello?” he yelled, peering through a gap in the wreckage wedged in the doorway to see into the room beyond.

  Holy destruction, Batman.

  The place was a mess of twisted metal and busted boards and pieces of wall or ceiling. Here and there, he could see streaks of light snaking through a haze of smoke. “Hey?” Tad shouted again. “Anyone?”

  Please. Let the firefighters be there.

  “Do you hear that?” a male voice shouted from above. “I think someone’s down there.”

  “Yes!” Tad coughed and choked out, “There are two of us down here on the second floor.” He turned to look at Rashid, who was staggering to his feet, still pressing the shirt to his head. Blood was smeared across the side of his face. “Do you hear that, Rashid? We’re going to get the hell out of here! They’re coming to save us.”

  “There are five of us up here on the third,” someone else called, and Tad’s breath caught in his throat. He knew that voice.

  It wasn’t a firefighter coming to help them escape. The voice belonged to Frankie. He hadn’t left the building and ditched Tad after all. And now he was here.

  Frankie

  — Chapter 35 —

  FRANKIE’S CHEST TIGHTENED. He recognized the voice coming from below. Still, he found himself asking, “Tad is that you?”

  “Yeah, Frankie. It’s me. Guess this is life’s way of telling me I should have gone to the team party after all. Right?”

  Frankie’s heart leaped, even as he tensed. Whatever had been between them for those few weeks was over. Done. It should never even have started—whatever it was. And what was happening now didn’t change any of that.

  He looked back at Z holding Kaitlin. Diana and Cas were not far behind them. They were ready to climb down to the floor below.

  “We’re all going to work together to get out of this,” he called, deliberately keeping his tone businesslike and hoping Tad would pick up the cue. “But first we have to get down by you.”

  “There’s a lot of smoke down here, the stairways are blocked, and the east side of the school is on fire. Maybe we should try to come up and get to the roof. I could swear I heard helicopters.”

  “The third floor is in bad shape. Part of the roof is caved in. There’s no way we can get to the door for the roof.” Or through it. The door was steel and they kept it locked, for obvious reasons. “Things might suck down there, but at least you’re closer to the ground. That has to give us more options.”

  “Are we going down there, or are we going to talk until the building collapses around us?” Z asked.

  Frankie shot Z an annoyed look, then turned and stared down into the destruction that was the room below them. From here it was impossible to see the door, which didn’t bode well. “We’re coming down now,” he called to Tad.

  “The door has broken desks and shelves and other stuff wedged into it. I could try to clear some of the stuff from the entryway, but anything I move could make other wreckage inside the room shift. That could make things worse.”

  Frankie took a look back at Kaitlin, who was whimpering in pain. “We’re going to have to risk it. Just let me know when you’re doing something that could send things flying. Okay?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “Okay,” he said, grabbing on to a metal bar hanging near the doorway he was standing in. “I’ll go first and spot you guys on the way down.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Diana said, locking eyes with him. “You should focus on people who need your help.”

  He saw anger flash across Diana’s face for just a second before it vanished into an expression of concern. “Kaitlin and Cas need you, and I’ve already climbed this one. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Be careful,” Cas said as she appeared behind Z.

  “I’ll do my best,” Frankie promised, scoping out what looked like the best path for all of them and starting downward.

  “There’s no moving this desk that’s wedged into the doorway,” Tad called from below. “I think I can move stuff underneath it without causing anything else to fall, but there’s a hell of a lot of smoke and a big-ass fire heading this way. So whatever you want to do to get down here, you’re going to want to do it quick, or you might get singed.”

  I might get singed no matter how fast I climb, Frankie thought as he worked his way downward, trying not to grab on to anything that would injure his hands.

  “Z,” Frankie called when he reached a fairly stable desktop about a third of the way down, “pass Kaitlin to me. Then you can climb down here and we can work on getting her the rest of the way.”

  He’d been amazed that Kaitlin hadn’t been gushing blood when Diana pulled her free from the air conditioner. But he still had no idea if they could get her down the wreckage to the next floor without hurting her worse. The splints were holding, and with Diana’s help, Z had managed to keep her legs mostly steady and elevated on the trip down the hall. But this was going to be a hell of a lot harder.

  They’d move the ball down the field step by step until they got to the end zone. If nothing else, they had to try.

  It was touch-and-go. Kaitlin could barely keep her arms around Z’s neck, which meant the guy had no hands to grab anything to help him make the climb down. Not with one hand under Kaitlin’s knees and the other keeping her tight against his chest. Every time she whimpered, Z looked as if he wanted to punch out a window.

  The smoke was getting thicker as Frankie helped Cas make the descent. He heard Diana start down after them, but he kept his eyes firmly on Cas as she bit her lip and tried not to show how scared she was that she was going to lose her grip and fall.

  “You okay?” he asked when Cas was about halfway to the floor.

  “In my next life, I’m coming back as a mountain goat.”

  He’d heard worse ideas.

  Frankie caught a glimpse of Tad talking to someone on the other side of the debris that jammed the doorway as he helped Cas reach the bottom. Z worked on sliding Kaitlin through the space under one of the wedged desks into the hall.

  Kaitlin moaned, and Z frowned as he shouted to Tad, “Do you have her? You have to be careful of her legs.”

  “Yeah. She’s through. We’re going to take her into one of the classrooms where there’s less smoke. We’ll be back in a minute.”

  Good, Frankie thought, but they weren’t going to wait.

  Frankie turned to Z. “One of us should go first and the other one last so we have someone on either side to help Cas and Diana through. Do you want to flip a coin?”

  He could tell Z wanted to get to the other side to where Kaitlin was. He expected him to insist on going first, which was fine with Frankie. The more buffer he had between him and Tad when they finally were face-to-face, the better.

  “You’re smaller than me,” Z said. “You’ll get through faster. Just make sure nothing happens to Kaitlin before I get to the other side.”

  Well, hell.

  “Okay, then.”

  The fit was tight, and the sweat on Frankie’s back made him stick to the floor as he pushed himself along with his feet. He closed his eyes as dust from above showered down on top of him, and he winced as something scraped his skin. He shoved with his feet again and wriggled his hips to move several more inches. And then again until finally he opened his eyes and saw a hand appear in front of his face.

  He looked at its long, brown fingers for a minute befor
e taking it and letting Tad haul him to his feet.

  “I’m out,” Frankie called and started to step toward the doorway to help Cas, but Tad’s fingers squeezed his arm tight as Tad quietly said, “Nice of you to finally drop by. I’ve been waiting.”

  Things do not change; we change.

  —Henry David Thoreau

  12:48 p.m.

  Cas

  — Chapter 36 —

  DYING WOULD HAVE BEEN easier than this.

  Her arm throbbed. Her head spun from the pain and the smoke and the tears she’d refused to let fall during the climb down or when Frankie had insisted she climb through that hole after he did. Even if her arm hadn’t been injured, the hole would have been hard for her to squeeze through. With her arm injured—she had taken one look at the opening Frankie was pulling himself through and shaken her head. She wasn’t going to make it through that space. Diana would, no problem. But Diana had insisted on climbing down last. She didn’t need help. Not like Cas did. Diana could save herself.

  Well, all the carrot and celery sticks her mother had given her for lunch mocked Cas as Frankie finished pulling himself through the gap and yelled that it was her turn. He would help her from the other side. Z was going to help from the rear.

  That was the last thing she wanted.

  She hugged her bag tight against her and thought about the gun inside.

  “I know this isn’t a news flash, but I’m hurt,” Cas had said, backing up against a . . . She had no idea what it was she was leaning against. “It’s going to take a while for me to get through, so Diana and Z should go before me. It’s not fair to make them wait.” And then they wouldn’t have to see her struggle to get through the opening she knew wasn’t large enough.