by D Haltinner
“What if you cut the leg? Can you reach it with the saw?”
Darren hadn’t even considered that. He supposed he could reach the leg with the saw, and if there was enough battery power left, he could probably even cut the bottom of the leg off in a minute, but it might still be too stable on three legs to fall over.
“Maybe,” Darren said. “But that might not be enough to tip it over.”
“How much of the leg can you cut off?”
“Maybe four, five inches if I can fit the saw out the gap.”
“I think that might be enough to pull it off balance.”
“I don’t know, maybe we should just move onto the next building.”
“I think we should at least try.”
“It might not work. It might be a waste of time.”
“Just try, please.”
Darren sighed. “Fine, we’ll try. If the shelf is more than six feet tall or so, it will only block the hatch even further shut if it falls against the far wall.”
“If it does, we’ll just move on to the admin building like you said.”
“I suppose.” He still thought it was a waste of time, but he wasn’t in a hurry to pull out a revolver and play terrorist either.
“Come on down,” Audrey said. “I’ll get the saw out for you.”
Darren climbed back down the footholds, letting the hatch bang shut. He handed the light back to Audrey and waited while she opened his backpack and pulled out the saw. She zipped up the bag and handed it to Darren, reaching around him to put it in his hands.
“Do you want me to hold the light for you?” Audrey asked.
“Yeah,” Darren said. “That’d probably help.”
“I’ll try to keep it on the leg, but you’ll have to tell me where to hold it.”
“No problem.”
Darren lifted himself back up the molded steps and pushed the hatch back to its limit. He instructed Audrey to move the light around until he found the best position for her, then angled the sawzall out through the gap. He had to hold the hatch open with the top of his head in order to use both hands on the saw, but he was able to align the blade with its chipped and breaking teeth against the top of the leg.
“Here goes nothing,” Darren said, then started the saw.
The dull grind of the blade on the aluminum leg vibrated through the metal door and into Darren’s skull, and once he breached the center of the hollow leg, he was able to keep the saw from trying to rip his arms off while it bucked and chewed at the leg.
Half way through, the saw started to slow as the battery reached toward its limit. “I don’t know if it’s going to make it,” Darren said over the grinding.
“Don’t give up,” Audrey said.
Darren pushed the saw a little harder against the leg, watching the specks of light from the falling metal shavings reflecting the light back at him. Like glitter, the shavings glistened in each color of the rainbow as the blade strained to make it through the metal as its power died.
The saw died just as it pierced through the back side of the leg.
“Did it make it?” Audrey asked.
“Barely, but yeah,” Darren said. “Back up so I don’t hit you.”
Audrey backed up, the light dimming as she stepped.
The shelf was still hovering above the piece of leg Darren had cut off, so Darren tapped the chunk of aluminum with the saw until it slid out of the way. He pushed the dead saw into the closet further, then lowered himself a step back into the tunnel.
“Here goes,” Darren said.
He reached up and grabbed the bottom shelf. He pulled on it until he felt it move on its own, then yanked his arm back through the gap just in the nick of time. The shelf collapsed, slamming the hatch shut with a bang that echoed down the tunnel through the thick air filling it.
Audrey looked at Darren, flashlight still in hand. “Looks like it worked.”
“Looks like it,” Darren said. “Let’s hope it hasn’t pinned the door shut now.”
Darren moved back up a step, and using both hands, pushed upon the steel door. It moved, harder than before, but it didn’t stop when he had it opened past its previous limit. Audrey’s flashlight beam bounced around in front of Darren’s face, lighting up the bottles of cleaning products lying beside the hatch. The aluminum frame of the shelf was lying across the top of the hatch, but with all its shelves emptied in the fall, Darren had no problem pushing it open the rest of the way.
“I’m going up,” Darren said.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Audrey said.
Darren squeezed through the opening, and between the bottom two shelves of the overturned shelf. He held onto the frame as he stepped through it, and went straight to the door, feeling along the wall until he located the light switch and turned it on.
The dust covered light bulb buzzed into life, allowing Darren to see the massacre of Lysol and Brillo pads around him. He chose his steps with care to avoid the pools of bleeding disinfectants, and went straight to the shaft, cringing from the bitter smell invading his nose as he looked down at Audrey below.
Her eyes glistened in the light coming down the shaft. “Is it okay to come up?”
Darren reached an arm out to her. “Yeah, just don’t trip on anything.”
Audrey took Darren’s hand and climbed up out of the hole, moving out from between the shelves of the fallen aluminum skeleton. “Not much room in here,” she said as she bumped her heel against the slop sink.
“Not really.”
“Think anyone heard the shelf crash?”
“Someone would have poked their head in by now.”
“I guess. But what do we do now?”
“I suppose we should go on our shooting spree.”
“Shouldn’t we have some sort of plan though? It’s not like we’re carrying squirt guns.”
Darren moved around the mop bucket and sat down on the edge of the shelf. It hurt his knees to bend down, but getting his weight off the knees was well worth it. “How much planning can we do?”
“I don’t know,” Audrey said. “I just wanted to know what we were doing first.”
Darren sighed and dropped his face into his hands. “Are we even sure we want to do this?”
“We don’t have a lot of choice. They wouldn’t believe the bomb threat, and we need to get everyone as far away as from the void as possible. I don’t know how else to do that. Violence is the only way.”
Audrey’s mouth tensed for a moment and her lower jaw ground back and forth. “I wish you wouldn’t call it violence.”
“A couple shots into the floor to get people’s attention, then stand back while they run out of the building,” Darren said. “I don’t think it can be that difficult.”
“I hope it’s not.”
“What can go wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’ll stay right here by the janitor’s closet. At the first sign of trouble, we’ll climb back into the tunnel.”
“I guess.”
“Nothing will go wrong.”
“You better be right.”
“Don’t worry.”
“That’s a lot easier said than done.”
Darren swung the backpack off his shoulder. We unzipped it, pulled out the clothes they stole from the car in the parking lot, and put the sawzall back in. “Here,” he said, handing one of the shirts to her.
Audrey took it. “Gun?”
Darren dug back into the bag and pulled out the same gun Audrey had been carrying the day before, holding the barrel as he held the handle out to her.
Audrey took it and set it down on the edge of the floor before squatting down beside it to sit on the same ledge. She loaded the gun from bullets Darren handed her then began to tie up the sleeves and the neck of the shirt.
Darren took the shirt he had and mimicked her actions.
When Audrey had the sleeves and neck tied off, she put it over her head, squeezing the back of it until it was tight, then tyi
ng it on.
“I don’t think anyone will be able to tell who you are,” Darren said.
“But I can’t see now,” Audrey said. She gripped the fabric in front of her eyes and ripped a pair of slits into it. “That’s better at least.”
“It’ll work.” Darren put his own shirt over his head, tied it off and tore eye holes for himself. “I suppose we’re ready.”
“As ready as we’ll ever be.”
No one moved.
“We have to do this,” Audrey said.
“I know,” Darren said.
“We’re trying to protect them.”
“I know.”
“We have to scare them away to keep them safe.”
“I know.”
No one moved.
“I’m scared,” Audrey said.
“I am too,” Darren said.
“Not about this,” she said, picking up the revolver.
“You shouldn’t be.”
“It’s what happens after that.”
“I know.”
“What will happen if we can’t stop it?”
Darren shook his head. He knew she wasn’t actually looking for an answer.
“But we have to try,” Audrey said. She stood up, gun in hand, shirt over her head.
Darren stood.
“I’ll do the shooting,” Audrey said.
Darren nodded.
“Then let’s go. Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter 61
Darren peered through the cracked open door, looking for any sign of someone being in the hall. “It looks empty.”
“Then go,” Audrey said behind him.
The sweat was already running down Darren’s ribs and his heart was racing faster as he pulled open the door and stepped outside. He knew that he and Audrey stood out like foxes among chickens with shirts tied over their heads-and the guns in their hands like teeth around beaks.
Darren and Audrey stepped into the hallway, stopping just far enough in for the closet door to swing shut behind them, Darren looked up and down the hallway-he could hear the sound of lecturing professors, but saw no one through the ragged eye holes of his mask.
Audrey cocked her gun. “I suppose we should just get this over with.”
“I guess so.” Darren raised his, but did not pull the hammer back.
Audrey aimed the revolver down the hall toward the entrance, keeping the angle low so that the bullet should hit the floor before reaching the door, but that would keep any ricochet low enough that no one could be hurt.
Her arm was shaking.
It had every right to be.
She pulled the trigger. A burst of fire flew from the barrel of the gun, accompanied by an explosion that tore into Darren’s ears as the sound echoed back at them. Audrey’s arm bucked and her wrist flopped in the air and for less than a quarter of a second Darren though that the gun was going to fly out of her hand.
It didn’t.
The sound of the explosion diminished as it found it’s way down the intersecting hallways, leaving Audrey and Darren in silence they had only found in the tunnels below campus.
Audrey looked over to Darren, her eyes glassing over. They blinked shut, and then she yelled. “Everyone out! Now! That was a gun!”
She fired a second shot down the hall. A piece of tile flew up into the air when the bullet hit the floor. It crashed back down and shattered, but the ringing in Darren’s ears prevented him from hearing it.
“I said out! Or I start shooting people!”
Audrey’s body shook as she yelled. The little bit of skin that Darren could see on her neck and hands was so white, it was brighter than fresh washed hotel sheets.
The first face stepped into the hallway. A young man, his face more puzzled than afraid. He stood just in front of one of the open class room doors, jaw agape, staring at Audrey and Darren, not moving.
“What’s he doing?” Audrey asked.
“I don’t know,” Darren said.
The boy continued to stand and stare, not moving, like a deer in headlights.
Darren pointed his gun at the boy.
His face turned white from the top down and Darren though he was about to faint. But instead, the boy hightailed it for the building’s exit.
A few more faces poked out the same room.
“Get out!” Audrey screamed.
People began to clear out of the classrooms, one at a time, each one pausing-if only for a moment-to look at Darren and Audrey, then at their classmates who ran before them, possibly checking to be sure that they weren’t the victims of any gun fire.
Soon, another classroom began to empty. The people had to pass by Darren and Audrey to get to the door, and they gave the widest berth as possible when they did. Each one took a turn to look at Darren and Audrey, trying to burrow their eyes through their disguises, but then once their eyes found the old revolvers they held, they moved faster toward the exit.
Audrey and Darren waited, guns raised as frightened people ran by. Some were crying, some whimpering, even a couple shaking with bursts of screams as they were pushed and dragged by others toward the doors.
There were more people than Darren expected, but he guessed word had been brought upstairs already and they were emptying out just as Darren and Audrey hoped. There were exits on each side of the building, and if there were this many people going out this door, how many were going out the other exits?
Audrey’s arm brushed against Darren’s. She was still shaking, her head moving back and forth watching people run past. How many of those people were her friends? Darren didn’t have any friends for the most part, but he recognized a few of the faces from his classes. How many did Audrey know?
She was doing this to keep the others safe. Would her friends realize that? It wasn’t like her or Darren was actually shooting people, and they must have realized that or they wouldn’t be running past them. She was a nice girl, and doing a nice thing even if it didn’t look that way.
After a couple of minutes, the density of students diminished. Some professors joined in the run, probably waiting until their classrooms were empty before leaving themselves. They appeared more cautious when running past Darren and Audrey then the students had, but probably for good reason-how many students had thought about performing violence against a professor who had flunked them?
“Move! Move!” Audrey yelled.
The pace of the stragglers was slowing, but now they took a sudden jolt in speed.
“The police are probably here by now,” Darren said.
“Why haven’t they come in yet?” Audrey asked.
“I think we have them confused. We are sending out everyone already, isn’t that supposed to be their job? To clear the building?
“I guess. Let’s not wait around much longer though.”
Darren looked both ways at the stragglers running by. One guy on crutches swung his way toward the back door, looking over his shoulder every few swings.
“I think we can go,” Darren said.
Audrey turned to the door behind them and grabbed the handle. “Shit!”
Darren swung toward her. “What?”
“It’s locked!”
“What?”
“Didn’t you check it?”
“It’s a mop closet! I didn’t think they’d lock it!”
“Well they did!” Her body was shaking worse than it had been. She swung around, looking toward the door. “What if the police come now?”
“I don’t know,” Darren said. The shirt over his head snuck a section of fabric into his mouth when he spoke.
“We can’t exactly walk out the front door!”
“What if we left our jackets and guns and pretended to be students?”
“Do you want to risk that?”
“Maybe not.” And not just because an Arab running out of a building that had gunmen in it was an American’s worst nightmare.
Audrey put her arm on Darren’s chest and pushed him back from the door. “Mo
ve back.”
“What are you going to do?”
Audrey leveled the gun at the door handle.
“Don’t!” Darren said. “What if it-”
But Audrey pulled the trigger before Darren could finish. The wood door exploded above the handle, sending a cloud of wood into the air around them.
A scream came from behind them.
Darren spun around to see a young blonde girl run away, her heels swinging high into the air, shouting “don’t shoot me” over and over in a tone that was increasing faster as she ran.
Darren’s ears still rang from the gun shot, but he had no problem hearing Audrey kick the door behind him as he watched the blonde fling herself out of the door. He spun back just in time to see the wood splinter and the door fly open. It crashed into the fallen shelf and bounced back when it opened halfway, but it was enough room for Audrey to slide herself back inside the closet.
Darren paused, looking back toward the entrance and the tile that exploded. A pair of people ran out of one of the intersecting hallways and looked at Darren.
One of them was Rachel.
She hesitated, staring at Darren, her body ready to run toward the exit, but not yet moving. The girl who had been running beside her didn’t stop, and was now pushing out through the doors.
Darren couldn’t escape the feeling that Rachel recognized him. He could feel her eyes trying to rip the shirt off of his head to see his face. What would she do if she knew it was him? What would he do if she did recognize him?
He was starting to feel guilty. Why should he though? He and Audrey were doing this to try and save people, to get them as far from the void as they could. They would never shoot a person.
Not even a person who choose alcohol over their boyfriend, and slept with his roommate a couple of hours after breaking up with them.
Darren pointed the gun at Rachel.
Her eyes focused in on it and widened.
“Get out of here,” Darren said. He didn’t yell, he didn’t scream. He didn't even try to disguise his voice. “Get as far away as you can.”
Rachel stood still for a moment. Her face tensed as her eyes moved back up to Darren’s face and a sole tear rolled down her cheek.
She turned and ran, her hair bouncing around her.
Darren turned before she even got to the door. He closed his eyes to try and gather his thoughts that started to swim around him.