Darion still urged the bowl toward him. “After you tie him up, jam this into the gas pipes.”
He handed another bowl to Door. “Hurry, before he starts the flow of the knockout gas.”
Darion tried to hand some to Back, but the rapist wouldn’t take it. “What do I fucking get out of this?”
“Just clog the holes, ass-wipe,” Darion answered.
“You’ve tried this fucking before, Darion,” Back responded. “Do I need to remind you of the dire outcome?”
“And I’ve learned from my mistakes,” Darion answered.
Evie certainly hoped so. Darion noticed that Papa didn’t pick up his stew.
“Papa…”
Her captor just shrugged. “You only delay the inevitable, Darion. All I need to do is wait out your pathetic little siege.”
Gas began pouring out of the pipe above Evie’s head. “No!” She thrashed against her restraints.
“Stop it!” Papa shouted, very un-grandfatherly. “You’ll bruise your skin.”
Like Evie cared about that. Right now, she just cared about the knockout gas pouring out of the pipe. She was already feeling a little woozy.
“Papa’s right, though,” Andrew said. “There’s no way the ‘Zard is going to open Papa’s cell door.”
Darion grabbed Esau’s slingshot and handed it off to Andrew. “Work on the cameras while I worry about Papa.”
“Cool!” Andrew shouted.
Evie couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out what Darion was up to when he went back to Igor and jerked open his jacket. There were rows and rows of C-4 blocks running down his chest. Evie thought she’d known what to expect, but that was a butt-load of C-4.
Ping, ping, ping, sounded as Andrew shot at the cameras. Of course, the kid wasn’t very accurate, but he was enthusiastic, and had an unending supply of pebbles to work with.
Darion used Clyde’s old bayonet blade to shave off some C-4 from the block.
“What the fuck?” Back demanded. “That shit is volatile.”
Darion grinned. “Exactly.”
Evie watched as Darion smeared the C-4 on the lock to Papa’s door. Evie’s heart soared even as her head pounded. Papa charged forward, snapping his shears. Darion had to back off.
Using the last of her strength, Evie kicked her legs out, catching Papa around the neck. She squeezed as hard as she could. Given how greasy her legs were, she wasn’t sure how long she could hold him back.
“Do it!” she yelled at Darion.
Quickly, Darion coated the lock with the explosive. Papa squirmed out from her legs and raced to the door, trying to wipe the stuff off, but it was sticking pretty tightly to the metal.
Darion walked over to Back’s cell and put his hand out.
“Fuck you,” Back spat.
“We all know that you have a box of matches from Pyro Day,” Darion challenged, keeping his palm out.
“Why should I give you one?” Back snapped back.
“Eventually, don’t you want your door opened?” Darion asked.
Back hesitated for a moment, then went to his cot and pulled out the box of matches. At first he held out the box, then thought about it and removed just one match and handed it to Darion.
“To keep you honest,” Back explained.
Darion turned, shoved a piece of cloth into the C-4, then lit the sheet strip.
The fire spread up the fabric quickly, then ignited the C-4. A loud boom and clang of metal followed. Papa’s door swung open.
Darion stood at the entrance with the bayonet in hand. “You don’t want me to have to fight my way to her.”
Papa bit his lower lip. “And if I let you have her?”
“Safe passage out,” Darion offered. “But after that, I hunt you down.”
Papa lowered his shears and sat down on the cot. “Fair enough.”
At first Evie was confused as Darion rushed past her, then she realized that he was going to plug the gas pipe. As soon as the gas was shut off, Darion turned to her and cut her restraints.
Coughing and gagging, she fell into his arms.
Holding her up, Darion asked, “Feeling at all grateful yet?”
“Working on it,” Evie said with a smile.
Darion led her toward the door. Papa got up and tried to follow.
“Oh no,” Darion said. “You sit and you stay.”
Surprisingly, Papa folded his hands over his groin and sat down on the cot.
Darion got her out of the Papa’s den of starvation, then pointed her toward their old cell. “Clog the pipe.”
Evie nodded, grabbed a bowl of stew, and went to work as Darion headed to Andrew’s cell.
“If I let you out of this cell—”
“Hey!” Back interrupted. “You said—”
Darion held up a finger. “In due time, Back.”
“How about me?” Door asked. Darion just gave him a glare. Door sat back down as Darion turned to Andrew again.
“You’ve got to promise to be on your best Boy Scout behavior.”
“Promise,” Andrew said. “Pinky promise.”
The younger man held out his pinkie. To Evie’s surprise, Darion locked his pinkie around it and sealed the promise.
“Jesus, you fags!” Back yelled.
Evie stuffed stew into the pipe as she watched Darion load Andrew’s lock with C-4, then go to Back for another match.
“No way,” Back protested. “My cell first.”
Darion shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“You’re that afraid of me?” Back pressed.
“If that’s how you want to take it,” Darion said, then curled his fingers, asking for the match.
With a loud sigh, Back opened the matchbox, got out one match, and handed it over.
Another few seconds and Andrew’s door was open. The youth skipped out.
“This is so much better than even a hootenanny.”
Darion grabbed Andrew by the shoulders and guided him to Igor. “Focus, Andrew. I need you to harvest the C-4 and smear it all along the edge of the metal door keeping us in. Can you do that?”
Andrew saluted with two fingers. “On my scout’s honor.”
* * *
Jake rushed into the restaurant. It was way swankier than he had remembered. He hoped he had enough in his checking account to cover the meal.
The lobby area was empty. No Candace. His eyes scanned the bar—no petite blond. A man in a tuxedo walked up to the podium.
“Sir, may I help you?” he asked, not really sounding all that helpful. More like the guy wanted to give Jake directions to the nearest McDonald’s.
Jake got up onto his tiptoes to look over the maître d’. “I’m looking for…”
Then he saw her. Or at least someone whom he guessed to be Candace. She looked like her picture, only prettier. He should be thrilled she didn’t look like Godzilla’s older sister.
“Oh God,” Jake breathed out. “She’s cuter than I thought,” he explained to the frowning maître d’. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Shall I make apologies for the gentleman?”
It looked like the maître d’ was actually going to enjoy that when Candace noticed Jake and popped up out of her seat.
“Jake!”
That turned nearly every head in the restaurant as she trotted over to him. If scientists could somehow develop a way to melt into the floor, now would be like a great time. With her coming toward him, Jake could do nothing else but go through with the date.
He put his hand out to shake. Unfortunately, Candace came in for hug, which meant that he pretty much just punched his date in the stomach. Awesome. He tried to regroup, opening his arms up, but this time Candace was a bit more reluctant, and he couldn’t blame her.
They settled on the upper body hug, butt-out variety of greeting. Exactly how much more awkward could this get?
He followed her to the table, smelling her honeysuckle fragrance. They’d had some nice interaction online,
and a few telephone conversations that were enjoyable. Maybe this didn’t have to be like pulling teeth. Maybe he could put Evie out of his mind for the next hour or so.
“Sorry about being late,” Jake apologized.
Candace shrugged a cute little shrug, causing the strap of her sundress to slip down her arm. “I guess I need to get used to it if I’m going to be a cop’s girlfriend.”
Ah, and there they were, right back at awkward again.
* * *
Andrew couldn’t believe his luck, to actually be a part of the jailbreak, being Darion’s right hand man. If this didn’t validate his life choices, he didn’t know what did.
He turned to Evie who, after clogging up all the gas pipes, had joined him smearing the C-4 around the metal door’s frame.
“Oh, I wonder how home health care has advanced in the last year and a half.”
Darion approached from behind them and handed Andrew two thin rags. “Run them up either side.”
“Abso-freaking-lutely!” Andrew answered. He wanted to make sure that Darion knew that he had his back.
He turned to Evie. “Oh, I’m so excited! I think I might pee my pants.”
Andrew squeezed his legs together. “Wait… Yes… No…”
Realizing that he hadn’t leaked any out, he patted her arm. “It’s okay. But when this door goes down? You’d better get out of the way.”
Evie smiled, shaking her head at him. Clearly, she didn’t know that he wasn’t joking. He’d had a loose sphincter since childhood.
Evie grabbed Darion’s wrist as he turned away. “If you were planning on escaping, why did you let him have me?”
Darion indicated to the cameras, now defunct. “With him watching, what could I have done differently?”
Back nodded toward them, then licked his lips suggestively. Andrew wasn’t sure if that was for Evie or him.
“Any more surprises?” Evie challenged Darion.
“Do you really want to know?” Darion answered in his typical cryptic Darion manner. “Help Andrew,” he instructed Evie as he made his way back into the dungeon.
“You can’t run far enough, bitch,” Back shouted, “that I won’t find you.”
Guess the lip licking was for Evie, after all.
* * *
Jake sat, looking over Candace’s shoulder to the road outside. It had started to rain, and the slick pavement reflected the streetlights as if Monet had painted them. The sound of Candace’s voice rose and fell, but he hardly heard a word.
“Jake, did you hear me?”
“Oh, sorry,” he said, rejoining the conversation.
“I said since you like football so much, I got us tickets to opening day.”
Jake took a sip of water. “I like Madden NFL, the video game.”
He felt bad as Candace frowned. “Oh.” But the chick was a trooper and regrouped quickly. “Well then, I know you don’t like animals very much, but there is this amazing evening benefit at the zoo—”
“Actually,” Jake said, “I’m kind of been taken by hamsters lately.”
“Oh my,” Candace said, wiping the corner of her mouth with her linen napkin. Red smeared across the stark white fabric. “A lot’s happened over the past few days, I see.”
She wasn’t kidding. Jake’s life had been turned upside down. “Yeah.”
Awkward silence filled the air. Jake knew he should say something, anything. It wasn’t Candace’s fault that he had Evie on the brain. But he simply couldn’t think of a single thing.
Finally, Candace cleared her throat. “Wow, this isn’t going the way the online matchmaker said it would.”
“I know,” Jake said, hanging his head. “I’m so sorry.”
Candace, however, smiled and pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. “Which is why we have our ‘common ground’ lists!”
“Ugh,” Jake said, pretty sure he couldn’t feel any worse. “I forgot mine at the station house.”
Candace playfully hit his arm. “This from the man who, by his own admission, is excessively attentive to detail, and annoyingly too thorough for his superiors.”
Maybe she was onto something.
Before he knew it, Jake was standing up. “I’ve got to go.”
“Jake,” Candace said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset—”
Shaking his head, Jake tried to reassure her. “No, you were spot on. I’ve got to go save the princess.”
“Princess?” Candace asked, her eyebrow arching. “From your game?”
Jake pulled his wallet out and tossed out all the cash he had in his wallet. Hopefully, that would cover the drinks and appetizers.
“No,” Jake answered. “Look, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got to go find her.”
Candace stood, as well. Now all eyes in the restaurant were on them. Jake was sure that the maître d’ was back there somewhere gloating, saying “I told you so,” to the wait staff.
“Her?” Candace demanded. “When did a ‘her’ become the issue?”
Her pale cheeks flushed red. Jake didn’t want to hurt her feelings any more than he had, though, so he stayed silent.
Candace, though, crossed her arms over her chest. “I think after investing two months in an online ‘relationship,’ I deserve an explanation.”
Jake shifted from one foot to the other. He guessed she did ask for it, and Jake prided himself on being as honest as possible.
“Um, okay.” He started trying to find a good entry point to this whole sordid tale. “I’m going to try to save a woman that I haven’t met from a serial killer that I’m not sure exists.” He sped up. “And once I do, I’m hoping that the whole hero aura will keep her from noticing that I’m not rich nor considered classically good looking so that she’ll spend enough time with me to get her into bed, where my attention to her pleasure will convince her to stay with me.”
Wow, that felt good to get off his chest. However, Candace just stood there, looking rather stunned. What did she expect?
“Next time, maybe don’t ask for an explanation.”
Jake turned on his heel, then realized the epic nature of his quest. He turned back to Candace. “But just in case it doesn’t work out, or she’s, you know, dead… Can I call you?”
Well, that seemed to snap Candace out of her shock. “No!” she blurted.
“Okay, okay,” Jake said as he left before the maître d’ kicked him out.
* * *
Evie stood next to Darion as he held his hand out to Back. Andrew flanked Darion on the other side. Back, however, had his arms crossed over his chest.
“You going to blow my fucking door next?” Back demanded.
“And mine!” Door chimed in.
Darion just glared at the rapist. “Do you want a pinkie promise?”
Back’s face clouded, but ultimately he handed over a match.
Darion leaned over to the two long, thin strips of cloth and set them alight. The fire raced up the fabric to the C-4 on the metal door. Darion covered Evie with his body as the explosion rang out.
Evie crawled out from under his arm to watch the metal door fall from its scorched frame. Freedom lay just a few feet away.
Papa burst from his cell, charging for the door, but Darion raised his bayonet and stopped Papa dead in his tracks with a bayonet blade to the throat. Evie wouldn’t mind it a bit if Darion finished the deed.
“What did I say about sitting and staying?”
Arms raised, Papa backed away to his cell and sat back down on his cot.
“Blow mine!” Back insisted.
Why weren’t they running through that door? Instead, Darion started shaving more C-4 off of Igor’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Evie demanded. “You aren’t seriously going to let them out.”
Darion shrugged as he continued getting the C-4 ready. “A deal’s a deal.”
Evie pulled out her metal fragment. “I can’t let you.”
“Andrew?” Darion asked.
The teen step
ped forward with his pocket knife. “Okay, Evie, I don’t want to hurt you, but…”
Evie turned on her heel and glared at Andrew. She wasn’t afraid of anyone who licked the frosting off of his cupcake first because it hurt his teeth to bite through it.
Andrew sheathed his knife and frowned. “She’s mean.”
After all of this, damn right.
Evie instead put her metal fragment to Darion’s neck. “Stop. Now.”
Darion, though, seemed unfazed. “Do you really think that the metal door was the last defense against escape? If you think you can get to the surface without me, slice away.”
Evie had ignored Darion’s advice once too often not to believe him now. What was beyond that metal door? The hallway was pitch black. Any manner of booby trap could be out there. And, so far, Darion seemed to be the only one thinking clearly.
Evie pulled the fragment away. “I still don’t see how letting them go helps us.”
Back shoved a match through the bars. “Do it.”
Darion, however, didn’t take it. “The only way this works is if we have enough time to put some distance between us.”
Back shrugged. “Fucking fine. Make the fuse as long as you want.”
“And have you light it closer to the lock? I don’t think so,” Darion said. “No. I need the box.”
Back snatched his hand back and frowned. “How do I know you’re going to light it?”
“Because I’m not a degenerate psychopath like you,” Darion said. “Trust me, I am going to blow these doors.”
“Come on, Back,” Door encouraged. “It’s the only chance we have of getting out.”
Back looked to Door, then to Darion. “Fine.”
He handed the box of matches to Darion. To Evie’s, and apparently everyone else’s surprise, Darion buried the cloth fuses in the entire stash of C-4 on Igor’s chest.
“What the fuck?” Back exclaimed.
“Back,” Darion said. “You really are too trusting.” He then looked to Evie. “And you aren’t trusting enough.”
He urged Andrew and Evie to the door. “Let’s go,” he said.
Darion only stopped to pick up the remaining weapons before following them.
“Um,” Papa said. “Am I still to stay?”
Darion gave a nod and Papa rushed out of his cell to join them. As he passed Back he announced, “Good riddance.”
Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection) Page 11