Geoff rolls off me, and I flip over. Black smoke, tinted orange, billows out of my front door burning my nose and throat so badly I’m hacking my lungs out. The walls around and across are stained black with huge cracks branching out into the ceiling like a spider web. My apartment’s a crater.
Geoff grabs me by the collar and pulls me off the floor. He shoves me down the hall right behind the shaking Lucy and serious Bryan. My neighbors fill the stairwell, some crying hysterically, and the rest in a blind panic. Thank God the majority are still at work. My next-door neighbor Mrs. Jeffrey and her seven cats rush down with the rest of us.
When we get onto the street, it’s havoc. People from inside and out all stagger around, coughing, and some are even bleeding. The two police officers sent to guard me help corral the stunned people away from the smoldering rubble. Cars on the street honk, though I can barely hear them. The drivers get out of their cars, looking up. I do the same and wince. There’s a huge hole with flames and smoke wafting from it. What’s left of my apartment lies in hot heaps on the sidewalk. Like the rest of them, I’m too shocked to know what to do next. I’ve just become homeless. Someone just tried to kill me. Again. What—
A man in a leather jacket, one of the few not sporting a deer-in-the-headlights expression, saddles up to Bryan. I don’t know what he does, but Bryan jerks and falls down. The people around him seem confused except for leather man. He takes another step and the same thing happens to Lucy. She swoons into the man’s arms. It’s all over in a second. As I’m turning to alert Geoff, two cold metal prongs touch my neck, followed by a painful jolt of electricity. My legs give out and I can’t move my arms. Taser. I remember the feeling from the academy.
I’m not knocked out, but the world goes fuzzy and incoherent. I’m vaguely aware of a man picking me up as bystanders look on. He steps over Bryan’s prostrate body, past the preoccupied patrolmen, down the street from the commotion. My head lolls from side to side as we move, but through the haze I realize where I’ve seen my abductor before. The other gunman from today. Perfect.
My body hasn’t rebooted from the shock when he tosses me into the trunk of a Cadillac next to the near-unconscious Lucy. Before shutting the back, he entwines my hands with riot cuffs at the wrists. In the pitch black, I can feel the car shake to life and pull away. I’m still too out of it to feel fear, but it’s coming.
It takes a few minutes but my mind slowly recovers, followed by my body. Hands reach out to me in the darkness. I touch Lucy, tell her not to panic though I can’t hear her response as my ears still ring. I do feel her hot, ragged breath on the back of my neck. She’s close to panicked judging from her breathing. I’m not too far behind.
When complex thought is possible again, my training takes over. We covered this very scenario at the academy. As I’m telling Lucy to stay calm, that we’ll be okay, I kick out the tail light. With the last thrust, dull pain runs across my bare foot. I cut myself, but I barely feel it. When the plastic gives, light streams inside so bright I have to shut my eyes for a moment. This better get someone’s attention. Blinking helps and soon I can see. I flip over so I’m facing Lucy. Tears cover her face and I grab her shaking, bound hands with mine, reassuring her until she calms down a little. I try to move, so I can look out the hole but can’t. My foot won’t fit out either.
I tell Lucy to scoot back as far as she can and then start kicking the top of the trunk as hard as I can, not easy with my injured foot. Each time I hit, a stab of pain shoots through. Great. I don’t have much leverage but keep at it. Maybe someone will hear. I think we drive about ten minutes, to where I don’t know. The car turns left again and we go down a bumpy incline, the light dimming as we descend on the gravel. Lucy’s breath grows ragged again.
“Oh, God,” she whimpers.
I’m close to falling apart too. This is bad. This is so bad. There’s a very good chance I’ll throw up at some point, but I’ll stave the impulse off as long as possible. “Lucy, listen to me,” I say, voice deceptively neutral. “We are going to get through this. You just need to stay calm and do what I say when I say it. Be strong, okay? No matter what.”
“O—Okay,” she says.
A few more twists and turns, all downhill, before the car pulls to a stop. The car door opens, then a few seconds later a metal door opens outside. We drive through it, then it shuts again. It’s pitch black now. We drive another minute on the gravel before stopping again. There’s only a little light from the hole. This time both car doors open and the men walk toward us, gravel under their feet signal their approach. My heart is about to leap out of my chest as the trunk opens.