Outlaw's Promise(71)

“Find some chain,” I told Carrick, coughing. “Thick, heavy chain. Fix one end to your bike and put the other end through the window. I’ll pass it around the pipe. Then go.”

Carrick stared at the pipe. “That’ll break the pipe?”

“No. It’ll pull the whole wall off.”

“What?!”

“Do it! Go!”

He hesitated. I could tell the idea of leaving me there killed him. But someone had to stay to do up the chain. He finally growled and ran off through the flames.

Mom coughed. “I never thought I’d see Carrick listen to reason. You’ve got that boy hooked good.”

Another piece of the ceiling fell in, spreading flames across the floor towards us. I tried using a blanket to smother them but everything was too hot, too dry: the flames sprang up again as quickly as I put them out. Mom and I huddled by the sink, drew our legs up and squashed ourselves into the smallest space we could. She started coughing again and I hugged her tight, her long silver hair trailing over my hands. Hurry, Carrick.#p#分页标题#e#

I hear the roar of a bike outside and the clank of heavy chain. I threw open the window above us and Carrick passed the end of the chain through: old and grimy but as thick as my wrist. I looped it around the metal pipe and passed it back to him. He grabbed me by the wrist and stared desperately into my eyes, as if he wanted to haul me right through the window and away with him.

“I know,” I said. “Go!”

He ran to his bike. I ducked down. “Hold onto the sink,” I told Mom. “As tight as you can.”

From beneath us, there was a horrible, metallic creak, the sound of pressure that’s built too high. I imagined the propane tanks, their paint blistered and peeling, their metal sides bulging….

I heard the bike accelerate away and the rattle as the slack in the chain was taken up. I squeezed Mom tight. Would this work? Would the momentum pull out the bolts or would the bike just snap to a stop at the end of the chain, sending Carrick flying to his death? Please be right.

The sound of the bike got quieter and quieter as it sped away from us. Then there was a metallic chink that vibrated through the whole trailer as the chain snapped taut and—

It was like being in a car that’s suddenly rear-ended. One second, Mom and I were clinging to a stationary object. The next, our arms were almost yanked out of our sockets as the sink, the cupboards and the whole wall were jerked away.

Cool, clean air and brilliant sunlight drenched us and there was an instant when we were flying through the air. Then the wall become the floor as it crashed to the concrete and we were being dragged along behind Carrick’s bike like sailors clinging to a makeshift raft. I felt one of my sneakers come off and looked down to find one of my feet was trailing on the ground. I snatched it back to safety. If my laces hadn’t been loose, I probably would have lost a foot.

Carrick cut the engine and we slid to a stop a hundred feet from the trailer, sparks flying where the wall scraped along the floor. I looked at Mom, then down at myself. My hip was bruised from when the wall had slammed into the ground and I felt like I might throw up, but both of us seemed to be okay.

Carrick ran over, crouched down, and put his arms around both of us. I grabbed his bicep and clung tight, panting with adrenaline. I stared at the trailer: the flames had completely filled it, now, the remaining windows shattering as the heat got too much.

I turned to Carrick. “We should call—”

I didn’t hear so much as feel the explosion. I think it was just too loud for my brain to register as sound: I just felt the aftershock of pain and the hot gale against my cheek. I threw my arm up instinctively to cover my face and felt it pelted with scorching metal and glass.

When I looked again, it was like there’d never been a trailer. There was just a blackened, twisted mess of metal that had once been the frame and a ring of shrapnel around it, most pieces no bigger than my hand. Then I saw something moving through the smoke. Mr. Fluffy padded over to us, leapt into Mom’s lap and settled down as if nothing had happened. I don’t know where he’d been when the trailer exploded, but he must have used up at least one life.

Carrick mouthed something but I couldn’t make out what. Bits of lighter debris started to drift down. I recognized scraps of purple fabric from Mom’s huge couch. I put my arm around Mom and hugged her close. She hugged me back, then mouthed something at me.

“What?” I asked, frowning. Why did they keep miming? “Just say it!”

And then I realized they weren’t miming at all. I just couldn’t hear them.