“BURNING UP! YOU’RE ON FIRE!”
He kicked the door and went in low, gun close to his body. It was a small kitchen, something large and bloody slumped on the floor in front of him.
Carlos fired three times at the figure, four times, his brain registering that this wasn’t the guy, that this was some poor dead girl, but he couldn’t stop firing, he was too scared to stop, and when he was out of bullets and clicking on an empty chamber he felt movement behind him.
Carlos spun, falling to the ground as the man with the ax towered over him like an immense shadow. He had a sick, happy smile on his face, and there were two bloody bullet holes in the front of his shirt.
Why was this guy still standing?
Carlos heard a horrible scream, and realized that it was coming from himself.
Then the ax fell, and the screaming stopped.
Jack Kilborn
Disturb
“We should go now, while they’re busy.”
Bill agreed. When they’d first heard the gunshots, he and Theena had held out hope for rescue. Their escape plans evaporated when they realized the two mob thugs had come to call.
But the situation had improved slightly. Close as they could figure, Carlos and David were in the kitchen. That meant the hallway to the emergency staircase was open.
Bill displaced the desk and Theena helped him drag the dresser out of the way. They had problems opening the door; the ax had done so much damage the mechanism was stuck. Bill gave the knob three solid kicks to free it up.
They pushed out into the hallway, liberated and frightened. Theena uttered a surprised gasp.
David was standing at the corner. He looked like a blood-drenched demon from hell, swinging his ax and staring at them like Satan coming to collect souls.
Bill grabbed Theena’s wrist and they sprinted in the opposite direction. His feet were fueled by terror, and they made it to the fire door and up two flights of stairs before Bill had time to even take a breath.
Two more flights, and they were at the lobby door. Bill wasted precious seconds fumbling with the dead bolt, and then they were suddenly through. They ran to the front doors and pushed against the glass.
Locked.
Bill stared at the keyhole, unable to comprehend it. He rammed his shoulder against the doors but they didn’t so much as shudder.
Theena came up behind him, holding a cylindrical chrome garbage can. She and Bill hefted it on their shoulders.
“Close your eyes.”
They rammed it into the glass door with all they had.
There was a loud clanging sound, and the can bounced off the glass. There wasn’t so much as a chip. What the hell were they making glass out of these days?
“There has to be a fire exit somewhere. Come on.”
Again he grabbed Theena’s wrist and they ran back behind the security desk, practically tripping over Barry’s body.
Theena screamed. The security guard looked like a dropped watermelon from the neck up.
Ding.
Bill and Theena turned as one and faced the elevator.
It was coming up.
Bill had no idea what to do. The DruTech Building was big, fifteen stories and hundreds of offices. Maybe they could hide somewhere, wait for help to come.
“Barry…”
“Barry’s dead, Theena.”
“He has a gun.”
Bill hustled back to the security guard’s body. Sure enough, there was a gun in a leather holster on his waist. Bill knelt down, fumbling to unbutton the clasp.
Another ding. The elevator doors parted like a stage curtain.
David smiled at them. There was a splash of blood on his face, matting one side of his hair. His shirt and pants were streaked with gore. He was leaning on his ax like a walking cane.
“Are you guys trying to get away from me?”
Bill tugged at the gun, pulling it free. He’d never held one before, and was surprised by its weight. This was a different kind of gun that Carlos had, not a revolver, but the other kind where you loaded the bullets in the bottom. He pointed it at David with shaking hands.
“Don’t come any closer!”
David stepped out of the elevator, swinging his ax.
“Are you sure you know how to fire that gun, Doc?”
Bill closed one eye, aiming at David’s chest. This whole scene was surreal. Bill didn’t want to kill him. The thought of killing someone scared Bill almost as much as getting hit with that ax.
“David, please.” Theena was on her knees alongside Barry. “We want to help you.”
“Sorry, Theena. I don’t have a choice.”
He raised the ax up over his head.
Bill closed his eyes. This was not what it was supposed to feel like. All of those movies and books, where the hero nonchalantly blew people away by the dozens. That was garbage. This was real, and frightening, and so very final.
Worst of all, Bill knew what it felt like to kill somebody. Horrible, beyond words. He wasn’t anxious to relive the feeling.
“Bill.” Theena gripped him, trembling. “You have to.”
He bit his lip and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
“That’s a semiautomatic, Doc. You have the safety on. It’s that lever in the back.”
Bill’s fingers pushed at the little lever to unlock it. His resolve was slipping away. David seemed to know it, too, and found it humorous. He’d begun to swagger.
Bill forced courage. He pointed the gun again and fired.
Click.
“Nothing in the chamber, Doc. You have to work the slide. Don’t you watch TV?”
David continued towards them, grinning. He was less than five yards away, twirling the ax like a baton. Theena crouched behind Bill, her hands on his shoulders.
Bill pulled the top half of the gun back, and the mechanism loaded the round.
He fired.
The shot was wild, way over David’s head, and the gun bucked so hard it almost flew out of Bill’s hands. There was a jingling sound when the spent cartridge hit the terrazzo.
“Keep both eyes open, Doc. Squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it. And you have to lean into it a little. Want me to show you?”
This was too much, having make the same horrible decision over and over. Bill took a deep breath and tried to keep his hands steady. David was less than ten feet away. He couldn’t afford to miss.
The ax cocked back. Theena screamed at Bill to shoot. He pulled the trigger.
The shot hit David high in the chest. He fell over, the ax skittering across the floor.
Theena cried out in relief, burying her face in Bill’s neck and holding him tight. Bill let out the breath he was holding and pulled her close. He felt a wave of sickness wash over him. The implications of what he’d done began to gnaw at him. He’d taken a life.
“Look at Manny!”
Bill spun around, half expecting to see the man back on his feet, like some unkillable Halloween monster. Instead he saw Manny cough, his chest rising and falling.
Bill’s hope soared. “He’s still alive.”
“Help him.”
Bill wasn’t sure that was such a hot idea. He was happy Manny wasn’t dead, but if he suddenly recovered Bill didn’t think he could shoot him again.
“Theena…”
“Bill, please. It’s not his fault.”
She was right. If ever there was a textbook case of insanity, it was Manny.
Bill went to him, felt the carotid. Pulse was weak but steady. He tore open Manny’s shirt and used it to wipe away the excess blood. There were three bullet holes, one in the sternum, one just above the belly button, and one through the right nipple. Incredibly, they were no longer bleeding.
“We need to get him to a hospital. Call 911. Get the police here, too.”
Theena nodded. Bill gently lifted Manny into a sitting position and examined his back. One exit wound, under the shoulder blade. The other two bullets were still in his body somewhere. Manny’s breathing was raspy, shallow. He laid him back down and put an ear to his chest. Collapsed lung.
“Get something to put under his feet.”
Theena finished the phone call and brought the chrome garbage can over. They placed Manny’s legs on top to help improve blood flow to the brain and stave off shock. All at once, Manny started to twitch and tremble.