The elevator lobby was empty.
With her purse slung over her shoulder, Michelle passed the bank of elevators and made a dash for the door that led to the stairway. She pushed through and took the stairs up to the first floor two at a time. When she burst through the doorway she made a jig to the right past the security station and exited the side door, ignoring the security guard inside who yelled, “Excuse me! Miss! Excuse me! You have to sign out!”
She ran towards the executive parking lot, seeing the green Honda Alan told her about. “The car’s here,” she said to Rachel. “What am I going to do?”
“I can’t get Alan,” Rachel said. She sounded stressed out. “I’ve been trying to jam the signal but I just can’t get through to him!”
The side door of the building burst open and she heard two voices call to her. “Hey! You! Lady! You didn’t sign out! Come back!”
Michelle ignored them, slipped out of her heels, and ran between the cars in the parking lot in her stocking feet. She silently chastised herself for not packing a pair of slip-on sneakers. “Security just followed me out.”
“Fuck!” Rachel said. Her voice changed from worry to grim determination. “Okay, just get the hell off the property. There’s a drainage ditch that runs parallel to the side road that leads to the executive parking lot. It’s bordered by a barb-wired fence. Go through that and run through the field to Highway 1. I’m leaving now to meet you.”
“What about Alan?” Michelle was running, following Rachel’s directions.
Behind her, more voices, the sound of running footsteps.
“Come back! You’re not following procedure!”
Michelle risked a glance behind her as she ran. She had a good hundred yard lead on them. “They’re chasing me!”
“Shit! Just go! Hurry!”
Michelle made it to the drainage ditch and almost tumbled down the concrete slopes to the bottom. She skidded down to the bottom, skinning her knees, and then raced back up the opposite wall. When she reached the top she scrambled on her belly, pushed her purse through and crawled beneath the lower wire. She felt sharp metallic edges rip at the back of her blouse as she crawled underneath the fence. She stood up, checked her pursuer’s progress once more, then started running across the field toward Highway 1, which was a good five hundred yards away.
She heard a car start back in the executive parking lot behind her. Building Security?
“Where are you?” Rachel asked.
“Running through the field,” Michelle panted. Her bare feet slapped the hard, rocky earth as she ran.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel said. “Just keep going. If you have to duck and cover do it, but once you’re able to, get up and get to Highway 1! I’ll be there any minute!”
“What are you doing?” Michelle asked and then the building exploded behind her.
It began as a sudden explosive boom. The sound initially propelled her to run faster and then she felt the tremendous heat as it seemed to push her forward. She didn’t even look back to see what happened. Hearing it was enough to tell her that Rachel had sent the signal out to detonate the explosives. And because that single signal would detonate all the devices at once, the explosive boom was massive.
The ground shook beneath her feet and for a moment Michelle thought she was airborne. She ran faster, feeling something like a warm hand gently push against her back. She risked a glance back and tripped, falling in a sprawl on the ground. She scrambled to her knees just in time to see the fireball burst forth from the center of the building to send another massive explosion through the structure, creating yet another concussive tremor. Debris and concrete rained down all over the parking lot and she ducked as she saw scraps of metal come winging their way down towards the field. They whizzed overhead, striking the ground behind and ahead of her, all around her, and she drew into a tight ball, praying she wouldn’t get hit. The heat of the fireball was intense and already the air was getting thick with smoke. The explosions were so loud, were so reverberating, that she didn’t hear screams emanating from the building. She risked a glance, saw unrecognizable scraps of metal and concrete dotting the field, then looked behind her at the burning structure. A good portion of the building was on fire; the south wing of the structure, which contained Accounting and Marketing, was undergoing a series of small explosions. She wondered if the explosives she planted helped detonate flammable or highly combustible sections of the building.
She sprang to her feet, purse still slung over her shoulder, and started running toward Highway 1 while Corporate Financial Headquarters burned behind her.
Highway 1 looked to be a hundred miles away.
Her feet hurt as she ran toward the highway, her only purpose now to get away, to reach the highway and meet up with Rachel Drummond before the cops showed up. She didn’t even think about what kind of excuse she was going to give if the authorities picked her up. She simply ran as fast as she could, ignoring the stitch in her side and the nicks and cuts the little rocks along the ground pounded into her feet as she ran. She ignored the heat from the fire behind her, ignored the sounds of the building falling apart as it continued to explode elsewhere, ignored the screams of the dying and wounded, ignored her conscience telling her she’d just participated in a terrorist act that no doubt killed hundreds of people (they weren’t people, they were immersed, taken over by Corporate Financial, they were like my mother and father, they weren’t real!), she ignored it all as she sprinted across the field, jumping over mounds of dirt and scrubs of brush, ignoring the heat and the smoke and the sounds of destruction and then she saw a glimmer of metal on the horizon on Highway 1 and she ran faster, the heat searing in her lungs as she forced herself to keep going, just keep going, and then she was reaching the edge of the field and she saw that the glimmer of metal was a car and the driver had seen her, was driving faster, and as it reached the juncture where she was running it stopped at the edge of the field and Rachel popped out of the driver’s side. Michelle was twenty feet away and then ten and Rachel was shouting at her to get in the car, hurry hurry hurry! and then Michelle dived into the open backseat, not even aware of Rachel slamming the door shut after her, not even aware of Rachel getting in the car and peeling away from the field, making a U-Turn in the road and heading away from the burning mass of confusion behind. All she could think about was getting away, getting far away from Corporate Financial and hoping what she’d done had destroyed the evil.
“We’re okay,” Rachel said as she drove down the road. “We’re okay. We’re okay…” Michelle didn’t hear her. She was too involved in her own little world. All she could think about was what she’d done, what she’d experienced, and then she broke down and wept in the back seat.
She let it all out; all the anger and rage and frustration that had been bottled up inside her over the last twelve years. All the emotion she had fretted over, thoughts of her upbringing, her parents, losing Alanis, wanting to see Donald again, hold him in her arms… it all bubbled to the surface and she cried, thankful that she was alive.
“Hey, we’re okay,” Rachel said. Michelle felt Rachel’s hand touch her knee lightly as she drove and Michelle looked up, not knowing where they were. She was lying sprawled in the backseat. Her purse had tumbled to the floor and rested against the rear driver’s side passenger door. The adrenaline was still running through her, making her feel light-headed. “Don’t worry, we’re okay, we’re getting out of here.”
Michelle raised herself up and looked out the window. They were on Highway 1, heading toward the main road that would take them to the Interstate. She risked a glance out the back window. Dark black smoke billowed out from where Corporate Financial Headquarters was. She could make out the tell-tale signs of flames licking upward. Because this was the only road that led to Corporate Financial Headquarters they passed no cars and Michelle heard no sirens. Michelle felt her stomach turn to lead as they approached the T Intersection of the road that would take them to the interstate. While this road was rarely traveled as well, should any passing motorist see them making a right hand turn toward the Interstate and see the smoke and fire, they might remember their car. This must have been on Rachel’s mind as well because she said, “Hang on, keep your fingers crossed.”