Page 106 of Loverboy
But there won’t be oxygen inside it. I don’t know what that substance is, or how fast it can kill me. I only know it won’t be pretty.
Now all the goons except the gas mask guy are backing away from me. This is it. Either I’m going to save myself in a big fucking hurry, or I’m dying in this basement.
I've walked into a trap without even telling Posy that I love her. I missed my fucking chance. But if I survive the next hour, I’m not wasting any more time.
Mr. Gas Mask walks over to the circuit box and flips a switch, probably restoring electricity to the building. A single lightbulb flickers to life over my head. The other men hustle up the stairs.
It’s time to make a decision. Am I going to try the stairs, where the goons may be waiting with their guns? Or try the tiny window? I’ll only get one chance to get out of here.
Before I make up my mind, things start to happen fast. Mr. Gas Mask walks over and pulls a pin from the canister. I take a deep breath and hold it just as I hear a hiss.
He bolts for the stairs.
“GUNNAR!” shouts someone in the distance.
I hear another gunshot. Followed by more shouting.
The window it is, then. I’m quickly shucking off the zip tie, just as my eyes start to burn.Holy fuck. I clamp them closed. I stand up, feel for the chair, and grab it. Raising it blindly into the air, I poke the chair legs in the direction of that window. My lungs are burning, but I hear glass breaking, and I stab at it a few more times, needing to clear as much glass as I can so I can get out of that small space.
It’s chaos behind me. I hear muffled shouts from the gas mask guy. Is he trapped down here too?
I drop the chair and risk my eyes for a peek at the window. I’ve cleared about eighty percent of the glass, and it will have to do. Hopping onto the chair, I tear my palms to shreds at the first touch of the tattered window frame. But I need clean air, and I need it right now.
The gas chokes me anyway, my chest compressing with pain, and I cough and then gag.
Pain tears at my hands, but I ignore it. I’ve pushed my head through the opening, where I take a gulp of the fresh air.
“GUNNAR!” a voice shouts from somewhere.
“STAY OUT OF THE BASEMENT!” I rasp, my voice shot. I don’t know if anyone can hear me.
But then I feel hands clawing at my legs, and an anguished, muffled shout.The gas mask guy.
I kick violently, needing another few seconds alone to clear the rest of my body out of this window.
Instead, I hear the loudest gunshot I have ever heard in my life at the same moment that red-hot pain tears through my leg. I gasp, my bloodied hands slipping on the window frame.
There’s a tug of war on my body, and so much pain that it ceases to make any sense at all.
Then everything goes black.
* * *
Motion. Shouting. Pain.
Posy is speaking to me, but I can’t hear her voice. Her eyes are wide and frightened.
Her father puts an arm around her. “Come here, darling, sit down. I’ll wait with you.” His eyes have an appraising squint that has always annoyed me.
Squinty eyes? That seems important. If only I could remember why.
My father tells me to keep my eye on the catcher. He’s calling for a fastball.
My mother smiles.
“I’m waiting right outside,” Posy says.
Everything is cold.
