Chapter 20

“Run!” was all that Danni could think of to say. She pushed Shannon towards the door that led to all of the unused, second floor, offices. Shannon protested but, it was the only way they had left to get out of this room. Danni could hear the careful and deliberate footsteps, of their intruders, as they climbed the staircase. When Shannon stopped at the entrance to the dark hallway she yelled back “what are you doing?”

Danni snapped, “find a window! I’m going to hold them off!” She raised her frying pan and crouched into a fighting stance. When she saw Shannon still standing there she snapped one more time “GO!”

The teen ran for it and Danni watched tensely as the two men slowly rose above the floor with their machineguns at the ready. They saw her in an instant and it made Danni flinch. The memory of the pain, from being shot, was sometimes too much. It felt as if her knees were going to buckle but, she forced herself to stay on her feet. It seemed as if the intruders were looking for more than just her though. They did not fire and the red dots from their laser sighting swept across the room as they reached the main floor. Then they stopped and both said, “clear.”

Once again Danni readied herself and she drew back with the pan in her hand, “you’re not taking me without a fight.”

The barrel of a gun looks awfully large when it swings towards you. Danni found that she could barely focus on anything else but what seemed like the huge gaping hole that led to the abyss. Then the barrel of the gun exploded with a flash of light. Danni flinched. She heard a metallic ringing sound and, when she opened her eyes again, she saw the hole in her frying pan that the bullet just made. She quickly dropped the pan and put her hands up.

The guy, that still had his black mask on, shuffled his way to her side as the guy with the messed up face covered his back. Unfortunately, both of them stayed well out of arms reach. Then the man with the mask commanded Danni, “on your knees, lock your ankles, hands locked behind your head.”

Danni slowly complied. It seemed as if her captor was not satisfied with her speed either. He barked at her to hurry up and she told him in a shaky voice, “I’m scared! OK?” She was not stretching the truth there, not even by a little bit. It was not, however, the reason why she was moving so slowly.

The guy raised his weapon again and made a threatening motion with, “you’re stalling bitch!”

“OK, ok,” Danni replied in fear. She almost fell over as she tried to cross her ankles. It took more than one try before it suited the man with the gun.

Meanwhile the other guy, with the messed up face, was already by the back door and taking quick peeks down the hall. He told his buddy, “I think the other one must have gone down here. No where else she could have gone.”

The man with the mask light touched his trigger and a red dot appeared on Danni’s chest. She saw it and began breathing heavily. The guy told her, “I guess a couple where the first two went would be appropriate, don’t you think sweetie?”

“Hell no,” replied the other guy as he wiped a little more blood out of his eyes. “That bitch is going to go really slow.” He then even managed a smile, “we might even have a little time to have fun with her before it’s over with.”

Danni flinched and almost tried to jump to her feet. Another threatening move was enough to stop her. As much as her fear was telling her to run, the thought of that pain froze her in place. She was shivering bad when the guy covering her pulled his mask off and had this joyful, childish, grin. He looked excited and happy, “and if she moves Al?”

Al, who now had stopped enough of the bleeding to satisfy him, just shrugged in a matter of fact way and said, “then just shoot her I guess.” He took one last peek down the hall and still he saw nothing moving. Then Al let his partner know, “I’m going to go get the other one. Maybe we can swap off or something.”

When Al ducked into the dark hall, and vanished from sight, the other guy was still smacking at gum and happy as a lark. He was also pretty jumpy himself. Danni couldn’t figure out why. He was the guy with the gun! She was starting to get the idea that, just maybe, what she had took as his enthusiasm was really something else. Was this guy scared too?

Danni thought about the night she had been shot. As she and Norm had walked up on those guys at the loading dock, and these two were apparently a part of that crew, she had a gun in her hand. At the time she had not even known that they were armed. She remembered that even when she thought she had all the cards in her hand, she had been even more terrified than after the bullets ripped into her flesh.

Her eyes made contact with the man. When she wouldn’t break that contact he flinched. Danni’s eyes narrowed as her nose drew up. It wiped that silly ass grin right off his face. He got nervous and took a step back. Danni dropped her hands and then he got really nervous. He put his weapon back to his shoulder and stepped back yet again. He put the red dot back on her, squarely in the middle of her chest. Danni stood up.

“I’m warning you,” he almost tripped over some junk in the floor but he did not look down. He did stop his retreat however. Danni developed a sneer. He commanded again, “get on the floor! NOW!”

“Or what,” Danni told the guy. She took a step forward, “if you shoot me you won’t get to have any fun.”

“If you don’t think I’ll kill you bitch,” the guy told her, “you got another thing coming. I shot you once already.”

“Oh,” Danni replied without a hint of fear, “I know you will. A sick little pathetic bastard like you would do it in a heart beat. So go ahead. What’s stopping you? Cause trust me ass hole, if you think I’m just going to let you do whatever you want with out shooting me first, you got another thing coming.”

In the hallway, Al had actually tried to turn on the lights. He would have preferred night vision but, that stupid bitch had busted them up pretty good right before she did the same to his face. This place appeared as if nobody had used it in a very long time. Nobody had probably changed the light bulbs in years. It was something that was made apparent by the fact that not a single one of them worked. Al would have to do this in the dark, unaided, and with a pair of swollen eyes. He wiped at them one more time and moved to the first door in the hall.

This particular door opened inwards. Even with all of his problems, Al could tell that some of the others didn’t. It made him wonder and he mumbled, “god who built this dump.” He then lowered his weapon and steadied it with one hand as he used his other to push the door in. The door did very little and even Al’s shoulder could not get it to budge more than a crack. It was obviously not locked since it cleared the door jam and it was pretty damn cheap to boot. Al had left a nice impression of his shoulder where he hit it.

He knew it was not the door keeping him out of the room. Al could not see it being the little girl either. Whatever was behind the door had serious weight, was bulking, and was stopping him cold. He peaked in the room and could only tell what was in there when a flash of lightening, from outside, gave him enough illumination to make out piles of office furniture that had obviously fallen over some time ago. That was all he needed to know really. If he couldn’t get in that room then neither could the girl.

Al moved on to the second door. This one swung out. He carefully reached down and touched the knob. When is fingers made contact he flinched. It was not from the knob though. A gunshot had just gone off back in the big room where he left his partner. It sounded funny to Al’s ears but, he heard the girl shriek. The stupid bastard had shot her!
Al mumbled, “oh well. What a waste. I was going to enjoy that.”

Before Al opened the door he thought about it for a second. He wondered if you could bring the girl to him. He called into the hall, “you hear that kid? Your friend is dead. You come out and I promise you that’ll I make it quick. You don’t and, well, you’re going to wish you were her.”

Al never intended to live up to his offer but, then again, who cared? He wanted vengeance for his face and, as he saw it, that was rightful justice. He could no longer get it from who he wanted so now this kid would just have to do. He gripped the door knob and hoped this was the right room.