"Thanks," she said as she rubbed her wrist. "I never thought I'd miss being able to touch a ley line like that." Her eyes went past me, and determination made her fierce. "You came back for me. We leave together, or not at all."
Grateful, I reached my fingers through the bars and gave her fingers a quick squeeze. She wasn't that ugly, once you got used to her. "Thanks. Keep watch, okay? Monitors, too."
She flicked her gaze over my shoulder and nodded.
The wire was the thinnest where the mesh was attached to the door frame, and starting at the bottom, I clipped the wires one by one, hesitating after each thumping click. It was almost absurdly easy, and it wasn't three minutes before I stood and passed the clippers back through to her and she tucked them away, not even making a lump on her middle. Grabbing the long edge of the L I'd cut, I leaned back and let my weight bend the mesh up so Winona could slip out.
Her hooves clicked, and I held my breath as she moved slowly and erratically, trying to give her pace an uneven sound. Shoulders tense, she slid out sideways, exhaling when she was finally free. Smiling, I eased the mesh back down and took a relieved breath. Almost there.
"Son of a bitch!" a feminine voice exclaimed.
Winona's eyes focused over my shoulder, then widened. I spun to see a shadowy figure sitting up on a cot. "Run!" I shouted, but they were between us and the window, and I didn't know if there was another, more circular way in between all the junk down here.
"Oh no!" Jennifer cried, and my chest clenched when Gerald snorted awake, rolling onto the floor and reaching for something under his cot.
I snatched the pipe and took up a stance. Beside me, Winona had her head down and her fingers in her pouch. "Consimilis, calefacio!" she shouted triumphantly as she held up a scrap of paper.
A boom of sound exploded with a burst of light, and I cowered as every scrap of paper within a six-foot radius burst into flame. Holy crap, the woman had power!
"Go! Go!" I shouted as the two women shrieked and Gerald stood in his underwear in openmouthed awe. The files were burning, the toilet paper was char, and smoke was coming from Chris's precious machine. We had three seconds to get by them, tops.
Winona lurched into motion, apparently as shocked as I was at what she'd done, and she scuttled out past the cots, her hooves clacking merrily.
"My research!" Chris screamed, her complexion red in the light from the flames as she reached for it. "Get my notes. No, get them!" she cried out, pointing at us as we ran for the darkness, but all Jennifer did was sit on her bed and wail, her hair mussed and her chest heaving, scared to death.
Gerald lumbered to his feet with a small rifle in his grip. Winona made a horrified squeal and ran for the dark as he lurched over Jennifer's cot and came at me.
My anger bubbled up, and I swung my pole like a golf club, connecting with his chin as he reached out. His head snapped back, and his eyes rolled up as blood splattered.
Like a downed tree, Gerald fell back on Jennifer, and her screams took on a shrill, panicked sound as he pinned her. Chris had finally gotten out of her sleeping bag and was at the rack of books, trying to pull them off the shelves and stomp out the individual fires. She didn't even look up, and I heard her cry out in pain as she touched her demon book and it burned her hand. It wasn't on fire, but it was hot enough to give first-degree burns.
"Rachel!" Winona cried from the darkness, and I bolted. I didn't like leaving the lab book I'd wanted burning with the rest, but getting away would be victory enough.
Winona was a whip-tailed shadow ahead of me as I ran. Behind us, Chris was screaming and Jennifer was crying. Gerald was apparently okay since he was the one Chris was yelling at, and I heard a crash as he started to follow.
"Low pipe," Winona warned, not even breathing hard, and I ducked, almost hitting it.
It was only by the sound of her feet that I knew where she was. Behind us, I heard a dull, clanging thwap and Gerald's bellow of pain. I couldn't help my grin, even as I gripped my pipe tighter. If Eloy was anywhere nearby, or Chris thought to call him, we'd be in trouble as soon as we got out, but right now, we were free, and it felt good.
I dashed around the last of the junk, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. Feet skidding on the dust, I slid to a halt in the washroom. Winona was already on the crate, trying to pull herself up through the window. She was decidedly too heavy now for her arms to lift her body weight. The cool night air was spilling in around my ankles, and my heart pounded. Gerald was coming. I could hear him. I'd hit him good. He was going to be pissed.
"I'll boost you out," I said as I propped up my pole and scrambled up beside her. "Then you reach back in and pull me out, okay?"
"Rachel," she started, but I bent to grab her around her thick thighs. My cheek pressed into her fuzzy red pelt and I held my breath as I lifted her. My God, she was heavy, and she gasped, her weight shifting wildly as she wiggled her way out of the window.
"Watch it!" I gasped as her hoof found my shoulder. Finally her weight vanished, and I spun when an alarm went off in the building above us. A second later, I jumped at the groaning clank of air in the sprinkler system as it hissed on, drenching me.
"Corr bitch!" Gerald threatened as he slid into the shower area, almost going down in the sudden slick mud made from the dust. His arms pinwheeled, and he caught himself. Blood dripped from his chin where I'd hit him, and his posture was hunched like a bear's. That squirrel rifle was still in his grip, and he was pissed, head lowered and glowering at me.
Scared, I spun to put the wall to my back, the window behind my head. Instinct made me reach for a line . . . and I found nothing. Anger at my own past ignorance pushed away my fear, and I squinted at Gerald, the salt from my sweat making my eyes sting.
The sprinklers had drenched us both, and rivulets ran down him, plastering his hair to his face and washing away his blood. My chest clenched when he slyly propped his gun to the side and carefully reached for my pole, his eyes never leaving mine.
"Shooting you is too easy," he said as he took one end up and dragged the other across the tile, bumping and scraping slowly. "I owe you some payback."
"Yeah, well, you put me in a cage," I whispered. Block the first blow. Break my arm. Save my skull, I thought, readying myself for a whole lot of pain. This guy was 250 pounds, bare minimum, and all of it wanted to hurt me.
The soft scrape on the window gave me an instant to prepare, and then Winona leaned in, shouting, "Consimilis, calefacio! You ass!"