Fire and ice

11:12 a.m

In a little while, after you’re good and dead, I’ll be sipping on a cold one at the Retro and thinking about how famous I’m going to be.

Matt was no longer worried about getting shot. He figured K-Rad had already left the building.

Of course he was gone. Why would he have stuck around to get blown up?

Matt carried Terri through the walkway to the office suite. The air was better up there, but only slightly. Smoke and fumes had started to seep through from the production area, and with no ventilation and all the doors sealed tight, it was like trying to breathe mud.

There were dead bodies everywhere.

Matt opened the door to the safety office, set Terri on the floor, and found respirators for them both. He put Terri’s on first, and then donned his own. It was an immediate improvement, and after a couple of minutes Terri sat up and said, “Now what?”

“Follow me,” Matt said.

He could have taken car keys from any of the corpses, but he knew what kind of car Officer McCray drove. It was a 1966 GTO convertible, maroon with patches of gray primer and a white top. Matt had noticed it in the parking lot his first day on the job, and Shelly had told him whom it belonged to.

Matt led Terri to the security office, reached into McCray’s pocket, and snatched the keys.

“How are we going to get out of the building?” Terri said.

“There has to be a way out. Firefighters and rescue personnel and hazmat teams are able to gain access during lockdown situations, so there has to be a way. I would imagine it’s wherever the breaker box and all that kind of stuff is.”

“The main power closet,” Terri said. “I know where it is. I used to date a guy in Maintenance.”

“Let’s go.”

They made it to the power closet, saw the drop-down ladder and the hatch, and two minutes later were on the roof. They took the respirators off and tossed them aside.

“Amazing how you take things like fresh air and sunshine for granted,” Terri said.

“Yeah.” Matt walked to the edge of the flat roof. His leg still hurt, but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been previously. The wound had already started to heal, another part of the enigma his life had become since the avalanche. “You think you’re able to climb down this drainpipe?”

“I’ll give it a shot.”

Matt went first, so if Terri fell while climbing down he could catch her. He used his powerful arms to shinny down the pipe, guarding the bum leg the best he could. Terri did fine, and in a couple of minutes they were in the GTO, heading for the gate.

“Where are we going?” Terri said.

“The Retro. I want you to climb in back and get on the floorboard. I have a feeling K-Rad’s killing spree isn’t over.”

Terri started sobbing. “I just want to go home.”

“I’ll get you home,” Matt said. “I promise.”

He urgently needed to find Shelly, too, but he had no idea where to start looking.

Worse came to worst, he’d have to wait… and follow the trail of bodies.

11:15 a.m.

Shelly watched McCray’s ’66 GTO take a right out of Nitko’s driveway.

Matt was driving, and some bitch was riding shotgun.

Was he fucking her, too?

Had he been all along?

Fuck it. The daycare could wait.

Shelly started her car and followed the GTO.