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I shoved him away. "Then fucking hurry," I growled. "I’ll be in the gym."
WIthout hesitation, Drake sprinted down the hall for the stairs. I watched him go in worried silence, then continued toward the workout room. The entire time I tried to walk in a way that looked nondescript and calm, but inside, my heart hammered and slammed against my ribs. The wallpaper and carpet radiated color. Brighter and more vibrant than they’d ever looked before. Dizziness crept inward. Was I going to pass out? Thankfully I made it to the gym without any trouble and awkwardly stood by the door, unsure of what was being planned for me.
Moments later the pounding sound of sneakers running on carpet broke the silence. Looking up, I saw Drake sprinting down the hall, a look of excited triumph on his face. A quick glance down showed his wrist was naked. My jaw dropped. It had worked. It was happening. Holy shit.
Drake rushed into the room and grabbed my arm, jamming a weird looking key into it. His hands slipped twice from shaking.
Bong. "Hey, what are you doing?"
I frowned and looked up at the speakers as Drake worked. That did not sound like the Sam I’d come to know at all. It wasn’t even the same vocal tone.
"Quit that," the voice said. "I said stop."
The device finally slipped and fell from my wrist. I gaped at the sickly white line of skin on my wrist where it had sat. My arm lifted toward my eyes, unable to believe it was real. Without the bulky cuff I’d become accustomed to, it looked strange, almost alien. Before I could really bask in the glories of my newfound freedom, Drake grabbed my free hand and yanked me toward the door.
"Oh fuck," the voice muttered.
A second later the door of the gym swung shut, but whoever had pushed the button had been too slow. We were already in the hallway.
"Where are we going?" I gasped as we ran.
"Out. This key ring has a master key for all the doors. Run faster."
Doing as he ordered, I poured the speed on, taking my hand from Drake’s to let me keep pace with him.
Overhead the speakers of the house came to life. "Drake, you little shit." A new voice. Now this was Sam.
Had he been taking a nap or something? Leaving his underling to watch over us? Probably why we’d only received text messages on our devices today.
"The fucking bed?" Sam growled. "That’s it, isn’t it? I forgot about the god damned bed, didn’t I?"
Running as fast as I could, I thought I could still make out a satisfied grin on Drake’s face as we rounded the corner into the dining room. Drake and I leaped through the broken wall, and in one swift movement, Drake slid the key home, unlocked the front door and dragged me outside with him.
We didn’t slow down. Any second Sam and his little asshole employee could say fuck it and come climbing out of whatever other hiding place they had in here. As our feet thundered over the wooden porch, Drake reached out and snatched up one of the solid wooden rocking chairs. He continued to run, but slowed due to his awkward burden.
"What the hell are you doing?" I panted.
"Run." That was all I was getting in response.
From the other side of the house, I heard two men’s voices shouting, muffled by the distance. Drake and I turned heading for the garage door. In an instant, the reason Drake grabbed the chair made sense. Ahead, the door was trundling down slowly. Descending slower than a typical garage door, maybe due to its size or lack of power? I had no clue, and it didn't matter. Even with it moving slow, we were about to be too late, and I doubted Drake’s key could do anything for this. There were no buttons anywhere that I could see, and the thing had to be hundreds of pounds. There was no way Drake and I could lift it up once it came down.
Drake pushed hard, gasping for breath beside me and taking the lead. Before I knew what was happening, Drake had leaped forward, extending the heavy wooden chair out, and wedging it beneath the door, halting its descent and leaving a gap of about eighteen inches to crawl under. I hit my knees and crawled forward as fast as I could. Behind us the two shouting men drew closer.
This door had no automatic stop safety feature. The thing groaned and whined as it tried to continue lowering. The wood of the chair made weird crackling sounds like wet puffed rice cereal. I grabbed a fistfull of grass and weeds, and hauled myself out.
A shot rang out, and a heavy dent appeared in the steel garage door. If the solid metal barrier hadn’t been there the bullet would have splattered my brains across the forest. Three more quick shots followed the first as Drake rolled under the door. A forth shot sounded and Drake yelped and gasped in pain. An instant later, the wood of the chair snapped and burst apart, the door coming to rest quickly after.
Drake stumbled to his feet, grabbing for my hand. "Come on. Hurry. They’ll reopen that door any second. We’ve got a minute, max, to get a head start."
"You’re shot," I shouted, pointing at the blood pouring down his leg.
Drake looked down and shrugged, pulling me along. "He only winged me. Not deep, not dangerous. Let’s move."
Taking his word for it, I didn’t ask anymore, instead we ran. Even wounded Drake was crazy fast and powerful. It was all I could do to keep up with him. Fear and adrenaline pushed us on, holding back exhaustion until we came to the fence. The dull throbbing hum of electricity met us.
"What now?" I said, hands on knees, heaving in breaths and dripping sweat on my toes. "Do you have a way of turning the power off? Or do we have to run from them until tonight when the power shuts off?"
Drake pointed down the line of the fence. "He won’t turn the power off tonight. Not with us out here and aware of the outage. He’ll say fuck it and let everything run."
