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Tough, for an unarmed, clueless geek dressed in fucking Armani.
Oh Godthey were going to die they were going to roast and fry—
“Hey! You! Girl! Shut up and listen to me!”
The sharp words somehow cut through the terror in Cindy’s brain. She flipped her hair aside to peek at the woman strapped to the cot. Liv. Erin had told her about Liv, the goddess. Liv’s head and shoulders were lifted off the gurney. Her eyes blazed with urgency.
“Do you want to live?” she demanded.
Cindy sucked in a sobbing breath. “Y-yes!”
“Good. What’s your name?”
“C-Cindy,” she chattered out.
“Listen up, Cindy. I’ve got a trick ring. Press hard on the stone and a tiny knife pops out. I can’t use it, but you could. Understand?”
Cindy tried to swallow with her shaking throat, and nodded.
The woman worked the ring off her trapped hand with her middle finger and thumb. “I’m going to throw this to you. Cross your fingers.”
Liv’s wrist flicked. A small, shining golden thing flipped into the air in a long, low arc. It hit, bounced, bounced again. Rolled. It was like breathlessly watching a roulette wheel as it spun and stopped.
Three feet away from Cindy’s sneakered feet.
“Oh, shit, oh hell, ohfuck!” Cindy shrieked. She flung herself out, stretching, rubber-soled shoes squeaking, groping and scrabbling. Liv bit her lip and closed her eyes, letting her head drop down onto the cot.
No way was she going to die like this. Not Liv, either. Or Sean, whom she liked. Sean was by far the nicest of the grim McCloud crowd. She kicked off her sneakers, gripped the hem of her jeans between her toes and started tugging. She flailed, kicked, until they were long tubes of denim stuck to her ankles.
“Hurry,” Liv begged.
Cindy lifted her ankles, and flung the wad of fabric out.
The waistband fell inches short of the ring. The next try hit, but sent the thing skittering a foot to the left and inches further away.
Cindy pried the jeans down until they were all the way off, then clamped the hem of the legs between her toes. She lifted. Flung.
The butt part of the jeans landed on the ring. She heard a voice chanting as she reeled it in. It was her own voice, whimpering “please, God, please, God.” Liv was yelling, hurry, hurry. Tears and snot ran down her face. She bent herself inside out to get her bare foot onto the ring, to nudge it under herself. Her fingers groped, grabbed, slid it on. It was too big, but she twirled it around, shoved the stone.
The knife sprang out, bit her. Blood ran over her hand, but she still went at it, straining and sawing at the duct tape ’til it broke free. She struggled to her feet, stumbled across the room. Yanked at the buckle straps holding Liv’s wrists down. Liv leaped off the bed, dove for Sean. She grabbed him under the armpits, but could barely move him. Cindy jolted into action, grabbed the other shoulder.
Liv hit the tire iron with her foot. Scooped it up. By the time they got to the door, the room was choked with acrid smoke. The door was locked. Liv flung herself at it, yelling and pounding with the tire iron. The thing barely scratched the varnish. Cindy tugged at her arm.
“We need that guy’s body!” she coughed out. “We need his eye!”
“What?” Liv yelled. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“His eye!” Cindy croaked, louder. “The door’s got one of those retina scan lock doohickeys. I think the card’s in his pocket.”
Cindy fell to her knees, took as deep a breath as she could, and scrambled over the floor. Flames roared against the back wall. The sicko doctor’s shoes were smoldering. She grabbed his arm. Liv blundered out of the smoke, and grabbed the other arm. Somehow, they got the corpse to the door. Cindy rummaged in his pockets for the key card.
“We gotta get him on his feet,” she panted. She and Liv hoisted up the dead weight of the guy’s bloody, neck lolling, head-flopping corpse up to eye level. “Ohmigod, this is sickening! I want to barf,” Cindy gasped.
“Later,” Liv sputtered, coughing. “Barf later.”
Cindy swiped the card. The machine beeped. She pried the doctor’s eyelid open. Put his clammy, scummy dead eyeball up to the scanner. A red light shot in, turned green.Click,the lock popped loose.
The doctor’s corpse pitched over the threshold. They kicked him aside to make way to drag Sean. Stumbled towards the end of the smoky tunnel, hacking and spitting. They shoved open the door, tumbled out into sweet, fresh air. Smoke boiled out along with them.
