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They fought their way out from under it. “Drag one of those cribs over to the window,” Bruno said. “They need air.”
That sounded smart. Lily got to it. The little girl was so floppy when she lifted her. Bruno measured out the length of an alarmingly thin cord. She could barely see it, pale in the dimness.
“Will that hold a person?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But it would hold one of them, if I could rig a way to lower them down. The curtains? Help me think of something.”
“They have those child seats over there for a car, with webbing restraints.” Lily grabbed one out of the inky, foggy shadows.
Bruno glanced at it as he yanked out armfuls of cord. “Might work.” He hung out the window, dangling the cord as far as it would go. “Shit. It’s short. Over three meters short. Fuck, fuck,fuck!”
Lily peered at the shortfall. “And if you went down first?” she said. “And I lowered them to you? You could catch them.”
He let out a coughing bark of laughter. “And leave you up here?”
“I’d come down after them,” she argued.
“Yeah? Really? Hand over hand, on a curtain cord? You’d have to drop it anyway, to let the kids fall! I wouldn’t be able to reach it to untie it. Unless I find something five feet tall to stand on. You go down first!”
“Bullshit,” she snapped. “You’re the only one with a hope in hell of catching one of those things if it fell on you from above your head!”
“I couldn’t catch two at a time,” he pointed out.
“Oh! Well, fine, then! News flash! Neither could I!” she yelled.
He shrugged. “I doubt the cord would bear my weight anyway.”
“Then why are we fucking with it in the first place?” She was screaming now.
“Because there’s nothing else to fuck with!” he yelled back. There’s not even a bed in here with a goddamn sheet! Nothing!”
She pressed her eyes until red dots swirled and danced. “The top hem of the curtains?” she offered. “The reinforced part, with the rings, the pleats? That might give us a little more length.”
He pawed through armfuls of the dusty fabric until he found the top hem, jerking it to test its strength. “I need a knife.”
“I have one,” she told him. “A little one, on the key chain I lifted off of Melanie. I cut your cuffs with it.”
She immediately wished she hadn’t mentioned that. Bad associations. He took it from her, and started hacking off the top strip.
“How’d you manage that?” he said. “Taking her keys, I mean.”
“I had to kill her first,” she said.
Bruno stopped for a second. “You didwhat?”
“Focus, Bruno!” she snarled.
“I am focusing! I’m multitasking!” He jerked at the curtain to test its resistance. “Seems like there’s a lot I don’t know about you.”
“So I should think!” She couldn’t hold back. “Since you thought I was that psycho’s robot chippie! That’s flattering, Bruno. That just does wonders for my self-esteem.”
He hacked the curtain with renewed savagery. “Now you’re the one who should focus.”
“You can’t blame me for taking offense,” she said.
“Save the blame for when the kids are safe.”
She blew out a furious, huffing breath. “Fair enough.”
