Calvado dreampt of gunshots. She dreampt of handguns and shotguns. She dreampt of Mack. Her brain kept nudging her to wake up, nudging her with increasing urgency. Finally, she opened her eyes. The gunshots weren't imaginary. They were coming from... In the hallway! Calvado grabbed her cell phone. Punched in 911.
"Emergency," a man's voice said.
"Gunshots," Calvado said. Her apartment door flew off the hinges. Three blasts from a shotgun crushing the wood. Calvado gave her address to 911. "Hurry! They're in the..." Six shots. Pistol shots, Calvado thought but she didn't know why. She ran to her bedroom window. Unlocked it. Silence in her apartment and the hallway. She forced the stubborn window up. She bent over to climb out just as someone jiggled her bedroom door. She slipped quickly out onto the fire escape.
The last thing she saw in her bedroom was the door being blasted by shot after shot. She ran, fell, jumped, swung herself down three flights of stairs on the escape and ducked into the ninth floor. She tried to look up the fire escape. She hoped no one was looking down.
"Ma'am? Are you still there?" the emergency operator asked.
"Shh," Calvado whispered into her cell phone. She realized if anyone were to run down the fire escape, she'd have to hurry to the elevator. But if the killers were half-way competent, one of them would be in the elevator, too. Why did she think there was more than one killer, she wanted to know. Ah, she thought, pistol shots and shotguns. At least two.
She glanced up the fire escape. No one was there. She looked into the hallway. It was empty, too. She put her cell phone to her ear.
"Hey," she said. "There are two guys with guns stalking me. Like hunters."
"Can you see them?" the operator asked.
"No. I'm on the ninth floor. They're on the 12th. I think."
"Police units are on their way. Stay where you are and..."
A bullet blew a hole in the wall beside Calvado's head.
"Shit," she said as she jumped onto the fire escape. She looked down the hall and saw a person in a business suit. He was reloading his shotgun as he ran at her.
"Shit," she screamed and threw herself down the escape. She knew a shotgun would blow the stairs apart; she hoped she could find another open door. She looked down. She saw light coming from the sixth floor escape. She hurried, she ran, she jumped and fell toward the light.
Shotgun pellets rained passed her. She felt a bee sting in her right shoulder. She jumped into the sixth floor. A hand jerked her away from the door. She punched back as hard as she could. Missed the person but hit the wall. Her fingers cracked and she knew she'd broken one or two. The person pushed her to the ground. She tried to kick, but hit only air. Then she heard two pistol shots. A shotgun ripped at the doorway. More pistol shots.
She sat up. A man was crouched by the door to the fire escape. He was looking up. He had a pistol in his right hand. Another pistol was shoved in the back of his jeans. He fired three times quickly, then switched guns.
"You're empty, Mack," someone yelled. Mack stayed quiet.
"Mack?" Calvado whispered. Mack motioned for her not to move, but he didn't take his eyes off the fire escape. A footstep clanked down the fire escape. Mack slipped back into the building. Another footstep. Mack aimed.
Calvado froze. She tried to stop her heart from beating, fearing the noise would alert the killer. Another footstep; Mack tensed. Calvado held her breath.
"I know you're empty, Mack, come on out."
Silence. No footsteps, no talking. Mack signaled for Calvado to lie on the floor. And back up. She slid backwards like a snake until her feet touched the elevator doors. She reached up to push the down button. A huge bang wrenched her attention back to the fire escape. A shot! Two! Then silence.
Mack stood over something. From Calvado's viewpoint it looked like a pile of dirty clothes. Then she saw the blood creeping along the carpet. Mack reloaded both pistols, shoved them in his waistband, and looked at Calvado.
"You okay?" he asked.
"This is not the best way to wake up with a hangover," she replied but her lower lip was vibrating like nobody's business.
"Are you okay?" Mack asked as he walked near her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Calvado put her right hand on the floor and pushed. She hoped to get to a standing position but the pain in her right shoulder knocked her flat. "Shit," she groaned.
"Reason I ask is, you're bleeding."
Calvado looked at the carpet. Blood dripped on it. From her hand. Blood which was running down her arm from her shoulder. She looked at the drops of blood plunking down on the carpet. She looked at her hand as if it belonged to someone else. Her blood wouldn't gush out of her hand like that. It must be someone else's. Then she looked at Mack.
"Mack," she muttered. "You never told me."
"What?"
"What you do," she said a second before she passed out.
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Next: Is This a Hospital?
