Falling For You

A Stupid Idea

Alexander Godunov was an amazing ballet dancer. The guy was literally the premier dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet before he defected to the United States many years ago. I really only know that because my mom taught ballet and met him once in New York. Evidently, he was as gorgeous in real life as he was in the movies. Because yeah, he also did movies, including a stint as one of the bad guys in Die Hard, where he almost shoots Bruce Willis' character while they're at the top of a skyscraper. The tall blonde one? Yeah, that was Alexander. But what did Bruce do? In a desperate attempt to get away from the gun toting premier dancer, he jumped off the damned room while hanging onto a fire hose.

It was completely ludicrous. So, I was definitely going to do it.

On the good side though, I have several advantages. First, there is nobody shooting at me, though I might have a psycho potential boss somewhere near the ground floor. Second, I wasn't jumping. If I was lucky, I could unhook a few hoses, tie them together, and climb down. I even could stop at every floor since the windows were all done. Hell, once I was down, I could go get my car and drive home without Eli even knowing I was gone. I would probably have to move and find a new job once she realized I was alive, but I would have a head start!

But first, I needed the hoses.

Each floor had two hose stations, each right next to the stairways, and each fed by a large pipe running from the floor to the ceiling. Each station had an axe, a fire extinguisher and 100 feet of hose that was folded onto a rack. The hose was connected to a large valve that needed to be opened to supply water to it, but I already knew that didn't work. The connection from the hose to the valve was brass with nubs sticking out from the side, and I tried to turn it to no avail. It was time for the axe!

I used the flat of the axe to smack the nubs on the brass coupling, and soon it was loosening until I could spin it with my hand. A little late I had 100 feet of hose available to me. I went over to the other hose station and repeated my actions, then dragged my hoses to the east side of the building. The front and back entrances were on the north and south, and I didn't want Eli to go out one of the doors and see me rappelling down the side of the building. So, I avoided those sides.

I tied the two hoses together pretty simply. I just used a double square knot since the brass fittings would prevent it from becoming undone once there was pressure on it. I was confident in that part, thankfully. Tying the hoses off to the office floor would be the bigger issue. There were a lot of vertical columns through the office, no doubt concrete or metal that had been covered in drywall. I wasn't worried about them being strong enough, though I was a little leery about the drywall collapsing and making me drop a bit until the hose caught on whatever stronger material was underneath it. I was more worried about what kind of knot to use, because this one would be loosed. You can only do so much with firehose, I guess.

But I gave it my best shot. I looped the hose around the pillar and then made one of those messy but hopefully effective knots by looping the fitting as much as I could through the hose until it looked secure. I tugged and tugged on it, and it seemed as though it would work. I just kept reminding myself that I only needed to get past the flames, and I could rest on every floor so there wouldn't be as much pressure on the knots.

I started stacking things near the window where I was going to go down, though I kept the hose inside for now. I didn't want to drop it down until just before I started because I was worried about Eli seeing me, and the flames below burning it. Speaking of which, I grabbed the fire extinguisher from the hose station and left the axe since I couldn't carry both. I could get another axe below, but I might need to keep the flames away from me when I got closer to the fire!