It's Complicated

Chapter 25: Travis Stanton

I turn and take the pocket knife back from Phil. He flips it closed after cutting the wire that locks the door. I shove it back in my pocket and look back at Kacey. She stands a few feet from the door, her right leg bent so her foot doesn’t touch the ground. I notice that her ankle seems a little bent inwards.

“Oh geez Kacey,” I say, walking into the room. “What did you do to your ankle?” I wrap my left arm around her side, and she wraps her right arm around my shoulders. Her fingers accidentally tap my shoulder, making me flinch. We walk out of the room, following Phil closely. She hops on her left foot, not even attempting to let her right foot touch the ground.

“I got aggravated and kicked the door,” she says. She smiles. “It wasn’t my smartest decision.”

“Heaven knows it wasn’t your first stupid mistake today,” I say, half teasing her. I still can’t decide if I’m mad at her, or if it’s a bit funny that she got caught again. “Wait. So you’re telling me that you can take down robbers and murderers, but you got your butt kicked by a door?” She punches me in the arm with her free hand.

“Shut up!” she laughs. We are walking at a slow pace. I don’t dare to go faster, because she is already having a tough enough time as it is. “Phil!” she calls. He immediately spins around, probably expecting danger. He calms down when he sees nothing is wrong.

“Yeah?” he says. Kacey reaches behind her and pulls out a gun. More specifically, the one that Carson dropped. Carson had waited outside for us. He said he didn’t want to get in the way, even though I think he just didn’t want to go back inside. Kacey tosses the gun to Phil, and he catches it in one hand with his finger touching the trigger. He nods his head and turns back around, walking a little slower so we could keep up. I’m completely lost, but Phil seems confident in where he’s going.

“Kacey, we need to speed up,” Phil says over his shoulder.

“Yeah, I know,” she says flatly. Her face pales a bit. “I hear them too.”

“Hear what?” I ask. Neither of them has to answer, because that’s when I hear it. The sound of voices echoing off of the walls behind us. And they are getting closer.

“At this pace, we’ll never make it,” Kacey sighs. Her hands bunch into fists, her right hand squeezing my right shoulder a bit, making it hurt again. I wince slightly. “I’m sorry guys,” she says. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t—”

“You’re right Kacey,” I interrupt her. “You made a mistake. It happens. It’s in the past. It’s over with.” She is about to intervene, but I go on. “We aren’t giving up yet.” I get an idea, even though I don’t think my right shoulder will like it too much. I sweep her up into my arms, her legs in my right arm, my left arm wrapped around her back. She yelps when pull her up, but then she falls silent. I smile, trying to hide the pain spreading down my right arm slowly. I try to put as much of her weight on my left arm as possible.

Phil glances back and then says, “Alright then. Let’s get out of here.” He picks up the pace to a brisk jog, and I run as fast as I can to catch up to him. I can’t hear the voices anymore, but that may be because of my loud steps. The pain in my right shoulder starts getting worse, so I try concentrating on other things. The way Phil holds the gun in both hands, and every time he turns a corner, seems to quickly flash the gun in that direction before lowering it again. The way that Kacey seems to pout as I carry her, and the occasional wince when her ankles hit together. I even start counting the doors we pass. I lose count after about twenty.

“Does he know where he’s going?” I ask Kacey. She laughs.

“He’s Phil,” she says. “He always knows where he’s going. Trust me.” I do trust her. It’s just frustrating not knowing where I’m going and what I could be running into. Especially these days, when everything seems to be around the corner. She laughs again, but I don’t know why. As we turn a corner, she says, “This is so cliché.”