WATTYS LONG LIST. He's got three polyamorous, pole dancing moms and his world is the stuff of which teen boy fantasies are made. But when he falls for a feisty cancer patient who is about to die, he truly learns how to live.
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There was a real loud BOOM that shook the whole building.
And then a rapid-fire burst of gunfire. Something fast and powerful--glass breaking, metal striking metal.
Followed by: POP-POP-POP! Three slower shots. Handgun, probably. But high caliber.
At the "boom" I'd already hoisted Kendall up into my arms and made a run through all the other fleeing bodies to hide us behind two dumpsters in a corner, the only cover available in that big, empty space.
And her first words, as I set her down gently on the cold, concrete floor were, "Don't do it."
The dread in her voice almost worked. But I said, "Just stay down, you hear me?"
And then I took off in a bunch of other people. Some were looking for cover, some were crazy like me, heading toward the sound of gunfire.
Yoli and Wyatt were running with us crazy ones. Didn't surprise me at all. But just as we were about to hit that exit I'd come in through earlier, we heard more gunfire, and the "dink, dink, dink" of rounds hitting the metal door.
Two bullets cracked one of the reinforced windows, too, as we all ducked and covered--thank God Rick had given us that idea. It was laminated glass that could stand up to damned near anything, even a grenade we'd been told. I was praying they wouldn't be put to that test that day.
And I bet Rick was damned glad we took him up on it, because he was up on the big sill of one of them trying to see outside when those rounds hit. He leapt down and ran over to me, Yoli and Wyatt right after that. Laid down with us there on the floor.
And I said, "Money well spent, huh? On those windows."
"Guess so," he said. "There's some fuckin' kid on the fire escape. Watchin' that door you woulda just walked out of, you'n' Kendall."
I felt my heart sort of flutter in my chest from the shock of what he'd just said.
And asked, "Escape that goes by the rec room, right?"
"Yah, he's right below it. Sorta laying low on the steps, so you can't get a good shot from below."
"Only the one guy?"
"As far as I can tell. But you heard that explosion, so..."
Everyone was starting to recover a bit. To sit up and start taking stock of the situation. No panic, just each little group sort of trying to shake it off and figure out what to do next.
So I sat all the way up and Yoli grabbed my shirt and said, "Don't do anything stupid, Stupid. That baby needs a father!"
But I smiled and said, "You just watch my wife, okay? She's behind the dumpsters over there."
I was leaping up when there was another burst of gunfire that sent everyone diving back down again. But I ducked down and sort of scuttled over to the huge freight elevator across the room.
