swift.

“What are we going to do?”

   “The parachute. Remember?”

   “The one on the rooftop? But that had holes in it,” she replied.

   “Did you see holes in it?”

   “Well, no, but –”

   “Well, then, let’s go!”

   I grabbed her hand – her left one – and pulled her to the staircase.

   “Wait!”

   “What?”

   “There are soldiers up there.” She suddenly seemed younger, frightened like a small child. I wanted to hug her and tell her it was alright, that I would make the bad things go away – but I couldn’t, and she was right: there were soldiers up there. With guns. I sighed indecisively.

   “What are we going to do?” She whimpered.

   “Come on, it’s our only hope.”

   We made our way up the staircase, slowly and trying to dampen our footsteps as we walked. We made it to the third floor and stared up at the hole we’d jumped down through earlier. We walked through the corridors looking for ways to get up to the next floor. When we got back to where we started, she sighed heavily and stopped.

   “This is no use. We’re stuck here forever,” she sobbed.

   I put my arm around her. “No, we’re not, baby, we’ll find a way.”

   I looked around for things to use to get up through the hole. It wasn’t that high – if I jumped I could touch the ceiling. If I just had something to stand on...

   To the right there was a broken door. Behind the broken door was an office of some sort. And in the office there was a desk, a little battered, but still able to stand on its four legs.

   “Look, here,” I pointed. I dragged the desk with little effort to just underneath the hole. Then I stood on top of it, cautiously raising my head just in case those soldiers from earlier were still there. The way was clear, and I hauled myself up. Then I turned back and held out my hand for her.

   “Climb on the table and I’ll pull you up.”

   She climbed up and I grabbed her hand, pulling her up with ease.

   “Pfft,” I scoffed. “Heavier than you look, eh?”

   She grinned. “Let’s go.”

   We carried on down the corridors of the floor, looking for a staircase. We found it, and were about to start climbing when we heard voices.

   “They’re somewhere in this building,” a man sighed. “They can’t get out – the entrance is blocked. So they’re somewhere in here. Find them and kill them.”

   She froze, her hand tensing harshly in mine.

   “Shh, come on,” I whispered, pulling her the other way and into a room on the left. It was another office, destroyed worse than the one on the floor below. We overturned the desk and sat behind it in the corner of the room and listened.

   “Check all the rooms again and then we’ll go down a floor,” said one of the soldiers, apparently the lead.

   The heavy boots scattered, quietening slowly as they walked in the opposite direction. We heard doors opening, furniture being thrown and moved around. I could feel her shivering next to me, and I held her hand tighter.

   “It’s okay,” I whispered. She turned and gave me a weak smile.

   Suddenly the door to the room we were in slammed open, and there were footsteps, heavy, menacing, pacing the room. I held my breath. I felt her hand tighten around mine.

   The sun outside was setting, dusk was falling fast and it cast long shadows into the room through the window. We could see his shadow morphing around the broken furniture of the office, gliding about the walls like a ghost.

   He cocked his gun.

   Her hand flew to her mouth and she screwed her eyes up tight. I held onto her tighter still and braced myself – seeming already to feel the wall of bullets slam into us, killing us instantly...

   He fired. The gunshot was louder than thunder in my ears, seeming to rip right through my skull and drill into my brain. She shrieked as the bullet tore a hole in the desk and in the wallpaper behind her head. I put my hand over hers over her mouth and held her close, praying the soldier hadn’t heard her.

   Too late.

   The soldier tossed the desk away and I came face to face with a merciless, malicious murderer – I could see right through his fiery eyes and into his soul; a soul that had killed thousands and wished to simply kill more and more. And this time was no exception.

   He aimed. I stared helplessly down the barrel of the gun.

   Suddenly she threw herself at the soldier, knocking the gun out of his hand. The soldier fell to the floor with a startled cry, and she picked up the gun and shot him in the head. A menacing silence descended on the room. She turned to me.

   “Let’s go.”

   I held onto her hand as we made our way through the corridors of the fourth floor, looking for the staircase. When we found it, we made our way cautiously up the staircase. We came to a T-junction in the corridors. Both of the ways looked exactly the same.

   “Maybe we lost them,” she said.

   “Maybe,” I replied warily.

   “Maybe,” said another, deeper, rougher voice.

   We turned to face another soldier. She held the gun up at him.

   “Ooh,” he mocked. “Very clever.”

   “I’ll kill you,” she growled.

   I tightened my hand on hers as he took aim. Tension lay thick and heavy. She tightened her finger on the trigger.

   An empty click.

   She cursed under her breath. The soldier laughed.

   “Right, then,” he said, strengthening his aim.

   “Split up!” She yelled, running down the left corridor.