The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)(18)

I didn’t have a choice. I raced up the stairs, back the way I had come, barely avoiding triggering any of my traps. The haze of smoke behind me seemed to become thicker, darker, even as I ran, drowning out any lingering light. As much as I hated it, it looked like I was heading into the blaze. I switched on my flashlight, my breathing sharpening the ache in my ribs, but even its light seemed weak compared to the diaphanous cloud forming in the halls.

When I reached the servants’ stairs above Ashabee’s secret entrance, I had to throw an arm over my face. The flames were more intense here, starting to crawl up the staircase from the first floor. I leaped past their reaching arms, using the sleeve of my shirt as a makeshift mask.

Adrenaline lending speed to my muscles, I rushed to Jeff’s former chambers, yanking open the secret panel and throwing myself into the elevator leading to the basement. Closing the door behind me, I furiously punched the button, trying to still my nerves as the green light waited a moment before turning on. Good—the fire hadn’t shorted out the wiring that ran this thing yet.

The green light started flashing. Though it seemed to go impossibly slowly, the cage began to descend. As it rattled and whirred, I exhaled sharply, trying to will some calm into my already jumbled emotions. Even after a few deep, clearing breaths, I still couldn’t get my mind in order. Fire was suddenly a huge presence in my life. The woman’s face, the smell of her burning underneath the curtains… Everything seemed to cycle around and around. If the fire in the house got to the electrical system before I was all the way down, I would be stuck here, swinging in a metal cage in an elevator shaft until the house burned down around me. If the controls to the doors that opened up the basement driveway burnt out before I could reach them, Tim, Owen, and I wouldn’t be in a much better situation.

It seemed like forever due to the pain in my squashed limbs, but the elevator ride was less than a minute. I checked my watch enough to know.

When the light finally turned off, I fumbled desperately at the latch and burst out of the stupidly tiny elevator. The depth of the darkness in the basement blanketed my eyes, confusing me, but I managed to reorient myself after a few stumbled steps. The solidity of the basement, even partially collapsed, comforted me a tiny bit. This part of the house was made of concrete and surrounded by earth; the fire would have to burn through a wall of rubble to reach us. It would take a long time—I hoped. No, the more immediate danger, after the worry that the doors would stop working, was that the house would collapse on top of us and trap us in here.

I stumbled over to where Owen and Tim still lay, their condition unchanged. I studied them closely, and then turned toward the back of the room, my eyes seeking out in the darkness the entrances to the tunnels that led up from the secret room. I could just make out the two Viggo and Owen had explored: the longer one that led out to the fields beyond Ashabee’s house, and the gently sloping ramp that led up and onto the drive. That one was closer to me, the bottom of it barely visible at the edge of the pool of light from my flashlight. Unfortunately, I hadn’t found any vehicles left in the armory during my search for weaponry. That meant I needed to get out under my own power as quickly as possible before the electrical circuits were damaged—and I had to find the car that Owen and I had come here in. Which was out on the driveway, presumably where Desmond was parked, and where she could still be lurking, too. As much as I wanted to take my brother and Owen all the way out into the fields and be away from this awful place, I didn’t have the time, the energy, or a way to get us home from there.

Going out onto the driveway was a horrible plan, but I didn’t have any other options left. I leaned over and wrapped my arms under Tim’s armpits, dragging him a few feet toward the other side of the room and the ramp. Then I headed back, and did the same with Owen, dragging his heavier body toward the ramp and then setting him down a bit harder, my breath coming in sharp gasps.

I hobbled over to my brother, took a deep breath, and then repeated the process, dragging both of them, one at a time. I knew it was probably the least efficient way to handle it, but I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving one behind, and then coming back to find his body engulfed in flames. I’d had more than enough fire today—I was done.

The process was agonizingly slow. I had just gotten both of them up the final parts of the ramp, my head spinning, when I caught the first haze of smoke hanging in the air, somehow drifting in from above. At this point, I didn’t know if the dizziness was from the smoke, lack of oxygen, or just sheer exhaustion. I sank onto my backside. My thighs, butt, and back were aching from the exertion, and I was parched, but there was no water. I hadn’t had any since Owen and I had gotten out of the car on the hill. When had I last eaten? Sometime this afternoon. At the moment, I was finding it hard to remember.

All I wanted to do was flop to the cold concrete ground and lie there mindlessly, but I needed to get Tim and Owen out and safe first. I rotated my shoulders and then stretched out my stiffening legs, laying them flat on the ground for a few moments. It helped alleviate some of the aches and pains in my battered body, but not by much.

Then I was up. I found the controls for the hidden exit point and hit the button, my heart in my mouth. I swung around, pulling out my gun, flicking off the safety, and holding it ready with my left hand.

For a moment, nothing happened. I considered the darkness all around me, and a swell of horror rushed through my stomach—what if all the electricity to the basement really was already gone? The little elevator had worked, but it had been a while since I’d gotten out of it. What if I’d gotten this far, only to be separated from freedom by an immovable steel barrier?