Time Bomb(45)

The three windows in the room were narrow. It would be a tight squeeze for any of them, aside from Diana and Kaitlin, to fit through. And that was the least of their problems, considering there weren’t any trees to jump to—not that Cas would actually be able to do that. Even if she were the athletic type, she’d never be able to grab hold of anything with a strong enough grip to keep her from splattering against the concrete below. It had to be at least twenty-five feet up from here to there. People in movies survived that kind of jump, but that didn’t mean anyone would in real life.

“We can’t jump,” Tad shot back. “That would be suicide.”

Hooray for the voice of reason.

“I’d rather jump and take my chances with the concrete than die up here doing nothing,” Z shot back. “If I widen the window, we can hang from the ledge before dropping to the ground. The drop will be shorter.”

Not enough to make a difference. The drop . . . the cement and brick below them . . . Even with a fire burning and the chance of more explosions, it wasn’t a good option. Still, Z wasn’t giving up. He rammed his shoulder against one of the open windows and grunted as the frame shuddered but didn’t break.

“Kaitlin can’t make that drop,” Cas quietly said. “She’ll die if you try.”

Z spun toward Cas. Anger burned on his face.

“You can leave me, Z,” Kaitlin said, her eyes fluttering open. Cas had thought the girl was unconscious. Clearly, she’d just been conserving her strength. “If you can get out of here, you should go. I don’t want you to die. Your mother wouldn’t have wanted you to do this.”

“We both know whose fault this is. I was the one who was pissed at this place and wanted to let them know it. You’re not going down because of me.”

“Z . . .” Kaitlin panted hard, winced, and closed her eyes.

“No one is going down if we can help it,” Frankie said as Z looked ready to beat the heck out of something. “We might not have come to this stupid school together, but we’re all here now and we have to work as a team. Right, Tad?”

Frankie looked expectantly at Tad. Only Tad didn’t agree. He just stared at Frankie as the silence stretched and tension Cas didn’t understand crackled between them.

Finally, Frankie said, “The firefighters have to still be fighting the fire, but who knows when they’ll be allowed to try to come back in the building.”

Cas looked at Tad, who had turned away from Frankie before moving to one of the windows. She angled herself so she could see the far end of the building as Frankie continued, “We need to come up with a plan that will get us out of here. I don’t know about all of you, but I’d rather not jump. If this were the gym, we’d have dozens of ropes and mats to use to lower Kaitlin to the ground, and the rest of us could climb to safety.”

“Too bad chemistry teachers don’t keep a stash of mats and ropes handy just in case of emergency,” Z sneered. “Otherwise we’d be set.”

“You’re the one who said you wanted to get out of here, so maybe you should listen instead of being a jerk,” Cas shot back. On any other day in this building, Cas would have looked away and said nothing. She would have just accepted that people never listened to someone like her and thought she was useless, because she knew that making waves might cause things to get worse. A lot worse. But there wasn’t much worse than what was happening now.

“She’s right.”

Cas spun to face Diana, who smiled at her.

“There has to be something that we can use to create some kind of rope,” Diana explained calmly. “And with all the broken wood around here, how hard could it be to make some kind of stretcher for Kaitlin that we can use to lower her to the ground?”

“Okay, then.” Frankie clapped his hands together. “Spread out. Grab anything you think might be useful. No idea is too stupid to try.”

“Thanks,” Cas said. No doubt Z would have turned his anger on her had Diana not shot him down.

Diana shrugged. “I try to agree with people who aren’t acting irrational.” She glanced over toward Z, who was tucking a strand of hair behind Kaitlin’s ear. He then leaned down and whispered something to the seemingly unconscious girl before he headed to the storage closet on the far side of the room. Frankie made for the cabinets. Tad stared at Frankie’s back for several long seconds, looking as if he wanted to say something. Then, shaking his head, he walked over to ransack the teacher’s desk.

“Why don’t you sit while the rest of us search the room?” Diana offered Cas.

“Why?” Cas asked. “You don’t think I’m capable of helping us get out of here?”

“Actually, I was thinking you look like you’re going to pass out and that it might help us a whole lot more if you conserved your energy.” Diana’s eyes narrowed. Then she shrugged and turned away. “But if you want to be as stubborn as Z, go right ahead.”

Humiliation burned Cas’s throat and made her want to crawl under the table. Finally, she just blurted out, “I really am sorry. I just hate this school. Even before today, I’ve hated it.”

Diana cocked her head to the side and frowned. “Then why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” Cas stiffened as Frankie yelled that he’d found a radio.