Untitled #1
Contributors: Ahchie, The Diesel, Brother Nature, Throcksmorton, Albuquerque Tom
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen (stay tuned...)
“Take Charlotte to the balcony, Frankie. Something’s on fire.”
The smoke that had obscured Charlotte Gunderson’s vision had been gradually filling the fourth floor hotel suite shortly before the shooting began. During the commotion, Frank had not noticed the smoke, but the voices inside his head had.
“You don’t have much time, Pusher.”
Frank
could not tell where the smoke was originating from, but he could tell this
was no small fire. He could already see flames on the wall opposite Charlotte.
Lifting her onto his shoulders, Frank staggered to the balcony. He leaned
her against the railing and looked around. Frank began to think that he was
not going to escape this time.
“Don’t think, Franklin. You don’t have time and you’re
not smart enough for it to do you any good.”
The balcony looked out from the rear of the hotel toward the lake and beyond to the rolling hills of the countryside. The second and third floor below had similar balconies. The ground outside the first floor was a fenced off concrete section with a patio table and chairs. With no stairs attached to the balcony and the fire beginning to rage inside the suite, there seemed to be no way to get Charlotte out.
“They’re almost here. You have to wake her up.”
Feeling dizzy, Frank could hear sirens coming closer. He could hear shouting inside the hotel. Focusing on Charlotte, he was shocked to see what he had done to her face. The blow from the hair dryer had broken her nose, split open her lips, and knocked out two teeth. As bad as that looked, it was her left eye that looked like it had taken the most damage. Frank threw water on her face from a glass on the room service tray, but Charlotte was still out cold.
“Throw her over, Frank. You can only save yourself now.”
Not willing to jump off a four-story balcony with Charlotte in his arms, Frank decided to run through the suite and make his way towards the stairwell. He made it to the hallway, which was filling up with smoke. He stood against the wall as dozens of people, tightly packed, passed by him. Frightened guests covered their noses and mouths with any type of cloth they could find to help impede the inhalation of smoke. Frank let out an oddly timed laugh when a woman passed next to him covering her face with two full rolls of toilet paper pressed against each side of her nose. The woman looked up at Frank’s cruel weathered face, jolting him back into the situation as he merged with the flowing horde.
A female hotel employee was hurriedly checking rooms for any stragglers. Four quick loud knocks, an attempt to turn the doorknob, and off to the next room. A few seconds after looking into room 455 she screamed and left the room, slamming the door behind her, and joined the crowd without checking any of the remaining rooms. Frank glanced over his shoulder towards the scream but he was being swept around the corner with the crowd. Within a few frantic moments he was outside walking through a sea of kneeling, coughing, hotel guests and towards his car on the far side of the wet parking lot. Three fire engines quickly rolled through the parking lot and towards the front entrance of the hotel.
Frank continued walking until he got to his car and laid Charlotte down in the back seat. He checked the pockets of her robe and found a small piece of paper. He read the paper, then looked towards the rolling hills as they began to disappear with the approaching night. He smiled and clasped the paper between his lips to free his hands for positioning Charlotte’s legs inside the car. He turned the ignition, inspected the handgun strapped to his side, and then placed it underneath the driver’s seat. As he pulled out of the parking space, he lit his 59th cigarette of the day leaving only one lonely cigarette in the pack and little doubt that it would soon be next.
Frank left the parking lot as flames engulfed some of the balconies at the higher floors of the hotel. When he neared some housekeepers watching the fire at the curbside, he turned off his screeching windshield wipers and said to them in a loud mocking voice, “Hey, I would appreciate it if you could bring me some extra blankets, just place them by my room door.” They looked at him briefly before turning back towards the fire, knowing that any response would have made their night even worse. He laughed softly to himself, adjusted his position, and then blew a lung full of smoke towards the windshield. The smoke briefly collected ahead of him before swirling off to the sides revealing the never-ending interstate and the eye of the storm.