Ladder to Freedom

Two shots and then a single shotgun blast, after that, all hell broke loose. One second after the first shot was fired Jasmyn lunged toward the desk grabbing the 45 automatic. Quickly stuffing the laptop into a military duffel bag sitting upright next to the un-slept-in bed. The kitten crouched and pounced on the bedspread, it’s ears flattened back against raised shoulders. Hurriedly, it too went into the duffel bag, mewing in protest as the drawstring was cinched tight.

“It will be all right little one. Someone has just saved our bacon, as momma would say.”

The rain had not stopped pouring down in over two weeks which wasn’t unusual for early-December, soon the snow would come and blanket California from the mountains to the now SP controlled coastline. She shivered and took a deep breath against the cold rain that drenched her as soon as she opened the window, the icy wind cutting like sharp knifes.

A hail of large caliber automatic machine gun fire ripped an arch pattern from the bottom to the top of the bolted steel door, Jasmyn observed just before she stepped through the hotel window and onto the fire escape. The alleyway for some reason was clear of any local government’s Special Forces Police goons. Still barefoot, she slung her boots around her neck, her best pair of heavy wool socks tucked safe inside the toes. While juggling the duffel bag over her shoulder another spray of bullets peppered the door, punching holes that looked like smoking poker chips. She had lost track of the number of rounds fired, but quickly calculated there must be at lest five, maybe six other shooters in the hallway, not counting the four she had see through the peephole. Two people were firing automatic machine guns. The police didn’t carry machine guns any more. Guns were worth their weight in gold during the first plague ten years earlier, most weapons had been confiscated, or stolen and then sold to rich countries who could afford the outrages prices. No, someone in an underground group was fighting the SP Police, and right now she was still alive and breathing thanks to them. Whoever was in the hallway shooting was giving her the chance to escape. Having a computer, a pistol, and a pet meant a trip to the work camps, or a bullet in the head for being a rebel to the Unified Western Regional Government. Jasmyn Mariana Francisco Sanchez had squeezed through some tight places before, dodging capture as nimble as the animals she had freed in the Green Zones to the North. She prayed this time would be no different.

Starting down the ramshackle fire escape, gunfire erupted below. She could only see the flashes of three barrels firing toward the alleyways entrance. Again she said a short prayer for their safety, and started climbing up toward the roof. If she could make it to the roof, of course she could make it. “Think positive.” She said out loud. Water came down in sheets of cold rain. Ice was beginning to form on the rungs of the metal ladder. “Get you sorry ass up on the roof Francisco.” She said gritted her teeth and wanting to cry. Red neon flashed, blinking from the hotel sign below. The electric humming buzzed like an old Frankenstein movie she had once seen.

The duffel bag felt like a ton, the shoulder strap dug deep in to her bones like the cold rain. Her foot slipped. “You want to die here. No! No! No! Not Here… Not like THIS.” Holding on with all her strength, she carefully felt for and found a rail with her numb toes just as sparks flashed next to right hand. A bullet ricochet, she felt the reverberations shake the cold steel she was gripping. The next bullet exploded into a brick, sending shards flying. She felt a warmth on her cheek and knew it was blood. Exhausted, she struggled with Herculean effort. Looking up, she stretched to grip the rail above. Hearing soft mewing from the duffel bag made her remember she was not alone. With bullets slamming into the wet bricks she continued to scale the slippery fire escape.