CHAPTER THREE

 

 

Xandrie knew she would soon reach something that might aid in her escape: a vertishaft. This was an octagonal shaft some 100 feet wide, with an elevator on the inside of each of its faces. This express system serviced only the very top level of the city, some 2,300 feet above, and the bottom an equal distance down.

Blinking signs to Xandrie’s right warned of the impending end of the fastest lane. She continued surfing the black belt, watching as Jan got to his feet. She tried to time her exit until the last possible second, but his pistol was aimed at her head, so she had no choice but to move fast. Xandrie leapt onto the next belt, and then over two more, flipping and tumbling like a rag doll as her feet were yanked out from under her.

Jan made the same leap and also came crashing down. Xandrie gritted her teeth and fought her rising panic. Focusing on the next but one belt, she ran and jumped onto it. Again, she wasn’t fast enough to make up for the speed differential, and was spun head over heels. But, there was no time to think. She got up. To jump to the next belt, or past it and back onto the sidewalk? Speed was of the essence, but so was not dying in the process. She opted for the former, got up and jumped one belt over, managing to stay upright this time. Jan was still heading towards her rapidly.

One more running jump brought her back onto the sidewalk.

Xandrie’s hair and clothes sticking to her in an icky sweat bath. She panted like a dog at midday. Her entire body ached from the work and battering they’d received, but there was no time to think about. Another hundred yards and the street opened out into a wide, high circular space, overlooked by several levels above. Through the center of this area was the vertishaft.

People scattered as Xandrie pelted towards the glass column. A hundred feet behind, Jan knelt and aimed his gun carefully, in a two-handed grip. He squeezed the trigger.

Xandrie dodged to her left, unaware of the danger streaking towards her. With a zing the bullet buzzed her right ear and implanted itself in the forehead of an old lady. The group she was with shrieked in horror as she crumpled to the ground.

Xandrie looked over her shoulder. Fuck. Hot, furious energy surged through her. Should she just let him finish her off so no more innocent people got hurt?

Before this thought had finished crossing her mind she collided with a man. With an agonized “uggghh” he went flying, landing spreadeagled on the smooth tiled floor, completely winded. Xandrie flipped head over hells onto her back. She slid, narrowly missing a concussive blow between her head and the hard surface. The man’s wife screamed as she scrambled to her feet. Jan was once again closing fast. Xandrie charged towards the glass pillar. Was there an open elevator car? Of course not. She headed around it clockwise, her heart sinking with every closed door. And then—finally! Having run three quarters of the way around the shaft, two cars were boarding. And there he was.

Having guessed, correctly, that she would head all the way around, Jan lay in wait. Xandrie saw him from the corner of her eye as she charged at the closing door. In an instant he was close behind her. Xandrie knocked a small group of people down like bowling pins as she forced her way into the crowded car. Jan’s seething eyes met hers as the doors closed. As the car began to glide up, Xandrie got a bird’s eye view of the plaza. Police on Segway-like transports were converging on it.

****

The crowd in the glass elevator stared at the panting, exhausted woman.

“You in some kind of trouble?” a man asked. She couldn’t answer. The next elevator over was also accelerating up, forty feet behind hers. And there, looking up at her, was Jan. He was already raising his weapon.

Oh crap. Sandie backed up out of his line of fire just as the glass shattered. The other riders screamed and ducked. The bullet had also shattered the opposite side and the wind from the 100 MPH ride screamed through the small space. A mother hung onto her little boy, desperately trying to keep him from being sucked out.

Life sometimes comes down to one crazy moment. Xandrie once again had to choose between her very likely death, or 100% certain demise. She squeezed through the other terrified passengers to the open side of the elevator. She clung to the handrail as she squeezed under it, and stood up on the outward side. Xandrie was now in the howling downward wind, as the levels of the city flashed past. Then she let go.

****

Xandrie peeled away from the elevator car in the slipstream. It rocketed upwards, to the fading screams of those on board. She continued to fly upwards on momentum, tracing a ballistic arc like some kind of caped hero. She caught a momentary glance of Jan’s gaping mouth as his ride passed her.

A few seconds later, Xandrie reached the peak of her flight and was suspended in time and space, caught in an unreal moment, floating freely over the center of the yawning shaft. Other elevator cars zoomed up and down their tracks, their occupants pointing at her. Then she began to fall.

The wind whipped her hair all around as she plunged. Within ten seconds, she was going 120 MPH straight down, the floors flashing past. Good thing I did so much skydiving. Xandrie straightened like a javelin, picking up even more speed. Glancing around she soon saw her quarry: a downward express elevator. She gritted her teeth and made sure to breathe through her nose as she streaked downward, closing fast on the three meter-wide square of brushed metal that was its roof. Once she was forty feet above, Xandrie spread herself out in an X shape to brake. She tilted her body to steer her descent as she closed in on her target. Oomph! She was down, hugging the cold metal as the inside of the vertishaft flashed past. Please don’t stop at the center again. Please. To Xandrie’s great relief, the elevator didn’t even slow down as it neared the level at which she had boarded. She was going to the very bottom of New Chicago.