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Austin flashed a panic looked at Stacy. “Is he serious, or is he just having a delusion?”
Stacy looked over at his nail-scarred hand. “I don’t plan on waiting around to find out.”
Stacy looked around the room and found a piece of metal with a forked end near the newspaper clippings. “Listen to me,” she said. “I’m going to take this nail out of your hand. It’s going to hurt like hell.” She looked over to Austin, who was using his pocketknife to remove the ropes.
“Don’t,” Colton said, his voice a little stronger this time as he kept sucking in air. “The nail is connected to a wire. If the nail goes, the wire gets cut.”
Stacy tried to remain calm even though her guts were on fire. “Then what happens?”
“I don’t... I don't know...." Colton said. He closed his eyes again.
Panicked and unsure, Stacy tapped his face again several times. “Stay with me, Colton. Come on. I need to know if you can walk.”
Austin looked over at his side. “His side is red and swollen. He’s probably got some broken ribs.”
“We’ve got to get him down,” she said.
Stacy and Austin exchanged a glance between them, a look that registered the danger and fear that pulsed through them.
“What about the wire?”
“I don’t know,” Stacy barked back, her voice harder-edged than she wanted. “Brian could’ve been bluffing him.”
“Or not.”
“Either way, we can’t leave him here.”
Austin went back to sawing the rope with the knife. “Just another second, and I’ll have him loose.”
The rope finally snapped, and Austin reached down to cut the binding on his feet. Austin braced Colton against the wall and set him down easily. Colton’s body went limp.
“I think he’s passed out,” Austin said, pressing Colton flatly against the wall.
“Shit.”
Stacy took the forked end of the piece of metal and slipped it around the nail head. She pulled, hearing the flesh tear against the pull.
Colton snapped back awake and squealed.
“I know it hurts, and I’m sorry. Hold him tight against that wall, Austin.”
She dug into the nail head again, wiggling and twisting the nail. Colton screamed and tried pushing himself away from the wall, but Austin held onto him tight.
“Almost... there.” Stacy finally pulled the nail out. A sucking sound of wet, bloodied flesh being pulled from the hand made bile rise in her throat, but she managed to swallow it.
Colton closed his eyes and pressed his lips tightly over his teeth. "Goddammit..." he said breathlessly.
As Stacy lowered his hand, she noticed a hole in the wood. As she looked closer, Stacy could see a small wire that had been severed at one end, sticking out of the whole.
“We need to go—now!”
Austin put one of Colton’s arms around his neck, and Stacy did the same. With little strength, Colton’s legs dragged limp against the floor as they both lifted him.
Stacy looked over at Austin, and that was when she noticed heavy beads of sweat forming on his brow, the color draining from his face.
“Stacy, I’m having trouble breathing,” he said, and they started walking forward. “Something is burning in my throat.”
Stacy looked up to see that the dust from a vent had been pushed away from the metal blades.
“It’s gas,” she said. “The cut wire sent it through the vents.”
As Stacy took in a breath, she felt her mind lose focus. She whipped a look over at Austin, who slumped near the floor with Colton hanging off his side. His dark face had paled, and his eyes were glazed in a way that reminded Stacy of those eyes belonging to drug addicts who had just gotten high.
Stacy felt her legs go limp. She nearly dropped Colton on the floor as she fell to her knees, her hands bracing her fall. Colton slid down between her and Austin, his head thumping against the floor as he moaned quietly.
Stacy drifted into unconsciousness and then back out. She called out Austin’s name, but the words felt heavy and like lead in her mouth. The inside of the cabin was a blur, and the thoughts she had were being tossed around in her mind like they were in a storm. Her lungs and chest didn't burn as they did in the park earlier, so this gas must have been different.
Austin rolled over to his side and began coughing. The noise woke Stacy again. She had rolled onto her back while Colton still lay on his stomach with his head splayed to one side.
Then, she felt it—something warm under her spread to other parts of her body. For a second, the warmth felt good, but then the heat intensified. The acrid smell of burning wood stuck in her nose and throat, causing her to cough for a different reason. Stacy managed to squint across the room, past Austin's body, to see the emergence of an orange flame rising from the crack in the floor, licking the chipped wooden window ledge.
“No! No!” she proclaimed. “Austin, get up. There’s a fire!”
Austin mumbled something inaudible but didn’t move. Stacy dragged herself over Colton’s body, pulling herself to Austin and then rocking him back and forth. He didn’t respond.
“Dammit, wake up!” Stacy cried out, slapping him with heavy force, although her limbs and movement felt slow and sloppy. Stacy felt a wave of guilt and regret slam into her. She’d led them into a trap, and it was the same type of trap that Brian created earlier when he burned down the DeVito house. This time, Stacy and Austin were all alone.
The flames behind Austin had widened and now rose higher, consuming more wood in the wall. Through her gas-afflicted thinking, Stacy knew that the fire would consume the wall and the shed quickly.
Stacy grabbed hold of Colton’s arms and dragged him across the heated floor of the shed with all her strength. His body was heavy, and Stacy felt the muscles in her limbs ache and pull as she tugged. She could see the skin on his arms and legs bump and rise against the wood, and the skin swallowed up splinters, but she had no other options.
When they reached the door, Stacy rolled Colton over. The sudden rush of blood to her head nearly made her pass out. Stacy's limbs splayed all over the porch. She kicked and wiggled her legs until the heels of her boots found solid footing on the steps, and then she pulled herself up. Colton's head began to roll back and forth, and he started coughing, hacking up a mixture of spit and pale-yellow bile that ran down his chest.
“I could use some help here,” she said.
Colton wrapped his hands around Stacy’s wrists. His grip wasn’t strong enough. Stacy pulled back and leaned backward down the stairs, bracing her fall with one boot firmly planted on the last step. Colton’s body had cleared the doorway.
Inside the shed, Stacy heard a loud crash and saw the light and flames escaping the side of the shed. The outer wall had collapsed.
Stacy stepped over Colton and went back inside the shed. Dark, thick smoke hung in the air like a thick blanket over the shed, and Stacy could barely see. Closing her eyes, she snapped her mind back to the place where Austin’s body was and where she hoped it would still be.
Behind her, Stacy could hear the pulsing wave of sirens in the distance, but she couldn’t wait. They would both be dead before help arrived if she didn’t do something.
Another loud crash echoed in the room. Stacy stepped forward and could see that the back wall had begun to buckle inward. Austin was still passed out on the floor, not moving. Stacy tried grabbing him by one arm, but his hulky frame made that attempt impossible.
Stacy looked to the left and ran her hand across the floor of the shed, which was so hot that it burned her skin. She bit her lip as splinters knifed their way into the palm of her hands. Finally, she found the metal with the forked end.
Her hand instinctively recoiled as she touched it, and the burned skin on her hand began to blister instantly. Stacy removed her Kevlar vest and tore a piece of fabric from her shirt. She wrapped her hand in the material and grabbed the metal piece.
“I’m not letting you die on this floor,” she said through strained breaths. Stacy grabbed around Austin’s waist until she found his belt and hooked the end of the metal into one of the belt loops on his pants.
Stacy leaned back and pulled him. The wall in front of her buckled and collapsed, sending flames shooting at them. The ends of Austin’s feet just missed the fire. With her legs about to give way from fatigue and strain, she kept pulling. An explosion blew a hole in the floor, and the shed began to list forward.
As Stacy got Austin to the door, the metal rod slipped from her hand. Stacy tried reattaching it, only to discover that Austin’s belt loop had torn.
Stacy screamed and grabbed Austin by the shoulders, pulling him out onto the front steps. With one final burst of strength, Stacy pulled back with all of her might. Austin rolled over on his side, his legs flopping down the steps, and he eventually rolled over and on top of Stacy.
Flames cascaded higher into the air. Suddenly, a crack and slow groan came from above them. Stacy looked up to see the roof of the shed as it collapsed.
A final burst of noise filled the clearing, and an intense heat washed over the three of them as Stacy fell unconscious.