Power Play (Book 2)

Chapter 21: Waking Up

"Wait!" yells one of the officers at my back.

I almost fly up the stairs. Our bedroom door is closed, and it stays that way when I try to push it open.

"Brandon..." She's definitely inside.

I lean into the door but it doesn't budge. It's a light door so I don't know what's going on. Maybe Nicole pushed our dresser against it from the other side.

Zach puts his hand on my shoulder. "You have to push," he tells me.

I haven't seen Zach in years. Not since I went to help him with that drug deal. Not since his funeral.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him. My head swims. Zach shouldn't be here. He can't be here.

"I came to help," he says. "You have to break through. I'll hold them off." He nods down the stairs towards the police.

"Zach..." I stare at his back as he descends towards the living room.

"Keep pushing," he tells me, looking back for a moment. His eyes are sad.

I shoulder against the door. It moves a little.

I lean back and give it a hard shove. It moves a little more.

Gunfire erupts downstairs. Zach's been shot. Shot again. Not Zach. Not again.

"Brandon..."

I scream in rage and ram into the door as hard as I can. My shoulder cracks in pain, but I keep pushing. The door gives way just a bit and I jam my fingers into the narrow gap.

"Brandon..."

"I'm coming," I yell through the opening, and pull it open with all my strength. The door splinters and creaks, and I tumble into the room, falling towards the carpet.

###

"Brandon!"

My eyes snap open, but I'm not in our bedroom. The ceiling above me is bare metal, and I see struts and rivets. There's a deep hum that vibrates through the place, including the metal table I'm laying on. I'm strapped down, and I feel like I've been hit by a fleet of trucks.

My brain finally processes the fact that I heard my wife call my name.

"Nicole?" I try to lift my head. It goes nowhere.

"Oh, thank God," she says, somewhere off to my left. "Baby, you need to break out of there. We can't get to you. It's too electrified."

"Where am I?" I ask, trying again to move.

"I'll explain everything later," she says urgently. "Just trust me, and pull. No matter how much it hurts, you've got to pull!"

I pull at my arm restraints and nothing moves. Every part of me is in agony from my skin to my bones, and I almost wish I would pass out again just to make it stop. I try to twist my head to see Nicole, but I'm held in place.

There's a loud commotion towards the sound of Nicole's voice, followed by gunshots. I grind my teeth together and focus on my pain. It tears through my muscles and the more it hurts, the more I pull. This time the bands snap and my arms are free.

"That's it, baby! Keep going!"

"Nicole?" I ask, reaching up to snap the band holding down my head.

"I'm fine," she says. There's a loud thump and a scream from her direction. It's not her screaming.

I sit up, and fire washes through me. Cables hang down from a large frame that surrounds me like a metallic, extremely unattractive canopy bed. The cables attach to pads all over my body, and through those pads the waves of pain pump into me. I swipe my arms out wide and the cables pop free. The pain stops immediately, and I continue ripping at my other restraints. I'm still wearing my costume from the neck down, or at least most of it. The gloves and boots are gone, as is my mask.