Unsung

Chapter Eighty-Nine

I smiled.

It was impossible to get to the other side, but not to get to Austin.

Forcing my feet to move before I could think myself out of what I was about to do, I went over to the window and began to climb up into the frame. Then I remembered something and hopped back down off the sill. Getting on my hands and knees, I began to search the floor.

After a few seconds I found what I'd been looking for underneath a board in the corner and shoved it into my waistband. Then I rushed back to the window and threw my leg over the frame.

Jumping up onto the sill, I gripped the inside edge of the window and held on tightly as I stood up. A look over my shoulder showed just how far I could fall, and I turned away queasily.

"Don't look down!" Austin called out suddenly.

I smiled despite the situation I was in and fought the desire to do just that.

"Easy for you to say!" I screamed back. "You're already on the ground!"
I heard him chuckle and then groan in pain.

It was all I needed to get myself moving. I reached my arm up and tried to grip the first rung, but it was just out of my range. I'd have to jump.

And unlike before, I only had one chance to get it right.

Saying a silent prayer, I focused my eyes on the target and jumped off the ledge. As my fingers closed around the metal pipe, I reached up with my other hand and felt the burning agony of the cracked ribs flow through me.

"Argh!" I screamed in response.

I wanted to let go. My head was screaming to let go. But I didn't. I held on tightly and then screamed again as I reached one hand up to the next rung. And then the next. With every move, I screamed, which made it all that much more difficult to breathe, but in some odd way, made me feel better.

Now I understood why men let out guttural cries during battle. It was like your soul's way of reminding you that you aren't dead yet.

Pulling myself up to the very last rung on the ladder, I glanced over to see that I was just about level with the metal beam beside me. Without looking down, I jutted my leg out and let the back of my thigh graze the top of the rafter. Then, reaching over tentatively, I ran my hand along the smooth surface until it was extended around the circumference of the beam, gripping the underside until my fingertips turned white. Lowering my chest until it was flush against the hard surface, my side burning with white-hot pain, I pulled my other leg over as well. Then, I just lay there on top the beam, clinging to it like it was the last pole in a strip club.

"Holy shit, you did it!" Austin exclaimed, as surprised as I was that I wasn't lying in a heap on the ground.

"Don't sound so surprised," I said, panting.

"I'm not," he said. "I'm just...impressed."

"Um, thanks," I said, surprised by the compliment.

Pushing myself up until I was straddling the beam, I placed my hands in front of my body and then planted my feet behind me. Quivering just slightly, I stood up slowly and found my balance. Using baby steps, I pivoted around and began to walk the length of the beam.

I was by no means quick about it. In fact, it was taking everything in me to keep inching forward. But my feet were moving, and I was slowly making my way over to Austin. Ris would've probably leapt across it; McKayla would've done cartwheels or something. I was just happy to still be standing.

After several terrifying minutes, I finally reached the area that had been knocked out by the debris. Crouching down, I weighed my options. Even if I'd been willing to chance the twenty foot drop to the floor below, it wouldn't have helped. The area where Austin lay, was still about ten feet away from where I was, and separated by a wall of fire.

"You can't get through that," Austin said, as if reading my mind. "It's too much. Even if you wrap something around you—it's impossible."

"Not impossible," I muttered, turning to survey the only thing that could help me get to Austin. "Crazy, but not impossible."

Austin followed my gaze and began to shake his head.

"No way," he said. "Even McKayla wouldn't do that."

"Well, you're lucky you're stuck with me then, aren't you?" I snapped back, annoyed by his lack of confidence.

"It's not worth it," Austin said. Then, he looked down at the ground. "I'm not worth it."

"Shut up, Austin," I said through clenched teeth. Lowering myself awkwardly onto my stomach, I paused before slipping over the side of the beam until I was hanging from it. "I'm sort of in the middle of something here."

The pain in my side was blinding now and I fought the urge to pass out. I needed something to distract me. Something that would remind me there was fate worse than the agony I felt in that moment.

So I looked down.

I'd always admired the oversized industrial fans that hung around the center. They were designed to look like actual airplane propellers—if they were in a nosedive. Only, instead of the usual two or three blades a plane typically had, the decorative ones here had eight.

And they were huge. Each blade stretched out nearly ten feet in length and had a width just big enough to stand on.

Just big enough to stand on.

I watched the smooth metal planks rotate in a circle and counted the seconds between one blade to the next.

Blade.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Blade.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Blade.

When I was sure I had it timed right, I released my hold on the beam and dropped to the moving piece of metal.

My right foot touched down perfectly, but my left barely made contact, slipping on dust that covered the surface. I inhaled sharply as I began to fall and threw out my hands in a desperate attempt to grip onto something. Anything.

At the last moment, my fingertips found the edge and I clung to it with all the strength I had left.

But I was sweating from the heat and the exertion and didn't have a good grip. Not to mention the grime was making it damn-near impossible to keep from sliding off the already glossy propeller.

The one bright spot in my initial fall was that it seemed to have given the fan a push in the right direction. The rotation speed doubled as a result and just as it became clear I was going to fall, I passed over the ring of fire that was closing Austin off from freedom.

With an embarrassing yelp, I plummeted to the groundbelow.