WriterFreak001:

As usual, life is busy, but I wanted to write more to this story. It's been a while since I've written anything for this story so I wanted to feed all of your monsters with angst and suspense so prepare yourselves for some heart-thumpin' thriller.


"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice."

Robert Frost


Chapter Seven

~ SCORPION ~


"DON'T TRUST ANYBODY. SOMEONE ON THE ELEVATOR SABOTAGED THE PANEL. DO NOT FIX IT NO MATTER WHAT."

Thirty minutes – no, perhaps an hour, Walter wasn't sure – had passed since Happy's warning, and nothing had been done to correct the issue. They were nothing more than sitting ducks. There was no way in knowing who could be the perpetrator, and Walter wasn't sure he was confident enough in his self-defense training (if he could even call it that) to ward off anyone from harming everybody. It was moments like these he wished he had more time with Cabe when he was younger to learn more self-defense. If he, Paige and Ralph survived through this ordeal, then he would make it his prerogative to resume that training for the sake of protecting the ones he loves.

After Walter had cleaned the gash on Paige's shoulder under the advisement of Toby, he patched her up with a thick layer of gauze and gently helped her lie back down on her stomach, cringing as she winced from touching the cool floor. Quietly, he draped his jacket over her shoulders to keep her from getting chilled and leaned downward to move some of her hair out of her face.

"Because your wound clotted before I cleaned it, Toby doesn't think you've lost too much blood. I've placed a Fingertip Pulse Oximeter on your left index finger to read your pulse, and I've recalibrated it to beep if your pulse rate reaches dangerous levels." Walter paused briefly to see if she would respond, but she only gently smiled as their eyes met, and for a moment, it was as if they were alone.

His fingernails brushed her cheek like feathers, and she inhaled softly as her eyes fluttered. She threaded her cold fingers with his and brought his warm palm to her lips before lightly kissing it.

"Thank you," she whispered, her mouth moving against his hand. "Thank you for saving me… for being here… Thank you."

Walter's thumb daringly brushed over her lips, and he grinned like a damn happy fool. "Always." And as he squeezed her hand gently, she returned his smile as best as she could before her attention was diverted elsewhere.

"Oh no!"

Paige, despite her injury, sprang forward as if she had been healed miraculously and scrambled over to Kelly, the little girl with asthma. Walter was immediately by her side with his jacket in hand before draping it over her shoulders again. Paige mindlessly secured the material around her body as best as she could to cover her bosom before reaching down to check Kelly's vitals.

The last time she checked on her, Kelly had been still listening to Ralph's music and holding her father's hand, but she was limp, her small body cold as ice. Her lips, blue. Paige cupped the little girl's shoulder's and shook them, hoping she would wake. "Kelly? Kelly? Kelly!" The girl didn't move.

Walter had his phone out in seconds and was calling Toby. "Toby, what do we need to do if a young girl, no older than five at best, has suffered from an asthma attack and has reached cyanosis?"

Paige suddenly looked at him with fear and questions in her eyes, but there was no time to explain. He put the phone on speaker as Toby began speaking.

"That little girl needs medical attention immediately, but there's no way she can receive it in the elevator. There's a paramedic on standby on the main floor of the building you're in. You need to get her out of that elevator now and bring her to the closest level. Cabe," Toby snapped loudly, "can use his Homeland Security Powers of Persuasion to send the paramedic team up to that floor, but that will take some time since they would need to take the stairs."

Walter exhaled audibly. "How much time does she have before respiratory failure?"

"Her last asthma attack must have weakened her lungs, and though she seemed calm, her wheezing might have continued unnoticed. Based on her size and her current state, I'd give her no more than thirty minutes…, but that all depends on how long she's been in that state. How is her pulse?"

Paige took the oximeter off her finger and placed it on Kelly's; it beeped almost immediately.

"Yeah, she needs a hospital. Now!" Toby exclaimed, his voice so loud, it the others to cover their ears.

Walter hated the idea of leaving Paige and Ralph alone, but he really didn't have a choice. There was no way he was going to let Ralph journey up to the next floor of the building, and Paige was in no condition to help the young girl. Without hesitation, he turned to Paige and took her hands in his. "You and Ralph need to hold down the fort while I'm gone… I'll be back as soon as Kelly is in safe hands."

Paige knew she would be selfish to ask him to stay so she inhaled a deep breath and exhaled a shaky one, causing her to wince a little. She quickly nodded her head and bit her bottom lip, knowing he was the only one capable of helping Kelly.

Without a word, Walter grabbed Paige's cheeks and crushed his lips to hers, hard. The kiss was didn't last for more than a few seconds, but it was passionate enough to stun her as he hopped upward and pulled himself through the opening in the ceiling. Scrambling to pull herself together, she heard Walter call for Ralph. She exhaled the breath she didn't know she was holding and watched her son pick up Kelly and hoist her up to Walter. The older genius grabbed Kelly's shoulders and pulled her through the hatch before securing her to his back. She knew he probably shouldn't be carrying Kelly like that as he climbed away, but what choice did he have?

What choice did anybody have?

"Mom," Ralph placed his warm hands on her cold, shaky ones, and smiled. "Walt's gonna be all right. You'll see." His grin grew wider. "He'll be back."

Paige felt her adrenaline flood out of her body in an instant, and she was suddenly dizzy. The elevator began to spin, and she reached out for her son, gripping his arms to stabilize herself. Without saying anything or crying out her name, Ralph gently helped her lie down while making sure Walter's jacket didn't fall from her body as he did so. "Thank you, Ralphie," she whispered, placing her hand over her son's. She squeezed his palm gently, and he returned her smile. "Just rest, Mom. Walter will be back before you know it."

"I can't rest, sweetie," Paige muttered with a dry mouth, squeezing her son's hand again. "I can't until I know he's with us again."


Walter seriously had to thank Cabe for helping him beef up his muscles over the last few years, because if it wasn't for the strength in his arms, climbing up the metal ladder towards the next floor – which was further than he remembered – with an extra 60 to 70 pounds, give or take, on his back, he would never have made it.

But he did, and to his luck, the paramedics were waiting for him when he arrived. Before he even climbed up to the ledge, the young girl was immediately taken off his back and placed on a stretcher. He watched them as they strapped an oxygen mask over her small mouth, and his heart ached for her and her parents… If Ralph had been in her situation… Walter dared not to think of the worst and held his breath as the paramedics carried Kelly up the stairs towards the roof where a chopper is on standby.

A hand suddenly dropped on his shoulder, and he tensed. "You did good, kid."

Almost instantly, he turned, surprised to see Cabe, Happy, Toby and Sly standing before his eyes. "What're you guys doing here?"

"Well, when we heard you guys were in trouble, you gonna bet your ass we'd be here as soon as possible, and here we are. Now that I'm here, those dopes downstairs trying to figure out the mechanical problem won't be in control of this rescue anymore. You can count on that. I've got the best of my guys getting ready for extraction." Cabe patted Walter's shoulder gently. "So you just sit here and rest while the big guns take care of everything else."

"Woah there, big guy," Toby was the first to respond, his body blocking the path to the elevator shaft. "Your guys are going nowhere. They can't yet… not until we identify the perpetrator… who, by the way, just so happens to be down in that elevator with everyone else. Everyone inside is a hostage even if they don't know it, and the perp could act out if we provoke him or her just right. Our best bet, for now, is to send Walter back down there with some blankets and extra oxygen."

Walter shook his head and frowned. "Climbing up with a girl on my back was hard enough. I can't climb back down carrying all of those things."

"Then don't," Happy shrugged, and everyone looked at her. "Go back down on your own and pretend like you don't know anything. Let us worry about the rest."

Walter heaved a sigh. "Okay." He suddenly remembered something. "I'll be right back." Before anyone could ask, Walter sprinted in the opposite direction of the elevator towards the stairs, leaving imaginary dust in his wake.

Toby hummed to himself as he stared at the ground.

"What is it, Doc?"

"Now that I think about it, hmmm," he crossed his arms, "the perp being inside the elevator makes no sense… if he or she is stuck like everyone else, why bother? And if he or she is in there, then why hasn't he or she made him or herself known? Most perpetrators reveal themselves by now because they have certain demands. So why has he or she been silent this whole time…?" His eyes popped open. "HOLY SMOKES!"

"What?!" Sylvester gulped, clenching at the hem of his sweater.

"The elevator is just a distraction!" Toby exclaimed, his eyes wide as saucers. "The malfunction was probably preset or something… to throw people off." He turned towards Happy. "Is that even possible?"

"If someone knows what they're doing, then yeah. There are hundreds of ways to stop an elevator, and whoever did this one, put a lot of thought into it to attack only one elevator instead of all of them. What I saw in the interior panel could have easily been a decoy. I only had a few seconds to look at it so I could have missed something." Happy paused when everyone blinked. "What? Nobody's perfect, you jackasses."

"And if the interior panel was simply a decoy," Sylvester sighed, "then we're back to square one…."

"Not necessarily," Toby shook his head. "There's only a handful of people who can mess with elevator wires and actually know what they're doing… and if this crazy son of a bitch is anything like us, he would be close by, marveling at his work whenever his ultimate goal is achieved."

"FUCK!" Happy exclaimed, immediately scrambling to find her cellphone. She opened Skype and called Walter's account, grateful Ralph answered instead of her boss. "Ralph, no time to explain. I need you to show me the panel again."

"But –"

"Never mind what I said earlier. We're having second thoughts about that; just show me the panel again." Happy held her breath as Ralph climbed over the others to reach the panel. He opened it and shined the light over the wires and gears. She spotted something behind the wires and inwardly cursed before thanking Ralph. She didn't wait for his response before ending the call. "This is far worse than we could have ever imagined."

"What do you mean?" Walter's voice was the first to be heard, and everyone looked at him as had Paige's soft white robe draped over his arm. His eyes were laced with worry as Happy opened her mouth while searching for an answer.

"Spit it out!" Walter exclaimed, impatiently.

"I failed to see it before, but Ralph showed me the panel again," Happy pressed her lips together, hard. "The messed-up wires served as a decoy to distract anyone from seeing what's behind them…"

"And what's behind them?" Cabe was now getting impatient.

There was no easy way of saying this so she might as well answer.

"Walter…," Happy gulped. "The wires of the elevator… they're… they're hardwired into a bomb."


WriterFreak001:

I'm sure you had to stretch your belief a little bit, but I hope it wasn't too much.

Please let me know what you think! I'm quite proud of this chapter.

Please let me know if there are any errors I might have missed when I was proofreading. :)