<span style="font-style: italic">What five story building in New York City didnâ€™t have a </span>fire escape?!<span style="font-style: italic"> My god, I should have had this contractor arrested!</span>Rainie was turning slowly, trying to find some escape route that didnâ€™t involve climbing down the side of the building. Which would be difficult, what with the windows beginning to glow orange with the flames inside.<br/><br/>Adrian was completely speechless, not a word managed to creep into his blank mind. Just start disbelief filled him. There was absolutely<span style="font-style: italic">no way</span>this was happening. He eyed the cable, a thought forming. But slow to form for the absolute shock.<br/><br/>Rainie leaned against the ledge of the roof, her hands on either side of her head as she scrambled to think. Suddenly, there was a shout:<br/><br/>â€œHold on!â€<br/><br/>That snapped Rainie out of it and allowed her to think clearly.<span style="font-style: italic">What else am I supposed to freaking do?!</span>was what she wanted to say. But her temper probably wasnâ€™t going help her much, so she kept quiet. Instead she straightened up to look down at Nathan, who looked possibly more distressed than Adrian. He was grabbing at the useless electric cable.<br/><br/>â€œI'm going to throw it back to you!â€ Nathan informed her slightly too loudly. She looked around nervously, but remembered Adrian had cleared the roof already, in theory.<br/><br/>She was relatively unsure how he would manage this, but nodded a nod he didnâ€™t see. â€œUh, okay.â€ She said, the stress evident in her voice. She took a breath to get herself collected. No need to lose her wit, even if she<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>standing on a burning building full of zombies with no escape.<br/><br/>Adrian looked at Nathan, realizing heâ€™d been able to formulate the thought quicker than he had. He tried not to let that bruise his ego. He was unsheathing his trench knife as Nathan said, â€œAJ, cut it from this building so we can roll it up and throw it across!â€<br/><br/>Adrian was already making quick work of it with the sharp blade. Of course, as soon as it was cut, he was left with the brunt of the weight of the shitty hunk of wood that passed for a pole these days on the end of the cord. Grunting, he pulled, hand over hand, until he managed to haul it over the ledge. â€œWeâ€™ll throw just the cable to her. She can climb down.â€ Sawing through the cable again, he jerked his head at a pile of bricks. â€œGrab me one of those, will you?â€ He said to Nathan.<br/><br/>He yanked his backpack free and set his machine gun down. Bouncing the weight of the backpack with all its contents, he glanced from the bag, then up to Rainie, two stories higher than him. She was looking down at them, her eyes calm, completely confident in the two of them.<br/><br/>He took the brick when Nathan offered it to him, and shoved it into the bag. Adrian snatched up the cable and tried to coil it until it could fit into the bag. Once that was done, he stood up and tested the weight of the pack, looking up at the top of the other building again.<br/><br/>â€œReady?â€ He called out.<br/><br/>â€œJust throw it already!â€ was the reply he received.<br/><br/>Rolling his eyes, he took a few steps back. For a moment, he recalled the time when his parents had coached his U10 soccer team. Rainie had been a merciless assistant coach.<span style="font-style: italic">Get it over those suckersâ€™ heads,</span>way<span style="font-style: italic"> over! So your teammates behind them can break away and score!</span>With faint amusement, he threw it like sheâ€™d taught him all those years ago. Rainie lunged for it, her arm stretching with desperate fingers...<br/><br/>And caught it by the strap.<br/><br/>Rainie was sprawled awkwardly on the ledge; one leg half thrown over, her torso completely over, and her left hand grasping the concrete ledge like a vise. She swore under her breath and growled, â€œNice touch with the brick, asshole!â€<br/><br/>Adrian didnâ€™t seem to hear her. â€œCan you pull yourself up?â€ He called.<br/><br/>â€œYeah, yeah, hang on...â€ She flung the weight of the backpack over and tumbled back onto the roof with it. She landed on her hands and knees, the breath rushing from her lungs. Ugh, damn it. That hurt.<br/><br/>Adrian scowled up at the building, where Rainie was now out of sight. Fear and distress was coursing through his body with such intensity, he leaned against the cement ledge lining the roof. But his expression betrayed only a fierce intensity that could wither any lesser man. A whiff of something familiar burned his nose. Leveling his gaze at the building window across the gap, he saw smoke rising from it and roiling through the insides like some toxic miasma. A flash and flicker of orange told him exactly what had happened.<br/><br/>His brutal gaze slowly moved to Nathan. His light gray eyes were darker than before, the violet a bit more pronounced. â€œI,â€ He growled, â€œam gonna kill you.â€<br/><br/>Atop the bookstore, Rainie tugged experimentally at the cable she had secured to a couple of pipes. She could only pray that it would hold her damn weight, or sheâ€™d be limping home. Discarding AJâ€™s genius brick, she lobbed the bag back over to the other roof below with an ease that belied her urgency. Sliding her own backpack off her shoulders, she tossed that over there too. But not before she slid on her black leather gloves.<br/><br/>She glanced down at the CD store roof, and caught Adrianâ€™s eye as he was retrieving her pack. He nodded once at her, and she nodded back. She glanced at Nathan and tried to give him a reassuring smile. â€œIâ€™m gonna repel down the building. Meet me on the street, okay?â€<br/><br/>With that, she threw the cable over the side and watched as it unraveled to its full length. It would get her three stories down. And from there, there was a large city bus that had run off the street and onto the side walk. She could jump onto that and drop the rest of the way down. Her knees would hate her for it, but her bones would hate her if she fell. And Adrian would probably end up killing Nathan if that happened. Also not good.