“We have to get down there,” she said.
“I know. But how?”
They could hear fire engine sirens. And a police car, its rack lights blazing, was powering down the road.
“If we stay here we’re going to be burned alive.”
The fire was starting to surround them.
Michelle saw a fire truck in the distance, but she figured they would be dead long before it got to them.
She grabbed up all the towels she could find in the bathroom. “Help me,” she said.
They tied the towels together as tightly as they could, and then Michelle fastened one end around an exposed support beam in the wall.
“I’ll go first,” said Sean. “If it’ll support my weight, it’ll be no problem for you.”
“And if it breaks, you’re going to crack open your skull. Let me go.”
But Sean had already clambered over the edge and grabbed ahold of the towel rope. “I hope they’ve maintained their towels better than the rest of this place,” he said as he dropped over the edge.
He quickly climbed down and then Michelle even more quickly followed,
letting go and dropping the last few feet.
The motor court must have been quite empty because there were only a few people in the parking lot, one of them barefoot in just his pants.
“Do you smell that?” asked Sean.
“Gas,” said Michelle.
He yelled at the people, “Get back. Gas leak. Run.”
They all sprinted away from the building. Sean and Michelle found refuge outside the blast radius. Ten seconds later the gas ignited in the middle of the structure, blowing a yawning hole from the first to the second floor. Debris was thrown out thirty feet and rained down on the cars parked nearby.
The police car wheeled into the parking lot and two officers jumped out. The fire trucks came along a few minutes later, and the battle with the blaze began.
Sean and Michelle looked at each other.
He said, “I think it would be a lot better if we left now.”
She nodded and they crossed over to their vehicles, which were fortunately undamaged. While the police and firefighters were engaged with the blaze they slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
They hit the road and accelerated, passing three more fire trucks and two police cars heading to the motor court. They stopped about five miles later at a 7-Eleven. Sean got out of his car and climbed into Michelle’s Land Cruiser. He dusted off his clothes as best he could while she coughed violently.
“We both need showers and some oxygen,” she said miserably. “What did you see out the window?”
“A pack of plastic explosives stuck to the door with a detonator attached.”
“Who would put it there?”
“Friends of the three mall guys, I would suspect.”
“But that means we were followed here. I didn’t see anybody.”
“Neither did I. Which means they’re really, really good, Michelle.”
He slumped back in his seat and rubbed his blackened face.