Breakout by Paul Herron (notion reading list .txt) 📕

shouts rise in volume until they’re all screaming and begging to be let out.

The noise is overwhelming. I try to filter it out, scanning the cells, looking for Wright and Tully. But it’s no use. I can’t see clearly enough.

Then, as I’m standing there wondering what to do, a portion of the wall about sixty feet up suddenly collapses. Plaster, concrete, and metal supports plummet down the central shaft of the Rotunda.

I throw myself out of the way, landing with a splash as the huge chunks smash into the water, the falling debris just missing the COs’ security tower.

I push myself shakily to my feet. I’m running out of time here. “Where’s Wright and Tully?” I shout.

No one hears me. The inmates are busy panicking, shouting and swearing at me, begging with one breath and threatening with the next.

I cup my hands to my mouth. “Wright and Tully!” I shout.

Again no one hears. I pull out the Beretta I took from Sawyer and fire it into the air. The shot splinters through the inmates’ shouts, echoing back and forth around the walls.

The Glasshouse falls silent, everyone’s attention focused on me.

“Wright and Tully!” I shout. “I want them. Point them out, and I’ll release you all. We’ve got a way to safety. Underground. You want to live, show them to me.”

All the inmates start shouting over each other, pointing toward a pair of cells on the fourth level. I look up and see Wright and Tully holding on to the bars, staring down at me.

I feel a surge of excitement as I look at them.

Finally…

Another rumble sounds from deep within the building. The floor shakes. I steady myself and run through the water, heading toward the elevator. It isn’t there. I peer up the shaft. It’s stuck on the top floor. I take the metal stairs instead, sprinting up to the fourth level. My feet clang over the metal grating. Inmates shout as I pass, reaching out between the bars to try to grab me.

I ignore them all. My attention is focused on Wright and Tully. They watch me coming, fear in their eyes. As I get closer, I keep seeing the same image over and over in my head. The moment I entered the living room and found Amy lying on the floor, her blood soaking into the carpet. I’m so close. I can almost feel it. Justice. Revenge.

I’m about ten feet away when the wall to my right collapses.

One moment I’m running, the next a huge section of wall just sloughs away. Wind and rain explode inside. The walkway buckles, tossing me into the air. The gun flies from my grasp and I land heavily, the walkway tearing away from the bolts that hold it in place. I hang on for dear life as it swings outward, dangling thirty feet above the Rotunda floor.

The wind slams against me, tossing me back and forth. I blink through the pouring rain, my eyes darting back to Wright and Tully. Their cell is still in one piece. I can still get to them.

I hear the scream of tortured metal and peer over my shoulder. The remaining supports that hold the walkway in place are buckling. The grating shifts suddenly, then lurches to a stop, the bolts sliding partway out of the wall.

I wait, holding my breath.

Then one of the bolts drops out and tumbles into the water below. The walkway sags even more. I look down. I’m hanging directly above the fallen debris from the roof. Jagged rocks, metal struts, and poles…

I reach up and force my fingers into the square holes of the walkway, slowly dragging myself up. The grating drops slightly, then jerks to a stop. I’m about five feet from the still-intact section. I hesitate, then slowly reach up.

The walkway lurches again. I freeze.

“Jack!”

I look up to see Sawyer leaning over the edge, her hand stretched out toward me.

I reach up and grab it, but I’m way too heavy. She slides partway through the gap, just managing to stop herself from falling by hooking her other arm around the railing support. I swing for a brief, terrifying moment, then use the momentum to grab the lip of the walkway with my free hand. Sawyer takes as much of my weight as she can and I slowly rise up, hooking my elbows over the edge and pulling myself onto the metal grating.

I lurch quickly to my feet, turning to stare across the gap in the walkway. It’s about twelve feet. I’m sure I can make it. I can still get to Wright and Tully.

I brace myself.

Sawyer grabs my arm. “Jack!” she shouts. “Don’t be stupid.”

I try to pull away, but she digs her fingers in.

“Let go!”

“No!” She’s screaming to be heard above the wind. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“I don’t care! Let me do this!”

“I can’t!”

“Sawyer, I have to do it! Don’t you understand?”

She moves closer until her face is inches from my own. “No. I don’t. Look, I get it. You think you failed your wife and kid. But you didn’t. There’s not a single husband in the world who wouldn’t want revenge. But if you kill those two men, you cross a line you can’t come back from.”

I hesitate.

“What would Amy say to you right now? Would she want you to do this?”

What would Amy say?

I turn around, glance across at Wright and Tully. They’re gripping hold of the bars, watching me.

I turn back. I can almost see Amy standing next to Sawyer. Staring at me. Frowning in the way only she could. I know exactly what she’d do. The same thing she’d have done if she found out I was planning on shooting myself with the fourth bullet I’d cast. She’d kick me in the nuts and call me an asshole.

“It’s not worth it, Jack!” shouts Sawyer.

I stare at her. At this woman who has been by my side the whole night, helping me survive despite what I did to her brother.

She’s right. It isn’t worth