Blood Lines
minutes.
My kingdom for a set of lock picks. A God-given chance and I can't use it for anything… Jesus ! She scrambled backward as the picnic table lurched sideways under the sudden shifting of weight across from panicked inmates. This thing's being held together with spit and prayers .
'And where the fuck do you think you're goin'?" Lambert demanded. " I say when we leave. Natalie, bring her back!"
'Can't see!" Natalie protested, wood groaning with relief as she stood.
'So what? Neither can she!"
Vicki felt the surge of air and stepped sideways out of the way. " 'Trust me, he said, and come. I followed like a child-a blind man led me home.'"
'What the fuck are you talking about?"
'It's a poem," Vicki told her, easily avoiding Natalie's next rush; the large woman displaced a tropical storm's worth of air. "By W. H. Davies. He was saying, I believe, that when everyone's blind, the people with the practice have the advantage." She smiled, bent, and used Natalie's momentum to heave her up and across her shoulders and into the air.
The crash of splintering wood told Vicki her enormous tormentor had just smashed through the abused table. "I hope… that… hurt," she panted as her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor trying to get her breath. Good God, she's got to weigh close to four hundred pounds; isn't it amazing what adrenaline can do .
Her fingers brushed against a six-inch sliver of wood and, still fighting for breath, she picked it up. Given the spread of the debris, the table had been completely destroyed by the impact. Jesus H. Christ. This thing could've killed somebody ! She sat back on her heels and tried to break the fragment across the grain. It bent but it didn't even crack. I don't think this is pine… Just like the city to buy oak picnic tables for a detention center and then let them fall apart .
Her heart suddenly began to slam against her ribs, her heartbeat drowning out the chaos around her. Oak. Hardwood. A splinter with a thin, flexible tip.
No. No way. That lock's big and clumsy, sure, but only an idiot would try to pick it with a chunk of wood. No.
Why not?'
It's not like I've got a lot of options.
As Vicki stood, she brushed up against another body standing so close they were all but breathing the same air. Small, powerful fingers dug into her forearm.
'Natalie's going to fucking rip you apart!"
The emergency generator would be kicking in soon and Vicki knew she didn't have much time, but there were some temptations it would take a saint to resist.
'You shouldn't have come this close," she said, yanked Lambert's hand loose, twisted the arm up and around, and kicked her, hard, in the direction of her enforcer. A strangled grunt, a curse, and a cry of pain told her the target had been hit as she hurried toward the showers.
She found the concrete privacy barrier by crashing into it, and, limping a little, groped her way along its rough edge.
They're finished with A Range by now, probably well into B. So little time …
The area between the barrier and the wall was less than ten feet wide. Vicki launched herself across the gaping chasm it represented in the dark with no thought of caution. Preventing a few more bruises wouldn't pay for another night spent behind bars. She hit the wall with enough force to bounce back, then began searching frantically for the hidden exit.
The crash of steel doors sounded over the confusion behind her and she jumped, almost dropping her sliver of wood.
If they've already moved onto C Range…
Finally her fingers found the lock and she dropped to her knees in front of it.
And while I'm down here, I might as well say a prayer as I don't have a hope in hell of… son of a bitch. The first tumbler fell.
Christ, I could practically pick this thing with my fingernails. I get out of here and I 'm going to have a long talk with someone. Those picnic tables are death traps and this lock is a joke. Odds are good the men's detention center gets decent upkeep.
The second tumbler fell.
This is a disgrace.
She could hear one of the guards yelling something about tranquilizers. He sounded close.
Oh, shit … Her hands were slick with sweat and she could feel the wood beginning to splinter.
Okay.
The guards were definitely in C Range. It suddenly got harder to breathe.
Almost.
Someone appeared to be putting up a fight.
Give 'em hell, slow them down, and…
That wasn't Natalie she could hear breathing behind her? No. Just the echo of her
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