Chapter Nine
651 Words
Present
When she wrapped her hand around the cold metal, Ada almost didn’t succeed in swallowing down her sob of relief. The men, including him, were still at the entrance of her small alleyway. If she failed to be quiet, she just as well be found. And once she’s found, she’s dead.
Her fingers wrapped around what she found. She reached up a few inches probing the dark. Yes, there’s another one.
She slowly pulled, testing the integrity of the ladder she found.
With a quiet prayer, she heaved herself up the rungs.
If it didn’t go the whole height of the building, she was going to settle as high as she could and be as still as possible, then hope they didn’t look up.
If the ladder went all the way to the roof, she’d have to be careful that the pilots from the helicopter didn’t spot her. It continued to hover at the end of the alleyway she had originally traipsed down, with its spotlight still trained on the mouth of the alleyway below it.
With slow movements, she developed a rhythm going up the ladder. Grasp a rung, settle her weight, lift a foot, feel for the rung, settle her weight, lift the other foot, reach for the next rung, probe in the dark, grasp at it, settle on it. Then lift each appendage in a probing, grasping, and settling her weight before moving another body part.
She slipped a little when the men started moving down her alleyway, their flashlights sweeping the area.
She reached the top of the building when the men were only a few feet from her. She waited to climb up and over until they were directly underneath or past her ladder so they wouldn’t see her silhouette.
She heard their murmurings, but not exactly what the topic of conversation was.
When they were just past her little secret ladder, she straightened and heaved herself over the roof. She quietly lifted her legs over the lip, she settled on the roof, and tiptoed over and across the roof.
She heard radio static, then froze when she heard one of the men below speak.
“Uhm, Your Majesty, one of the pilots said they can see the shadow of someone on the roof of the building next to us.”
Ada didn’t wait to hear what ‘His Majesty’ had to say in response to being informed she was on the roof.
She took off running.
She heard footsteps running below.
When she reached the edge of the building, she was hoping it wasn’t the dark playing a trick on her, but the next building looked close enough to jump to.
It was.
She leaped.
She landed in a huff, and her legs buckled under her and she rolled. She popped up on her feet and took off running again.
The spotlight of the helicopter swung towards her.
She brought up her arm to shade her face as the light blinded her.
She could’ve sworn she heard footsteps and men’s voices behind her.
She leapt across to another building, land, then roll then pop back up again.
She did the same to the next building. Roll, then pop back up.
But on this roof top, she saw a door.
She ran to the door, with the full force of her running propelling her, she slammed into it with a 'thud'.
She grasped the handle and in her desperation shoved her whole weight down on it. The door popped open.
She sobbed in relief, pulled the door open, slipped in and swung it shut behind her.
It was one of those doors with a push bar across the whole door. She looked around quickly, grabbed a shovel leaning against the wall. She quickly shoved the tool down between the bar, door, and wall. The men would be able to break it in forcing the door open, but it would slow them down.
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