Stuart MacBride - Shatter the Bones

He looked at her. ‘Fire engine’s on its way.’

‘Do the math — how long’s it going to take them to get here?’

‘Five, ten minutes maybe?’

‘And set up the ladders, and get everything sorted. And we’re round the back — how are they going to get a fire engine anywhere near us?’

He risked another glance at the steadily lowering layer of smoke. Three feet from the floor and still falling. ‘We’re fucked, aren’t we?’

‘Probably.’ Samantha crawled over to their makeshift barricade and pulled three of the drawers out. Then dragged them over to her pile of clothes by the window.

Logan hung up on the emergency services woman. Then scrabbled over.

A loud bang and a crash sounded from somewhere on the other side of the bedroom door. The TV exploding, or something like that.

She grabbed him by the neck, hauled him close and kissed him. She tasted of charred plastic and ozone. ‘You still owe me dinner — so no getting killed, understand?’

‘You ready?’

‘No. You?’

‘Nope.’ He grabbed the windowsill and hauled himself up to a crouch. Reached through the smoke for the security catch and snibbed it open. Then hauled. The window creaked, then juddered open. Ancient wood and layers of paint squealing in protest.

It was like switching on a vacuum cleaner — the difference in air temperature hurling smoke out into the night. Outside the bedroom door, the crackle of flames built to a roar: the updraft feeding the blaze.

Samantha popped up beside him and stared down. ‘Oh … shite.’

That was the trouble with living in a top-floor flat, the ground was a long, long way down. Three storeys of vertical granite, and then the flat roof of the building behind.

She ducked back down and hurled her ball gown and corsets out of the window.

Logan looked from side to side — maybe they could climb onto the roof? Haul themselves up on the guttering. He reached up and gave it a tug.

A chunk of rusty black came away in his hand. Samantha’s boots went spiralling to the flat roof far below, followed by the contents of all three drawers. Pants, bras, and stripy stockings, drifting down like lacy snow.

She coughed, wiped a hand across her soot-covered face, leaving a slightly cleaner patch. ‘You want me to go first?’

‘Where? There’s nowhere to go.’

‘Fine. You can follow me.’ Samantha bit her bottom lip. Took a deep breath. Coughed. Then eased a leg out over the windowsill, keeping hunched down so she was beneath the level of the whirling smoke.

Logan grabbed her. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

‘Downpipe. We get to the one from the kitchen and we can climb down.’

‘You’re fucking mad !’

She nodded back towards the bedroom door. Flames were licking through the gap around the eviscerated chest of drawers. ‘You want to stay and take your chances?’

No he didn’t. ‘Hold on…’

Logan hauled the duvet off the bed. Sweat dripped from his forehead, he could feel it trickling down his back as well. He wrestled the fitted sheet from the mattress’s grip, then twisted it up into a loose rope. ‘Tie this around you.’

‘It’s not long enough, how am I supposed to-’

‘In case you slip on the way to the bloody pipe. Just do what you’re sodding told for once.’

‘Your face is a mess, by the way.’ She took the end of the sheet and twisted it around her wrist.

‘Right…’ Samantha eased her bum from the windowsill, lowering herself down onto her elbows, then down again until her arms were wrapped around the granite ledge.

Logan braced himself against the wall, knotting both hands into the sheet, holding tight. It was crappy climbing technique, but the thing was too short for anything else.

The heat was getting worse, the air thick and choking.

She looked up at him. ‘You let me go, and I’ll kill you.’ Then she started edging her way along, making for the cast-iron downpipe that ran from the kitchen down to … whatever the hell it drained into.

A siren wailed in the distance, getting closer. At least that was something.

‘Fuck…’ A lurch and Samantha let go of the ledge with her left hand, reaching out for the black pipe.

Please let it be in better condition than the guttering…

She grabbed it, wobbled for a moment, then stared up into his eyes. Licked her soot-blackened lips. ‘Don’t drop me.’

Logan tried for a smile. ‘I won’t.’

A nod, then she let go of the window ledge.

And didn’t fall to her death. Oh thank God. ‘Fuck this is high up.’ Samantha eased herself down about a foot. Then another, until the fitted sheet was stretched tight. ‘Let go.’

‘No.’

‘Don’t be a dick, you have to let go, or I can’t go any further.’ She was right.

He tossed the end out of the window. It dangled from her arm, stirring back and forward in the updraft — cool air dragged up the side of the building by the heat of the fire. Right. He could do this. No problem. Just ease out onto the ledge. No need to rush. All the time in the world.

This was stupid.

Stay in the flat. Stay put and wait for the fire brigade. Logan glanced back over his shoulder. The smoke was even thicker, and flames weren’t just licking around the edges of the chest of drawers, they were eating it. A groan, then the bedroom door shuddered as something crashed against it.

The ceiling was caving in.

Oh God…

He clutched at the edge of the window, swung his legs out over the void. Three storeys straight down to a flat roof. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He reached out with his left leg, feeling for the downpipe.

Above his head the smoke was shot through with shards of flame. The roar of the fire nearly deafening.

He lowered himself down, armpits level with the sill, battered right arm aching, the scars in his left palm throbbing, the ones across his stomach stretched and taut. Where the hell was the bloody pipe?

Samantha had managed it, and she was a good six inches shorter than he was!

Her voice blared through the fire’s din. ‘Left, you idiot!’ Clunk. His shoe touched something. OK — good, fine — he could do this.

No he couldn’t. ‘WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?’

‘There’s a wee ledge, about six inches below your left foot.’ Jesus, fuck, Jesus, fuck, Jesus, fuck…

He could feel it. Little more than an inch wide. A minimalist decorative feature on the backside of a tenement building. Now all he had to do was let go with his left hand, and grab the pipe. Just like Samantha had. No problem. Easy.

‘Don’t just bloody hang there!’

OK, deep breath. Three storeys wasn’t that high. Not really. Just about forty, maybe fifty feet. Shite.

He shoogled over as far as he could and reached out with his left hand. Arm flailing about in the air. And then he grabbed the pipe.

Oh thank God.

Now all he had to do was let go with his other hand. Five, four, three-

A crash sounded in the room, the smoke swirling above him.

Logan let go of the ledge and snatched at the downpipe, holding on tight, face ground into the rough granite surface of the wall.

Not dead.

Something went BOOM and the kitchen window exploded outwards, showering him with shards of glass. A gout of flame billowed out into the night.

He looked down. Samantha was about four feet below him, edging her way down, using the brackets that fixed the pipe to the wall as hand and footholds. It was all OK. They’d made it. Just a bit of a clamber and they’d be safe.

Logan’s vision clouded. He blinked, feeling warm tears seeping down his cheeks.

Don’t let go.

He inched down a little, feeling for the next bracket. Everything was OK.

He looked down. Just in time to see Samantha looking up at him. She smiled, her filthy face streaked with clear trails. At least he wasn’t the only one.