Scott Wittenburg - See Tom Run

Tom could see two pairs of feet from his vantage point under the table. Where was the third set? he wondered. Please don’t tell me that one of these cutthroats is still outside in the lobby! If that were the case, he didn’t have an ice cube’s chance in Hades of A shot suddenly fired out. It sounded like a cannon going off.

“Frick an a, Tommy! You’d best be giving yourself up this very moment or you are going to regret it! I’m going to make it a point to yank off each and every one of these bloody tablecloths until I find you. Then, I shall proceed to make you a very, very sorry bloke!”

There was a short pause.

“Okay, mates, let’s do it!” Chappy cried, followed by cheers and the shuffling of feet.

Mates, he had said, as in plural!

Tom peeled his eyes to locate all three pairs of feet. A second later, he saw the third set walk directly past him toward the far side of the room. He held his breath and paused a moment, then quietly backed his way out from under the table.

After he had cleared the tablecloth and found himself out in the open, Tom glanced around and saw Chappy working the tables toward the far end, Bummer to his left and Hoops immediately behind him. All three were yanking the tablecloths off the tables with a flourish, like aspiring magicians. Miraculously, none of them had yet spotted him nor were any of them facing his way at that particular moment.

Tom hunched forward as far as he could and hurried toward the doors on his knees.

“I’m gonna get you, Tom-Boy!” he heard Hoops cry from behind. With his heart in his throat, Tom stood up and ran toward the doors as quickly as his legs would carry him. He reached the entrance, shoved one of the doors open with his shoulder, slipped through and turned his back against the doors. He heard Hoops holler “he’s escaped!” as he fumbled anxiously with the dead bolt, trying desperately to slide it home. Finally, he heard a metallic clack as he managed to lock the door.

One to go He fumbled with the other bolt as he heard the boys running toward the entrance. He was able to slide the bolt home an instant before he felt the weight of the door smash against his back.

“Open this door, motherfucker!” Chappy snarled from the other side. A shot rang out and Tom saw the hole where the slug had torn through about an inch from the handle.

Tom sidestepped the doors and ran across the lobby toward the Park Avenue entrance, spotted a ring of keys lying on a table between a Heinekin and a plate of French fries, managed to snatch them up just as he heard two more shots ring out.

They were going to shoot their way through that door any second He needed to make a quick decision: either bolt out onto the street and run as far away from these crazy shits as earthly possible or stay in the hotel and likely become a piece of dead meat. The decision was a no-brainer. Erin was somewhere in here and he had to find her.

He wondered if the elevators were working. Then he recalled Chappy’s words: “practically everything in this place is fully functional.” He could only hope that included the elevators.

Tom sprinted across the lobby to the bank of elevators, pressed the “up” button with his elbow and held his breath. The door slid open with a quiet whoosh.

Awesome! he thought.

He hopped in, pushed the button for the fifteenth floor for no particular reason except that it seemed far away from where he stood now, located the ‘close door’ button and pressed it repeatedly. He heard another gunshot come from the lobby and the muffled sound of running madmen through the door as it closed.

Tom nervously watched the floor indicator panel as the car ascended. The elevator slowed down and stopped at the fifteenth floor, the doors slid open and he bolted out into total darkness.

Perhaps not such a good choice, he thought to himself. Were the lights off on all of the upper floors or had he just happened to choose the only one that was?

No time to ponder-he caught the door before it closed and re-entered the elevator.

The odds of the power being on were probably greater near the lobby, he theorized. Although he didn’t really want to go back toward the pursuing posse, he knew he was going to have to chance it. Besides, he wasn’t even sure if these bad boys were still in the hotel at the moment. They may have thought he fled outside instead-in fact, that was most likely the case. After all, they didn’t know that he knew Kyle and Erin-so there was no reason for him to stay in the hotel as far as they were concerned. They would assume that he had fled the same way he had come in: via Park Avenue.

Of course! he thought. Right now was his best shot at finding Erin while they were out looking for his ass.

He pressed the button for the fifth floor. He would try it and then work his way down. Erin would most likely be on one of the lower floors.

The doors closed and the elevator plummeted at a fairly good clip. When it reached the fifth floor, Tom crossed his fingers as the door opened.

The floor was lit up like a Christmas tree!

He stepped out and looked in either direction, noting that the floor consisted of numbered guest rooms as far as he could see. He went to the nearest room and turned the knob. Locked. He glanced at the ring of keys in his hand, wondering if there was a master key to the rooms or a key to the handcuffs.

He stepped over to one of the chairs sitting near the elevator, turned around and dropped the keys onto it. He searched for a small key that might be the one for the cuffs. Most of the dozen or so keys were of average size and appeared to be door keys. There was also a GM car key-perhaps the one for the hearse.

Tom spotted a tiny brass key that looked like it could be the one he sought. Excitedly, he picked up the key ring, went over to a mirror and began the arduous task of trying to slip the key into the tiny hole of the cuff. Sweating profusely, he eventually managed to get the key into the hole and nearly snapped his wrist fumbling around trying to get the key to rotate inside the hole. Five minutes later, he heard a crisp click as the manacle sprang away from his left wrist, freeing his hand.

A victorious smile came to Tom’s face as he brought his hands around and unlocked the other cuff.

He’d done it, by god!

Tom picked up the keys, chose one randomly and tried it in one of the guest room doors. The key went in but wouldn’t turn. What he needed to do now was find the room holding Erin captive and worry about the keys later.

The problem was that she could be anywhere in this huge hotel and there was really no way to know where to start. He would just have to give it his best shot and pray for a miracle before Chappy and his entourage returned to the Waldorf.

He quickly worked his way down the corridor, knocking on each door and listening for a sound. Then he advanced to the adjacent hallway and repeated the process until he’d covered nearly the entire fifth floor. When he suddenly heard a sound coming from the direction of the elevators, he froze where he stood and then quietly backtracked toward the direction of the sound. He arrived at the end of the hallway and cautiously peeked around the corner.

At first, he didn’t see anything. Then suddenly, he saw the door to the stairway open and someone stepped out into the hallway.

It was Bummer!

Tom thought Bummer had spotted him so he ran down the corridor, thankful that it was carpeted. He could only pray that Bummer wasn’t headed toward him because if that were the case, he was a goner. The corridor dead-ended and he would have no time to get inside any of the rooms.

He heard Bummer running down the hall toward him and started looking around for a possible escape route. There was nothing. Bummer would be rounding the corner any second.