CHAPTER 17
When I talked to her earlier, I noticed she’d been wearing new shoes that I hadn’t seen before.
“Light! We need light!” I shouted.
“Shhh!” Someone said, I think it was Tommy. His hand was over my mouth in an instant.
I realized what I’d done as we heard the first footsteps fall directly above our heads.
“We’ve got to move!” Tommy whisper-yelled.
“Help me carry her,” another voice said. The voice of a man who I’d finally figured out I’d met only that night. Annie’s date.
They hoisted her up together and she let out a little cry. There was no doubt anymore. The woman who’d been shot, whose breath was so very, very ragged, was my very best friend in the whole world.
“Annie I’m here,” I whispered, trying to find her hand, but the men had already started down the tunnel.
I followed numbly, tears falling down my face, though I didn’t feel a sting in my eyes, only the wetness that followed, running down my cheeks. I gulped for air. There were no lights in this section of the tunnel. Judging from the fresh scent of earth, I guessed they hadn’t gotten around to putting the lights in for this newly dug section yet. The walls were closing in on me and my head would not stop spinning, even for a second. Stumbling, we slowly—painfully slowly—made our way down the tunnel. We’d never get Annie the help she needed at this rate.
“Hurry up!” I urged, even though the men were going as fast as they could with the added weight and awkwardness of carrying an injured person.
The rest of the people who’d been hiding behind the bar with us were long gone, happy to get out of the dire situation we were in. It was down to me, Annie, Tommy the bartender and Annie’s date whose name I could not seem to remember. Maybe I never knew.
“Stop,” Annie said weakly. “Please stop. I can’t go on.”
But the men didn’t listen. We were finally coming close to a light, which meant we would soon be out of the new section of tunnel and into the old. There was a good chance that another speakeasy or perhaps one of the other gangster hideouts would be nearby. Unfortunately, Tommy did not seem to know his way around, and Annie’s guy wasn’t even one of the wise guys. I let out an ironic laugh thinking that, out of all of us, I might be the one who had the most experience in these stupid tunnels.
And I had absolutely no idea where we were.
Shouting came from behind us. The police must have discovered the secret door.
So. The tunnels would be a secret no more.
“Please. Please stop. Just for a moment.” It was Annie again.
I shivered. I’d never heard my exuberant best friend’s voice so weak and fragile. There had never been anything fragile about Annie. Physically, she was all woman, but was as bold as any man, and just as strong inside. I guess I’d always thought she was invincible.
Silly girl.
It was no use. The guys were still struggling with Annie and I could hear the police gaining on us as we turned a corner to another arm of the tunnel. My tears came furiously and Annie sounded worse than ever. The choking noises had settled into a sort of wheezing. No. More animalistic. Like a scared, gurgling growl.
I couldn’t stop myself from sobbing now, the tears making my vision blurry, my cries only drawing attention from the boys in blue behind us. I stumbled along, even falling once on the uneven ground. Pain seared through my leg, my knee twisting violently. Tommy reached back with one hand, keeping hold of Annie’s feet with the other, and helped me up. “Come on there miss, we’re almost there.”
There?
Where was there?
My heart beat faster. Maybe, just maybe, if we could get Annie out of here, she’d have a chance. I was almost to the point where I wanted to run to the police and have them help—getting caught was hardly an issue anymore—if only I could trust them not to keep shooting. As it was, I was afraid the second they saw us it would be a massacre.
But Tommy’s words had given me hope. “Hang in there Annie,” I said, rushing forward to help carry.
My stupid heels kept me stumbling though, and I seemed to be slowing us down even more. Finally I gave up and just tried my best to keep as close as I could.
The voices from behind were getting louder. Soon they would be on us and the whole world would come to an end. At least that’s the only thing I could imagine. I couldn’t get any further into the future with my thoughts. I just needed to get Annie safe and somehow get us out of this mess. That’s all that mattered.
Closer. Louder. I could make out actual words of the policemen now, who had to be mere seconds from turning the corner into our arm of the tunnel. We were trapped. It was over. I melted to the ground. There would be no going home to the Mayor’s house, no more Emily to save from Mom and Dad. There would be no Frankie. And now, it was looking very likely that there would be no Annie.
What else is there?
A few feet away, Tommy and Annie’s date had stopped and laid Annie gently on the floor of the tunnel. I crawled over to them, kneeling beside my oldest friend.
“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay,” I said.
Because that’s what you’re supposed to say, even if you don’t believe it.
She let out a sad little laugh. “No it won’t be,” she said, “but thanks.”
Tears started streaming down my face again as I looked at her.
Everything went quiet as if I were in a dream.
She’d looked so beautiful all dolled up, the white of her sweater like a blank canvas. But the crimson spreading now was anything but art. A stain of impending death. I plunged my hand over the bullet hole, knowing I might be doing more harm than good.
Somewhere behind me a noise registered. Knocking.
I peered down the narrow passage where the shadows of the men chasing us bobbed in the dimness of the underground maze. Suddenly, a stream of light seared into the tunnel. A door, as if from nowhere, creaked open behind me, making the blurry shadows of our followers disappear, but only for a second, as the real men came into view almost immediately.
Blinking through the harsh light, I looked back down at my friend, her blood sticky in my hands. She looked back at me and sighed, smiling. “With that light behind you, you look like an angel.”
And then her eyes fluttered closed, her head drooping lifelessly away from me.
The chaos started. Someone yelling, “We’re gonna get pinched!” Pushing from every direction. Someone else screaming. The same word over and over. A name. Her name.
Only later—after a pair of arms, inhumanly strong, reached around and yanked me away, forcing me to abandon my friend—did I realize those screams had been my own.