“Rook,” I growled, my eyes on the doors which were now submerged. Our only way out already looking less and less likely to work, though I refused to just give in and die down here like a bunch of worms caught in a can.
“I know. But Small Willy Norman has to die. He’s on my list.” She pointed at the snitch who whirled towards us at her words, his eyes wild and full of fear, his lank brown hair falling forward to shroud his features and I reluctantly released her as she pushed out of my hold.
“Stay away from me,” he hissed, watching her as she stalked closer like we weren’t just moments away from our doom and this vendetta meant a whole lot more to her than her impending death.
“I’ll stay away from your gross little corpse,” she replied, climbing up onto one of the benches and moving towards him where he still perched on the back of his as if we weren’t all about to drown and the rest of the people onboard this thing weren’t either trying to break out of here or sobbing uncontrollably. “I’ll stay away from your little wet willy.”
“I’m warning you,” Norman growled, pointing a finger at her as she hopped from the back of her bench to the next and I remained where I was, my gaze roaming over everything that surrounded us as I worked to figure out what I needed to do to get out of this.
The guard’s blood coloured the already mud brown water while Cannibal Carol still crouched over him up on a bench like a vampire Gollum guarding her precious, making it clear enough to me that he was dead and no longer able to offer his help.
I turned my attention from that particular form of carnage, eyeing the convicts who were still trying to force the submerged doors open instead. They hadn’t gotten anywhere yet, but they were all smaller than me, weaker, likely unable to do anything close to what I could manage and so far as I could tell, that was the only viable exit.
“I’m gonna cut you up with these keys,” Brooklyn hissed as she hopped onto another bench, threading the keys between her fingers and curling her hand into a fist while Norman scrambled along his bench to maintain his distance from her. “I’m gonna stab you with the blunt end and the sharp end, and I don’t care if it takes all night for you to die because I’ll enjoy every last second of your-”
Norman tried to leap across the aisle before me and my hand snapped out, catching him around the throat and making him scream in alarm as I moved my other hand to the side of his head.
“I never snitched on you, Jack,” he pleaded as he met my eyes and began to quiver. “Never you.”
“You ratted me out and got me sent to Lucille more times than I can count, you small willied, tiny penis man,” Brooklyn growled and I cocked my head to one side, letting him see the utter emptiness in me as I held his life in my hands. Perhaps he had been too afraid to turn snitch on me, but he should have been paying more attention while he was running in fright from my shadow. Maybe then he would have seen the way I watched the girl beside us. Maybe then he could have anticipated what I might wish to do to anyone who caused her harm. Maybe then he would have seen this fate coming for him and made a different choice.
“Rook,” I said simply, watching that terror spark in his gaze and drinking it in a moment before I snapped his neck and dropped him to the floor like the garbage he was.
“Wow,” Brooklyn breathed, moving to perch on the edge of the bench right beside me, her hand reaching out to brush against my arm as she admired my work and my gaze roamed over her hungrily as the feeling of her fingers against my skin awakened something in me which I’d been forced to repress for far too long. “You just killed him with your bare hands, AJ. You’re like a whole mood, aren’t you? All dark and destroying and shit.”
She bit her lip and I looked at her mouth, taking in her words as the water rose all around us and death whispered our names as it promised to come for us.
But I could hear the call of freedom all the louder after my kill and that was the mistress I was seeking tonight, my pulse thumping to a rhythm that demanded it.
The prisoners who were still locked in their seats were screaming and begging for help and I turned to them, grabbing the set of keys which Brooklyn still held and unlocking the closest prisoner without caring who they were.
“You want to help them all?” Brooklyn asked, giving me the doe eyes like I was some kind of hero, but I just grunted.
No. I didn’t want to help them all. I wanted the distraction to help us escape. Most of these men and women were even more thoroughly cracked in the head than I was. They wouldn’t be able to run with any real success. But they sure would keep the cops busy rounding them up while I played the smart game and got the fuck outa Dodge with my free flying bird.
The rear of the bus was slowly sinking towards the riverbed now, the water rushing up around my waist as it levelled out, the passengers in their seats forced to crane their necks to still draw in breath while I worked my way between them, releasing them all and ripping their straitjackets open too so that they could swim. I wanted the entire area surrounding this place swarming with psychopaths and hellions, their screams of excitement filling the air as they ran for freedom and buying us the time we needed to get the fuck away from here.
I made quick work of releasing them, baring my teeth at anyone who got too close to me or Brooklyn once they were free before turning toward the doors at the far end of the bus.
“Angry?” Brooklyn called out as I stalked away from her and I paused, turning my head to look back as the water rose up to my chest, the benches all submerged now and chaos unfolding all around us as the panicked prisoners realised that they really were about to die. “I can’t really do the whole swimming thing,” she breathed, still standing up on the bench and looking at the water like it had personally offended her sweet old grandma.
I grunted, turning my back on her once more but pausing, the offer there if she wanted it and barely a second later, she hopped onto my back, her arms and legs winding around me as she clung on tight and that smile tugging at the corner of my lips once more.
“I’ll pay you back in cheesecake,” she whispered into my ear. “You look like a cheesecake kind of guy.”
I grunted again, stalking forward and shoving my way between the rest of the passengers who were still trying to break the doors open. I didn’t want cheesecake. I had all I needed right here.
I grabbed hold of the railings either side of the door and braced myself using them, pivoting so that I could use all of my strength in the blow before slamming my foot into the double doors.
They rattled wildly, parting an inch and letting water rush in for a moment before slamming closed once more and I snarled as I braced myself to kick them again.
“Oh, there’s a thingy up here which says ‘door release’ should I try that?” Brooklyn asked and I tipped my head back, squinting in the dim light as she wrapped her fingers around the red handle and yanked hard.
The doors burst open and water rushed in so fast that I was almost knocked on my ass, my grip on the railings firming as I fought the current and Brooklyn tightened her hold on me as she fought to cling on.
I sucked in a breath just before the last of the air was snatched away and the moment the onslaught of water eased, I kicked off of the steps I’d been standing on and propelled us out into the river with a whole host of criminally unhinged deviants scrambling to follow.
I began to swim, more prisoners forcing their way out all around us and crashing into me as they fought to claim their freedom in the icy embrace of the river too and I ground my teeth in determination as I began to swim for the surface.