Echoes (10 page)

With a smile, he lifted his foot waist high and stomped on the same knee.

A scream escaped me as my frantic hands grabbed at the damaged joint, the agony causing my vision to blur. Leaning over, he grabbed both sides of my ripped uniform and pulled me up until we were face to face.

"No smartass remarks, tough guy? Nothing funny to say?"

"Let me show you what I think of your sissy kicks," I said with a bloody smile. Then I jammed the dirty fork in his neck.

Rearing back, he clutched at the utensil, his face not showing an ounce of pain.

If I didn't get some distance between the two of us, he was going to break every bone in my body. Throughout the years I'd become fond of my bones, so that didn't seem like a good option.

Pushing myself up on my good leg, I hobbled in the direction of the elevator. Chancing a peek over my shoulder, I saw him pull the fork out and throw it against the wall. I must have missed his carotid artery as the blood wasn't flowing as I'd hoped.

"You may want to swab that with alcohol; I wasn't able to sterilize it first," I called back as blood spilled down my chin.

Ten feet from the elevator, I heard the ding signifying it stopped on our floor. Fighting through the stiffness in my knee, I continued forward as the doors opened. A portly man stood in the corner, his mouth dropping open when he saw me.

"Officer, are you all right?"

Chuck tackled me from behind, driving us into the elevator. My face smashed into the railing midway up the wall. Blood poured into my mouth as my teeth dug into my cheek. Chuck grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my forehead into the control panel, my nose mangling on the lobby button. I fought against unconsciousness as my body slid into a seated position.

While the doors to the elevator closed, the chubby man grabbed Chuck's shoulders, trying to pull him off me. I wanted to warn him against it, but my mouth couldn't form the words. The help was short-lived, as he took a ridge hand chop to his throat. Falling into the back corner opposite of me, his huge eyes rolled around wildly as he clawed at his busted throat.

When Chuck turned back to me I connected with an Ash Benson Special Delivery. A slight grimace was all the reaction he gave me.

"What are you, a eunuch?" I slurred as I tried to spit the taste of copper from my mouth.

The blows started hammering down at a furious rate. Some connected with the top of my head and forearms as I tried to protect myself; others crunched my eyes and nose as I slumped to the floor. Blood streamed down my esophagus, making breathing difficult.

Chuck reached down and grabbed my throat with his right hand, isolating the rest of my air supply. He pulled his left hand back, preparing for a devastating punch.

Catching hold of his wrist with both hands, I pulled him forward while kicking my right leg over his shoulder and encircling my knee around his head and arm. Wrapping my left knee over my right ankle, I completed a triangle choke. Despite the misery that was my knee I squeezed with all that I had, cutting off the blood supply to his brain.

Reaching around with his free arm, he grabbed onto his trapped hand and lifted me off the ground. The amount of strength required to do that to a man my size is mind boggling, yet he did it with relative ease. I knew what was coming and tried to brace for the impact. With his remaining strength, he power bombed me onto the floor, my shoulders and back taking most of the collision. The elevator bounced up and down from the contact.

For what felt like the fiftieth time in the last two days, I had the wind knocked out of me. I had the abnormal feeling of something shifting inside. Whatever it was made the agony of breathing even worse. Despite my body breaking down I squeezed my legs even tighter, locking the hold in.

He banged on my thighs, trying to get me to release the choke. The ferocity of his punches lessened with each passing second. Tension ebbed from his muscles as he slipped into oblivion. Though his body crumbled, I kept the hold locked in for several seconds more, making sure he was out. The smart thing to do would be killing him, but I didn't have it in me to murder an unconscious man.

When I tried to release him, my injured knee didn't want to cooperate and I had to pull it straight with my hands. I thought about standing, realized that wasn't going to happen, and decided to just lie there and wallow in misery. The choking sounds coming from the good Samaritan had abated a little as he seemed to be able to breathe. It looked like his trachea hadn't collapsed.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the main lobby. Four or five people stood by the doors, staring in at the bloody bodies strewn on the floor.

"Going up?" I asked.

No one moved.

"Someone call 911. I've got a couple of boo-boos."

Everyone pulled out their cell phones at the same time, but only two of them made a call. Three others started snapping pictures of us. This would be all over the news soon. Someone would probably be making fun of me on the FAIL blog within twenty minutes.

I grabbed onto the railing and struggled to pull myself to my feet. Beyond the onlookers I could see Nami and Sammy standing by the lobby doors, looking back at me.

"Ash!" Sammy yelled. They both ran towards me, Nami trailing behind because of her short stride.

Is this guy a cop?

Those dudes are messed up!

Why is he dressed like a male stripper?

Look at the fun bags on her!

Voices burst through my mental defenses and started flooding my mind. The punishment I just received had weakened me so much that I couldn't stop them from coming through. There were so many people in the hotel that the echoes overpowered me. The throbbing in my head increased until it felt like it might explode. My eyes lost focus as I swayed on my good leg.

This is the worst selection of hotel porn I've ever seen.

Nice view we have here, right into a brick wall.

It's ok to drink rum and diet coke because it has no carbs, right?

I bit down hard on my tongue, hoping the pain would give me something to concentrate on. It worked, a little. The debilitating effect abated a little as the voices dampened.

Nami and Sammy stopped when they were close enough to see the damage Chuck had done to me. Sammy put a hand to her face, covering her gaping mouth.

"Dude, you look like the Elephant Man." Nami looked down at Chuck. "You won? Maybe you aren't such a bitch after all."

"Thanks, Norma." I reached a hand up to Sammy. "My knee is wrecked. Can you give me some help walking out of here?"

"This is so gross," she said as she carefully stepped over Chuck's body. She put my left arm over her shoulders and took some of the weight off my battered leg. My hand brushed against her boob as I shifted my stance, but the horrible aches in my body didn't allow me to enjoy it.

A swarm of thoughts threw me off balance, almost pulling both of us over. I pressed my free hand against my forehead, fighting to keep my mind clear.

"What is it, Ash?" Sammy asked.

"We need to get out of here. I'm losing control of my ability. I can't block out what people are thinking."

As we moved from the elevator I turned my head to the biggest guy standing by the doors and told him to find some zip ties or rope.

"He'll be waking up shortly and you'll want him to be restrained until the police show up."

We didn't wait for a response as we shuffled through the lobby. No one tried to stop us, or offer assistance. The receptionist standing behind the counter looked back and forth from us to the elevator, too afraid to say anything. Her fear pulsed through me, making it even harder for me to walk despite Sammy's help. I tried to block it out, but couldn't muster the strength.

The sounds of sirens drifted closer as we pushed our way through the double doors and into the parking lot. Sammy dragged me along as best she could. What little strength I had left was evaporating as I fought against the deluge of voices pressing against me.

Nami waited at the edge of the parking lot. "Would you guys hurry up?"

"Nirvana, see if you can get us a car or a cab or something. We can't be here when the cops arrive. If they stop us, the world is going to go to hell really fast."

"Call me by my real name, damn it! What do you mean the world is going to shit if we get arrested?" she asked as she pulled her backpack off and held it in front of her.

I needed to explain everything I'd seen in Chuck's memories, but now wasn't the time.

"Get us out of here and I'll explain on the way."

"Fine, boss around the small one."

She turned and walked to a silver Ford Explorer that was parked in the fire lane, the engine still running. The top of her head didn't even come close to reaching the bottom of the window. A balding man with rosy cheeks sat in the car, waiting for someone to come out of the hotel. He smiled when he saw her approaching.

Nami put on her best pouty expression, thrusting her lower lip out. She held her bag up to her chin, her left hand inside it. With her getup and stature she looked all over ten years old.

"I can't find my mommy or daddy!" she cried.

"It's okay, little girl, we'll find them. Where did you lose them? What about their phone, do you know that?" He looked down at the passenger seat, looking for his phone.

As he turned away, Nami lowered her hands and pulled out the Desert Eagle she had taken from Chuck. It looked like a howitzer in her tiny grip as she pointed it in the window.

"Out of the car, poop dick," she said. Her voice, still tiny and high pitched, had lost its desperate tone.

"What did you say—" he said as he turned back to her. The color drained out of his cheeks when he saw the gun. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"I'm a government agent and I'm confiscating your shit. Get out."

His eyes darted back and forth from the gun to Nami, the confusion evident on his face.

"I don't think that's a real gun," he said.

Pulling the slide back was her answer. It looked like it took all of her strength to do it.

His eyes followed the bullet that ejected from the chamber and watched it fall to the ground. The confusion on his face turned to panic while he bumbled at the door handle. Scrambling out of the car, he walked backward with his hands up, never taking his gaze off the gun. When he got a dozen feet or so away, he turned and ran for the lobby.

Nami looked back at us with a huge grin on her face. "Too easy."

"You're a little badass!" Sammy said with genuine surprise on her face.

"Fucking A."

After helping me into the passenger seat, Sammy ran around to the driver's side. Nami climbed into the back.

"Where are we going?" Sammy asked.

"Go right on Fifty west. Fast," I said. "Drive like my life depends on it, because it probably does."

"Sweet, there's a iPhone back here. I'm going to see what's on the wire."

The tires squealed as we slid onto the road, already doing thirty-five miles per hour. In the side mirror I could see the first ambulance turning into the hotel parking lot.

Pulling down the sun visor, I looked at myself in the vanity mirror. I was messed up. Blood ran out of just about every orifice on my body and started to dry. My left eye was swelling up and my nose had a new bend in it. A long, shallow cut ran across my cheek where it hit the railing. I ran my tongue over my bloody teeth, trying to see if any of them were loose. Everything seemed sturdy enough.