[Nell]: 226.Stories.The Chase

This is story is dedicated to my Dad. I was inspired by The Chase contest. Unfortunately it ended in January, but I made my own anyways. It had to have a chase scene (duh) and a ladder.

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   I darted down the corridor and yanked on the door handle that led to the stairway. The door wouldn't open. I had already lost so much time trying the elevator (she'd shut it down) and now this! I pulled harder (damn it's heavy!) and slowly it began to ooze open, a fraction at a time. But then I heard her, coming down the hallway (click-click-click-click), so I left the door and ran over to the window.
  
   I was five stories up, in one of those tall smooth buildings, without any convenient ledges for me to use as an escape. No scaffolding or happenstance window cleaners either. (CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK) I threw open the window anyways and swung my leg over the sill. I still wasn't entirely sure what the hell I was doing, but I did know that if she caught me it wouldn't matter which way I went (and I don't mean direction). I lowered myself until only my fingers were between me and a very, very long drop. I prayed she'd be fooled by the closing door.
  
   Suddenly she loomed out of the window, glaring down at me with her bright red positronic eyes. Her huge gun was loaded with a charge that could take out me and part of the scenery.
  
   I think it was fright that made me let go; or maybe it was pure, blind instinct (which is what I like to think). Next thing I knew I was speeding away from her face at a frightening rate, but even more frightening was the charge that she sent after me.
  
   I tumbled through the air, head-over-heels-over-head. I couldn't have grabbed at the windows flashing past me if I'd wanted to. The charge drew closer, the ground drew closer, I wondered briefly which would kill me first. I hoped that I'd wake up from a dream or some virtual game (as I'd been hoping all afternoon). I did not.
  
   It was the charge that saved me, that and my clumsy fall. It hurtled past my body with inches to spare. Then it hit the earth and exploded. (KABOOM)
  
   It was the most unbelievable thing that had ever happened to me (besides finding out that my car keys were still in my pocket later). A sound like a million teenagers' radios hit first, and then a blast of air punched me back into the sky. It rocked my five senses until I thought I'd turned deaf, dumb and blind. A heat licked viciously at my body, so intense that it reminded me of the inferno of a Monday-morning office catastrophe (Elise had forgot to order more printing paper) only the office was located in the pits of Hell.
  
   I slammed against something hard, but not hard enough to be concrete. My left arm shattered and my ankle twisted painfully. Through the agony that gripped me like a terrier and made my eyes blur with tears, I raised my head to see what had happened.
  
   I had landed on the roof of the little coffee shop across the street, which I had visited only that morning, before the nightmare began. Across the way, I could make out the remnants of what had been the street and front section of my office building. The concrete had turned into a crater, the face of the building had buckled, and cars surrounding the area were bent and mangled. One had flown over the rest and now lay on its back (like a beetle a kid might have flipped over). Car alarms were going off, and shattered glass lay all around.
  
   I turned onto my back, careful of my arm, and I could have sworn I saw the metallic gleam of her head some five stories up.
  
   Five stories.
  
   I yelled! I hooted! Adrenaline was pumping through my blood as thick and fast as black coffee with extra sugar. I was alive!
  
   I made my way over to the edge of the roof. That ladder was still there from this morning (Coleman had been retouching the shop sign). I managed to hop/slide my way down. A crowd of people was beginning to gather around the site, wandering over from the various office buildings and shops. I was glad that no one had been hurt; grateful for once of the new law stating that you weren't allowed to leave the office, after lunch, until 5pm. Who'd have thought it would actually be of use.
  
   I limped my way over to where my car was parked (thankfully uninjured), and took my keys out of my pocket. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I had lost those same keys just walking up to the office, but here they were, sitting in my pocket as if nothing had happened. I turned the key in the ignition, and roared off down the empty streets (save for the crowd behind me).
  
   I didn't think that she'd be able to catch up with me in time, but I didn't relax until I had passed the city limit. She couldn't go beyond that border.
  
   When I arrived home, my wife opened the door before I'd even reached it.
  
   "Doug, what are you doing home so-" she stopped and her eyes widened. "My God, Douglas! What the hell happened to you?"
  
   I must have looked a real mess; my hair and suit were singed and mussed, I was sweating and severely scratched in some places, and I was still cradling my wounded arm. It was then I noticed that my tie had been tossed over one shoulder.
  
   I straightened it and tried to look innocent.
  
   "Just another day at the office," I replied.
  
   "Uh-huh," my wife crossed her arms and looked unconvinced. "Did you pay that parking ticket like I told you to?"
  
   I smiled sheepishly.
  
   "My god, Douglas! Just pay the bloody fines! That metre maid is going to kill you one day!" she turned away from me and stormed into the house.
  
   "Not today," I murmured, and followed her inside.
  
   I knew I would be safe until I tried to get into the office tomorrow.