Alien Tango

or killed.”
    Great points, all depressing. I nodded, Christopher ducked low, pulled the gun out of his pocket, and moved around the corner. He left his suitcase, but he’d taken the rocket launcher with him.
    I did my best to wait patiently, but I didn’t hear anything. Okay, I was supposed to run away. But I couldn’t. The men I cared about most, other than my father and Chuckie, were all in there, possibly hurt or worse. I doubted my mother would have trotted off and hidden like a rabbit, and I couldn’t do that, either.
    I got the Glock out, made sure the clip was in, and took the safety off. I hooked my purse over my neck. The suitcases could wait here, but my purse was never leaving my side. I took my shoes off—I could run better without them, and I would make much less noise, as well.
    Like Christopher, I ducked low and then turned the corner. The place was filled with smoke, and it was coming toward me. Back to my suitcase and out with my Motley Crue shirt. I wasn’t risking an Aerosmith one for this. I wrapped it around the lower half of my face and tied the arms in the back. I undoubtedly looked ridiculous, but it would filter the smoke, and that was all I cared about.
    Back to a crouch, back around the corner and through the smoke. No bodies in the rest of the hallway. I reached the doorway, no bodies here, either. So, had they gotten into the room or just been dragged off?
    I could hear more shouting. I couldn’t tell if the voices were my guys’ or not. I also could hear something that sounded like crackling. Well, smoke and fire did go together. But no sprinklers were going off, and neither was a fire alarm. I slid into the room and kept to the back wall, moving against it because the smoke was so thick I couldn’t see. I tripped over Tim’s body.
    My heart stopped, and I knelt down. He was still alive, and from what I could see, appeared unhurt. So he was down from smoke inhalation. I kept on and tripped over Reader a few feet away. Same thing—alive and unconscious.
    All the men had been here before. I kept on, hoping that Reader and Tim had been heading for something that would help, like a fire alarm. My shirt was helping, but it wasn’t going to be too long before I passed out, too.
    A couple more bodies, no one I knew. Couldn’t tell if they were A-Cs or not, but they didn’t look like the most beautiful things I’d ever seen, so probably human. I moved more quickly. All the humans were heading this way for some reason.
    I reached their goal—a fire hose. Great. Only, I had to turn it on and somehow spray it. And I knew without asking that was going to require strength I didn’t possess.
    However, I also knew that everyone was going to die if I didn’t find the means. The three unconscious human males had done most of the work for me—the hose was unrolled and there was a bit of water trickling out, meaning one of them had managed to get the knob started for me. I grabbed the nozzle, turned the water up to full, and braced myself against the wall.
    The water came fast, which was a relief. Nothing else was. The hose wanted to move and take me with it. By going into a version of a kung fu horse stance—legs bent, most of my power held in my thighs—to keep my back against the wall, I was able to fight it a bit, but the water pressure ended up sliding me back the way I’d come. This was okay, but I was having a terrible time controlling where the nozzle went, so it was waving wildly through the air.
    I was able to jump the humans on the floor I didn’t know, but I couldn’t keep it up, and I hit Reader and went over. Now on the floor, still holding onto the hose, but I had nothing to brace against or with. I hooked my legs through his and tried to use his body weight as help.
    Meanwhile the water was spraying impressively, all over and with no design at all. I sincerely hoped someone, anyone, was still conscious enough to get over to me and give me some help, if that help only covered telling me where to aim the damn thing.
    My legs started to slip away from Reader’s, and my shifting around to try to hang on meant he got slammed with the water. I moved it fast, now worried I’d drowned him.
    I was sliding for real now when I heard coughing, then cursing. “James, are you alive?”
    “Girlfriend, are you the reason I’m drenched?”
    “Yes. Help me!”
    He managed to crawl toward me. Being on the ground meant I had a clearer view, and I could see him catch on to what