Chapter 11

"Uh, Meagan?" Elise waved her hand in front of Meagan's face as she stared at them blankly, as if they had all disappeared. Her eyes were scanning from side to side as if she were counting something nobody else could see.

"Is...she...?" Holden began, but Steve shook his head quickly. "She used to work there. She didn't like it very much. She never talks about it."

"So many...tourists..." Meagan was mumbling. Elise grabbed her shoulders and shook her, which seemed to help, because in an instant Meagan was jabbering about how safe the Tower might be for them. "IF we can get passed security."

"Yeah but they're like mall cops at best right?" Holden said.

"Imagine if you took thirty highly damaged Iraq war veterans and shoved them into a job with no future, no benefits, no pay. And then you made them younger and dumber. And that's what we have to get passed. The angriest, stupidest brood of minimum-wage earning, baton-wielding maniacs this side of...the tiny giraffes we've been fighting."

"Okay, well that just means we need a plan, which we can discuss when we get moving," Elise said. She was already checking out the windows in the showroom for her exit, and Steve and Meagan followed behind her. "We've got to find a way to convince them that we're there to help them somehow. That'll make them take us in nice and easy without a fight. And besides, not all of them are bad, right Meagan?"

"No they're all atrocious people."

"What about that Allan guy?"

"What Allan guy?" Steve said, but Meagan wasn't listening.

"Shhhhh! Everybody shut up!" she hissed. She inched closer to the window and placed her ear against the glass. Carefully, silently, the other three did too.

"I don't hear anything..." Holden whispered. "Do you?"

"I hear you," Elise glared at him.

Then suddenly, Milo leaped onto the counter, his back arched, hair standing on end. He hissed and growled at the window, and all of a sudden they saw it.

A hoard of little giraffes coming straight for the front door.

"We have to get out of here, NOW!!" Elise said. She grabbed Steve by the jacket. "Where's your offices? There must be an exit from there!"

"There is, it's a fire escape. It's back through the main entrance, we have to go right past the doors."

"Then let's move before they get in. And Meagan!" she said, grabbing her tiny shoulders. "Don't get freaked out by the Tower now. I promise, if you lead us back there, I'll let you, I dunno..."

"Blow the fucking thing up?"

"Yes," Elise smiled. "I'll let you blow the thing up."

They made their way together back up one level to the MP's offices. They were ransacked, as if every other employee but Steve up and left. "They're all gone," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry man," Holden said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure they made it out okay. They had plenty of warning. And maybe we'll see them on our way."

"Oh no," Elise said. "We are NOT adding a bunch of politicians to our little group." Then she leveled her gaze at Holden. "I have enough trouble trusting everyone as it is."

"Okay, look I don't know what your problem is but I've had enough of this crap! Who do you think told HIM there were weapons down there?"

"You almost killed my cat!"

"I THOUGHT IT WAS A GIRAFFE!"

"MAYBE I THINK YOU'RE A GIRAFFE, RIGHT NOW!"

"THAT.....doesn't make any sense."

Elise cleared her throat and smoothed her jacket. "Yes I realize that." They both huffed, embarrassed and tired from fighting, but Elise wouldn't be the first to apologize and Holden was too stubborn. So instead, Elise extended an extra wrist guard she stole from the store. "Truce?"

He looked down at the guard, then up to Elise's brown eyes. Which weren't so scary when she wasn't threatening to kill him. "Truce."

Steve cleared his throat. "Did you guys wannna grab a guitar and sing Hey Jude together, or can we get the fuck out of here?"

"Right! Yes, let's move!" Holden said. Elise shook her head in spite of herself and avoided Meagan's giant grin from across the room. So he wasn't so horrible or stupid. Fine.

"He still shot at my cat," she muttered.