Chapter 33 Secret Stairs
SECRET STAIRS
ELYXANDRE
All heads raised and turned in the direction of the school as two pops sounded. All of them went for their sidearms.
“Gunfire!” TJ Rockwell, the highway patrolman, confirmed.
Two figures ran across the front of the school.
Kennedy, her arm around Ryker’s waist, was half dragging Ryker, who was clearly in pain, given his uneven gait.
Both were constantly looking over their shoulders, as if they expected to be chased.
Although it broke protocol to do so, the two rangers jumped into immediate action and went to meet them, moving between them and the doors, weapons drawn to protect them from behind.
Arriving at the car, they were hustled to the other side of the vehicle and pushed to the ground to provide some measure of protection while the rangers stayed on the opposite side, watching for anyone else to emerge from the building.
Ryker kept his arm around Kennedy’s shoulders as the girl sobbed uncontrollably. Two firefighters started to look them over while a third covered them in blankets and offered them water.
Elyxandre crouched down in front of them. They were dusty and disheveled. “Ryker, are you okay? Are you or Kennedy hurt?”
“Judah hit me pretty hard with a pry bar in the knee. I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s not in the best of shape.
He still has Dr. Vaughn. We had a plan to lure Judah further into the room so that Kennedy could get out, and I was supposed to push a bookshelf over on him, but he didn’t fall for it.
” He took a shuddering breath. “Dr. Vaughn sacrificed himself so we could get away.”
Her stomach rose into her throat. Nausea bubbled up, and she had to turn and take a few steps away to vomit into the grass. A hand came to rest on her back as she stood there, hands on her knees, hunched over. It was too painful to stand up. He couldn’t be gone. She’d feel it. Wouldn’t she?
Another hand showed up beneath her with an open bottle of water. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stood shakily, the hand still at her back. “Drink,” the voice of the person next to her ordered.
She took a mouthful of water, swished it around, and spat it out on the ground. After a second rinse of her mouth, she took a large swallow of what remained in the bottle.
Whirling around, she went back to stand in front of Ryker and Kennedy. “Where?” she croaked. “Where are they?”
“Upstairs in the theatre attic,” the boy said wearily. “Be careful, Officer E. He has a gun.”
The officers went back around the hood of the car, Quint shuffling through the blueprints they had there, along with maps of the nature preserve. Hushed voices began discussing the schematics.
“The gunshots.” She couldn’t even ask the question.
“He fired at us, but we were already down the stairs. We snuck out as he was following Dr. Vaughn into the back. Officer E.” He stopped. “There’s only one way into the attic. He won’t be able to get around Judah.”
Her spine went steel hard, drawing her to full height. Taking two steps away and turning her back, she pulled her gun from its holster and checked that it was loaded.
“Elyxandre!”
Holstering her gun, she turned to see Quint waving her over. “We found something.”
She stepped over to the car and looked down at the blueprint of the theatre space.
Hayden Yates, the sheriff, pointed at an inner wall. “These drawings look weird. Like they put a wall inside a wall. What’s this?”
Elyxandre looked closer at where she was pointing. Her brow scrunched up, and her mouth turned down. “The old staircase to the lighting catwalks.”
“When was the school built?”
“I think it was in the early fifties.”
“Was there any remodeling done?” Hayden asked.
“I haven’t been here since graduation, but I’m pretty sure they went through a referendum about ten years ago.
They added some sections to the school. The two-story math and languages wing.
An extra gymnasium. Basically, the entire back of the school was extended, and I think some of the fields were repurposed. ”
“Anything with the theatre area?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s been remodeled at least once.
Stage right was deeper than left because there used to be a staircase here along the wall.
” She pointed to the schematic. “When the crew wasn’t needed, that’s where they’d hang out.
They could see everything going on and still be close to the action.
They were out of the way of the actors making entrances and exits, and the audience couldn’t see them because the blackout curtains hid them.
It was perfect for storing props and furniture because it was so close to the stage. ”
The sheriff pointed to the theatre walls on the blueprint.
“See these support walls? These are too thick for a standard building. It looks like when they designed the new stage area, they built a new set of stairs on the opposite side, placing the access in the scene shop so the storage could be used safely.”
TJ glanced over her shoulder. “It’s a supporting wall, by the looks of it. Believe it or not, deconstructing something can cost just as much, if not more, than constructing something new. Looks like they cut their losses and just built over the old stairway.”
A voice materialized from behind them and down near the ground on the passenger side of the car.
They’d forgotten Ryker and Kennedy were still there.
“There are rumors of tunnels in the walls. I’ve never seen them.
Always considered it to be our school’s version of an urban legend.
There are some shallow tunnels under the school that house piping for electricity, water, stuff like that.
They’re locked up so students can’t get in them, but they don’t go anywhere, like some kids believe.
I just assumed the wall stories were the same. ”
“What are the wall stories, Ryker?” Elyxandre asked.
“Well, the diehard theatre kids claim there’s a way to get from the previous boys’ dressing room to the theatre attic and the catwalks. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but when they restructured the theatre area, Dad said they tore out some walls but left others.
“One day, when we were cleaning out the space after a play production, one of the ceiling tiles had water damage, so the teacher told us to take the tile out so it wouldn’t get moldy, and she called custodial to put in a new one.
When we pulled the tile down, we could see a huge open space above.
In the old scene shop, they had this mural on the wall that students added to every year, listing all the shows they’d done since the school opened.
There’s at least a ten-foot gap between the ceiling there now and what it used to be.
We’ve been adding to it, sort of like our own secret society of thespians.
I didn’t see a door or anything, but there was some space between the new walls and the old ones.
If someone were small enough, they could maybe fit between, but I’d hate to get stuck there. How the hell would anyone find you?”
Hayden looked at the other officers around the car. “Depending on how the walls line up, and what got left behind, it’s entirely possible you might be able to get from downstairs to upstairs, or vice versa, in the negative space.”
“But how do we get inside that wall to the stairs?”
“We could break through it. I doubt a sledgehammer would do it, but a jackhammer maybe,” TJ suggested.
“But he’ll hear us coming then. We can’t risk that. We need to surprise him.”
Kennedy’s voice rang through. “Not if you use the old trapdoor.”
Everyone around the car turned to look at the girl.
“There’s a trapdoor in the stage. Our teacher said it hasn’t been used in years, and now, of course, since they rebuilt that portion of the theatre, the trapdoor is in the wrong place.
But that door would still have its original exit, right?
The original exit is in the boys’ dressing room space, between the old wall and the new wall. ”
“Where’s the entrance to the trap?” Elyxandre asked.
“There’s a tile in the floor with a heavy-duty lock on it.
I saw her open it once when they needed to redo some wiring down there for the servers.
It’s filled in with gravel, but a person can get in there and crawl through, if you don’t mind getting dirty.
It comes out at the foot of those old stairs. ”
“It’s worth a shot,” Elyxandre said. Her finger followed the path she’d laid out as she reviewed their plan with revisions based on the information from Ryker.
“We’ll go in teams of six, so each pair will need to grab some officers to complete their groups.
We’ll enter through the loading dock. Dax and Westin will sweep through the north side of the building, Cruz and Hayden will sweep from the south, TJ, Quint, and I will sweep through the center core.
Quickly clear the rooms and meet us at the backstage entrance, which is the farthest point on the opposite end of the building.
When we get there, I’ll go into the tunnel, use it to get up into the catwalk, then the attic, and try to defuse the situation, while TJ and Quint approach from other angles.
“The firefighters and their search teams in the preserve are already up two channels on the radio from the first responders, so we’ll go up four, just in case he’s listening in. Quint, have someone monitoring both of us, the firefighters, and the rest of the first responders.”
“Already on it.”
“Ryker said he’s armed. I don’t have to tell you, but I feel like I need to anyway.
With teen shooters, assume that they’re acting irrationally.
They might seem cool on the outside, but if pressed into a corner, they panic.
Do not try to reason with him. Agree with everything he says, no matter how irrational it might be.
We need to get him to believe we’re on his side.
Do not fire at him unless fired upon first, and even then, aim for an arm or leg, not center mass or a head shot unless it absolutely can’t be helped.
I’d love to restrict us to stun guns, but we all know that might not be possible. ”
Everyone proceeded to check their weapons and vests.
Elyxandre took a moment to confer with TJ.
“I want you to take your long gun. When we get to the theatre, head to the lobby. In the far east corner, there’s a door that goes up to the old lighting booth.
The area should be pretty much empty, but it has a huge open window space.
No glass. You’ll be able to see into the theatre space. ”
“Got it.”
“How good are you with that rifle?”
Sober-faced, he replied, “I won’t miss.”