Page 92 of Jep

“Stay down,” he said as he dragged the bed away from the wall. A shard of statue cut into his knee when he had to duck again to avoid being shot.

Em crawled around to help him push the bed into place before more shots were fired, ripping the door apart.

Jep fired again as he pulled Em toward the window. “Go.”

“You can’t stay here.”

“I’ll be right behind you. Just go.”

She hesitated only a second before making her move.

“Don’t die,” she said as she climbed onto the fire escape and ducked out of sight.

Jep duck-walked to the window, keeping his head out of the firing line.

“Get out of there!” she yelled.

“Go down to the street and wait for me there out of sight.”

The shots kept coming. Jep returned fire before diving out the window. He slammed against the rail, and it gave way, sending him rolling off the platform.

“Jep!” Em screamed from the ladder.

He hung in the air, his hand gripping a broken bit of railing as his gun clattered to the ground.

They were almost eye level, and they looked at each other before Jep checked the window, then looked back at her. “Get out of here. You have to go. Now.”

“I can’t. The ladder’s broken.”

He checked to see that the bottom half was missing. It was a long way to the ground.

He kept his voice calm. “You have to jump.”

She squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head in furious rotation. “It’s too far.”

“Em. Look at me.” She did. “You have to do this. They will kill you. Please. Go. Now.”

She licked her lips and slowly unwrapped her arm from around the rung before descending until she dangled off the bottom of the ladder.

“Jump!” he yelled.

She made a squeaking noise as she let go and hit the ground with a thud, her legs collapsing under her.

Jep swung sideways and hooked his leg on the ladder where she had been. “Run!” He yelled at her as he pulled himself across. Although, the way she’d fallen, he wasn’t sure that she could.

A figure appeared at the window, and Jep opened his mouth to yell again when a shot was fired from below, and the mandisappeared again. He hugged the ladder and looked to see Em sitting on the ground, pointing his gun at the window.

“Come on,” she called up to him. “You’re clear. Hurry.”

He slid the rest of the way down the ladder and landed near Em with a roll.

She fired again before he took the gun from her.

“They could cut us off at the road,” he said. “We need to go. Can you walk?”

She pushed up but grimaced. “I don’t know.”

He kept an eye on the window and kept checking the end of the alley as he wrapped his free arm around her and dragged her to her feet. “I wish I could leave you where you are until an ambulance turns up, but we don’t have a choice, I’m afraid. I’m gonna need you to try. Otherwise, you can jump on my back.”

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