She shook her head, getting his meaning. There was no way for her to get down. He stood there a moment, looking towards the end of the street. The third man leaned in and whispered to the first two. The one who’d been leading the group made a face at him, while the tail man grabbed a handful of his shirt, clearly upset by whatever he'd said. The woman, however, just stood back, hugging herself, looking terrified.
Bunny watched their silent, yet heated debate for a moment, before waving her hands to get their attention. Not surprisingly, it was the woman who noticed, the three men too busy arguing whatever it was they were arguing. She got the lead man's attention and pointed, drawing all their attention back to Bunny.
She pointed to the far end of the yard and mimed steering a car. The tail man nodded, and held up a hand, telling the others to stay put while he quickly walked down the fence, until he came to a board that was slightly loose, Moving it gently to the side, Bunny saw he could spot her Camaro, and the dead milling around near it.
He rejoined the others, whispering to them. The first man nodded slowly, while the other shook his head. Things took a nasty turn, however, when the tail man grabbed the third fellow again, raising an assault rifle. That seemed to end any debate, though Bunny couldn't say she cared for their method of deciding things.
She took a moment as they discussed things to really look at them. The man in the lead had a touch of gray in his hair, but listened to the much younger man carefully, obviously weighing his words. In turn, the younger man had close-cropped, almost military hair, and understood the basic meaning of her hand gestures.
The third man was rougher-looking, with shaggy hair, and clearly didn't have any interest in Bunny or her situation. The woman looked to be about Bunny's age or a bit older, like the group's leader, was of African descent, and kept looking up at her with clear concern.
After a few minutes of debate, the younger man stepped back a bit, waving to Bunny, who waved back. He pointed towards the far end of the yard and made a looping gesture to indicate he was going to head around towards the dead end that forced her into the site to begin with. He pointed at the other three then down the other way, walked his fingers and mimed the steering wheel. Last, he held up a grenade.
Bunny took a deep breath, getting his plan clearly. He gestured at her, and then pointed towards the car as well. She nodded to let him know she got it and started moving back along the beams, getting the key out of her pocket. She didn't really remember pulling it from the ignition, but habits were a hard thing to break.
In a few minutes, she was going to have seconds to get down and reach her car. She just hoped the young man's plan worked, or all of them were facing a grisly fate.
Bunny had walked the beams halfway back to her car when she realized she'd left her duffel bag and the assault rifle on the platform. Cursing her own idiocy, she hustled her way back, hoping she hadn't just blown her best chance of getting down.
Snagging the bag, she threw it over her shoulder, taking a second to scan for her young would-be-savior. Not seeing him yet, she ran as fast as she dared across the skeleton of the building, heading for the spot nearest her car.
She slipped, nearly falling into the waiting dead below before catching herself. Taking a deep breath, she continued, being more careful. The last thing she, or the people on the ground needed, was for her to drop the car keys in the middle of them.
As she reached the far side of the building, she looked down and saw the three by the fence. The lead man looked up at her and she held her hand out, telling him to wait. He nodded, hands on the board. Bunny looked over her shoulder and saw the younger man as he stepped into the open gate of the construction site, assault rifle raised.
"Over here you ugly motherfuckers!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs as he opened fire. "Hoo YAH!"
They moved like a wave, rolling towards him. Bunny gripped the girder and swung herself out, hanging on for dear life, watching as they passed below, no longer interested in her. She swung herself once then twice, gaining a bit of momentum to cover the extra distance.
She’d assumed she was to wait until the explosion, so she just hung there, swinging, for what seemed forever. Looking at the ground, she thought of jumping off The Tawdry Tail, and it seemed an eternity ago. That brought up memories of swinging on the dance pole, and she had to admit, the job had prepared her to survive in ways she hadn’t expected.
"Fire in the hole!" she heard him shout.
Bunny let go, tucking herself as she fell and hit the ground. Rolling, she came up at a run, the grenade deafening as it spit shrapnel everywhere behind her, the stack of girders at her back the only thing protecting her. Ahead, she saw the leader of the little group rip the board free, shoving the woman through first then the shaggy man, getting them through ahead of himself. She had to admit, though she didn't know his name, she liked his style.
She skirted the rear of the car and jerked the door open, waving them to hurry. The scruffy one got
