“Let’s try down here,” Samuel suggested, picking a street at random and starting to walk down it. “I’m sure we’ll find someplace sooner or later.”
But the further the pair of them walked, the more uncomfortable they began to feel. Shadows danced unnervingly in the corner of their eyes and the city became unfamiliar and frightening. The sound of metal clanging onto the tarmac caused both men to jump, worried about what was most likely only a garbage can lid blowing off in the wind.
“I think we’re in the Bronx,” Austin whispered in Samuel’s ear as both men stopped dead in their tracks. A large group of men in hoodies stood on a street corner just ahead of them. They ducked into an alley before they were spotted. “I don’t like this, Sam.”
“Me neither,” Samuel chewed on his bottom lip. “Not the best part of the city to be stuck in after dark. What should we do?”
“We just need to get off the streets.”
Samuel agreed, the sound of a distant siren sending a shiver down his back. Inching forward slightly he peered around the brick wall to the group that still hung about on the corner. “Probably a gang. Probably all armed. We wouldn’t stand a chance. Let’s go back this way,” he suggested to Austin. “We can try and get into one of those boarded-up apartments.”
The gang on the corner made it a priority to get inside for the night. “That okay with you?”
“Sure,” Austin nodded, “come on.”
Back-tracking by a couple of hundred yards, Samuel and Austin stopped outside a building they had dismissed as they passed. The bottom rungs of the fire escape ladder were just out of reach above their heads, but with a jump either one of them would be able to reach it and pull it down. The windows on the second floor were boarded up and it looked like no one had lived there for some time. They hoped that was true.
It was Austin who made the jump for the ladder, springing up and closing his hands around the last rung of the ladder with ease. He hung there for perhaps a second or two, swinging in the air with his heavy rucksack before the ladder eventually started to move and lowered him down to the sidewalk. But it didn’t happen quietly. The rusty metal grated and screeched with every inch that slid down, creating an ear-splitting noise that could be heard for several blocks in the still of night. They looked at one another in panic, worried about who the noise might attract.
“Go, go,” Samuel urged Austin upwards once the ladder was fully down, not wanting to be caught on the ground next to it if anyone appeared. “Climb.”
Austin did as he was told and once he was high enough for Samuel to stand at his full height below him, the former Marketing Director of Trident put his hands on the ladder and tried not to think of his immobilizing fear of heights. Memories of being in the Trident building and being forced to look out of the windows made his palms feel sweaty, the salt from his glands reacting with the rusty metal to produce a metallic smell.
He told himself he was only climbing a few feet upwards. Samuel put his right foot on the bottom rung and gritted his teeth. By now, Austin had reached the first floor and was carefully pulling at the shutters, trying to see for certain whether anyone was inside the apartment. He had no idea that Samuel was struggling so much, the man’s vertigo not once crossing his mind as he had made the short climb.
“I don’t think there’s anyone inside,” Austin started to whisper, turning around and expecting to see Samuel behind him on that first platform of the fire escape. Instead his friend was stuck about half way up the ladder, shivering as he tried to overcome his fear and continue the climb.
“Hey pal,” Austin leaned over and looked at Samuel, noticing even in the pale moonlight how his complexation had changed to an ashy shade of grey. “Are you okay?”
Samuel swallowed and nodded, bile rising in his throat.
Austin realized what was happening and leaned further out, offering Samuel his hand, though he remained just out of reach.
“Come on Sam,” he encouraged him. “Just look up at me. It’s really not that bad once you’re here. You’re basically half way there already.”
Samuel exhaled slowly. There were more dangerous threats around the corner than the one he was facing right now. There were gangs, criminals and delinquents hidden down every alleyway and in every shadow. He should be afraid of staying on the ground with them, not climbing up to safety. He had tackled an elevator shaft inside a burning building not one week ago – if he could do that, surely he could reach a second floor apartment.
With a shake of his head, Samuel started climbing again. He looked up at Austin the entire way, refusing to even consider the solid tarmacked ground he was leaving behind.
“Nice one pal,” Austin slapped him on the back once he’d reached the solid metal grating of the fire escape. “You made it.”
“Please tell me that apartment is empty,” Samuel implored.
Austin chuckled in response. “Yeah, I think so.”
They pried the largest wooden panel away, revealing the glass of the window behind it. Both men held their breath and waited for a response, but nothing came. The apartment was indeed empty. Austin began working on jimmying the window open to create a gap wide
