Above All Else by Jeff Ross Read Free Book Online Page A

the other side of the square. They both had restrooms, but only one had doors to the outside.
    The problem was, I couldn’t remember which was which.
    Someone was right behind us, his flashlight beam reflecting off the walls, throwing our shadows on empty storefronts. I tried to make out the right corridor, hoping it hadn’t been boarded up. Hoping that the door at the end wasn’t chained shut or something.
    â€œThis way,” I yelled at Riley, but he’d stopped listening. He was rounding the corner, heading toward the square. I was certain the corridor on the left was the one with the door at the end.
    I swung into it, my footsteps echoing loudly. I could hear people yelling, and something smashed.
    At first it seemed as if our pursuer had followed Riley. But then the bright beam lit up the corridor and someone yelled, “Stop right there.”
    I passed the women’s restroom, then a set of lockers, a water fountain and finally the men’s restroom. The end of the corridor was too far away for me to see whether there was a door or not. I just kept running, feeling my heart beating hard in my chest.
    Whoever was following me had stopped running. As the end of the corridor came into focus, I realized why.
    In front of me was a wall. I was in the wrong corridor. I turned back around.
    â€œGot you, kid,” the guy said. “What are you doing in here? Don’t you know this is our place?”
    I darted back to the men’s restroom.
    The moon shone through a set of high windows, making it a little brighter inside. There was junk all over the floor. Empty boxes and bits of pipe. I had to make a quick decision. It would be possible to climb up on the end cubicle and get to the ledge that ran along the base of the windows, but I had no idea what was on the other side.
    Instead, I grabbed the largest pipe I could find and threw it as hard as I could. One of the windows smashed. I ducked into a cubicle and jumped onto the toilet seat just as the restroom door opened.
    â€œWhat the hell?” the guy said. “You didn’t just seriously…” I froze. Tried not to breathe. I heard the guy pulling himself up onto the frame of the final cubicle. I dared to take a quick look. He was wearing a baseball cap and holding a giant flashlight in one hand.
    I waited for him to get fully up on the ledge beneath the windows. Then I slid off the toilet and opened the cubicle door. The hinges heaved and screeched, and the guy spun around so fast, I thought he was going to fall off the ledge.
    â€œThere you are!” he said. I bolted out the restroom door and back into the corridor. There were lights all over the place farther down the main corridor. I could see people slipping on the floor. Flashes of legs and arms spinning wildly.
    I hit the end of the corridor going full speed and turned to the right, hoping I could still get out where we’d come in. But when I was halfway down the corridor, two bright beams lit me up and someone yelled, “There’s one of them!”
    I slid under the accordion doors of what was once a comic-book store. I remembered visiting this place in the past. The giant boxes of old comics on a table down the middle of the store and racks of new ones climbing each wall. The glass case beneath the counter with Magic and Pok é mon cards inside. But, more important, the back room, which was home to both a tiny, cell-like bathroom and an outside door.
    I tripped over something in the dark, almost losing my flashlight. There was garbage everywhere. Turned-over shelves and broken glass.
    The accordion door banged behind me.
    â€œGet out here, you little shit,” someone said. I shone my light at the back of the store, then turned it off and scrambled to my feet. “You’re trapped in here, kid.”
    I banged my shin on something and almost wiped out again, hands just grazing the floor. Something sliced into my palm, but I barely noticed. I