ESCAPE

Chapter 2

Fridays were the best, less hours of work in casual clothes and looking forward to the weekend to enjoy any relaxation of choice. Well at least if not of choice, then any relaxation your budget could allow. That was the reason Daisy woke up with a smile on her face when her alarm clock rang at 5AM Friday morning.

She stretch her limbs like a happy little kitten and got out of bed. She looked around her small apartment and felt at peace. "To new days and new beginnings," she whispered under her breath.

Doing a two step mini dance to the bathroom while humming a tune from Florida Georgia Line, she felt wonderful and was going to have a great day at work, then she was going out for drinks with colleagues in the evening, it definitely looked like it was going to be a fabulous day.

Being a simple lady of simple tastes, at 23 years of age, Daisy owned just enough clothes and cosmetics to make it through a day without portraying an image of homeless or destitute person. So in just under 30 minutes she had bathed, dressed in blue jeans and brown pullover and was ready to head out to work.

Spending another half hour tiding up her home, at exactly 6 she stepped out of the door.

Going down the stairs from her apartment to the ground floor, Daisy said a little prayer for her old beat up Toyota to start, “Please God, just for today, let my car just start, please please please.”

Not that the same prayer had worked any other day but today felt different, like things were in her favor.

Getting into the car she dropped her body in the worn out driver's seat. The car was definitely not a hot shot but it was all she had and she was proud of it. She closed her eyes and turned the key. Like an old smoker clearing his abused lungs, the car roared and coughed loudly then went dead silent. “This can’t be happening, not today God please not today.”

“Hey Daisy that old beast still giving you trouble?” A raspy voice said.

That nosy next door neighbor, the old, round, short woman always seemed to appear when Daisy least wanted her to. And talk about captain obvious, is that question really necessary? It’s not like she had a solution to offer.

Pasting a strained smile on her face, she pushed her head out of the car window and looked up to Mrs. Jones window and responded, “As always Mrs. Jones, it just needs a little TLC.”

“What it needs is to be thrown in a junk yard, you need a new car dear. You are too pretty for that ugly old thing,” Mrs. Jones proudly stated.

Opening her mouth in wonder, Daisy was speechless. She decided not to respond and pulled her head back inside the car. Closing her eyes once again, she turned the key.

“Come on, come on. I can’t take the bus today.” She needed the car for her evening outing.

Her prayer answered, the car started and without so much as a glance towards the old nosy bat, Daisy quickly drove out of the parking and started the hour long trip to the office.

***

Rey had come into the office early today, he needed to be sure of what he suspected before he officially reported the matter to relevant authorities with evidence.

He had skipped his daily 5km morning ran for this, so it better be worth it. Rey kept his life in order and followed that order diligently. He did not entertain disruptions to his well thought out plans for each day. Being an accountant for one of the biggest firms in the city, such discipline always paid out. This is why he had picked out the inconsistencies in the company accounts.

Sneaking into the office building just after 6 in the morning, Rey silently made his way to the Manager’s office. He thanked God the office doors always remained unlocked. Stealthily stepping in, he located the folders and got to work.

He was deep in concentration when noise outside the office caught his attention. Putting the files he had been going through down as quietly as possible he took a quick glance at his wrist watch. 6:45, still too early for it to be Mack, the Manager, and Rey still needed a few more minutes to finish looking through the remaining paperwork.

Taking two steps towards the door to investigate the noise, Rey is caught mid step as the door opens and Mack’s secretary, Daisy was standing in the door way looking at him with as much shock as he obviously had to be showing.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a harsh tone. He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment it left his lips, and just in case he did not realize his error her response was enough to rectify his assumptions.

“Excuse me Mr. Daniels, but shouldn’t that be my question? Your office is not on this floor last I checked. What are you doing here going through Mr. Michaels papers?” Daisy demanded in a firm voice.

Any other day Rey would have taken the time to appreciate her professionalism and calm composure, but today was not that day.

“Mr. Mack Michaels asked me to double check some figures he needs for an early morning meeting with investors.”

As far as lies went, it was a good one, but she was too smart to buy it.

“Mr. Daniels, before I get on the phone with security, explain your presence in this office this instant.” Her voice had taken on a cold touch. Even her eyes regarded him without warmth. She was suspecious and rightly so.

“Damn woman, do you need some kind of hearing aid? I just said I needed to double check some figures. If you will excuse me, I will head to my office now.” He spoke fast and hard wanting to put the matter to rest without further discussion.

He moved to get passed her, and in a split second she reached out her hand to stop him from leaving just as the first bullet flew into the room.

Daisy was frozen in place as the first pop sounded. Rey was grabbing her arm trying to push her to the floor but her body was not responding. The next three pops rang out in quick succession in their direction.

“Is someone trying to kill us?” she asked trembling. She was finally on her knees kneeling next to him.

Rey blinked and looked at her. “Wow, you are really smart.”

Before Daisy could respond to that sarcastic response, two more bullets went flying by. Crouching on the floor away from the door, Daisy turned to Rey and asked, “What did you do? Why do they want you dead?”

“Who says it has anything to do with me? Could easily be someone after you,” Rey retorted angrily.

“I wasn’t the one sneaking around in the office, so it’s definitely you.” Daisy responded in rage.

“Oh please…” Before he could go on Rey turned his head towards the door when the bullets had stopped flying but another sound was slowly taking over. “Don’t move,” he said and started heading for the door on all four limbs to inspect.

“Oh sure, where else would I go?”

Ignoring her irrelevant response, he slowly opened the door and observed with horror that the lobby was on fire, someone was really determined to have them killed this morning and he had a pretty good idea who.

Turning back to Daisy, he said, “Ok, don’t panic”

“You do know that is the wrong thing to say right? Now all I want to do is panic!”

Taking a deep breath, Rey tried again, “Daisy, I need you to calm down or we are going to burn to death.” Ok maybe that was also not the best way to phrase it, she looked like she was about to faint. And that would be the last thing he needed dead weight in this deadly emergency.