See Tom Run by Scott Wittenburg

as quickly as his legs would carry him. He reached the
entrance, shoved one of the doors open with his shoulder, slipped
through and turned his back against the doors. He heard Hoops
holler “he’s escaped!” as he fumbled anxiously with the dead bolt,
trying desperately to slide it home. Finally, he heard a metallic
clack as he managed to lock the door.
    One to go—
    He fumbled with the other bolt as he heard the boys
running toward the entrance. He was able to slide the bolt home an
instant before he felt the weight of the door smash against his
back.
    “Open this door, motherfucker!” Chappy snarled from
the other side. A shot rang out and Tom saw the hole where the slug
had torn through about an inch from the handle.
    Tom sidestepped the doors and ran across the lobby
toward the Park Avenue entrance, spotted a ring of keys lying on a
table between a Heinekin and a plate of French fries, managed to
snatch them up just as he heard two more shots ring out.
    They were going to shoot their way through that door
any second—
    He needed to make a quick decision: either bolt out
onto the street and run as far away from these crazy shits as
earthly possible or stay in the hotel and likely become a piece of
dead meat. The decision was a no-brainer. Erin was somewhere in
here and he had to find her.
    He wondered if the elevators were working. Then he
recalled Chappy’s words: “practically everything in this place is
fully functional.” He could only hope that included the
elevators.
    Tom sprinted across the lobby to the bank of
elevators, pressed the “up” button with his elbow and held his
breath. The door slid open with a quiet whoosh.
    Awesome! he thought.
    He hopped in, pushed the button for the fifteenth
floor for no particular reason except that it seemed far away from
where he stood now, located the ‘close door’ button and pressed it
repeatedly. He heard another gunshot come from the lobby and the
muffled sound of running madmen through the door as it closed.
    Tom nervously watched the floor indicator panel as
the car ascended. The elevator slowed down and stopped at the
fifteenth floor, the doors slid open and he bolted out into total
darkness.
    Perhaps not such a good choice, he thought to
himself. Were the lights off on all of the upper floors or had he
just happened to choose the only one that was?
    No time to ponder—he caught the door before it closed
and re-entered the elevator.
    The odds of the power being on were probably greater
near the lobby, he theorized. Although he didn’t really want to go
back toward the pursuing posse, he knew he was going to have to
chance it. Besides, he wasn’t even sure if these bad boys were
still in the hotel at the moment. They may have thought he fled
outside instead—in fact, that was most likely the case. After all,
they didn’t know that he knew Kyle and Erin—so there was no reason
for him to stay in the hotel as far as they were concerned. They
would assume that he had fled the same way he had come in: via Park
Avenue.
    Of course! he thought. Right now was his best shot at
finding Erin while they were out looking for his ass.
    He pressed the button for the fifth floor. He would
try it and then work his way down. Erin would most likely be on one
of the lower floors.
    The doors closed and the elevator plummeted at a
fairly good clip. When it reached the fifth floor, Tom crossed his
fingers as the door opened.
    The floor was lit up like a Christmas tree!
    He stepped out and looked in either direction, noting
that the floor consisted of numbered guest rooms as far as he could
see. He went to the nearest room and turned the knob. Locked. He
glanced at the ring of keys in his hand, wondering if there was a
master key to the rooms or a key to the handcuffs.
    He stepped over to one of the chairs sitting near the
elevator, turned around and dropped the keys onto it. He searched
for a small key that might be the one for the cuffs. Most of the
dozen or so keys were