Free Echoes by Jason Brant Page A

our floor. Fighting through the stiffness in my knee, I continued forward as the doors opened. A portly man stood in the corner, his mouth dropping open when he saw me.
    "Officer, are you all right?"
    Chuck tackled me from behind, driving us into the elevator. My face smashed into the railing midway up the wall. Blood poured into my mouth as my teeth dug into my cheek. Chuck grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my forehead into the control panel, my nose mangling on the lobby button. I fought against unconsciousness as my body slid into a seated position.
    While the doors to the elevator closed, the chubby man grabbed Chuck's shoulders, trying to pull him off me. I wanted to warn him against it, but my mouth couldn't form the words. The help was short-lived, as he took a ridge hand chop to his throat. Falling into the back corner opposite of me, his huge eyes rolled around wildly as he clawed at his busted throat.
    When Chuck turned back to me I connected with an Ash Benson Special Delivery. A slight grimace was all the reaction he gave me.
    "What are you, a eunuch?" I slurred as I tried to spit the taste of copper from my mouth.
    The blows started hammering down at a furious rate. Some connected with the top of my head and forearms as I tried to protect myself; others crunched my eyes and nose as I slumped to the floor. Blood streamed down my esophagus, making breathing difficult.
    Chuck reached down and grabbed my throat with his right hand, isolating the rest of my air supply. He pulled his left hand back, preparing for a devastating punch.
    Catching hold of his wrist with both hands, I pulled him forward while kicking my right leg over his shoulder and encircling my knee around his head and arm. Wrapping my left knee over my right ankle, I completed a triangle choke. Despite the misery that was my knee I squeezed with all that I had, cutting off the blood supply to his brain.
    Reaching around with his free arm, he grabbed onto his trapped hand and lifted me off the ground. The amount of strength required to do that to a man my size is mind boggling, yet he did it with relative ease. I knew what was coming and tried to brace for the impact. With his remaining strength, he power bombed me onto the floor, my shoulders and back taking most of the collision. The elevator bounced up and down from the contact.
    For what felt like the fiftieth time in the last two days, I had the wind knocked out of me. I had the abnormal feeling of something shifting inside. Whatever it was made the agony of breathing even worse. Despite my body breaking down I squeezed my legs even tighter, locking the hold in.
    He banged on my thighs, trying to get me to release the choke. The ferocity of his punches lessened with each passing second. Tension ebbed from his muscles as he slipped into oblivion. Though his body crumbled, I kept the hold locked in for several seconds more, making sure he was out. The smart thing to do would be killing him, but I didn't have it in me to murder an unconscious man.
    When I tried to release him, my injured knee didn't want to cooperate and I had to pull it straight with my hands. I thought about standing, realized that wasn't going to happen, and decided to just lie there and wallow in misery. The choking sounds coming from the good Samaritan had abated a little as he seemed to be able to breathe. It looked like his trachea hadn't collapsed.
    The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the main lobby. Four or five people stood by the doors, staring in at the bloody bodies strewn on the floor.
    "Going up?" I asked.

Chapter 16
     
    No one moved.
    "Someone call 911. I've got a couple of boo-boos."
    Everyone pulled out their cell phones at the same time, but only two of them made a call. Three others started snapping pictures of us. This would be all over the news soon. Someone would probably be making fun of me on the FAIL blog within twenty minutes.
    I grabbed onto the railing and struggled to pull myself to my