Liv held her position for a long time, waiting to see if the men would return. When they didn't, she knew it was time to move, but she couldn't make her limbs obey.

Where would she even go? What would she even do? Her legs began to burn from their cramped position and it was enough to cajole her into moving. She stretched her legs out and pulled herself out of her tight hiding spot. As she stood, the gun fell to the ground at her feet.

She reached picked it up and examined it. She hadn't even checked how many bullets were left when she had taken it from the man. Her only reason for taking it was so it didn't end up in the hands of the wrong people. She checked the magazine. She had fifteen rounds.

She turned the volume up on the walkie-talkie as she walked to the edge of the roof. If the men said anything about Ezra, she wanted to hear. She looked down at where she had thrown her bottles. They had left a mess on the sidewalk but all the fires had already burned out.

It seemed like their idea hadn't worked until her ears picked up a very distant siren. She looked up and down the street, hoping to catch sight of the flashing lights moving in her direction. She didn't find any, but she was certain the siren was growing closer.

She ran to the other side of the roof and looked down. The result of Ezra's bottles were the same. Again, there was no movement, but the siren sounded closer on this side of the building. Maybe their plan had worked. She moved further along the edge of the roof, hoping to see the nearing emergency vehicle and she came upon her last bottle, the one Ezra had taken from her. The men hadn't taken it.

The siren was definitely coming closer and as Liv felt a spark of hope at the sound, she realized she wouldn't be the only one hearing it. If she could hear the siren, the chances were the men holding Ezra and Tommy could hear them too.

A moment later, her concern was confirmed when worried voices came over the walkie-talkie. She held it closer to get a better listen. The men spoke so fast. It was all just jumbled words to Liv except for a single word. Police. The men kept talking and she could hear the panic in their voices.

A memory from something her father said popped into her brain. The man she and Ezra had taken down had not been wearing a mask. They had both seen his face. Her father had told her that when a perpetrator lets a hostage see their face it's because they don't plan on the hostage living long enough to give a description of them. The police were on their way. The men most know the clock was ticking and Ezra had seen their face.

She had to do something. She turned her focus back to the walkie-talkie, listening as carefully as she could, hoping to understand anything else. One of the men spoke loudly and authoritatively and it shifted the tone of the conversation. They sounded assured and Liv didn't like it.

She grabbed the bottle and ran for the door. She stopped just as she reached it when she heard a familiar voice.

"Look, fellows, I think this is just a big misunderstanding," Ezra said. "How about that tequila? My office is just across the hall."

The men seemed to perk up at the mention of his office, but Liv did too. She didn't know if Ezra had purposefully mentioned his location for her, but either way, she now knew where they were holding him.

She pulled the door open a silver to check that the stairwell was clear before she stepped out. Cautiously, she glanced over the metal railing, looking down the sixty flights of stairs. They were empty. She stuck close to the wall as she began to climb down the stairs, trying to keep her steps as light as possible.

She kept the walkie-talkie on low, listening as the men began to interrogate Ezra about the office. They kept shouting a name at him, and he kept saying he didn't know what they were talking about. When she reached their floor of the building, she crept up to the door and pressed her ear to it. From the radio, she could still hear the men questioning Ezra. He continued to give them the same answer.

Liv was about to turn the radio volume down when Ezra called out.

"Wait, wait, wait!" She froze at the panic she could hear in his voice. "Did you say Bradshaw?"

He tried to keep his voice light but she could hear how shaky it was. Her best guess, the men were ready to inflict pain to get the answer they wanted. She needed to act. Now.

She pulled her lighter out and paused. It would be a bit of a dance, holding onto the flaming bottle and the gun while opening the door, but she couldn't put the bottle down once she lit the flame, and she didn't want to let go of the gun. But she also didn't have three hands.

In the end, she settled for the gun tucked into the waistline of her skirt as she held the bottle. A quick peep had told her that the door was situated just at the junction of two hallways. The hallways led off into different directions.

She listened closely and could hear the men's voices coming from the hallway on her right. She pulled back into the stairwell just long enough to light the last shirt on fire. She popped back out of the door and threw the bottle as far as she could into the hallway on her left.

She was back in the stairwell with the door shut before the fire touched the alcohol but she could still hear the explosion clearly. She pulled the gun from her waistline as chaos sounded from behind the door. The men shouted and pounding footsteps ran past the door. She only waited a moment after the footsteps past before she slipped through the door.

Didn't spare the left hallway a glance, as she moved quickly down the right one, the gun held before her, both hands wrapped around the handle. The explosion had done its job as a distraction and halfway down the hallway she could Ezra and Tommy unguarded. They were sitting in the corner, their hands behind their backs.

A bruise was forming around Ezra's right eye. Tommy was not so lucky. His whole face was battered. Both eyes swollen shut, his cheek was turning purple and there was a trickle of blood running down from his fat lip. The sight was worse than Liv had expected and it rendered her motionless until Ezra said her name. It was enough to push her back into action.

She tucked the gun into her waistline as she hurried over to the desk, throwing drawers open until she found a pair of scissors. She quickly cut their ties and pulled Ezra to his feet. Ezra helped her get Tommy to his feet, looping one of Tommy's arms over his shoulder and support Tommy with an arm around the waist.

"Where to?" he asked, ready to move.

Liv froze. Her adrenaline had kicked in once Ezra was taken, and while it got her this far, it hadn't set her up with an escape plan.

"Panic room," Tommy mumbled, the words barely audible through his swollen lips.

"What?" Liv asked.

"Panic room!" Ezra said. "Why didn't I think of that?" He started moving, practically carry Tommy. Liv hurried after them, pulling the gun out. "Burkstrom has a panic room in his office," he explained quickly. "It's behind a false wall."

The three of them stopped when they reached the door. They could hear the men's voices heading back their way.

"Which office?" Liv asked quickly.

"Four over," Ezra said, thankfully nodding his head in the opposite direction from where the men were.

"I'll cover. Go!" Liv said.

There was no need to tell them to move quickly, they could hear the men's voices getting close. Liv looked both ways before she stepped out into the hallway and raised the gun, aiming for where the men would be appearing at any moment. Ezra and Tommy slipped out behind her. Tommy cried out in pain but kept going as fast as Ezra could move him.

She caught sight of the edge of a man about to turn the corner and fired off two shots. The men shouted in outrage and she pulled the trigger again. She took a few slow steps backward, never shifting her focus. She slowly counted to ten, letting an eerily silence fall before she shot again. She wanted the shots to feel unpredictable to keep anyone from trying to come after them.

"Liv, come on," Ezra hissed as he and Tommy disappeared into Burkstrom's office.

She kept moving backward until she stood at the doorway. She wasn't going to move until the panic room was open. She could hear Ezra and Tommy pounding on the wall. The men continued to shout but she knew they had nowhere to go. The hallway she had thrown the bottle in dead-ended in a bathroom. She shot again, and the men's shouts grew louder.

"We're in!" Ezra shouted. "Liv, come on!"

She fired off one more shot before she ran into the office. Behind the huge desk, part of the wall had disappeared to reveal a small room. Tommy was leaning against the back wall, barely standing as Ezra waving her forward.

Once she was close enough, he reached out and pulled her in. She toppled into him. He steadied her with one arm as he punched his fist into a large red button. A thick metal door slammed shut in front of them. There was a reassuring thud as it locked into place.

For a moment, all they could hear were their own heavy breaths as their chests rose rapidly. It was an eerie quiet and it didn't last long. Through the thick door, they could hear the muffled cries of the men as they spread out through the office.

Liv stood frozen, her eyes transfixed on where the door met the wall. If this room didn't hold up, they were sitting ducks. She jumped when Ezra took her hand. She looked at him and he gave her a reassuring nod. Whatever happened, they would face it together. She gave his hand a squeeze and they turned back to the door.

The metal door was thick which made it hard to understand exactly what was going on outside, but after it withstood the first round of fists and gunshots, Liv and Ezra began to relax. Liv dropped Ezra's hand and turned her attention to Tommy. He had sunken to the ground and looked ready to pass out.

"Tommy," she said softly. She could tell all he wanted to do was sleep, but she needed to check for a concussion before she could let him do that. She knelt as she said his name again. "Tommy."

This time, he opened the one eye that wasn't swollen shut. She leaned in, studying his pupil. This would determine whether they could just let him sleep until help arrived or if they needed to wake him up every hour or so. Thankfully, his pupil didn't look dilated and they could just let him sleep.

"Ezra, help me," she said as she moved to Tommy's side. Together, they carefully helped him until he was laying down.

The room was cramped with the three of them. With Tommy laying down it barely left Ezra and Liv space to sit. It was a bit of a puzzle figuring out exactly where they had space for their legs. In the end, they managed to find enough space to sit down, with Tommy curled up at one end of the space. Tommy fell asleep instantly and soon his soft, steady breathing filled the space.

It took a couple of different sitting positions until Ezra and Liv finally found one where they could both lean back. They both had to shift on an angle as the room wasn't even wide enough for them to sit side-by-side. They ended up overlapped, Ezra against the wall, Liv against him and his arm resting across her, their legs pulled up to give Tommy space.

"And now..." Liv said, "We wait."

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WOOHOO!! Get it Liv! That's what I'm talking about! A strong female character saving the guy! And the man she is desperately in love with!

😑 Fine, I'll give this one to you.

Yay!! I win! Love wins!!

They're stuck in a panic room that they might never get out of. For all you know they could die in there. So yes, I guess love wins until the air runs out.

Is that how panic rooms work!?

I don't know, I did zero research.

Well I'm choosing to have hope that they make it out alive and live happily ever after! Or that they live. I'll be happy if they just live...and love each other for the rest of their lives.

Don't be shy! Share what you will! We shall listen! And when I say listen I mean we'll read it.

Vote, comment, follow  because you want Ezra and Liv to live! Heehee Liv and live.