Ground floor.
Well, sort of.
It was really level two, but the last floor with shops. From there, you descended the big, main staircase that split the mall right down the middle and took one out to Hollywood Boulevard.
“That’s it,” she said. “I’ve got to get to the street.”
It was such a beautiful evening that she assumed the Boulevard would be teeming with people. She could get lost in the crowd.
“There!”
The new voice calling out sent panic surging through her. She looked over her shoulder again to see the four men coming for her.
Shit!
Surveying the path before her, she saw a large group of shoppers, nearly taking up the entire corridor. They looked to be some kind of school group or something, full of teens and just a few adults trying to herd them.
Looking below again, she grinned.
It wasn’tthat fardown to the next level. Not even a full story, really.
Directly in the center of the next level was a large green circle of artificial turf, some seats arranged around it, and towering palm trees in planters ringing the circle.
I can probably reach one of those palm trees,she thought.
“Well, Trixie,” she told herself as she climbed onto the railing, “if you get hurt, maybe the hot fireman will come back to help you.”
People were screaming now as they realized a young woman was about to jump.
“Help her!” someone yelled.
“Security!” another person called.
Trixie ignored them all and leapt off.
She had figured it would seem like an eternity as she soared through the air, like on a movie where someone is falling and it all unfolds in slow motion.
But this was fast. She hit the palm tree before she knew it and slid right down it, like a firefighter down a pole.
John would be proud, she thought with a wry grin.
The gasps and cheers of people reached her ears. She assumed they were now taking video and pictures and all that. Let them. That didn’t matter.
Staying alive did.
She came off the tree right in front of a Victoria’s Secret and collided with two women who had just exited the store. One of their bags went to the ground, spilling lingerie.
“Sorry! Cute outfit, by the way,” Trixie told them as she scrambled to her feet and charged to her right.
She didn’t waste too much time looking around, but it was evident from a quick scan that her pursuers had not been brave enough to make the same jump she had.
So that gave her a precious few seconds to hurry down the main staircase and out to Hollywood Boulevard.
As she suspected, it was alive and busy, as was the case more often than not.
Directly across the street was the El Capitan Theater and the old Shriners auditorium that now hosted theJimmy Kimmel Live. She thought about crossing to blend in with the crowd that was gathered out front, but decided to stay on that side of the street and turn right.
“Excuse me,” she said as she cut through the throng. “So sorry. Pardon me.” She heard a few “Heys” and caught a couple of angry glances, but no one tried to stop her as she made her way past the Dolby Theater and the Hard Rock Café.
