by Nick Thacker
Bethany turned away and walked into the room. "Let's not waste time," she said. "Get your kids and see if they can walk."
Adam followed the order, but stopped as soon as he saw the interior of the room. "Kate."
She turned to look at him, already standing next to one of the three beds in the room.
"Kate, where's Sarah?" Adam saw the three beds -- one for his wife, two for the twins. There was no fourth bed. The twins were wide-eyed, sitting up on their beds and watching him.
"They -- I don't know," she said, wiping away a tear. "I never saw her. They didn't tell me anything, and --"
"Get the twins, and follow us," Adam said. He reached out and grabbed Sammie's hand, pulling her along with him. He gave it a quick squeeze, but his attention was already on the hallway.
"Bethany, can you give us cover?"
"Of course." She stood inside the door, peering out around the wall and down the hallway, when Reggie walked up with Jeff leaning against him.
"He's got shrapnel in his knee," Reggie said. Jeff's face was contorted in pain.
Or fury. It looked the same to Adam.
"Can you fight?" he asked.
Jeff nodded, holding up his rifle as a symbol of his readiness.
"Okay, we don't have a choice then," Adam said. "We're going to have to shoot our way out, but do your best to check each room for my daughter. She's --"
"We're not wasting more time, Adam," Jeff said. His voice was a low, pained growl. "Let's get out of here."
Adam shook his head. "No, unacceptable. We're going to find her."
Bethany's nostrils flared as she glanced between the two men staring each other down. Adam was more concerned about Bethany than the angry, injured man in front of him. Bethany was tall -- well over six feet, and she was big. Not in an overweight way, but in an I'll-kick-your-ass-if-you-look-at-me-wrong way. He also noticed, for the first time, that she was completely bald. The top of her head even shined in the dim light bouncing down the corridor.
He looked to her for confirmation, assuming she'd have the same reaction she'd had before.
She sighed. "He's right. We're not leaving until we've at least looked for her. Reggie, can you get him to the copter if we clear a path?"
Jeff growled, but didn't argue.
"Absolutely. How long?"
"Ten minutes, then liftoff. No exceptions, understand?"
He nodded, then shifted Jeff's weight to his other shoulder. The two men, sharing a leg, lifted their rifles and faced down the hallway, like they were preparing for a macabre three-legged race.
"Okay then," Bethany said. She glanced at Adam, Kate and the twins standing just behind him. "Let's roll."
She pushed off her back leg like she was diving into the deep end of a pool.
In a sense, that's exactly what Adam felt like they were doing.
A shark-infested, dark and deadly pool.
TEN
The hall came to another corner, the same corner their attackers were hiding behind. Adam tried to recall the layout of the hospital based on the three hallways they'd seen so far, and why the designers had chosen a letter "Z" for its shape. Maybe there were larger meeting halls and lab rooms tucked away behind the corridors, behind the hospital rooms, and the hallways were placed around those.
Adam didn't know, but it was, strangely, this particular discussion he was having with himself just before the group had launched their attack. He almost laughed out loud but was able to hold it in. Whatever meds they'd had him on were causing all sorts of problems with his neurological system.
The feelings of drowsiness and drunkenness had been replaced by a calm stoicism, but he was having a hard time focusing. He placed his open palm against the wall and brushed it, wondering yet again why the designers and builders had chosen that particular drywall texture.
He shook his head, forcing himself to focus. They'd all stopped at the next corner, waiting for someone to make the first move. Kate was there, and the twins, along with Reggie and Jeff and Bethany.
Bethany.
The bald Amazon woman who'd gotten his family back. Most of my family.
Bethany looked at him. "You ready?"
He thought about the question. No way in hell I'm ready for more of this. "Yeah."
"Good." She pushed off again, a track star launching herself off the starting block, and raised her gun to the side as she lunged into the open space.
The response was instantaneous. Shouting and gunfire erupted from both Bethany's gun and the guns that were pointed back at her. Guns Adam couldn't yet see. He knew they were there, pumping rounds into his corner of the hallway hoping to strike anything or anyone, by chance alone.
And they did.
Bethany wailed, spinning around and falling to the floor. Reggie and Jeff, the three-legged second wave of their tiny advance, were shooting back down the hallway and working their way forward. Adam wasn't sure what to do, but he swung his pistol around the corner anyway.
Kate ran out to the middle of the hallway, exposing herself.
"Kate!" he yelled. She ignored him.
She knelt down next to Bethany and rolled her over. Adam saw a gaping wound in her shoulder, but the woman was alive. Kate pressed down on the wound, causing a yelp of pain.
Adam cursed, but moved out into the open hallway. He aimed down over the small mark on the end of his pistol, down the corridor, but wasn't sure where in his line of sight he should put it. A person jumped up from behind an overturned gurney and he saw a flash of light as they opened fire.
Reggie, Jeff, and Adam all shot at once, and the gurney imploded in on itself under the massive barrage of fire. There was no return gunfire.
Adam grabbed one of the twins with his free hand but didn't dare look behind him. He delivered the instructions over his left shoulder, hoping they were listening. "Get into this room," he motioned to an open door on their right with a flick of his head. "Stay there, and wait for me to whistle. When I do, run out and get into the next room. I'll open it for you. Got it?"
He felt a slight squeeze on his hand, and a whimpering 'yes' from Sammie.
"Good. I'll open the doors for you as we go. Do not hesitate, and do not run ahead."
Another squeeze. Good enough, he thought. The room next to him was completely filled with what looked like scuba gear. There were large metal tanks with short, stubby caps lined up against the walls, and thick lines of clear tubing rolled and coiled hanging above them.
Oxygen, he thought. The room was otherwise empty, and he urged the twins forward into it.
He looked over at the others to assess their situation. Bethany was standing now, her arm over Kate's shoulder, who looked like she was about to collapse under the woman's weight. Adam knew better -- she was strong, and she'd get through this.
The men, Reggie and Jeff, were also doing better. Jeff was limping along on his own now, only using Reggie as support every few steps by holding an arm out and steadying himself. Reggie was staring down the corridor, alert, waiting for anything to move.
When it did, the eruption of gunfire from their three rifles and Adam's pistol nearly deafened him, but it had the same effect as it did the first time.
A dark silhouette of a man slid down the door they were leaning against and out into the hallway. Dead. Their gun, an assault rifle like the ones Adam's group was carrying, lay out in the middle of the floor. He made a mental note to grab it as they ran past.
If they could get that far.
Adam opened the door to the next room in the hall -- T-14 -- and checked it. Finding it empty, he whistled.
The twins scurried into it and waited, safe beyond the reach of the enemy's guns.
They continued undeterred to the fallen man and Adam grabbed the weapon from the cold, hard tile floor. It was heavier than he'd thought it would be, but it felt comfortable in his hands. It felt good in his hands. There was a grenade, too, and he picked it up and handed it to Jeff.
Kate whispered, a few steps be
hind. "Adam." He stopped, turning to look at her.
She was looking back at the corner of the hallways, where three armed men had just appeared.
"Take another step and you all die," one of them said. Their voice was warbled, as if being processed through a filter on their vocal cords. Kate froze, still supporting Bethany's weight.
Adam considered their options. Stay and try to fight, and one of us -- at least -- is going to die. Unacceptable. Turn and try to run, we're all going to die.
He took a quick glance at Reggie and Jeff. Jeff was staring straight at him. Trying to tell him something without saying anything.
What is it?
Jeff's eyes darted downward, then flicked up again at the approaching three men.
Adam understood immediately. The grenade. He tried not to move his mouth as he whispered. "Aim for the first room."
He felt his palms grow slippery with sweat and wondered if he'd be able to aim and shoot the rifle. Of course I will, he thought. Now, when it matters more than anything I've ever done in my life, of course I will. He tightened his grip and waited.
He heard Jeff pull the pin out of the grenade, but the explosive device didn't leave his hand. Do it, he thought.
Do it, you fool.
Jeff waited. They all waited. Adam didn't know if Reggie or Bethany -- or Kate, for that matter -- had heard the pin, but he didn't care. If Jeff didn't throw the --
He threw it. It was a timed charge, and he'd timed it perfectly. The grenade swung out in a low arc, barely missing the ceiling, and bounced into the first room. He didn't see where it had finally landed, but it would have to be good enough.
The three men didn't see the quick motion Jeff had made with his left arm, but they heard it land. Their reaction, however, was misplaced. Instead of trying to open fire, they wasted a precious moment looking into the room to see what had caused the sound.
By the time the grenade went off, the men were stopped right outside the room full of oxygen tanks. There was a glass window covering most of the wall of the room, immediately becoming a barrage of deadly glass projectiles when the grenade detonated.
The following explosions were pressure-related, but the oxygen from the now-busted tanks quickly mixed with the flames and produced a lethal fireball that consumed the three men. Their screams echoed into the corridors.
Bethany turned around, nearly pulling Kate away from her. Adam locked eyes with her for a split second before he got the message.
"Run!" she yelled.
They all obeyed, turning and running for their lives down the rest of the hallway. The twins were already out of the room, easily keeping pace with the adults, who were mostly injured, drugged, or otherwise handicapped at the moment.
Three more people emerged from behind doors, but Adam and the others weren't about to give in. They fired, each aiming at a different target. Two of the men went down, the third took a hit but was still standing.
He fired a burst from his rifle. Adam and Kate, with the twins and Bethany, kept running as Jeff and Reggie went down. He couldn't see who was actually hit, and he didn't stop to find out. Get the kids out first. Besides, he remembered what Jeff had said earlier: Anyone falls, leave them behind.
He hated that he found himself agreeing. But he ran.
The last man fell, but Adam fired three more bursts in his direction, hoping he'd kill him quickly if he wasn't already dead.
T-10, T-8, T--
He stopped.
"What is it?" Kate turned around, no longer hearing her husband's footsteps behind her.
Adam stood in the doorway of T-8, staring into it. He stepped into the room, looking at the single bed in the center of the room. The others were there, including Kate and the twins, and all of them stepped into the room.
Flashing lights and monitor beeps filled the room, and tubes carrying medicines and saline ran around and into the tiny body lying in the bed.
"Sarah."
ELEVEN
There was a certain type of fear that came over Adam--one he'd never felt before. Visceral, deep, like a curtain suffocating his insides, preventing them from drawing their life-giving breath. He shuddered involuntarily, growing colder. Kate was there, and the twins, but to Adam, in this moment, he was alone.
He was on an island, nothing but blackness surrounding him, cold, dark, blackness that filled his vision and his other senses. He could taste it, like it was in the air. There was Sarah, in front of him, on the island with him, tubes and machines and life whirring away into nothingness, into the blackness. She was calm, sleeping. He knew she wasn't in pain -- it was a parent's intuition to know that, but it didn't matter. To him, right now, she needed him.
He walked to her and the world reappeared around him.
There was more gunfire, and smoke and heat swirled through the air inside the tiny hospital room. He could smell sweat and blood -- a tinny, coppery smell that filled his sinuses until it became a taste on the back of his tongue. It was Jeff, or Bethany, and they were there in the room again. With him.
He wanted to scream. What are they doing to her? Why aren't we getting her out?
He looked at Kate. There was a sadness there. Not anger, not fear like he felt, but sadness.
What?
He realized he wasn't saying anything out loud, and that they couldn't hear his thoughts.
"What are you doing?" he shouted to no one in particular. No one moved. "Help me get her out!"
Still, no one moved. The twins swayed, each holding one of Kate's hands. Jeff and Reggie were looking down at the ground.
He flicked his eyes around. What? Why is no one talking?
The island of blackness came back, enveloping him now in silence and isolation with his daughter but leaving the smells, the smoke. He could taste everything, all of the pain and hurt and suffering they'd gone through. Sarah could taste it too, he knew it.
"Sarah --" he called out to her. She didn't move. Her eyes were closed, and she was sleeping. Sleeping.
Through all of this, she was sleeping. It was peaceful, something he hadn't thought would ever be a word to describe anything happening today. But there she was, sleeping, soundlessly. Peacefully.
He walked toward her again, this time stopping next to her bed. Her hand was curled up, slightly open, and he reached for it. It was cool, but there was a pulse. Gentle, throbbing, and peaceful.
He squeezed.
There was no squeeze back.
Adam was almost ready to start pulling the tubes out of her throat, out of her veins, and begin wheeling her away, bed and all, when the island disappeared. He blinked and the noise returned.
Kate had a hand on his shoulder. "Adam," she whispered.
Why are you whispering?
He looked around. Still no one else spoke, no one looked at him.
Except Bethany.
Bethany. The woman who'd saved him, fought for him. She was staring directly at him as she spoke. "Adam, we need to go."
That was it. Confirmation. Short and sweet, the confirmation that told him everything he needed to know. Everything he'd feared.
"Adam, I --"
"Stop," he said. His voice cracked, surprisingly. He hadn't felt that lump in his throat until right now. His body, too, was betraying him, fooling him into thinking he could talk when in fact he was breaking up. "Stop it, just go."
"Adam, we can't," Jeff said. The man was speaking low, his voice still strained and gravelly. "The helicopter is --"
"I know what the helicopter is waiting for," he shouted. "I'm not leaving."
The twins started crying. Sobbing. Kate was still there, holding his shoulder. She didn't dare speak.
Bethany was still staring. "She's in a coma, Adam. She can't function without the life support."
Reggie walked forward and grabbed the clipboard hanging on the end of her bed. He stared down at the charts and medical terms, and nodded. "She's right, Adam. They needed her blood for something, but they couldn't keep her stabilized unles
s she was comatose. They saved her life, Adam, but --"
"But what?" he yelled. He heard a door open somewhere far away, at the end of the hallway. They were coming. "Saved her life for what? She can't function at all, not like this."
"But if we move her, she'll die," Bethany said. "She has to stay here. We can come back --"
He held up a hand and walked over to Bethany, staring up at all six-plus feet of her. He turned his head slightly sideways, clenching his jaw. Very slowly, meticulously, he formed the words he needed and delivered the message. "Bethany, we are not coming back here. We are not doing anything. I am staying here with my daughter, until she wakes up." He swallowed, feeling another lump in his throat. "Take Kate and the twins, and --"
"No!" Kate screamed and ran over, shoving Adam to the side. "You think I'm going to walk away from her? That I'm going to --"
An explosion outside the hallway threw Adam to the side. He hit something, hard. A slight grunt he heard on impact told him it was a person, and together they landed in a heap on the floor. It was Jeff, judging from the way he was already reaching for his shoulder. He pushed up and off of the man just as two bodies rushed to the doorway and started firing.
Adam was nearly blind from the explosion, but he crawled toward the far wall, trying to find Kate and the kids. Instead, he found a tray of test tubes that were capped with colored blue stoppers. Each of the vials was filled with dark liquid. The blood. Adam grabbed a handful of tubes and stuffed them into a pocket, not even sure why.
It's her, he thought dimly. It's a part of her. They can't have it. Not one drop.
There was still smoke filling the upper half of the room, but it was clearing fast. The bullets were ricocheting all around, and he considered that the attackers might be having just as hard a time seeing as he did, and he tried to use that fact to his advantage.
He found a gun, one of the rifles, laying on the floor and picked it up. Without waiting to aim, he started spraying bullets back at where he thought the doorway was located. He hoped the explosion had knocked down everyone in his group, but he aimed high just in case.