“Danny, how are you feeling today?” she asked, moving into the room.
He responded with a single, soft grunt. She sat on the edge of the bed. The poor kid needed a bath badly. His hair was a greasy mess, all tangled up and sticking out. Selene eased his blanket down and pressed her fingers against his neck. His pulse was weak. She felt that right away. When she laid the back of her hand against his cheek, he felt like an oven. The poor kid was burning up.
“Not feeling so hot today?” she asked.
“The mountain…and the…there…” Danny trailed off into unintelligible nonsense.
Hallucinating again. He did that when the fever was bad. Selene rose and went to her own room to retrieve her herbals, which she’d carefully arranged in an old fishing tackle box. She had some dried echinacea pills in a small cloth pouch in one of the trays, and she picked it up. When she brought it back to him, it took a moment to rouse him.
“Danny, can you sit up for me?” she said, gently shaking him. “I have medicine for you. Echinacea will reduce your fever. Come on, Danny. Help me out here.”
He moaned again but finally rolled onto his back. Though his eyes were closed, when she slid an arm under his shoulders, he struggled to rise. His moan became a whimper, and she felt his whole body shudder.
“Where’s Dad?” he said, his face scrunching up. He sounded close to tears.
“He’ll be back soon,” Selene replied, “but you need to get better for me, okay? I want you to take this pill.”
He opened one bloodshot eye and looked up at her. “Soon?” he said.
“That’s right, and he told me he wants you to take your medicine. Can you do that for me? Open up.”
Danny nodded and opened his mouth. Selene slipped the pill onto his tongue, then grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand beside the bed. He took a sip of water and managed to get the pill down, grimacing from the effort.
“There you go,” she said. “That will help you feel better. Do you think you could eat something today?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, as she laid him back onto the bed. “Probably not.”
“Maybe later,” she said.
“Later.” He rolled away from her, curling up into a little ball.
Selene pulled the sheet up to his shoulder, tucking him in, and rose. As she backed toward the door, she could see that he was shivering. She considered adding another blanket, but she knew he wasn’t shivering from the cold.
Not much more I can do, she thought. Somehow, I have to get him to eat.
Standing there, watching the poor kid in his worsening condition, Selene felt more isolated and alone than she’d ever felt in her whole life. She ached with it. Finally, she turned and left, wanting—needing—to go back outside.
25
As Elna paced from corner to corner, she heard Malin muttering under his breath.
“That rat. That bastard. That scumbag,” he said. “I knew Mark was no good. I knew it! I should have put an arrow right in his eye.”
Elna paused at the door again and looked through the small window. The parents and child across the hall had shut their door, so she could no longer see them. But the shoes on the floor were still there. She assumed it was one of the staff members, either unconscious or dead. She pulled on the door handle again, though she knew it was locked.
“We should have sensed that there was something wrong with him, I suppose,” Elna said. “We spent days walking with the guy. There must have been signs. I guess I was too lost in my own despair.”
“There were signs,” Malin said, smacking a fist into his open palm. “Oh, there were signs. Don’t you remember the times I fought with the guy?”
“I just…I thought you two were being grumpy,” Elna said. “I’m losing my touch, Malin. I don’t know. I really didn’t expect this at all.”
“No, it’s not on you,” Malin said. “It’s on me. I’m the one who saw through the veneer. I was thinking about hunting and didn’t deal with the guy.” He smacked his own forehead. “I’m so stupid. So stupid!”
“Regret won’t fix anything. We have to get out of this room so we can rescue Raymond and get the medicine we need.” Elna began tapping the window with her hand, hoping to draw attention.
“The door is locked, and the only window is too small to get through, even if we could break it,” Malin said, smacking his forehead again.
“Stop doing that,” Elna said, sharply. “Hitting yourself doesn’t get us closer to a solution.”
After a moment, she saw the sneakers on the floor slide out of view, as if someone had dragged the body away. When a face suddenly appeared in the window, Elna stumbled back, startled. It was a staff member she hadn’t seen yet.
“Hey, can you help us?” Elna said, shouting to be heard through the window. “Is there a way to open the door?”
“I don’t have access,” the girl said. She looked like she’d been crying. “I’m just an assistant here. Anyway, I don’t know if I’m supposed to. They said you might be a security threat.”
“We’re not the security threat,” Elna replied. “It’s the other guy. The big guy in the black coat.”
“Where did he go?” the girl asked. “He hurt some people. They might be dead. I don’t know.”
“ICU,” Elna replied. “Listen, there’s got to be a way to get this door open. Help us out of here, and we’ll do what we can to keep you safe.”
The girl wiped tears off her cheeks. “I can’t…I don’t…” She began to breathe fast and shallow.
“Listen, don’t panic,” Elna said. “What’s your name?”
“Julie,” the girl replied, as she struggled to get her breathing under control. “Okay, let me think.” She pressed her hands against her face. “Okay, the door locks are magnetic. I’m pretty sure if we shut off the power, they’ll disengage, and the doors will revert to the manual locks.”
“That’s good to know, Julie. Thanks. Do you know of a way to do that?”
The girl shook her head.
“Can you go and ask someone?”
“The thing is, there are no more nurses down here,” Julie said, fresh tears springing into her eyes. “I think I’m the only one left on this floor, and I don’t want to go upstairs. That’s where ICU is located.”
“Julie, we brought a patient here with us,” Elna said. “He has a son with a rare medical condition. We came here to get an experimental drug called Formula 7351. Have you heard of it?”
“Yes, yes, I know about that,” Julie said, she kept glancing over her shoulder, as if afraid Mark would show up again. “Formula 7351. It’s barely out of Phase 1 trials. That lasted eight weeks, and they’d just signed people up for Phase 2 when the EMP hit.”
“Great,” Elna said. “So you have the drug here?”
Julie nodded, wiping away more tears. “Of course.”
“I also need something called midodrine,” Elna said. “It’s used to treat low blood pressure. Have you heard of it? Do you have any here at the clinic?”
“I’m pretty sure we do, yeah,” Julie said, looking over her shoulder again. “I don’t want to stand here any longer. That guy could come back. I have to go.”
“Thanks for your help, Julie,” Elna said, trying to sound upbeat. She could tell Julie was on the verge of losing it. The girl looked like a cornered rabbit. “Can you do me one more favor? Can you find someone who would know how to cut the power? Maybe an administrator or a doctor, a nurse, custodial staff, anybody like that?”
“I guess so,” Julie said.
“Okay, please do that, Julie. Go and get someone. Then you can leave the building or find a safe place to hide.”
Julie nodded but didn’t move.
“Go ahead, Julie. You can do it.”
Finally, the girl turned and slipped out of sight. Elna heard her footsteps moving down the hallway. And then she was gone, and an awful silence descended on the room.
“Well, at least we know they have what we need,” E
lna said, turning to Malin.
He was standing in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips and his head down. “Doesn’t do us any good knowing anything if we can’t get out of our little prison cell.”
“Julie went to get help,” Elna said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
“Assuming she doesn’t flee in terror,” Malin said.
Elna turned from the window and studied the room around them. There were no other windows in the room. A single fluorescent light flickered from the ceiling, and a counter and cabinets lined one wall. Other than that, there wasn’t much. Elna searched the cabinets and found plenty of the usual medical supplies: cotton swabs, bandages, tongue depressors, and the like. Nothing that would get them out of the room.
She walked over to the chairs and picked one up. Plastic with a metal frame, it was sturdy, but not nearly heavy enough to break through the reinforced door.
“I’ll bet we could get out of here if we had the crowbar from our toolbox,” she said, “but, of course, we left our stuff in the lobby. Why wouldn’t we? We’re all friends here.”
She dropped the chair rather roughly and sat down on it. After a moment, Malin came over and sat down beside her.
“What do you figure our buddy Mark is doing?” Malin asked.
“You know what he’s doing,” she replied. “Looting the place. You know how much all the medication in this clinic is worth? A hell of a lot more than the crate of Gold Label. It’s what he intended all along. That’s what I think. With all of the medication in this place, and my crate of wine, he could live like a king.”
“I had a thousand opportunities to take that guy out,” Malin said, “and I didn’t do it.”
“Well, we don’t normally kill people to prevent them from future possibilities,” Elna said.
Malin grunted and said, “We’ve killed people before…when we had to.”
“And we may have to again,” she said, “but we don’t use precognition, Malin. We didn’t know.”
He sank into a sullen silence. Elna didn’t have anything else to say. Minutes passed, and the silence continued. The clinic had become utterly still. It was probably night by now. Elna felt it. Her body cried out for sleep.
“I’m not sure our friend Julie is coming back,” Malin said.
As if in response to this comment, the lights suddenly dimmed. At first, Elna held out hope that someone was shutting off the power, but the lights didn’t go out completely.
“It must be later than I thought,” she said. “I’m guessing the lights are on a timer. ‘Time to sleep, folks.’ That’s the message, I take it.”
She rose and went to the door, pressing her face to the glass.
“We have to get out of here,” Malin said. “Somehow. Whatever it takes.”
At the far end of the hall, she saw shadows moving, as if people were walking from room to room around the corner. However, they never appeared, and eventually the shadows retreated out of sight.
“We’re not going anywhere until someone lets us out,” she said, returning to the chair. “We’re not going to batter down this door.”
“So, what then?” he said. “Are you just going to settle in for the night?”
“Until someone comes for us,” she said. “Let’s hope Mark gets what he wants and leaves the clinic in peace.”
“He’d better not take my bow,” Malin grumbled, crossing his arms.
“I’m sure he wants the medicine,” Elna replied. “He’s clearly a smart guy. He managed to win us over and get us to help him break into this place. Once he gets what he’s after, I think he’ll leave quietly and head for the hills.”
It didn’t take much longer for exhaustion to burn through whatever anxiety she’d felt since Mark’s sudden turn. She wanted to stay awake, to listen for anyone coming down the hall, but she could tell that wasn’t going to happen. She tried walking circles around the small room for a while, but that didn’t help.
“Julie’s gone,” she said, finally. “Malin, I think we’re stuck here for now, and, I have to be honest, I can’t stay awake much longer. At this point, all we can do is hunker down and wait. Would it be the worst thing in the world if we took turns sleeping?”
She turned to him, expecting some resistance, but he just smiled sadly at her. “No, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Why don’t you sleep first? I’ll keep watch for a while.”
“Thanks,” she replied. “The good news is, if we can just get out of this room, we know now that we did not come here in vain.”
“Assuming old Doc Mark doesn’t take the medicine we need,” Malin said.
A thought she had avoided. Elna sighed and moved to the far wall. She took her raincoat off, rolled it up into a makeshift pillow, and lay down on the floor. It was pretty close to the most uncomfortable place she’d ever attempted to sleep. Despite the cold, unyielding floor pressing against the entire right side of her body, she soon found herself drifting off to sleep.
Take whatever you want, Mark, she thought. Just leave Daniel’s medication and the midodrine. Do that, and I won’t hold anything against you, you miserable piece of crap.
It was her last thought before sinking into a deep, dreamless sleep.
All too soon, she felt someone shaking her, and she fought her way out of sleep. When she opened her eyes, she saw Malin kneeling beside her. Sleeping on the hard floor had made her body stiff, her back sore. Only her head had avoided the misery, propped as it was on the rolled-up raincoat.
“How long has it been?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Malin replied. “I would have given you more time, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep my eyes open.”
“No, it’s fine.” She sat up, pressing a hand into the small of her back. “I’ve had more comfortable beds, to be honest.”
She became aware then of some distant sound. Voices, people moving about, and it made her instantly alert.
“What is that?” she said.
“No idea,” Malin replied. “It’s been going on for a while. Nurses in a patient’s room down the hall, I think. Our door’s still locked.”
Elna rose as Malin took her place. She stumbled over to the small window in the door and pressed her face to the glass, trying to see as much of the hallway outside as possible. She saw shadows moving in the doorway of a room down the hall. She was pretty sure she heard someone say Code Blue, but many voices were speaking over each another.
She began tapping on the glass. Surely, they could spare one nurse to come and let them out. Someone had to have a keycard that accessed the door. When no one responded to the tapping, she began pounding the door with her fist. She kept this up for a few minutes, until her hand ached.
Something louder, she thought. Pound on the glass with something really solid like your life depends on it.
She went back to the cabinets and began rooting through them again. This time, she did a more thorough job, removing each and every box, jar, or container and setting them on the counter. She found small bottles of rubbing alcohol, a box of paper clips, scalpels, bandages, latex gloves, tissues, and much more. In the process, she came upon a small brochure for the hospital. When she unfolded it, she saw that it contained a simple map of the clinic—all three floors, including elevators, fire escapes, even fire alarms.
She started to put the brochure back, but an idea struck her. It was one of those bursts of sudden insight that she so relished. Folding the brochure, she tucked it into the pocket of her denim shirt.
Yes, I think that’ll work. I think that’ll work just fine. Or get us killed. Only one way to find out.
26
Malin had just settled himself on his rolled-up raincoat, his hands clasped on his chest. He looked a bit like a corpse in a coffin. Elna didn’t care for it. Still, the poor guy was surely exhausted from keeping watch. She hated to rouse him, but it couldn’t be helped. She shut one of the cabinets hard enough to make a loud bang, but he didn’t react at all.
He opened one eye and looked at her. “Tell me someone came to unlock the door.”
“Nope, we’ve been sadly neglected in the name of triage,” she said. “However, I do have a rather remarkable Plan B.” She pulled out the brochure and waved it back and forth. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. My logic center is only at about half capacity these days, but at least I finally got there.”
He laughed and sat up, clearly confused. “What in the heck are you talking about?”
As she went through the supplies from the cabinet, she found a small bottle of rubbing alcohol and set it to one side. “Come here, Malin. I need your help. Sorry, sleep will have to wait.”
“That’s fine,” he said, standing up. “What do you need?”
“Give me your socks,” she said, grabbing a couple rolls of cloth bandages and setting them beside the bottle of alcohol.
“Oh, no, no,” Malin said with a laugh. “You don’t want me taking my socks off in an enclosed space. I’ve been wearing the same clothes since the day we set sail.”
“We’ll survive,” she said. “If it’s any consolation, I’m taking my socks off as well.” She found a small, battery-operated thermometer and set it with the bandages.
“Okay, you asked for it,” Malin said, taking off his shoes.
Elna did the same so they would stink up the room at the same time. And it was ripe. They had become a symphony of pungency. Malin set his socks beside the bandages, making a sour face.
“I can’t imagine what you have in mind,” he said.
Elna scanned the ceiling until she spotted the fire sprinkler directly overhead. “We’re going to set off the automatic fire alarms in the building,” she said, unwinding the bandages. “I’m hoping it will disengage the door locks. At the very least, it will make enough noise to draw attention.” She unscrewed the cap on the rubbing alcohol and poured it all over the wadded bandages and socks.
Island Refuge EMP Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 47