Page 104 of Wild Escape

The trail of blood had ended.

Levi couldn’t have gotten far.

He was lucky. His injuries were mostly flesh wounds. The bullets had embedded in his shoulder and his thigh. Soft tissue. No bone or major vascular structures. He wouldn’t be running a marathon any time soon, but he was mobile.

I spiraled down the staircase, heart pumping. My feet clattered against the steps, echoing off the concrete walls. I burst into the lobby and sprinted toward the exit, my head scanning from side to side.

I didn't see any sign of the perp.

I asked the clerk at the front desk, "Have you seen a patient come through here, limping?" I described Levi. He was hard to miss.

The clerk shook her head.

"An inmate escaped." I gave her a card. "Call me if you see anyone matching that description."

Fear rounded her eyes.

I darted out through the main entrance and scanned the area.

Still no sign of Levi.

A guy like that would stand out.

Frustrated, I stepped back inside, scanned the lobby once again, then waited for deputies to arrive.

Levi had to be in the building.

Once other deputies were on site, I told them to secure all entrances and exits. Then I headed back up to the trauma ward and walked the hallway, peering into patient rooms and storage closets.

A doctor in a white lab coat, surgical mask, and cap passed by. He was a big guy and had a slight limp. It took me a second to snap to it.

I spun around, drew my weapon, and took aim. "Levi!”

The doctor kept walking, trying to hide his limp.

"Don't move! Stop right where you are!"

Levi took another few paces, then spun around. The lab coat twirled. By the time he faced me, he had Halford’s pistol in hand and took aim.

BANG!

He fired a shot.

The bullet snapped down the hallway.

I squeezed my trigger twice in quick succession. My 9mm hammered my palm, and two bullets rocketed toward the dirtbag, pelting Levi in the chest. Crimson blossomed his teal scrubs, and he fell back against the tile. The white lab coat was soaked with blood. His lungs filled with fluid, and he sucked gurgling breaths for air.

The deafening bangs had echoed throughout the hallway.

Levi’s bullet had put a hole in one of the paintings.

Staff shrieked, and commotion stirred.

I moved forward, heart thumping, and kicked the pistol away. I hovered over the body while trauma nurses rushed to put pressure on the wounds and triage the patient.

Levi wouldn’t survive this one.

He bled out in a matter of seconds. His last breath rattled.