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“I need to go. I love you,” she says before the line goes dead.
“Fuck!” I scream into the empty basement, my voice echoing around the walls as my brothers and I run to the car. I’m scared. I need her out of there. I need her safe. I need her with me.
We waste little time. Tennyson has the car out of the basement, just as I hear Ben talking with Harrison. He meets my eye, and we share a look of foreboding. I clench my fists and swallow the lump in my throat.
This is not happening. This cannot be fucking happening. I look out the window, praying that everything will be okay.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR - KATIE
“How was the man in 204 today?” Shelley asks as I meet her at the nurses’ desk after my afternoon rounds. I feel good today. Eddie and I having some quiet time in the neonatal ward helped, and I am excited to see what he can do with the extra funding requirement for the babies.
“He was okay. Grouchy and a little angry, but nothing out of the ordinary,” I tell her. He has dementia and came in for a stent, but since he keeps forgetting, his recovery time is a little longer.
“Did he keep his IV in this morning?” Shelley asks me, already knowing the answer.
“Nope. Saw it, got a bit scared, and ripped it out again.” I sigh. I put that IV into his arm almost every day because he forgets where he is and what is happening. His hand is now a little bruised from all the activity.
“Hey, watch it!” We hear a man yell, and we both look over to see a young blond girl walking swiftly down the hallway, pushing her way among the people. She turns to look at me on the way past, and my breath catches in my throat as I see her unkempt bleach-blond hair and dirty attire, but this time, she gives me a smile. Showing me her blackened teeth. My heart starts racing, and I quickly look around for Steve, even though I know he is still in custody and can’t possibly be here. My eyes find hers again, and I realize her smile is not one of warmth, but more sinister than that. The look is fleeting as she begins to run, again pushing her way past people and out the door.
“That was weird,” Shelley mumbles. “Do you know her?”
“No. But I have seen her before,” I murmur, still looking at the doors, wondering what she was doing here. I should ring Eddie or Ben. Maybe security or someone. There is no reason for her to be here unless she was visiting someone, and I have a feeling she doesn’t know anyone on this ward.
“Do you smell that?” Shelley asks, and I look at her.
“What?” I ask automatically, sniffing the air.
“Smoke?” she says, and I take another big sniff and I do.
“Oh my God, I can smell it.” We both frantically look around. The desk phone rings then, and Shelley grabs it, listening, then looking at me wide-eyed.
“We need to evacuate everyone immediately. A fire has started on both the east and south sides. Fire department is on their way, but not here yet,” she says as we throw down our paperwork and start to move quickly out from the desk, just as the alarm sounds and everyone begins to panic.
“We need to evacuate!” Shelley yells to staff, patients, and visitors, some running, others walking, and others just standing around, looking at everyone, wondering if this is just a drill or serious. Then people start coming from everywhere else, security, patients, visitors, nurses, doctors. It is complete bedlam as everyone runs in every direction. The panic is further enhanced when the automatic sprinklers come on.
“Katie, clear rooms 200 to 205. I will clear 205 through to 210. Then we meet here and walk out together once we know the ward is clear,” Shelley shouts at me to get over the noise, and I nod, trying to rub the water out of my eyes, my hair and face now completely drenched from the sprinklers.
“Got it,” I yell back as I get a push from behind, almost slipping on the floor tiles before we rush off in opposite directions. I check rooms 200 and 201, both having older male patients in them, and both have their family here visiting. So together, I help put them in wheelchairs, clip their paperwork to them, and send them all out with an orderly to the evacuation location outside.
Rooms 202, 203, and 204 are all completely vacant already, so I leave the door open, and the curtains around the bed pulled back to help the fire department see that the room is empty. I learned emergency procedures early on in my career and have kept up with annual training since. Who knew it would come in so handy this early on in my career.
My cell phone buzzes in my pocket from where I kept it since my lunch break. Eddie.
“Eddie!” I yell, hoping he can hear me above the noise.
“Katie! Are you alright? Where are you?” he screams through the phone, but I can barely hear him over the alarm and yelling. I cough then, the smoke starting to linger around me, my throat dry and scratchy, despite the amount of water coating my frame.
“I’m helping get the patients out. I’m nearly done. The fire department has just arrived. I’m just going to your mother’s room now. She is the last one.” I walk down the hallway, covering my mouth and nose with my elbow. I see a few people running, but not many. I feel like we are nearly all evacuated.
“Get out of there. You need to get out now!” Eddie says, but I can’t. I can’t leave any patient behind. I don’t answer him, because I can’t lie to him, especially as the smoke thickens as I run to his mother’s room, this end of the hallway obviously closer to the main fire.
“Katie? Katie?” Eddie says, and I need to concentrate. My eyes are stinging, and the noise is too loud.
“I need to go. I love you,” I yell to him before I end the call, pocket my cell, and run to his mother’s room.
Pushing open the door, I am surprised to see her still here.
“Mrs. Rothschild, we need to evacuate the hospital,” I say calmly as I walk around her bed. Having just come out of surgery earlier, she still has a range of monitors and IVs connected to her. Since I haven’t been managing her at all, it is all unfamiliar to me, and I try to quickly work out what it all is and what she needs. I can’t wheel her bed out and maneuver all these machines at the same time; it would take at least three people at best.
