Chapter 6 - Stairwell BThe hospital had become a maze of noise Caleb could not hear and danger Lily could feel.
Fire lights strobed against white walls. Nurses shouted instructions. Patients clutched blankets. Security guards waved people toward exits while administrators tried to look useful.
Lily kept Caleb’s body angled toward her so he could read her face.
Left. Slow. Breathe.
His jaw was locked so tight she worried he might crack a tooth.
Every step hurt him.
But he did not stop.
At the entrance to Stairwell B, Trevor appeared from the chapel corridor, wild-eyed.
“I couldn’t stay there,” he gasped. “A man in a suit came looking for me.”
Lily wanted to scream.
Caleb signed, Of course.
Trevor looked between them. “What did he say?”
“He is not surprised,” Lily answered.
Denise rushed up behind Trevor carrying a trauma bag.
“I saw nothing,” she said. “But if I had seen something, I would say you need supplies.”
She shoved the bag into Lily’s hand.
Lily grabbed Denise’s wrist. “Thank you.”
Denise’s eyes softened. “Bring him back alive. Bring yourself back too.”
Then she turned and shouted at a security guard, blocking his view of the stairwell.
Lily pushed the door open.
The stairwell smelled like concrete and dust.
They descended slowly.
Third floor.
Second.
Caleb’s breathing roughened. Sweat gathered at his temples.
Lily stopped at the landing and checked him quickly.
His pulse was too fast.
Skin too cool.
Pain too high.
“We need to stop.”
He shook his head.
No.
“Caleb—”
Not here.
Then Lily heard it.
Above them.
The stairwell door opened.
Heavy footsteps.
Measured.
Not panicked.
Not evacuating.
Searching.
Trevor whispered, “Oh my God.”
Lily looked around.
No hiding place.
Just stairs, railings, concrete.
Caleb’s eyes sharpened. His fingers moved.
How many?
Lily listened.
“Two.”
Weapons?
“I don’t know.”
Assume yes.
The old rhythm returned to her body with frightening ease.
She positioned Trevor behind Caleb.
“Stay quiet.”
Trevor let out a weak laugh. “That’s offensive under the circumstances.”
Lily shot him a look.
He shut up.
The footsteps grew closer.
Caleb leaned heavily against the wall, looking weaker than he was. Lily stood in front of him as if shielding a helpless patient.
Two men came around the landing.
One wore security black.
The other wore a paramedic jacket.
Neither looked surprised to see them.
“Miss Parker,” the paramedic said. “Administration asked us to escort Chief Ror.”
Lily smiled nervously.
A rookie smile.
A soft smile.
A harmless smile.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “He’s getting worse.”
The paramedic stepped closer.
Too close.
Caleb’s eyes stayed dull, pretending confusion.
Lily dropped the trauma bag.
The paramedic looked down by reflex.
Caleb moved.
In one brutal second, he caught the man’s wrist, twisted, and drove him against the railing. Lily kicked the fallen bag into the second man’s knees. Trevor, in a surprising burst of usefulness, slammed the stairwell door against the security guard’s shoulder.
The fight was fast, ugly, and mostly silent.
Caleb nearly collapsed afterward.
Lily caught him with both arms.
“Caleb!”
He looked at her, breathing hard.
Still dramatic?
“Extremely.”
Trevor stared at the two unconscious men. “I’m going to lose my license.”
Lily grabbed the paramedic’s radio and clipped it to her waistband.
“You might live long enough to worry about that.”
They made it to the ambulance bay where rain had begun to fall, thin and cold beneath the gray morning sky.
A row of ambulances sat idling.
Beyond them, a black SUV waited near the far gate.
Caleb saw it.
His face changed.
Meridian.
The SUV’s headlights turned on.
Lily pulled Caleb behind an ambulance.
Trevor was shaking. “What now?”
Lily looked at the ambulance. Keys in ignition. Driver gone, probably helping with evacuation.
She hated what she was about to do.
Then Caleb signed:
Steal it.
Lily stared at him.
“You are a terrible influence.”
He signed back, You are already committing several crimes.
“Medical necessity,” she said.
Trevor climbed into the back without being told.
Lily helped Caleb in, then jumped behind the wheel.
The black SUV rolled forward.
Lily started the ambulance.
For one half-second, she saw herself in the rearview mirror.
Not Lily Parker, the rookie nurse.
Not the invisible girl.
Sparrow.
Alive.
Angry.
May you like
Done running.
She hit the siren and drove straight through the gate.
