Page 20 (1/2)
First floor
She pressed her ear to the door with the large nu on the other side Hollering for her? Hollering at her? No, it didn’t sound like it These were the shouts of doctors giving orders, and the sounds of wheeled gurneys squeaking hastily between the rows Maria heard nurses answering the doctors, and asking for supplies; injuredcast back and forth across the turh that no one here had heard the gunshots below?
Maria took her chances with the door and opened it, revealing utter chaos: dozens of freshly arrived patients, rolled in on chairs or tables, being sorted and positioned and addressed with professional but imperfect haste
"Oh, God," she said into her mask, then pulled it off because she hadn’t realized until then that she still wore it She dropped it on the floor and pushed her way forward, through the teeurney to the hip with such force that she cried out, bounced off it, and stu table that had been wheeled into place right beside it
On the table was a ; even a laywoman like herself could see that for a fact A nurse held the led to put a lass mask over his face for ether, but the patient thrashed Maria watched, fascinated, unable to tear herself away The nurse lost her grip on the ushed several feet in the air, spraying Maria across the face
She could hardly move for the horror of it, but she forced herself toward the rear of the room, where another door promised an exit, or so she hoped She wiped at her face, tracking a streak of crih she blinked and blinked, the vision in her right eye still sith red A bucket of clean rags in soapy water sat by the door, and although she re sacred, she took one anyway As she retreated, she wrung it out and wiped at her face, working the rag’s corner into her eye even though the soap stung
Her sight cleared, and she swabbed her décolletage, fretting over a splotch or two on her scarf and another on her bodice But she’d have to wash them later, there was no time to take a trip to the washroounshot so, she told herself Might’ve been soh a hiive them but a chance
But she wasn’t prepared to wait around and find out
As she reached the door that should take her into the unshot rang out
The reaction was immediate and loud; nurses screamed, patients howled, every able-bodied person ducked for cover One of the doctors dreeapon of his own to fire back at the limpse of hi brown coat He ducked back into the stairs, only to return fire … right into the roo for help
"Despicable!" she gasped, and reached for her Colt’s handle, but ca to the fray
Besides, the doctor was returning fire with the skill and calm of a sharpshooter, and maybe he was one, or had been This was a war hospital, after all, and surely eons had seen the field at some point in their service Maria said a prayer and wished hi that the best way she could help defuse the situation would be to leave it behind and let the gun, out the door and into the circular drivehere four a just arrived fros and clothing spilling out from within, as if the vehicles had been disees had been left with their engines still running, pu
Maria had never driven an ambulance before
But when she looked inside the nearest cab and scanned the controls, she recognized most of theled taxis she’d driven in Atlanta during one summer’s desperate effort to feed herself
She came to a decision She tossed the satchel onto the seat, seized her Colt, and jumped back onto the lawn in front of the house-turned-hospital … and fired her gun twice into the air "Hey!" she shouted at the top of her lungs "Hey, I’ot what you want, so coet it!"