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We were going to die We were going to crash and die, and even when I felt the car stopto have an accident, and ere going to die I was going to die again, and this time, there wouldn’t be anyto die ere going to--

"Sal!" Nathan tightened his hands onme out of the dark pit I had suddenly fallen into "Sal, I am so sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to do that to you Please, come on, honey, come back to me Breathe You need to breathe, Sal"

I had to stop screa before I could breathe in That felt like one of the hardest things I had ever done Raising ain, louder than they’d ever been before "The car," I whispered, staring at Nathan’s pale, drawn face

"I know, Sal, and I am so sorry Please believeto be okay if I start driving again?"

No No, I won’t be okay; let’s leave the car here and herever it is we need to go We can walk forever if we have to Just don’t start the car Numbly, I bit my lip and nodded I didn’t want to stay here forever, and I knew that we couldn’t walk home But oh, I wanted to

"Okay Good I a, "I hate to ask you this, Sal, but is it all right if we don’t go straight back to your house? I think I need to stop at the hospital"

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand as I forced myself to sit up "Okay," I said, in a small voice

Nathan started the car and pulled away froray San Francisco City Hospital wasn’t built to look i: it was built to house a hospital It was si than Syned space beneath the building, gesturing for ot out of the car and walked briskly toward the employee entrance I followed As I did, I realized that I felt oddly unclothed withoutessential

If Sys, I could always replace theht keptas Nathan led h the maze of corridors and hallways inside the hospital

Once ere inside the service elevator bound for the fifth floor, Nathan turned tothis, but I need to knohether Sy with the rest of us"

"By ‘doing this,’ you reallyme with you, don’t you?"

"I do," Nathan ad rooood Put on a lab coat and we should be fine"

I frowned at hi this"

"No, I’m not, but I want you with me; you’re the one who sahat Dr Lo did" He opened a locker and passed et in any trouble if we’re caught"

"I’m not the one I’ri that serious when someone had died "I have a clean record, and this probleet is a slap on the wrist"

Soht as that, but there was no sense in arguing with hih for ed on the lab coat he’d handedmy hands co in the world hotter than a cute girl in a lab coat," he said

I blinked "With that attitude, I would have expected you to be dating my sister"

"What can I say? I like what I like Now come on We have so only once, when he ducked into a supply rooed with a wand that looked like a more primitive cousin of the one Dr Lo had used to exaain

At the end of the hall was a large door marked INFECTIOUS MATERIALS: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY There was a large biohazard syet the point Nathan ignored it as he pushed the door open and kept walking I trusted Nathan I followed him

The hallway on the other side looked just like every other hall in the hospital… except that there were no people here The usual one, replaced by the huhts, which seemed extremely loud without all the sounds of humanity tointo a sreen curtain shielded the occupant fro Beverly’s owner I gasped I couldn’t stopman, connected to him by a variety of tubes and wires A clear plastic tube snaked out from under the covers; they’d catheterized hioing to wake up enough to take care of his bodily needs I recognized most of those tubes and wires from my own stay in the hospital after my accident I’d been wired up just like that when I first woke up But this ns, in a room all by himself They didn’t expect him to wake up, ever