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"Nathan?" I keptto a panicky ani its best to remind me that humans were just aniht or flight response reaking havoc with both of us
I’d alondered why I sometimes passed out before I really panicked, despite everyone I kneorking almost exactly the opposite If "I" was a separate beast from the brain that stored h, it started to ot knocked out of the synaptic loop, resulting in a loss of consciousness but not total loss of cool Inefficient Doubtless unintentional, too So oing to look like" Nathan’s voice was soft, uninflected--virtually dead If I hadn’t known that he’d never been fitted with an iht my position on panic when I heard hierous, take the dogs and run I’ll hold theo where? Nathan, I can’t drive I never learned, and even if I had, I’d never be able to make myself drive away and leave you We could run off down the street, but if the situation is that bad, we’d just be eaten by the next swar with you We’re staying together That’s the only way that we’re going to get out of this Together" I forced myself to smile "Besides, you know your mother would kill me if I called her from the Concord BART Station and said, ‘Hey, I left your son to die but I made it to the train, do you think you could come and pick me up?’ "
Nathan chuckled
The floor indicator counted down froo of anything I had Nathan had already dropped his suitcase, and the --over the only personal possessions he had been able to save ht course of action He didn’t care that I was a tapeworm in a human skin, but he cared about proper leash etiquette I was never going to find a more perfect man
"I love you"
"I love you, too"
The counter reached one with a soft "ding," and the elevator doors opened to reveal an anticlimactically empty lobby I blinked, unable to believe whaton the leash as she eagerly tried to pullfor her snappedthe knife back into his waistband and grabbing his previously discarded suitcase
We ran
The street outside the apart was eerily deserted, as if all of San Francisco had suddenly realized they had better things to do than their afternoon cos out of a private building and into an equally private parking lot, should have attracted some attention of the police persuasion We saw no one, and if anyone saw us, they didn’t bother contacting the authorities--or maybe they did, and the systems had already reached the point of overload That was a question that would never be answered, because there wasn’t tis for us to do Like escaping the prison that San Francisco was about to beco the terrariuhtly s into the backseat before getting into the front Nathan waited for as, but only barely For once,to have to take second place on the list of priorities, and even as I sed the rising tide of panic--and the rising bile in reed with this decision I could have hysterics e got out of this
The druly I wondered what my tendency to freak out in cars meant for my "Sal passes out before the chemicals can make her panic" theory, and decided that since this particular strain of panic was psychological, not triggered by physiological reactions, it ran according to a different set of rules, even though the actual biochemistry probably wasn’t all that different This question kept me occupied for almost six blocks, whichto distract lanced up, and frowned as I recognized the neighborhood around us "Nathan, where are you going? This isn’t the way to the Bay Bridge"
"That’s because we’re taking another route," he said "There were too o By now the area has either completely devolved into chaos, or the authorities have it locked down We’d be lucky if they let us onto the bridge at all If ere particularly unlucky, they’d take one look at us and haul us off forI don’t know about you, but I didn’t escape froo into quarantine"
"I don’t want that either," I assured hi?"
"Down the coast to the San Mateo Bridge It’s going to be a longer drive, and I’m really sorry about that I should be able to slon once we’re past the airport"
I forced myself to nod as if I was okay with this plan, as if it didn’tfroht with you I don’t know if I can, but it would giveelse to focus on"