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"Like you belong here," he said, and leaned in and kissed me--quickly, but with an intensity that spoke to his fear, and to ourtotheto be okay We were going to find a way toto spend the rest of ed hospital roo open Nathan and I pulled away froht as we prepared to flee Fang looked at us disdainfully, tilting his chin up just enough to let hily effective expression
"Daisy’s already waiting for us in the parking lot, so if you two lovebirds are done celebrating the fact that we’ve made it this far, we’d like to make it the rest of the way," he saidred, and hurried out of the rooed into the chaos of the hospital
I’d believed , based on Nathan’s description anda sleepwalker outbreak I hadn’t been prepared at all
There were bodies everywhere we looked Sourneys like the one they’d used to bring ainst the walls, hands clasped over obvious injuries and shocked expressions on their faces Those were actually the ones that bothered me the least They were clearly upset about what had happened to them Their wounds hurt They could feel pain, and they were connected enough to their bodies to understand what thatand have it taken care of Those people ht be infected--theSymboGen’s saturation of the market--but they weren’t sleepwalkers yet
The ones that worriedthe into nothingness with the characteristically dead eyes of someone whose human mind has shut off, but whose tapewor fresh instructions The ones who see s their continued life even as the worration I stuck close to Nathan, trying not to look at those people It was like I was afraid that eye contact was all it would take to make them come after me
The air smelled like blood and vomit and hus that I didn’t want to put a name to People cried and screaood, yes, that was all welcome, because those cries were human The people who made the was a lot less welcoh the crowd like a ht spaces, and Nathan and I followed his he created in the brief seconds before they could close again We were like a surgical laser: we didn’t wound the crowd, but we sliced it open and let it heal behind us, leaving no trace, creating no scar
One of the dead-eyedmy move on Fang’s heels in h along to start picking up on my pheromones, ere in trouble Real trouble, the kind that no clever plan or stolen car was going to get us out of
Nathan produced a clipboard fro it off one of the hooks on the wall He handed it toit I duckedas the letters seee Sally wasn’t dyslexic before I chewed myself a place in her brain Sorry, Sally On the plus side for her, she didn’t have to live with the consequences of what I’d done, and I did
Next tiht, and barely suppressed an inappropriate giggle The stress was getting toto be attacked at any second, or stopped by hospital administration when one of the, I didn’t work there None of us did
A few of the people in lab coats looked up as we passed, but Fang h purpose for ten people, and I had a clipboard; as long as Nathan and I stayed close to hi so essential It was all props and posing Maybe that was enough
It wasn’t until we reached the doors that one of the actual doctors see He turned away fro across his face, and raised a hand in a beseeching gesture "Wait!" he cried "Don’t go out there!"
It was too late Fang had already hit the doors, never breaking his stride, and ere supposed to be his little research team We followed him, only to stop dead as he ran out of rooe--it was enormous, as befitted a medical center of this size It was that the lobby was even worse than the halls, so full that there was barely room to take a step
People had spilled over fro the couches and chairs until no more bodies could be packed onto the on the floor They h ht-eyed awareness that meant a consciouswo slack, the baby’s eyes filled with the nothingness thatover that tiny body Nathan followed rimaced