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The paramedic who’d checked Arthur out aover, as was another paramedic, several policemen, and a pair of soldiers It looked like Arthur’s sudden collapse was the invitation to action they’d all been waiting for He hoped the soldiers weren’t as jumpy as the policeun

The paramedic was the first to reach him He held the inhaler up and helped Arthur take so through it for soh the mask, it was clear he was cross

‘Why didn’t you tell eant He’s got asth patients would just spread bits of infectious material around, so I wouldn’t recoasped Arthur

‘Okay, just relax,’ replied the paramedic He turned to his partner ‘We’d better take him Grab the roller, will you?’

Within athat helped hih it ainst that Then they bundled him onto a stretcher, ran it across the street, and slid him, stretcher and all, into an ambulance

In threethe buses as they headed for the designated quarantine hospital Arthur was counting on it being East Area Hospital, because that was the closest to the school It was also close to the House, and if he was right they would pass that weird building on the way, though on the other side and several blocks over fro on the promised intervention by ‘Will,’ who he supposed was the same person or entity as ‘The Will’ that Mister Monday and Sneezer had talked about, who he presuured that if he could get close to the House, it would do soet inside

Unfortunately he couldn’t see out from inside the ambulance He was loosely strapped to the stretcher so he couldn’t sit up, and there were no s anyway, except for the one in the hatch at the back

‘Where are we going?’ Arthur asked

‘East Area,’ said the para next to him ‘Don’t talk Save your breath’

Arthur s Now he just had to wait fiveParks Way, which would border the House Then so would happen, he felt sure

They drove on, without the siren As the minutes passed – or what felt like et anxious What if he rong? It seemed like they must already be past Parks Way, just about to turn into the hospital Heout Or maybe it had tried and failed Perhaps Mister Monday’s ain the Key

Then there was a sudden noise on the roof of the ambulance and it slowed dramatically

‘What in the world!’ exclaih his mask it came out as, ‘Werrin der wold!’

The other parah the front to the windshield Arthur took the opportunity to draw the Key froripped it firmly, all traces of his asthma vanished

The a sound of rain now a constant roar on the roof, as if they were parked next to the ocean and the waves were crashing very close

‘Local cloudburst!’ shouted Arthur’s parah to the front, only his waist and legs still in the back part of the a fine’

Arthur took a deep breath and touched the Key to the strap at his side

‘Release! Undo! Unlatch!’ he whispered He hoped that would work

The strap fell away, the click sed up by the sound of the beating rain Arthur quickly whispered the words again and touched the other strap Then he sat up, and repeated the process with the strap over his legs

Then he threw himself forward, pulled the hatch handle, pushed the door open, and half-jumped, half-fell out into the heaviest rain he had ever experienced Rain that actually hurt, the drops as big as his fist, so big that when they broke over his face he thought he ht drown

It was so heavy that Arthur couldn’t see a thing Blindly, he waded around the back of the aht direction The road was already knee-deep in rushing water, the drains totally overwhelmed by the downpour

Arthur clutched the key and pushed on, his chin tucked in to his chest to try to keep the rain out of his eyes, nose, andHe dimly heard a shout from the ambulance

Then, all of a sudden, the rain stopped Arthur lifted his head and looked around, only to see that the rain had not stopped everywhere He’d walked out of it Only a few steps behind hi down as hard as ever But the rain was only falling on the road, and the dark cloud above wasn’t er than the ambulance

It was hard to see into this weird, incredibly localised cloudburst, but Arthur saw a blurry shape leap from the back of the ambulance The paramedic had come after hiet very far The rain intensified even er individual drops butdumped horizontally from the sky The para like a cork as he ashed down the road Fortunately, thought Arthur, he couldn’t drown in his biosuit, with its independent supply of oxygen

A reat groan of rubber letting go, and it followed the paramedic down the road, much more slowly Arthur watched aest flash flood that anybody had ever seen It wouldn’t take theet away Already the rain was lessening and the cloud was shrinking