CHAPTER 10

Down the ramp I see a similar scene, save for a bleeding Grace. Echoing from above the car ramp I hear the pained screams of an animal waiting to be put out of its misery. On the opposite side of the garage is a blank wall empty to the fullest amount. Or would that be the least amount? To my right is another slope downwards to the next floor down. I keep running down as the screaming from above quiets ever so quietly.

On the floor below I see a door outfitted with all different kinds of warning signs, it's very old and tattered and most of it has scraped off, but I can read "D....GER:...RATOR ROOM." I hear a thud against the door, someone's on the other side! I grab the handle and swing it open, a shot rings out and I jump out of my skin as I see the quick trail of a bullet fly past my head, mere inches from lodging itself into my eye socket. Tom spills out of the room and crashes into me. I fall to the ground with him, he's much heavier than I originally pegged him as. "OW! Wh-Gavin?" He sputters about as he jumps to his feet. He slams the door and locks it tight from the outside and looks to me with a wild look in his eye. "What the hell happened?"

"That fucking woman from before, from the room with all of the beds got away. I saw her when we fell and I went after her, both you and Grace were unconscious from the fall still. I would have woken you up if she didn't start running away from me," he says, moving quickly to the ramp leading downstairs. I stand and move to follow.

"And what was that?" I ask.

"I caught up to her, and she had me pinned down. I didn't know she had a gun."

"Grace managed to wake up and completely avoid waking me," I say.

"I didn't know she woke up, you either, to be frank. I had to find that woman, I wasn't even thinking about waking you two," he says. "Do you know where she is now?"

"No," I lie, following him down the slope to another floor that looks identical to the ones above.

"Damn, I didn't get a chance to look. Were there any other pathways that you ran by that she could have gone down?"

"Maybe, but I don't like having that woman so close to us," I say.

"Right, you're right. Maybe she found her own way, we can loop back around, but we need to be safe first,"

"To be fair, I don't think we've been safe at all through any of this, but don't let me talk down your lack of conscience," I say.

Hey, if he's willing to talk himself into ditching Grace I won't interrupt any more.

"Right, I don't like the feeling of leaving, but you know,"

"Yeah, I know, I think I'm starting to like you a little better, Tom," I say.

"You don't seriously consider this a good thing?"

"I think it is better her than us," I say.

"Why?"

"Because I need you," I say, running to a door on the far side of the garage. "C'mon, we can't be taking that slope all the way down."

"Need me? For what?" he holds the door open so he can slip through behind me.

"You're a med student, you saw that box in my backpack, right?"

"I...yeah, I saw it."

I grab at my back as we step down the stairwell that seems to go on for eternity.

Just how large of a building are we in?

I take out the medical report and hand it to him, "I got the main points. Dementia, I got that. I need you to read me the prognosis," I say.

"I..."

"Tom, I need you for little else. I'm going to tell you straight I'm letting you tag along because you can help me out," I say.

"And Grace?" He asks.

"I didn't kill her, no...well, not directly. She was above us, the floor above us, I mean. When I found you. Shot, from the woman most likely. I need you to read me that prognosis, stat."

"You...you're insane," Tom stops halfway down a step.

"Well, according to that, yes. But Tom, this is important, I need to know how long I have and what comes next, then I need to find that girl-"

"Find the girl? Why in god's name do you want to do that?"

I can feel my head start to pound, but this isn't one of those hallucinations, this is just a normal headache. "Because I need to find out what she did to me when she touched me, because before all of this bullshit I didn't ever have these weird ass hallucinations. Tom, I'm seeing stuff I shouldn't be able to see," I say.

He looks at me and then down to the paper, "This doesn't in any way, shape, or form excuse what you did," he says, and then looks down at the paper.

"I'm not asking it to. I know I'm fucked up, I want to know for how long."

Tom looks back up at me, "What did you see in these hallucinations?"

"I'd like to keep walking as we talk," I say.

Tom nods and continues moving down the steps, almost as if he'd forgotten what he'd just been through. I guess I can share in his sentiments.

"Are you coming?" I ask, jumping down the stairs by threes.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"I saw the people who were here before. Like, that Mason and his daughter and shit. Things like that, almost like I was looking into a window of the past or something." Tom nods and his pace picks up a tiny bit, but then he turns on a dime.

"What? What is it?"

"We're going back to get Grace," Tom says.

"What?! Why?" He hands me back the papers and I take them slowly. He takes in a deep breath and smiles, "If you want to know your prognosis, then you're going to come along and you better hope that she's still alive,"

"Wh-what? That's so not fair!" I scream at him.

"Think of it this way, you won't get lost finding that girl, but something tells me she won't do much talking. Come on, let's go," he says, running back up the stairs.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.