Tean took off after him.
As he ran, the chaos of the fire alarm built in slow motion.A man in scrubs backed out of a hospital room, and Tean swerved to avoid a collision.A gurney lurched into Tean’s path at the next intersection, and he had to hit the brakes, the soles of the Keens squeaking against the linoleum.A woman on a walker hailed him with a raised hand, calling a question over the blare of the alarm.
“Someone’s coming for you,” Tean shouted over his shoulder.
It wasn’t a realfire—at least, he didn’tthinkit was a real fire—but he wasn’t sure, at this point, that it made a difference.People died in evacuations all the time—from falls, or trampled, or maybe worst of all, asphyxiated by the mass of bodies that didn’t give them room to breathe.
Ahead, Daniel’s slim form darted between patients and staff, slowly widening his lead.
With a grimace, Tean turned up the speed.He wasn’t much of a runner, but hewasa hiker, and years of long walks over difficult terrain had layered him with solid, if rangy, muscle.He was an adult—technically, if Jem was to be believed, in the prime of his life—while Daniel was still a teenager.And although teenagers did have what seemed like limitless energy, their bodies were still developing, muscles still being built.
Past a room where a man sat upright in bed, clutching a hairpiece and looking around confusedly.
Past a nurse who had fallen—been pushed, part of Tean’s brain wondered—and lay in a pile of paperwork.
Past a young mother who huddled with two small children, her arms wrapped protectively around them.
He cut the corner at the end of the hall in time to see the door to an emergency stairwell swinging shut.
Cold, exposed concrete met him, in contrast to the creams and beiges of the finished hospital interior.A few people trickled down the stairs, but not enough to hide Daniel, who pounded down the steps, already close to the landing below.
As fast as Tean was going, he was going to trip.The Keens seemed too big for the treads, and his brain tried to calculate what was going to happen when he finally lost his footing.He kept one hand on the rail, and overlapping coats of paint skimmed beneath his palm.
“Tean!”
The shout came from above—Jem, hair falling out of its part, peered down the stairwell before starting down the steps two at a time.
“Be careful!”Tean shouted back, which was probably not what you were supposed to do when you were in a high-speed chase, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Slow down!”an older, heavyset man with motorcycle boots shouted.He had one arm around a much smaller woman, pulling her out of the path.
“I’m sorry!”Tean called as he passed them.
“There are people here!”he shouted.
Jem’s answer was to shout, “Whee!”The vocalization was followed by a chiming sound that Tean suspected came from the handrail, followed by the thud of a landing.
“Oh shit,” Jem said, but he was laughing, and the voice was much closer now.“Tean, did you see that?”
“No,” Tean gasped.A stitch pulled in his side, and all the blood seemed to have rushed out of his head.
He reached the bottom of the stairs.The door ahead of him was still halfway open.Cold air rushed in.
“I slid down the rail,” Jem said as he sprinted past Tean.“It was awesome!”
Tean had no idea how the younger—muchyounger man, apparently—was managing to talk so much and also run faster than him.His half-cohered thought was approximately:All that stupid McDonald’s.
A heartbeat later, he emerged from the stairwell and into the parking garage.Brakes screeched.Footsteps echoed.A man shouted, “Over here!Over here!”Engines came to life like a herd of wildebeests raising their heads.People were streaming toward vehicles as they evacuated the hospital, but for a moment, Tean couldn’t find Jem.
There.
The blond man wasn’t moving down the main section of the parking garage; instead, he’d exited by the closest pedestrian path, and he was disappearing outside.
Tean started to run again.His legs were heavier now, and no matter how much he focused on breathing deeply, he couldn’t seem to get enough air.
As he exited through the pedestrian path, the honking horns, the squealing tires, the slamming car doors—they all faded behind him.He found himself on a narrow patch of lawn framed on three sides by structures: the parking garage on one, and the hospital on two others.The remaining side was open to what appeared to be some sort of service drive, which was empty of traffic.For the moment, the only other people in sight were Jem and Daniel, ten feet ahead of Tean.
“Hey!”Jem said as he grabbed Daniel by the shoulder.