Mount Mercy

“No!” I yelled. I put my hands up, pleading. “Wait! We can do this peacefully. They’re leaving!” My heart was hammering against my ribs. Beckett. Taylor. Two nurses and me. All of us were between Lloyd and Colt, right in the firing line. And all around us were patients and other staff. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

“Put your gun down!” yelled Lloyd. He was silhouetted by the moonlight coming in through the windows and I could see his finger tensed on the trigger.

Colt’s gun stayed rock-steady against the back of my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Seth slowly raising his gun to protect his father. “No!” I yelled. “We can’t have any shooting in h—”

I think Lloyd fired first, when he saw Seth raise his gun. Then Colt’s gun was jerked away from my head and he was firing, too. Time slowed down. It seemed to take an eternity for me to reach Beckett and tackle her to the floor, covering her body with mine. Colt was standing right over us, the spent shell casings falling like rain, the detonation of each shot slamming painfully into our eardrums.

Seth had his gun raised, ready to support his dad, but when he saw Taylor still standing, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the floor.

Another cop heard the shots and ran to join Lloyd. More bullets slashed through the air above us, some so close I could feel the wind as they passed. I crushed Beckett to the tiles as hard as I could, that soft copper hair against my lips, the scent of her and feel of her filling my senses.

And that’s when I knew. The thought of her being snatched away from me scared me more than anything I’d ever known. I had to be with her.

In my mind, I hugged Chrissy and Rachel as hard as I could...and then I finally let them slip away.

For a second, I thought we’d be ripped apart. That’s what I’d been scared of, this whole time, that if I let them go, they’d be gone, whipped away from me and lost in the blackness. But they just floated there, close enough for my fingertips to brush theirs. They weren’t going anywhere. But now I could rise up, grab hold of Beckett—I drew in a long, shuddering breath—and be free.

It felt amazing. Tears were welling up behind my closed lids. I pressed myself to Beckett as tight as possible. Why did I wait so long? Colt’s assault rifle roared again, bullets slashing mercilessly through the air above us. What if I never get to tell her?

A scream, from behind Lloyd. I opened my eyes and saw one of the nurses stagger and fall as a bullet clipped her leg. I looked beyond her and realized with a sickening lurch that the cops were standing in front of the exam area, where the rooms only have curtains for fronts. And Colt had backed up against the patient area. “Stop!” I yelled. But my voice was lost under the gunfire.

Colt grunted as one of the cops hit him in the leg. He fell to one knee, slapped a new magazine into his gun—

“No!” I yelled.

Colt sprayed the whole area around the cops with bullets. The cops ran for cover and I saw the curtains twitch and flap as bullets slashed straight through the exam rooms. Then the cops returned fire and I heard shots go right past Colt and into the patient bed area. Oh Jesus. It was Main Street all over again but ten times worse: this was our home, this was where we lived. Everyone in the firing line was either someone I worked with or a patient who was already critical. God, Rebecca was in one of those beds!

Colt stopped to change magazine again, snarling at Seth to cover him. But Seth was still shielding Taylor with his body. The cops pushed forward and Colt finally had to break and run, heading for the stairwell. One cop gave chase. Lloyd tore Seth away from Taylor, slammed him to the floor and handcuffed him. Taylor half-sat up and stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears. Seth didn’t resist, just stared at the floor.

I scrambled to my feet and checked Beckett, but neither of us were hurt. I clutched her to my chest in relief. “Somebody turn the lights on!” I yelled.

The cop chasing Colt yelled to Lloyd, “He’s heading for the basement! I’m going after him!” Lloyd raced to join him and they disappeared down the stairs.

The lights flickered on, painfully bright after the darkness. After the deafening gunfire, it seemed weirdly quiet. Then, as my ears recovered, I started to hear the sobbing, the whimpers of pain. God, there were bullet holes everywhere. “Who got shot?” I yelled, looking frantically around. “Who got shot?!”