My eyes bulge with surprise. He clears his throat but tries to be discreet about it while closing the folder he’s holding.
Does everyone know about me around here? I wonder what he read. No doubt, he read about my sin, but what other information is there?
“Come with me,” he says.
As I follow Sutton down the hall, my stomach somersaults. I grip the front of my shirt as sweat drips down my back. I hate the unknown. New things intimidate me and the last few days have been nothing but new. It makes me feel devoid of any energy at all.
I hear nurses laugh and then immediately turn and whisper as I pass.
“Ignore them,” Sutton tells me.
“I’ll try.”
Men whistle from their rooms, and I keep my head locked in place.
“I love me a naughty nurse,” one says. “Can you bathe me, sweetie?”
Again, the nurses laugh and Sutton shakes his head. I want to curl into a ball and roll far away from here. Being called something you’re not gets really old.
I put my fingers in my ears, trying to make it look like I’m rubbing them, and enjoy the muffled voices. Sutton takes me around the hospital floor, showing me where everything is and where not to go.
“Do you usually give tours?” I ask.
He chuckles. “This is actually my day off. I just came in to catch up on some charting. We got slammed last night, and I couldn’t keep up. But it all worked out. Since I had to come back and finish my paperwork, I got to meet you and show you around. Something I never get the chance to do.”
I try to suppress my surprise, but it’s hard to do. Why would a doctor want to do my orientation?
“You actually keep records here?” I ask.
“Not exactly.”
He leads me down the main hallway, and I count ten doors as we pass. He reads the expression on my face.
“One patient per room,” he explains. “No such thing as having a roommate here. It’s safer that way.”
Luxury in the Hole. That’s a first.
The rooms are identical with one mattress on a wooden frame that’s supposed to resemble a bed and a simple bedside table. A chair sits in the opposite corner near a four-drawer chest made from corkboard and a bathroom you can almost stand in. White industrial-grade tiles with small specks of color line the floors with multiple cracks and warping. No light. Just a candle.
“This is the soiled linen closet that you’ll get acquainted with. It’s your new best friend.” He opens the door and lets me look inside. “All new personnel start here.”
Two guards, in their typical stiff uniforms, walk toward us. They nod at Sutton as they stroll by. As he turns to speak, one of them winks at me.
“There’re always guards coming and going. You have to be on your toes at all times,” he says as if he knows what happened behind his back. He swipes his badge, and we reenter his office. “The guards are cocky and will give you a hard time because they can. They have no boundaries, even in the hospital. Just watch your back.”
He sits at his desk and leans back.
“Everything on this floor is under surveillance. The back staircase is the only exception. Years ago, the cameras were damaged and fixing them isn’t within our budget. There’s no way in or out of the building from those stairs. You can go to the basement or the morgue—all of which are dead ends.” He pauses and says with a laugh, “Not a very upbeat orientation, is it?”
I smile. “No.”
Finally, someone with a sense of humor.
I can’t remember the last time I smiled.
“Did you pick me or was I assigned to you?” I ask, remembering my earlier conversation with Cole.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what their methods are,” he says as he pulls something out of his desk. “Your keys.” He throws them to me.
I catch them with both hands, losing my balance and falling off my chair.
“Well, that was graceful. Are you all right?” He offers me his hand, and I take it. “Do you have any questions for me?”
“Nothing I can think of off the top of my head,” I reply, even though I’m dying to know why he’s been so nice to me. I dust myself off and try to pretend I didn’t just make a fool out of myself again.
For rest of the day, I shadow a nurse’s aide and get to know the basics of patient care. By the time seven rolls around, my feet throb. These slippers have no soles and no arch support. My shirt sticks to my skin, and my hair is plastered to my neck.
Cole and Zeus arrive at the nurse’s station. Cole talks to one of the female nurses and smiles his crooked smile. His dark eyes catch mine for a quick moment, but that’s the only acknowledgement he gives.
Nauseous much? I can totally see him being a man whore.
“Talk to you later,” he says to the redhead.
“I’m looking forward to it.” She grins and flips her hair.
Oh barf.
He silently leads me out of the hospital. We’re back in the alley with Zeus in front this time. The sun sets in brilliant hues across the sky, but the tall silhouettes of the buildings obscure my view. Now and then, we run into a beggar. Cole ignores them like he does the discarded furniture we step around, but one in particular haunts me. On his neck, he’s branded red.
Wrath.
“Can you spare some change, ma’am?” he asks.
“I don’t have any money,” I say.
Cole yanks my arm, but not before I hear the beggar say, “I know you’re innocent. Your eyes—”
I stop and turn back, about to question him, when a loud bang rattles my brain. Something warm splashes my face. I wipe it off with my hand, which is now streaked with red.
Blood.
CHAPTER 4
Cole shoves me to the ground, forcing a grunt out of my mouth as he lands on my back. My ribcage feels crushed under his weight. Bullets kick up dirt in patches around us and ricochet off the walls. Looking up, I see the beggar crumple. Blood pours from holes in his torso, and a vacant expression is plastered on his worn face. My stomach lurches at the violence of the shooting. We lay there for a few minutes as more shots are fired and a troop of guards sprints past. We wait.
“Crap,” Cole says under his breath. A group of sinners flood the entryway. Some carry crowbars and sunlight glints off the others’ knives. Zeus charges toward them.
“You have to run!”
“What?”
“Run! Now!” Cole points in the direction we were heading. “Go!”
I turn and run.
The streets all look the same. I bolt down the alley and sprint past a series of dead bodies. I have no idea what I’m doing, where to run, and why I think I can get there without getting killed first.
“Get her!”
Their words bounce off the walls and echo in my ears. I don’t look back when I reach the end of the alley. Left looks like it takes me down more narrow alleys, but right looks like it takes me back to where Cole is.
“Now what?” I say aloud. Frustrated and afraid, I tangle my hands in my hair. I wish I had Cole’s map with me now. Just then, someone pushes me from behind. I should’ve sensed danger when the noise around me ceased. I turn, and a group of sinners encloses me.
I’m trapped.
I can’t breathe.