Gateway (The Gateway Trilogy, Book 1) (6 page)

“I'm not sure why she got violent around you, to be honest. I thought I might know, but…”

“But I don't have any birthmarks?” I asked, half-joking.

“But you don't have any birthmarks,” he repeated, completely serious.

A distant alarm sounded. Taren and I locked eyes.
 

“Is that for us?” I asked, more than a touch of panic in my tone.

He shook his head. “It shouldn't be. Even if they'd noticed we were gone they'd do a full sweep before sounding an alarm and panicking the whole hospital.”

As if on cue, another alarm sounded, this one closer.
 

Callie stirred and opened her eyes. “Taren? What's going on?”

“Don't worry. It's just a fire drill.” From the look in his eyes, he was trying to convince himself as well as her.

Before I could ask what we should do, the door to Callie's room opened of its own accord. The door to the room across the hall had opened as well.

“The locks have been disarmed,” Taren said in bewilderment. “What would—”

Figures raced past the door in hospital gowns. Screams and wailing could be heard, mingling with the shriek of the alarms. A nurse, eyes wild with fright, raced in the direction of the stairwell.
 

Taren motioned for me to stay back as he rushed to the door, scanning both directions.
 

“We need to get out of here.”

He didn't need to say it twice; fear had turned my veins to ice. I struggled to help Callie to her feet.

“Which way?” I asked.

I peered past Taren into the hallway. In both directions chaos reigned; patient fought orderly, nurse fought nurse. Others were simply fleeing. A petite woman in a hospital gown swung at a large man in an orderly's uniform. Seemingly impossible given her size, she sent him crashing into the wall. With a thud his head reverberated off and he slid to the floor, motionless. She turned, a trick of the light making her eyes seem to glow. A vacant-eyed woman, her clothing in shreds, stumbled down the hall, moaning. Her hand dripped with something red and sticky-looking, streaking the wall as she went.

I backed away from the door, shaken. “Why is this happening?”
 

“I don't know,” Taren shouted above the sirens, “but we have to get out of here. Now.”

Before I could protest leaving the relative safety of the room for what waited in the hall, Callie clutched her head as if in agony and repeated, “No, no, no…”

Taren grabbed her by the shoulders. “That's good, Callie, fight it. You have to fight it.”

“But there's so many, they want—”

“No, don't listen to them. Block it out. Remember what I taught you?” Taren's tone bordered on frantic.

“I can't think of a song, I can't think of one!” she wailed. She was using a fist to beat at her temple.

“Do the ABC's,” I said, desperate to help. “A, b, c, d, e, f, g…”

Taren nodded and joined in. “H, i, j, k — “

“L, m, n, o, p,” Callie sang at the top of her lungs, “q, r, s…”

“Keep going, say it over and over, don't stop,” Taren commanded. He turned to me. “Come on, we're leaving.”

Is he crazy? Of course he is, he's in a mental institution. Why wouldn't he be crazy?  I'm probably crazy, too. The people in the hallway are definitely crazy, which is why only a crazy person would go out there. Wait, does that mean I should follow Taren or I should—
 

“Ember!” Taren's voice was sharp, cutting through my babbling thoughts. “I don't want to have to leave you.”

My eyes got as big as saucers. Leave me? He would leave me?
Here
? The thought of crouching alone in the corner of a room without so much as a closet to hide in became more terrifying than facing what was in the hall.

He didn't wait for my answer. “Now!”

He bolted from the room, dragging Callie with him, her still shrieking her ABC's. I leapt to follow.
 
The stairwell seemed farther away than I remembered. Of course, fifteen minutes ago I was only worried about getting caught by an orderly, not a psychotic patient. The door to the stairs stood open and, amazingly, unoccupied.
 
We raced through and continued down the stairs. We'd reached the landing for our floor when the door burst open. We skidded to a halt in front of Lauren and Josh.

“It's coming, it's coming, go!” Lauren babbled hysterically.

Something, some
thing
large and terrifying appeared in the doorway.

“Run!” Lauren shrieked and tore past us, up the stairs, Josh following.

Callie's eyes widened with recognition. “You said they weren't here, you said—”

She began convulsing, her eyes rolling back in her head.

The creature had eyes like slits and a nose like a squashed bug, but its mouth… Its mouth took up the better part of its face. A gooey red liquid oozed from both corners and when it opened, four rows of jagged teeth gleamed in the fluorescent light.

“Get her out of here,” Taren said, pushing Callie into my arms. “Drag her if you have to.”

He took a step toward the beast.

“What? What are you doing? Run!” I screamed.

“I'll be right behind you,” he said calmly, dislodging a fire extinguisher from its case on the wall.

Whether due to self-preservation or his commanding tone, I left him there, pulling Callie along with me. I don't know how many floors I ran up—I didn't even know how many floors the building had—but when I reached the roof my lungs were on fire and I was gasping for air. I slumped against the doorframe, letting Callie collapse into a heap.

Moments later Taren stepped onto the rooftop.

“How is she?” he asked.

He was barely short of breath, his clothing drenched in a foul-smelling black slime.

It was my shock at seeing him again that made me realize that I'd been certain he would die. Certain he was sacrificing his life, if not for me, then for the young woman in a heap at my feet.

“Ask her,” I said. Not the best way to say thank you—he had saved my life, however incidental—but in the past half hour of sneaking down hallways, then running for my life, I'd begun to wonder, “What the hell is so special about her, anyway?”

He was kneeling, trying to rouse her. “You wouldn't understand.”

“Oh yeah? Try me.” I could hear the hysterical edge in my voice but could do nothing to stop it. “And while you're at it, why don't you explain to me what that thing down there was. And why you seem not at all fazed that a giant bug with the mouth of Jaws is running around a mental institution, or anywhere for that matter—”

“You need to calm down, Ember. Take a deep breath.” Taren didn't spare me a glance, instead he scanned the rooftop.

“Oh, no, you don't get to be patronizing,” I said. “I've put up with plenty of very weird behavior from both you, and now I want some answers.”

“I'm not trying to patronize you,” he said, turning to face me. “But there are things happening right now that are more important than your curiosity. Callie needs the help of professionals. Do you really want me to waste time explaining myself to you?”

I looked back at Callie, still motionless, and knew he was right.

With great care Taren lifted her in his arms and moved away from the stairwell.

“I know a safe place if you want to come with us,” he said.

If? I certainly wasn't going back downstairs, and I wasn't naive enough to think the roof would remain quiet for long.

I followed Taren to the roof's edge and peered over. We were only five flights up. It had felt so much further when I was running for my life and dragging an uncooperative Callie. In the distance, I could just make out two shapes sprinting across the lawn toward the main road. Moonlight glinted off of the bedazzled lettering across Lauren's rump—
Juicy
.
Nice of them to wait for us.

Taren pointed to the fire escape that only went as high as the floor beneath us. “Do you think you can make that drop?”

“Probably not,” I said, hoisting one leg over the ledge.

“No, let me go first,” he said, stopping me. “I'll need you to lower Callie down to me.”

I would have protested—he was vastly overestimating my arm strength—but it's not as though there were another choice. Taren leaned his still unconscious bundle against my chest, and I gripped her sides to hold her up. With the grace of one who was used to this sort of thing, he leapt over the ledge and landed softly ten feet below.

Taren extended his arms, preparing to catch.

For all her diminutiveness, hoisting Callie was no easy task. I eased her toward the edge, making sure I had a firm hold on her wrists. I knew there would be a point when her weight had shifted enough that I would have to let her go, and I braced for it, but it was futile. I couldn't even slow the process. With a thunk she landed half in Taren's arms and half over his shoulder. 

Knowing it was my turn, I came to sit on the ledge where I paused just long enough to realize both that I was scared of jumping and that this was probably the least dangerous thing I would do all night. My landing wasn't nearly as cat-like as Taren's and I crashed into the metal grating with all the grace of a hippopotamus.

We raced down the fire escape. After the carnage I observed passing the first window, I stopped looking. We reached the ground and I passed Callie to Taren in the same way I had at the top, to much the same result. The girl would be lucky if she didn't have whiplash.

Once on the ground, I made as if to follow Taren, but noticed he was heading in the direction opposite the main road, toward a wooded expanse. “Where are you going?”

He didn't turn or slow his pace. “This way,” was all he said.

I trailed after him, flushing with anger. “Yes, I can see that. What I don't understand is
why
you are going that way. Why you would want to make an utterly horrific and terrifying night even more terrifying by taking a walk in what looks like the forest in every horror movie I have ever seen.”

“You ask a lot of questions,” he said.

“Yes, thank you for once again stating the obvious,” I muttered.

Given any other circumstance I'd be telling this guy to shove it about now, but the truth was, there was no way I was striking off on my own that night. I followed along in sullen silence.

As we walked, the adrenaline that had been keeping me going drained from my body. Within fifteen minutes I felt like a rung-out sponge. The forest had grown denser and therefore creepier, but I was so tired it barely registered. After stumbling for the third time I broke the silence.

“I need to rest a minute,” I said, stopping to catch my breath.

“No need,” Taren replied.

“No need? I'm exhausted and I'm telling you, I—”

“There's no need, because we're here,” he said.

I had been staring at my feet, exhaustion pulling my eyelids down, but now I looked up to see we had reached a clearing. A gravel access road ended a few yards away.

He set Callie down gently on the soft grass and made his way to a large group of bushes. Only they weren't bushes. He tore at the branches which came loose in large chunks, revealing a car hidden beneath the foliage. Within minutes it was completely cleared off. He pulled off his shirt to reveal a well muscled chest, slick with sweat and dotted with scars. Tossing the soiled shirt aside he opened the trunk and retrieved a clean one.

“You have a getaway car stashed outside of a mental institution?” I asked, wondering if anything would make sense that night.

Instead of answering, he went to where Callie lay and scooped her up in his arms.

“Can you get the door?” he said.

I lurched to my feet and complied. He slid her into the back seat and knelt down to feel for her breath and check her pulse.

I wanted to ask what was wrong with her, but had the distinct feeling I wouldn't get an answer. I slid into the passenger seat in silence.

The drive was slow going until we reached the main road, where Taren turned in the opposite direction of the E.R. I'd been taken to just a day earlier.

“Aren't we going to the hospital?” I asked.

“She's not that kind of sick,” he said.

“Well, exactly what kind of sick is she?” Screw him not liking questions, that girl in the backseat needed serious help. “And don't say she hears voices because I hear one, too, and I'm not all unconscious about it!”

I'd never said those words aloud, and as soon as I had, wanted to swallow them back up. 

“You what?” His voice was made all the more intense by how quiet it had become.

“Well, I
was
in a nut house,” I said, “I'd have to be a little nutty, right? And don't start in about birthmarks because I'm telling you, I don't have any.”

“You're absolutely certain? Not even—” A blush bloomed in his cheeks but he barreled on, “Not even in a… private place? Or a place you might not actually be able to see yourself?”