Chapter 6 - IN THE DARK
The emergency backup lights flickered on, casting an eerie red glow over the hospital corridor.
Nurses were frantically trying to move patients, but the elevators were disabled. We were on the fourth floor. I couldn't be wheeled down the stairs, and I couldn't walk.
“We have to move her to the secure wing,” the doctor shouted over the siren. “Double doors at the end of the hall!”
Mason grabbed the front of my bed, helping the nurses push me down the crowded corridor. Every bump sent a wave of agony through my pelvis.
Brooke was running beside us, looking over her shoulder. “He’s going to use the confusion to get to us,” she panicked.
We burst through the heavy double doors into the secure maternity ward. Mason slammed the doors shut and threw the heavy deadbolt.
Inside, it was quiet. The thick walls blocked out most of the siren.
“We have a surgical suite in this wing,” the doctor said, pointing to a room down the hall. “Let’s go.”
They wheeled me into the sterile, bright room. The pain was blinding now.
“Mason,” I cried out, gripping his collar as he leaned over me. “If something happens—”
“Nothing is going to happen,” he swore, tears finally breaking free and spilling onto my cheeks. “I’ve got you.”
The anesthesiologist prepared the epidural. Brooke stood awkwardly in the corner, holding Eleanor’s hand. For the first time in years, the two women looked like a mother and daughter, united by fear.
Then, the power cut completely.
The room plunged into pitch blackness.
“Backup generators should kick in within ten seconds!” the doctor yelled in the dark.
We waited.
One second. Five seconds. Ten seconds.
Nothing.
The monitors were running on internal batteries, their faint green glow the only light in the room.
“Someone tampered with the generator,” Mason realized, his voice deadly calm.
Suddenly, we heard a heavy thud from the hallway outside the secure doors.
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Then, the sound of breaking glass.
Someone was inside the secure wing.
