Ch.46: Code Blue

The alarm isn't a sound anymore. It is a physical vibration rattling the fillings in my teeth.

*V-FIB. V-FIB. V-FIB.*

My vision collapses. The white tunnel turns black. My legs give out, and I crash onto the linoleum floor, dropping the bone saw. It spins away, biting into the leg of the surgical table with a shower of sparks.

My chest is a cage of agony. My heart isn't beating; it’s shivering. A bag of worms squirming under my ribs.

I can’t breathe. The oxygen in the room is burning, consumed by the fire climbing the curtains, but my lungs wouldn't work anyway. The overdose has paralyzed my diaphragm.

I am dying.

"Code Blue!" Aris screams.

He dives for the crash cart. He ignores the fire. He ignores the smoke curling along the ceiling. He ignores the fact that he was trying to kill me ten seconds ago.

He can't lose the asset. A dead donor is worthless. Ischemic tissue rots instantly.

"Charge to 200!" he roars at the nurse.

The nurse is cowering in the corner, shielding her face from the heat.

"Doctor, the oxygen! If you spark the paddles—"

"Do it!" Aris grabs the paddles himself.

He stands over me. His face is twisted in a mask of manic determination. He looks demonic in the flickering orange light.

"You don't get to die," he hisses at me. "Not until I say so."

He presses the cold metal pads against my bare chest. One over the sternum. One over the ribs.

The whine of the capacitor charging cuts through the roar of the fire.

*Wheeeeeeeeeeee.*

"Clear!"

*THOOM.*

The world turns white.

My back arches off the floor. Every muscle in my body snaps tight, a violent, galvanic contraction that lifts me into the air and slams me back down.

The smell of singed hair. The taste of copper.

My heart stops shivering.

Silence.

Then...

*THUMP.*

A single, massive beat. Like a sledgehammer hitting an anvil.

*THUMP.*

*THUMP.*

Oxygen floods my brain. My eyes fly open.

"Sinus rhythm," Aris breathes. He looks at the portable monitor he dragged over. "She's back."

He tosses the paddles aside. He reaches for a syringe on the cart.

"Adenosine," he mutters. "Need to stabilize the rate. Then we intubate."

He turns his back on me to prep the needle.

He thinks I’m unconscious. He thinks the shock knocked me out.

He’s wrong.

The defibrillator didn't just restart my heart. It rebooted the machine. The adrenaline is still there, swirling in my blood, but now it has a rhythm to ride.

I am not dead. I am supercharged.

I look at the door.

Petrova left it open when she fled.

Smoke is pouring out into the hallway, a thick, grey river. The fire alarms in the main house are blaring now, joining the chorus of chaos.

I roll.

My body moves faster than thought. I am a creature of reflex and instinct.

I slide under the surgical table.

Aris turns back with the syringe.

"Elena, I need you to—"

He stops. He stares at the empty space on the floor where I was lying a second ago.

"Where is she?"

He looks around wildly.

"ELENA!"

I crawl.

I am on my hands and knees, moving through the smoke layer. The heat is intense, blistering the raw skin on my face, but I don't feel it. I feel only the drive to survive.

I scramble past Kael’s paralyzed body. His eyes track me, wide and terrified. I scramble past Greta’s corpse. I don't look at her. I can't.

I reach the door.

"She's crawling!" the nurse screams, pointing.

Aris spins. He sees me.

"Stop her!"

He lunges. He grabs my ankle.

His grip is wet with sweat and blood.

I kick. I drive my other heel into his face.

*CRACK.*

I feel his nose break.

Aris howls and lets go. He falls back, clutching his face.

I scramble through the doorway.

I am in the corridor. The air here is cooler, but thick with the chemical stench of the chloramine gas from earlier. It mixes with the smoke from the lab fire, creating a toxic, blinding smog.

I stand up.

I sway, catching myself on the wall. My hospital gown is torn, soaked in blood and sweat. My face is a ruin. My chest is burned from the paddles.

But I am standing.

I look down the hall. To the left, the elevators. To the right, the stairs to the sub-basement.

I can't go up. The house is locked down, filled with gas, and crawling with security.

I have to go down.

Thorne.

He’s still in the furnace room.

I push off the wall. I start to run.

It isn't a graceful run. It’s a loping, shambling limp. But it’s fast.

I hear Aris screaming behind me.

"Seal the basement! Don't let her get to the tunnels!"

Tunnels?

I don't know about tunnels. But if Aris is worried about them, that’s where I’m going.

I reach the stairwell door. I throw my weight against it. It bursts open.

I stumble onto the landing.

I am skinless, bleeding, and free.