Thank you all for your continued support!
The woman's loud scream still haunted Kelly's memory, though it had long become a distant echo throughout the halls. Fighting panic, Kelly silently opened the stairwell door and stumbled into the dark hallway she had just come from. She eased it closed, careful not to make a sound.
Anna had to have heard the stairwell door open once and would expect the hallway to be empty.
No reason to change that. The element of surprise might be the only thing on her side.
As quickly and quietly as she could, Kelly stepped over to the hallway with the window and immediately skidded to a halt.
There she was.
Kelly held her breath, her heart pounding even harder than it had been before. She'd instinctively ducked out of sight, but couldn't hold back the rush of excitement. She knew what she'd seen.
Anna.
Turning the corner at the opposite end of the hall. Probably thinking she'd cut her off upstairs. Or at least that was what she hoped. Kelly swallowed back her nerves and stepped back into the hallway. There wasn't time to be sure. The glow of the window caught her eye where Anna's silhouette had just disappeared.
If there was a way out, it had to be there.
Kelly crept down the hall, listening carefully for Anna's footsteps. She waited for a few moments, hoping against all hope that Anna was putting distance between them. When she could wait no longer, she backed up a few feet and pushed herself into a sprint that ended with a desperate launch at the narrow windowsill two feet above her head.
Her first jump this time was successful. Both elbows managed to wedge themselves tight against the sides, giving her a good enough grip on the sill to use all her ebbing strength to pull herself up high enough to look out the window.
But instead of seeing the empty field she'd expected, a woman's face filled her line of vision instead. With a yelp of surprise, Kelly dropped back to the floor, quickly gained her footing and then scrambled backwards a few steps.
Her head was throbbing but again she was sure of what she'd seen.
"Kris!" She blurted out loud, unmindful of the possibility of Anna overhearing.
Snapping into action, she began waving her arms, gesturing wildly toward the stairwell in what, to her, was a clear cut explanation that she was going to get Jill and come back to the window.
Outside, Kris only stared at her in stunned silence. Kelly looked like a mess and Jill was nowhere in sight. No time for questions now, though.
"Kelly!" She called, unaware Kelly couldn't hear her. "I'm gonna get you out! Just wait there!"
But Kelly kept up her frantic gesturing, and Kris could only shake her head in frustration. "I'm gonna break the window! I just need to find someth- hey!" To her confusion, instead of waiting, Kelly turned and sprinted away from her field of vision. Bewildered, Kris slammed both hands against the window in a vain attempt to stop her.
"No! Where are you going?! Kelly!" She shouted. Kris slammed the heel of her palm into the window pane in frustration. "Dammit, you idiot!"
Still cursing to herself, Kris contemplated jumping back to the ground to follow in the direction Kelly had gone before deciding against it. She pushed her palm securely against the window, carefully gathered her legs underneath her and eased herself to a standing position. The fastest way to Kelly and her sister, she decided, reaching out her body to snag a large chunk of concrete from beneath her, was right through this window.
The heavy piece of concrete held firmly in one hand, she braced herself and hefted it as far back as she could. She winced as the glass shattered around her, shielding her eyes from the tiny shards that flew toward her. Opening her eyelids, she saw the nice sized hole she provided for herself and smirked. That would work.
Unleashing her gun, Kris used the barrel to punch out remaining pieces of glass she might catch herself on. Maneuvering through the window wasn't as easy as she originally thought, even for her petite size. If plowing a piece of concrete through a window didn't draw attention her way, then the muttering of curse words associated with Kelly's name surely would.
Just as she thought she was safe from the jagged edges of glass, Kris felt her leg catch on a piece stuck in the window. She moved it quickly, hoping her weight would break it off. Instead there was a burn against her skin and the sound of a distinct rip. Stumbling down inside, her shoes crunching on the remains of the window, the officer pulled up her ripped pant leg to see the slice of flesh. Great. All she needed was to leave a blood trail for whatever had a usually hardened Kelly so disheveled to find her.
She suddenly shuddered at the thought of someone being terrifying enough to scare Kelly Garrett.
"Kelly!" Kris hollered. "Jill! Where are you?!"
With her gun pointed out, she took steady steps as she surveyed every inch around her. It was impossible for Kelly to have gotten far. She looked to the stairs leading up to another level, and a hallway leading to God knows where. All she could do was go over in her head what she saw of the interior of the bottom floor. Kelly was smart, always quick to think in a crisis, and if she had gone anywhere – it was up.
Kelly shoved her way through the stairwell door and stumbled into the dark hallway of the second floor. Her breaths were coming in ragged gasps now and she felt certain her heart would give out at any moment with the way it was pounding. But now wasn't a time for rest.
It was time to get the hell out.
She let the heavy metal door slam loudly shut behind her. A few seconds ago, she would have never let that happen, but from what she could hear, the banging door would go unnoticed.
Because just as she'd suspected, there were voices coming from around the corner where the elevator doors were. At least two women screaming at each other, one hysterically so that her language no longer made sense, and women's shoes clacking loudly, the noisy echoes resounding in the empty hall. Kelly froze for a moment, the woman's shrill panicked cries making her anxiety spike and increasing the urge to run.
There was a reason they were screaming and Kelly felt grimly sure that she knew what it was.
Sucking in another breath, she turned and lurched her exhausted body in the direction she'd left Jill only fifteen minutes ago.
They were busy, she told herself firmly. Too busy with Bruce's body for at least a few minutes. Just long enough to grab Jill and leave the forsaken hospital behind them.
With the screaming growing louder and louder in her ears as she grew nearer, Kelly rounded the opposite corner and hurried to the closed closet door. Jill was in there, she knew it. She had to be.
"I am done listening to your nonsense, child." A vile female voice could turn the entire place to ice with the tone she was using. It was coming from the area around the elevator, and the darkness enveloping the space was beginning to scare her. Even without hysteria, Nurse Stone was loud enough to overpower the screaming of the younger nurse. Kelly didn't waste time straining her eyes to see which one it was, but at best guess it was the one she'd hit earlier.
Unable to calm her shaking, Kelly gripped with the one good hand she had on the cold door handle and swung it open.
The sight of Jill's form, wrapped head to toe in the white sheet she'd been left with, made her want to cry with relief.
"Jill!" She whispered shakily, snatching the sheet off of her face. To her dismay, her friend's eyes were closed. Kelly breathed a curse and, grabbing a shoulder, shook it violently. "Jill, c'mon! You gotta wake up! Now, Jill!"
Jill's only response was a weak moan and a half hearted attempt to swat away Kelly's hand.
"Stop your sniveling! I will not stand here and coddle you for your weakness!" Irene's voice boomed from down the hall and Kelly flinched. There wasn't time to wake her, she'd have to just do her best.
Adrenaline racing now, Kelly grabbed Jill's arm, flung it around her neck and began dragging her friend down the hall as fast as Jill's dead weight would allow them to travel.
"Didn't I say to stop?" Nurse Stone's voice cracked, and the second time she spoke it became a roar. "Mich nicht trotzen, Mädchen!" Kelly felt her stomach sink when she heard a brutal slap. She could almost feel it on her own skin. To her shock, the hysterical screams stopped, and though it should have been a relief, Kelly found herself wishing it would continue if only so she'd know where the nurses were.
In the silence, she managed to hear a much weaker Irene Stone. "Der Herr möge mir verzeihen."
Unnerved, she dragged Jill farther away from them before rounding the corner, knowing that their destination would take them around the square floor plan of the hospital floor and back towards the elevator. She just had to pray they'd get there before crossing paths with Nurse Stone or Anna.
"Kelly?" A weak voice mumbled.
Kelly couldn't catch her breath to answer but it was a huge relief to feel Jill pick up her head and begin to feebly move her legs, even if she wasn't helping much.
"What's going on?" Jill slurred, confused by the sudden movement.
"We're leaving." Kelly panted. "Can you walk?"
She felt Jill's head sag against her shoulder again. "Mmhm." Came her faint answer.
Kelly gritted her teeth and pushed herself forward. Every muscle in her body was screaming for rest she couldn't give it, and though Jill was doing her best, most of her weight was still dragging down on Kelly's shoulders. Inadvertently, to help herself balance, Jill reached for Kelly's injured hand. When she found it, she gave it a squeeze, forgetting of the damage the brunette had done to it earlier.
Immeasurable agony flew through Kelly's body, they were almost to the end of the hallway before her knees buckled and spilled them both to the floor. While she managed to bite back a scream, Jill's cry of pain and surprise seemed to blare through the silence of the darkened halls like an alarm. Kelly scrambled over to her, slapping a hand over her mouth to silence her.
Kelly hissed in pain once more, before quickly yanking them both back up.
She listened carefully but all there was to hear was her and Jill's labored breathing.
And the nurses were quiet.
Fearing the worst, Kelly turned the final corner and the closed stairwell door was in her sights once more. With Jill weighing her down, she couldn't look over her shoulder and settled for listening carefully for sounds of movement.
She was rewarded almost immediately.
Footsteps, approaching from the darkness behind them, accompanied by the faint sound of crying.
They'd gone around, Kelly realized with a start. She grabbed the stairwell door, yanked it open and, whispering a quick apology that Jill didn't have time to process, dumped her friend inside.
"My goodness, dear. All this running and chasing is pointless. I don't wish to harm you or your friend." Irene's voice sang.
Kelly shuddered. That voice was getting to her. Not eager to be seen, she slipped into the stairwell and slowly let the door close, not daring to make a sound that would echo many times louder in the empty stairwell. Her carefulness was rewarded with complete silence, but in the next second punished.
As Kelly watched in horror through the thin vertical window, Irene and the nurse she'd hit earlier stepped into sight. Too frightened to move, she ducked down and held her breath.
"In fact, I have wanted nothing more than to take care of you. My apologies are in order for the behavior of Bruce and Anna, they are but children themselves." Irene continued sweetly, her voice coming closer and closer to where Kelly and Jill were hiding. "Oh, that is a mistake. Bruce was a child. You took care of the danger his reckless ways presented. I can respect a mother protecting her child. Just as I wish to protect you, Kelly. You're injured, I know. Let me take care of you."
Kelly felt a hand on her shoulder and in her frightened state, nearly yelped in surprise. But it was only Jill, eyes glazed, but more alert than she'd been.
"Wha-" Jill started in a frightened whisper, but Kelly only grabbed her hand to silence her.
Outside their door, both girls could see Irene pass by, looking warily around the hallway and clutching something in a gloved hand. Beside her, the other young woman walked, shoulders shaking with silent sobs, her fists pressed up against her mouth in shock. Her face was swollen and bruised, her white nurse's uniform stained with blood and her hysterical state only made Nurse Stone's eerie calm all the more unsettling.
The two women passed the door, revealing Jill's gun clutched in Nurse Stone's hand. The sight of it made Kelly's heart skip a beat.
"They're not here, Irene." The younger nurse whined, her voice trembling and strained.
Nurse Stone only curled her lip into a half smile. "They're here, for God Himself has told me so." She pivoted in a circle on one heel. "Perhaps waiting for us to leave? Hiding?" She shook her head, the smile stretching. "Kelly, you're making this terribly hard. Not only on me, but on yourself."
As she spoke, she suddenly grabbed the younger nurse's arm and the poor woman screamed. Nurse Stone laughed contemptuously.
"Come out, Kelly." She said kindly, staring into the hallway behind them. "I could tell from the moment we met that you were a woman of God yourself. Your friend might not be, but we are always willingly to convert the ignorant. God has an important plan for you, your friend, and your precious child..."
Beside her the younger nurse began to cry again. "Irene, please stop this." She sniffled, burying her face in her hands. "We need to call the doctor. He'll know what to-"
Nurse Stone sighed deeply before wordlessly raising the gun to the woman's temple and squeezing the trigger.
The gunshot blast shattered the stillness of the empty hallway and the young nurse crumpled lifelessly to the floor.
Blood showered the window with a sickening thump.
Behind the stairwell door, Kelly and Jill reeled backwards in shock, not sure if the scream they heard belonged to the dead nurse or each other.
Nurse Stone sank to one knee, laying a hand on top of a lifeless face. Blood of the slain woman soaked into her skin, flecks of splattered blood covering her face and now tainted outfit. She closed her eyes and began mumbling.
Jill was the first to shake herself out of her shock. She elbowed Kelly roughly and pointed frantically to the stairs. But Kelly's eyes were wide, stuck to the sight of the older woman that seemed to be praying. It was but a silhouette she could make out, and the words were spoken too low to hear. There was a distinct hum then, one that the nurse had been humming happily earlier. Why did she recognize it, and better yet, why was she unable to place it? Her head pounding in pain and feeling overwhelmed with emotion, Kelly grabbed her face and rubbed it furiously.
When she looked again through the blood streaked window, Nurse Stone was standing and walking. The humming was gone.
"Oh, Kelly. " She said with anguish. "What have you done, Kelly? This massacre, this pointless mess has been created because of you. Because you won't accept God's plan for you. How will you live with yourself knowing what you've done here? You've killed someone, now an innocent girl has been murdered... with Jill Munroe's gun. She can't help you, I know she must be dying right in front of your very eyes. But if you leave, what will the police think? It's only if you stay here that you can redeem yourself, help your friend and make things right!"
Kelly held her breath.
"Just surrender yourself to us, and we can help her."
And finally she breathed.
"You and Jill will be put to good use, the good Lord demands it."
Then decided she was done hiding.
Not caring how much noise they were making, she grabbed Jill, heaved her to her feet and, with a strangled cry, began lurching down the stairs as fast as they both could go. They'd have to get down the stairs and to the window and pray Kris was there to help.
Behind them, the heavy steel door banged open and the dark stairwell lit up with the dim hallway light.
Nothing prepared Kris for hearing the blazing sound of a bullet ripping through the air. It was an unmistakeable, sickening noise that often plagued her in dreams. These guns – these lethal little weapons that spewed the sound of death. She had not been on the force long enough to be hardened to the power she could wield in one hand.
Life or death.
She realized that she was frozen mid-step, unable to continue further. There were many questions that would be answered once she went through that door, but she was unsure if she wanted to know. God, please don't let it be Jill, she silently prayed. It was in this fearful moment that she pulled her gun from her holster, oblivious to the tremor in her hands.
Each breath she drew was deeper than the previous, in a pitiful attempt to steady herself as her feet tread carefully up the steps.
Not Jill.
Kelly was capable, she assured herself. Kelly wouldn't let anything happen. If anyone had fired the gun, it may have been Kelly defending herself.
Unable to stand torturing herself with the unknown, she bolted down what remained of the hallway, her gun poised for defending her sister and friend. She reached for the lever on the door, but jumped back in shock when it turned down on its own and slammed open. With no time to adjust to what she was seeing, her gun aimed straight at the two figures that staggered before her.
"Kris!" Kelly cried out, not wanting to lose her momentum. She could see the momentary bewilderment in the young blonde's eyes, and then the horror when Kris realized who Kelly was dragging. "We have to keep going! Run!"
"Jill..." Kris rushed to her sister's side, enveloping one side of her body in a tight hug. "My God! What did they do to you?"
"You're not listening! She's -"
Hearing the tramping of footsteps, Kelly kept her solid hold of Jill and pushed past her, intent on getting to that window as fast as possible. Jill's head lolled, her feet loosely mimicking Kelly's pattern as she tried to stay awake long enough to be freed of this hell. Kris tore her gaze from them and towards the stairwell opening where the double doors were slowly swinging shut. The sight of her sister in such a state emboldening her, she lurched forward and snatched the door on the right. She'd just swung it back open and propped it with her foot when a harried looking older woman bounded onto the landing, one arm latching onto the handrail to help swing her bulk in the direction of the last set of stairs.
She wasn't slowing down.
"Stop!" Kris swung her arms up once again, pointing her gun. This did nothing to hinder the determined nurse. "Stop where you are!"
"Kris! Shoot her!" Kelly ordered in a panic, knowing in full what the nurse could do if she managed to get hold of Kris. "Goddammit, shoot her now! Kill her!" She shouted so loudly that her voice cracked.
All fear left Kris, and the surge of knowledge that she had to be strong to protect Jill overcame her. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and fired her gun. Smoke flooded up her nostrils and she re-opened her eyes, and saw a stunned Nurse Stone looking down at her feet.
A bullet lodged into the concrete step, directly underneath her.
Kris had missed.
The gun was now missing from her hands. Irene had dropped it in a jerk reaction from the gunshot.
Kelly's eyes glanced in that direction enough to notice, and she fully turned her attention to getting the weapon. "Fuck! Kris, get the fucking gun!"
Kris grabbed at Kelly and tried to move her along, keeping her own gun aligned with Nurse Stone. "We don't have time, get out!"
Not willing to chance it, Kelly attempted to drag herself and Jill back into the danger zone to retrieve what could come back to bite her later. But the smaller blonde suddenly grabbed her, and with strength she didn't know she had, flung Kelly back toward her. "What the fuck, Kelly? Go! I said to go!" She didn't leave any room for arguing as she began to physically shove her away from the door. Her face distorted in anger at the disappointed nurse, she scowled. "If I see this door open one fucking inch, I won't miss you again."
But Irene paid no attention any longer, and caught Kelly's eyes once last time. "How sad. Now your child will burn for your sins."
It didn't fall on deaf ears, and it took every fiber of her being not to leave her friends in the dust and beat Irene until her fists were sore. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door close behind her and felt weight lifted, as Kris now carried Jill from the other side.
They never took a moment to stop and breathe, racing down to the first story window where Kris had made her break in.
"Kelly..." Kris motioned with her head for Kelly to be the first to go through, but when she jerked back it was a clear indication that she wasn't.
"No, you first." Kris opened her mouth but Kelly only looked angrier. "Don't argue! Go now!"
The more flexible of the three, Kris jumped and managed to worm her body up and through the window without help. She kicked away some shards of glass and balanced herself on the ledge, then waved for Kelly to bring Jill through.
"Come on Jill," Kelly muttered. "You can do this."
"Window?" She replied meekly.
"Yeah, see? We're almost outta here. You just gotta get through it."
With help from Kelly hoisting her up as best she would with an injured hand, and Kris grabbing her arms then shirt from the other side, Jill was safely slipped over to the other side. Kris brought her down easily from the ledge, sitting her nearly unconscious sister against the stone wall.
Without anyone to help Kelly, and time against them, Kris once again leaped up on to the ledge of the window and stuck her arm in for Kelly to launch herself up with. This did the trick, and within seconds she was pulling Kelly safely through. She jumped down and allowed herself to be a support beam as Kelly carefully made her way to the pile of rubble without falling.
Kelly gasped in the fresh early morning air, feeling as if it had been years inside instead of hours.
Freedom.
END OF ACT 1