Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Fifty-Five: Noah

"Do you think we're even going to find anything?" Noah asked.

They'd cleared another five or six rooms, but they hadn't seen any sign of a medical cart. All the cabinets had been opened up, their contents long since gone. "I'm thinking someone got to this place before we did."

"I'm starting to think you're right about that," Crash said. "At least they cleared the rotters out for us, too."

"Let's move faster," he said. "I don't like the idea of us being separated from the girls. Why did we let them take the more dangerous route?"

Crash shrugged. "I think those girls know how to handle themselves," he said. "Maybe better than we do."

"True," Noah said with a laugh. "It's still hard to believe some of the things we can do now, isn't it?"

"You can say that again," Crash mumbled.

They made their way through more rooms, but this whole thing felt like a waste of time. They'd had more luck in the first fifteen minutes back at the ambulance bay than they'd had the past two hours.

"Holy crap, look at this," Crash said.

Noah pushed past him, his heart racing. In the middle of the room, a dead nurse was slumped over a beige rolling cart. She'd knocked the monitor to the floor, but he was sure this was the kind of cart Karmen had been talking about.

"Jackpot," he whispered. "I can't believe we actually found one."

"Let's open this puppy up and see what's inside," Crash said.

The nurse's body was blocking most of the front of the cart. Noah hated to just push her to the floor, but they needed to get into those drawers.

He carefully poked at her body with his bat, preparing to swing if she moved.

She didn't.

He took a deep breath and leaned his bat against the wall. "I'll get her," he said.

He wrapped his arms around the nurse's waist and lifted her onto his shoulder. As carefully as he could, he moved her to the bed and set her down. It wasn't nearly what the woman deserved, but it was better than shoving her to the floor like a piece of garbage.

There were several drawers on the front side of the cart, but when Crash tugged on them, they didn't budge.

"Locked," he said.

"Let me try." Noah reached toward the drawers, but he paused when the radio at his hip came to life.

Static blasted from it and he grabbed the radio and turned it down.

"Parrish? Is everything okay?" he asked. He let up on the side button and listened. All he heard was more static. Dammit, these things weren't working. Why hadn't they checked them earlier?

"We'll check on them in a second," Crash said. "Come here and see if you can open this. Or look for a badge on the nurse's body."

Noah glanced toward the nurse, but the bed was empty.

"Crash, she's gone," he shouted. He reached for his bat, his breath catching in his chest.

Before he could wrap his hands around it, Crash slammed into him and they both fell to the floor. The bat clunked across the tile, out of reach.

Noah scrambled onto his back and reached for his gun, but as the nurse stepped into view, the sight of her brought bile into his throat.

The veins in her arms pulsed as sores broke out across her skin, acid spilling onto the floor. Her jaw unhinged and a set of razor-sharp teeth protruded from her lips as she let out a blood-curdling scream that made every muscle in his body tense.

But the worst of it was that there was no mistaking the fiery red of her eyes.

Whoever wanted them dead had found them.