Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield

Author:Sophie Littlefield
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: LUNA
Published: 2013-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

“Tapp Clinic” had been painted on the wall next to the entrance to what had been a physicians’ office building. Someone had carefully detailed each letter and outlined it with black.

“We aren’t using the main hospital facilities at this time,” Evangeline said, pointing out the large modern facility next door. The sign reading Emergency remained, but the doors were sealed with wood and more steel bars.

But the office buildings arrayed around the facility looked neat and tidy. As they approached, a guard stepped out from an overhang.

“Lieutenant Oxnard,” he said briskly.

“Pace let you know we were coming?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Evangeline didn’t spare him any further conversation. Inside, the familiar sound of a generator ground in the background. The second thing that hit Cass was the smell—the same industrial cleaner they’d used in every hospital she’d ever visited. The sliding glass doors didn’t slide, and as they made their way through the lobby and up the stairs, they passed plenty of technology that, without power, was little more than junk taking up space—digital displays, elevators, door alarms, bays of equipment at nursing stations, telephones.

They walked down halls lit with a very occasional bulb. A woman wearing hospital scrubs pushed out of a set of doors in a hurry, pulling off a pair of gloves. She wore a turban and a fabric mask over her nose and mouth. Cass peered past her and saw—thought she saw—a woman on a hospital bed with her feet in stirrups, surrounded by more people in masks and scrubs. But the doors closed quickly and Cass wondered if she’d seen something else in the blur of people and activity.

Evangeline continued on as though nothing had interrupted the silence of the hallways.

“In here,” Evangeline announced at last, and ushered them through a door to a small waiting room. The upholstered chairs and coffee table were from every waiting room Cass had ever been in—all that was missing were the magazines. A bored-looking soldier in fatigues and ankle-high boots watched with his arms folded across his chest as four wasted, thin, exhausted-looking adults in dirty clothes slumped in chairs.

The smell of unwashed bodies filled Cass’s nostrils and she coughed and struggled not to gag, and then felt ashamed of herself: she herself had smelled worse not long ago, waking in a field with no memory. These people had struggled as she had; more, in fact, since they lacked the supercharged immunity the Beater attack had left her with. They’d been freewalking, on the run from Beaters and maybe from Rebuilders, as well. Whatever the case, they didn’t look like they had it in them to go much farther.

Evangeline led them past the refugees without sparing them a glance. Beyond the waiting room was a warren of tiny offices. Through open doors Cass saw medical equipment, examination tables and cabinets of supplies. In several rooms, ravaged-looking patients were having their blood drawn by men and women in scrubs and masks.

“Don’t worry, you’re getting star treatment,” Evangeline said sarcastically. Cass could tell it galled her to have to extend any special privileges to her.

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