Pines

blood sheeting down the right side of her face where it had met with the concrete, the needle cocked back, and charged him.
    He could have defended himself if he’d been able to see worth a damn, but his eyesight was lagging, drawing images out across his field of vision like an ecstasy trip.
    She lunged and he tried to parry back but misjudged the distance, the needle spearing him through the left shoulder.
    The pain when she jerked it back out nearly brought him to his knees.
    The nurse caught him with a perfectly placed front kick to the solar plexus, and the sheer force behind it punched him back into the wall and drove the breath out of his lungs. He’d never hit a woman in his life, but as Pam moved in for more, he couldn’t shake the thought that it would feel so satisfying to connect his right elbow with this bitch’s jaw.
    His eyes locked on the needle in her hand, thinking,
No more of that, please God
.
    Brought his arms up to defend his face, but they felt like boulders.
    Sluggish and cumbersome.
    The nurse said, “Bet you’re wishing you’d just come out when I asked nicely, huh?”
    He lashed out at half speed with a wide-arcing hook that she easily ducked, firing back with a lightning-fast jab that rebroke his nose.
    “You want the needle again?” she asked, and he would’ve charged, tried to get her on the floor, pin her underneath his weight, but proximity, considering the needle and his diminished senses, seemed like a bad idea.
    Pam laughed, said, “I can tell you’re fading. You know, this is actually kind of fun.”
    Ethan struggled to slide away against the wall, shuffling his feet to get out of range, but she tracked his movement, staying in front of him and aligned for another strike.
    “Let’s play a little game,” she said. “I poke you with the needle, and you try to stop me.”
    She lunged, but there was no pain.
    Just a feint—she was toying with him.
    “Now the next one, Mr. Burke, is going to—”
    Something smashed into the side of her head with a hard
thunk
.
    Pam hit the ground and didn’t move, Beverly standing over her, the frantic light blinking against her face. She still held the metal chair she’d dropped Nurse Pam with by its legs, looking more than a little shocked at what she’d done.
    “More people are coming,” Ethan said.
    “Can you walk?”
    “We’ll see.”
    Beverly tossed the chair aside and came over to Ethan as it clattered against the linoleum floor.
    “Hold onto me in case your balance goes.”
    “It’s already gone.”
    He clung to Beverly’s arm as she pulled him along back down the corridor. By the time they’d reached the nurses’station, Ethan was struggling just to put one foot in front of the other.
    He glanced back as they rounded the corner, saw Nurse Pam struggling to sit up.
    “Faster,” Beverly said.
    The main corridor was still empty, and they were jogging now.
    Twice, Ethan tripped, but Beverly caught him, kept him upright.
    His eyes were growing heavy, the sedation descending on him like a warm, wet blanket, and all he wanted to do was find some quiet alcove where he could curl up and sleep this off.
    “You still with me?” Beverly asked.
    “By a thread.”
    The door at the corridor’s end loomed fifty feet ahead.
    Beverly quickened the pace. “Come on,” she said. “I can hear them coming down the stairwell.”
    Ethan heard it too—a jumble of voices and numerous footsteps behind a door they passed leading to a set of stairs.
    At the end of the corridor, Beverly jerked the door open and dragged Ethan across the threshold into a cramped stairwell whose six steps climbed to another door at the top, over which glowed a red EXIT sign.
    Beverly paused once they were through, let it close softly behind them.
    Ethan could hear voices on the other side filling the corridor, sounded like the footfalls were moving away from them, but he couldn’t be sure.
    “Did they see us?” he asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    It took all of Ethan’s focus to climb those final steps to the exit, where they crashed through the door and stumbled outside into darkness, Ethan’s feet on wet pavement and thepatter of cold rain on his shoulders already beginning to seep through the paper-thin fabric of his gown.
    He could barely stand and already Beverly was pulling him toward the sidewalk.
    “Where are we going?” Ethan asked.
    “To the only place I know they can’t find you.”
    He followed her into the dark street.
    No cars out,