Page 44 of G8
“Got it,” one man acknowledged before heading over to where the others were gathered.
Korris turned to G8. “If you guys are finished here, let’s go downstairs to the next level.” He looked to Ingrid. “That’s the one you said had the medical clinic in it, right?”
“Right.”
The man left via the stairwell ahead of them. They followed him down to the level marked B2 and discovered the door had been pried open.
“Guess all the doors weren’t unlocked,” P8 drily remarked.
Korris pointed upward. “The upper floor probably wasn’t because of all the deliveries that had to be made. Security couldn’t give them all individual keycards. It would make more sense to have just one for the delivery drivers. And in the case of a power outage, they could still drop off their loads without delays.”
They entered the floor, and G8 finally noticed the long hallways and doors he’d expected earlier. F8 pointed to their right. “I sort of remember going in that direction when I was sick.” She suddenly jerked and turned around. G8 and P8 recognized her posture.
“Do you hear them?” P8 asked.
“Sounds like them. Two distinct sets of footsteps. And talking, but I can’t make out what’s being said.”
Taking the pry bar from where it hung on his belt, Korris rapped it on the wall. “Biggs? Adams? Is that you?” He banged on the wall again.
A door closed in the distance, and the two men emerged from around a corner of a corridor.
“’Bout time you guys finally made it,” Biggs remarked with a grin.
“What did you find? Anything?” Korris questioned.
“Just the usual,” Adams replied. “This level looks like every hospital and clinic I’ve ever been in, except there are no patients, no nurses, and no doctors.” He threw a thumb behind him. “There’s doctors’ offices back there, a lounge, and a couple of examination rooms.”
“What’s back in that direction?” G8 asked, indicating the other direction.
“Two surgical suites, an emergency triage center, a pharmaceutical room where I guess they filled prescriptions and orders, a large recovery room, and an area we guess was where the doctors and all scrubbed and suited up prior to surgery,” Biggs noted.
“Is there anything on this level we can claim?” P8 asked.
“There’s some medical supplies. Stuff like penicillin, morphine, the usual lot. Nothing you won’t find at any pharmacy or hospital, that we can tell. We can go back and collect it if you want.”
“Hell, no,” F8 butted in. Her expression was stony. “I don’t want any sort of medicine or whatever shit they have here. And I’m sure K8 would agree with me.”
“Any particular reason why?” Korris inquired. “You could keep it at the campsite in case of emergencies.”
“Because it’s not pure,” P8 replied. “They mixed other shit into it. I’m sure if you’d inspected the vials, you’d see the seals had already been breached.”
The man winced. “All right. If you say so.”
“Then that settles it,” G8 commented. “We’re done here. We might as well head down to the third level.”
Biggs nodded. “That’s where you guys were held. Where you lived, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Is there anything on that level that you can think of you’d want?” Chief Adams inquired.
“You bet there is,” G8 firmly answered. “We have our clothes there and other personal items. When we escaped, all we had with us was what we were wearing.”
“You can get clothes in town,” Korris commented.
P8 turned on the man. “We don’t have the money. Right now, we’re having to scrimp and scrape for every penny we can save.”
G8 added, “We’re going to need those clothes, now that the weather’s starting to cool down. Even though a few of us have found employment, we’ll be lucky to have enough money to buy us coats.”
