“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it—always.”


                                  - Mahatma Gandhi

   Susan laid on her bed, wrists, ankles and neck tied down by leather straps with buckles. She kept her eyes closed, and breathed shallowly, afraid to move. She thought back to the elevator lobby, how William had clutched her to his chest so tightly. When they tore her away, she had cried for him until the sedative they injected into her throat plunged her into darkness. She had woken up strapped onto her bed, and they hadn't come to her for what felt like days. The only thing she knew, was that if she moved or made any noise, an electric shock would lance through her. The duration of the pain increased each time it turned on. The room lights were always on so she had no idea if it was day or night.

   Through it all, she thought about her fears for the future. She couldn't imagine not having William in it. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and into her hair, while she laid perfectly still. She needed to ask William something. Something that was important to her. A silly importance. What kind of couch did his parents have? Whenever she dreamed about their life outside of this hospital, she imagined them sitting together on his mother's couch in the home he grew up in. For some reason, she thought it was a floral print couch. Her head was on his shoulder, his cheek on her hair, and their hands intertwined. That image had been with her for months now.

   The door to her room opened suddenly and it startled her, making her jump. It triggered the electric shock and she hissed her breath out through her teeth until the  pain passed. When she opened her eyes, Dr. Hewitt was standing above her. The look in his eyes was a simmering rage that had come down from a boil, but had not gone out. Susan's fear paralyzed her, and all she could do was stare up at him like a mouse caught in a trap. He looked gaunt, but healthy.

   He suddenly raised a hand and slapped her across the face. The slap stung, and her heads movement to the side triggered the shock and she wheezed until it was over. She was still gasping when he slapped her again. Then again, and again. Susan's eyes were rolling by the time he stopped, her cheek peppered with broken blood vessels. Dr. Hewitt leaned down and waited for her eyes to focus on his. When she did, his lip curled in a sneer and he hissed, "We've only just started." before turning and stalking from the room.

   As he left, two orderlies entered and approached her bed. They undid the buckles that held her down and pulled her from the thin mattress. Arms twisted behind her back, she was shackled from wrists to ankles. Hobbled and restrained, she was practically dragged from the room. Dr. Hewitt was nowhere in sight. They turned a few more corners and went up a flight in the elevator instead of down. She was taken into an room that looked older than what she was used to seeing. It was slick concrete from ceiling to floor with a small drain in the center of the room. Florescent light glared overhead, where the ceiling was crisscrossed with iron beams. One of the beams in the center of the room had a chain dangling from it.

   Susan trembled and didn't bother begging while her wrists were secured to the chain and she was pulled up until her toes barely brushed the cold floor. Then the orderlies left, turning a single light switch off and leaving her in semi darkness.

"It's as good as anything else we've tried. I think he'll respond to her. If not, then he's in the kind of coma that you have to wait out. Either he wakes up or he dies. Nothing we have has revived him, so we might as well."

"I suppose. Besides, waking up to her screams will be the perfect beginning for his half of the punishment."

"Leave her for the night. If Subject Blake isn't awake by morning, wheel him in there and get to work. If it doesn't work, there's always the autopsy."


William floated in soft blackness. He occasionally heard voices, too muffled to make out. Sometimes his safe, black world trembled, and he had the sense something was happening to his body. Whenever that happened, he retreated into complete senselessness, and would loose time. But he always floated back up. He didn't want to be aware. He didn't want to wake up. His mind had broken. He was sure of it. He had this dreamy, murky memory of an escape attempt. Whenever he thought about it, green tinges of nausea and fear would pulse through the blackness. If it was real, he and Susan were in for it.

So he slept. He slumbered, careful not to float too near the surface of the blackness. It was helping him, really. Holding him down. He let it. Didn't fight it. Above the surface was nothing but agony.

Well, nothing but agony... and Susan. She was out there too. He bobbed a little closer to the surface.

   Exhaustion won out, and surprisingly Susan slept while she dangled from the chain in the cold room. Her hands and arms had painfully numbed over the hours, and she had drifted off. The mental tumult that had plagued her before was utterly silent. Where there had been chaos and noise, there was now an empty void. She didn't question it, chalked it up to the absence of hope and let her mind stay blank.

   When the door finally opened that morning, she assumed it was morning, she looked up and blinked with bleary eyes. She hadn't uttered a single word since the escape attempt, and secretly tried to promise herself that she would never speak to the villains again. So as an orderly held the door open, two more wheeled in a bed. Susan's lower lip trembled at the sight of William under the blankets. He was very still, and had oxygen tubes coming from his mouth. He looked like he had been punched in the face he was so black and blue. His bed was positioned across from her to her left, and the orderlies made themselves busy.

   Susan tried to lean over and get a better look at William, but her toes couldn't get a grip on the concrete. A nurse checked over William's monitors, humming to herself as she worked. Through the open door, another orderly brought in a chair and placed it a few feet away and in between Susan and Will, forming a sort of triangle. A small box was brought into the room and placed by the chair. All of this was done with minimum noise and great efficiency. Less than a minute later, Dr. Hewitt stalked into the room with a wolf like sneer on his face. Crossing over to Susan, he leered over her and held up his ID badge up in front of her nose. The one she had tried to smuggle out under the elastic of her hospital shorts.

   "Didn't help you much, did it?" he said much too quietly. Slipping it back into his pocket, he leaned down, made eye contact with her, and sank his fist into her gut. The air whooshed out of Susan's lungs and left her wheezing for a breath. Her head spinning, she barely heard the doctor say, "Get started, and don't stop until you're told."

   As the air began filling her chest again, Susan felt more than saw the orderly that came up behind her. Grabbing her faded shirt, he tore the back from collar to hem, exposing her back to the chilly room. Fear climbed up her throat with such speed, she choked and coughed. Dr. Hewitt settled into the chair that had been brought in and crossed his legs. He nodded to the orderly behind Susan and a moment later there was a sudden crack! Pain lanced in a strip across Susan's back. It took her by such surprise that she didn't register the pain right away and could only gasp, her eyes wide with shock. She was being whipped! Crack!

   Susan clenched her body away from the pain, tears springing to her eyes. Crack! Susan cried out and closed her eyes, her back was burning in agonizing stripes that cut across her flesh. Through her tears, she looked toward William on the bed. They were trying to get a response from him. Crack! She twisted on her chain, willing feeling to come back to her arms so she could move more. It was useless, just like her arms. Crack! She cried out again despite herself and looked at Dr. Hewitt. He was smiling softly, and such an expression of contentment of his face made her sick.

   Crack! Crack! Crack! The pain was beginning to overwhelm her senses, like a heavy blanket. Susan let out a scream, it sounded like pain and anger. It let her drown out the punishment for a few seconds. Crack! Time began to pass and blur, she cried out a few times more. Blood began to run from the stripes on her back, and Susan prayed that William wouldn't wake up, and that he would.

They were faint, the screams. William tried not to listen. Tried to convince himself he didn't know who was screaming. He had grown up with screams. They didn't matter. Futile. Hopeless.

But he couldn't help but feel the raw agony in Susan's voice. He could only fight it for so long. But the blackness still held him down. His body refused to respond.

Crisis. William railed against the blackness for awhile, but it didn't budge. He sullenly retreated and tried to think through the sound of Susan's pain. It was too hard. Every whip crack and scream scattered him mentally. He felt himself beginning to surrender again, but also felt a softening in the blackness as he did so. He jumped back to the struggle, but the blackness immediately became as immovable as before.

Surrender? Total surrender? But... he didn't want to die. Would he have to pass through that shadow to get back to Susan? He sensed that Susan's pain right now was on his account. If he didn't make it, maybe they would stop. Leave her alone.

He didn't want to take too long thinking about it. So he took a deep breath, mentally, and let himself fall completely into the blackness.

***

"Stop!" Dr. Hewitt was leaning over William. "His eyes are open." He removed a small light from a pocket and shone it in William's eyes, flicking it from eye to eye. "Hm. Still no pupil response." He peered at the monitors, took William's pulse, checked his breathing. "Honestly. This man could be the subject of I don't know how many medical papers and we still wouldn't cover it all."

While the doctor and nurse fussed over William, Susan had a reprieve.

   Susan whimpered and blinked tears from her eyes to clear her vision. She trembled periodically, her back torn and throbbing so much that the pain in her shoulders from holding her up for so long didn't register. Her throat hurt, come to think of it, everything hurt. Why wasn't she unconscious?

   "Go ahead. This will be a while." she heard Dr. Hewitt say distractedly, he was bent over William so she couldn't see him.

   Without warning, the chain holding her up slacked and Susan fell. Hitting the concrete wasn't what made her scream again. The sudden change in the position of her arms was unbearable and it was a long time before she could slowly bring her arms down to her chest. The action made her sob, and she watched the shoes of the doctor and the nurses around William's bed. Their laces clicked against the concrete. Their voices faded into the background as she listened for the only voice she wanted to hear.

   As they moved around the table, a dim flash caught Susan's eye. As the light came and went, it reflected off of something that was laying against the wall under the bed. Susan couldn't tell what it was, and just laid on the cold floor in misery, blood oozing from the lacerations on her back.

William floated in a darkness of such depth that he could barely perceive it. It teased his mind with floating, black fingers of mist, hinting at eternity, and it frightened him deeply. He cast about for anything to grasp, anything to anchor him in the darkness, but nothing was within reach of his straining hands. He could no longer hear Susan. He wasn't aware of any other presence at all.

He floated helplessly. What was this? He began feeling the sparks of anger igniting in spite of his fear. He had to get to Susan! He knew she needed him. Now, then, forever. He needed her too. This would not be the end of him. He would not give in. William curled in on himself, and blew on the embers inside. The sparks found purchase on his broken soul; sudden heat and light ignited in the blackness. It was painful, but not like the pain given to him by the evil men. It was a high pain; an exalted pain. He surrendered again, this time to the flames.

William felt parts of him falling away in ashy billows. Painful, ugly, brutal parts. Truth after truth sloughed off, disappearing into the void. Fear fell, hate fell, half a decade of torture fell. What remained felt lighter, sharper, purer, somehow able to move now through the darkness. He made as if to set out, then paused.

He had light now, but nowhere to go. Whichever direction he chose, he had to make sure it was the right way. The way to Susan. There was only one way. The way...

He had to wait. The intuition came to him with a sensation like breath. It felt warm, a balm on his scorched soul; it reminded him of the feelings he had for Susan.

Wait for her, it whispered, voicelessly. Wait.

He would wait for her. He had waited for her all his life; what was a few moments more? He felt that, somehow, she would show him the way back to her. She would show him the way with the light of her soul.

   The tones coming from the doctor and the nurses where low and frustrated. With her eyes closed, Susan lay on the floor and listened. She couldn't hear William. He must not be fully awake, or didn't know she was down on the floor. She took a slow and deep breath, wincing from the strain on her quivering back. She noticed a strange feeling inside and it made her pause. Curious, she sought it out to try and understand what she was feeling.

   It was warm, and felt flighty. Coming from her chest over the area of her heart, it was like a ball of energy. It was foreign but felt familiar somehow, and it was a few moments more before Susan realized that it felt like William. Inexplicably, she knew it was Will and she knew what she needed to do.

   Opening her eyes, Susan moved her head back so she could look up at the bed. At first her words where scratchy and hard to decipher, before gathering volume and strength.
"I'm so desperate just to see your face
Meet me in this broken place
It's hard to stand but we won't bow
We won't bow tonight.
...We don't have to fight alone."

   Those were the words she remembered the most from the song he wrote for her, and they brought a smile to her face.

A pale light glimmered in the far distance, pulsing with a familiar rhythm. William set out toward it immediately. As he moved the darkness around him became suddenly streaked with the color of fire.

***

William blinked. Tears welled in his eyes as he saw Dr. Hewitt leaning over him. But he wasn't afraid. He had no memory of his coma, but something inside of him felt different. Clear, and hard, and bright. William rolled his heavy body to get away from the evil doctor, and fell off the side of the gurney. Sensor pads snapped off as he fell, and he clenched his jaw so hard he almost bit through the plastic tube in his mouth. He landed on his side, facing the room. He saw Susan, bound and bleeding on the floor. As his eyes met hers, he suddenly felt the fire still burning inside him. He heard its roar in his ears as rage stoked it to white-hot brilliance.

The doctor and nurses were scrambling around the gurney to get to him, but he didn't care. He put his hand against the cold floor and tried to push himself up, but weakness made his limbs leaden. He growled in frustration, and gagged on the tube.

   When Susan saw William's eyes, she knew something was different. Something had changed, and against all odds.. she felt calm. She hadn't felt this kind of peace since she was a small girl, and if baffled her. Despite what was unfolding in the room around her, she let herself trust in William. Not willing to let this rare feeling go without a fight, she locked it down inside herself and put all her weight into it. She smiled again, the expression tired and soft, "Will." she said quietly, relieved.

   Bracing her chained hands against the floor, she tried to sit up herself. The action sent a lance of pain through her back and she sucked air in through her teeth. It slowed her down considerably but didn't stop her. The nurses and Dr. Hewitt were leaning down now to try and remove the tube from Will's throat, all talking over each other.

The nurse held his head still while the doctor removed the tube. He gagged through the whole process. But when they tried to roll him on his stomach and tug his arms behind him, he started fighting.

His limbs were heavy. But the fire was spreading, and where it spread he felt strong. He let it rage.

Something clinked when he brushed his foot against the wall; the sound stood out to him from the gasps and grunts of the people trying to restrain him. He sneaked a glance; he saw a pitted black handle. A rusty screwdriver!

Weapon. William lunged for it without hesitation.

   Susan was halfway up to a sitting position, her breath catching in her throat whenever the pain from her back struck her. She saw William lunge, and his motion sent a nurse rolling back. Dr. Hewitt shouted in frustration and grabbed the gurney. He rose to his feet and gave it a hard yank, wanting to clear the obstacle from his target, "Blake!" he shouted, nearly foaming at the mouth.

At the sound of Dr. Hewitt's voice, William froze, the screwdriver clutched in his right hand. He remained hunched on his side, facing the wall.

The spike of fear gave him a moment of clarity. Yes, he had a weapon. But what now? He could kill the evil doctor, maybe, and make another escape attempt. But he needed a backup, in case he and Susan were foiled again. A distraction, or something.

His eyes focused on the wall before him. There was a grubby old power outlet there, with one plug in it that led to the wildly beeping monitor.

Again, William's mind was full of the color of fire. He began to unscrew the outlet cover as Dr. Hewitt screamed abuse at him in a fit of uncontrolled rage. William barely heard him, but the outrage in the doctors voice made him smile.

When the doctor stepped closer, still shouting, William curled his body around the outlet to conceal what he was doing. When Dr. Hewitt kicked at him, William ignored it. He knew he didn't have long so tried to work as quickly as possible. He wanted to finish before he was forced to get up and start using the screwdriver for what he had originally intended.

   Susan cringed when the doctor kicked William. Teeth clenched, she got to her knees and looked toward the chair that Dr. Hewitt had sat in earlier. The keys to her manacles were next to it. The nurses and orderly where watching the doctor, his behavior and language extreme. Staying low, she crawled to the chair and dragged the chain slowly so it wouldn't make too much noise. She wrapped her fingers around the keys and started awkwardly trying them in the lock.

   Dr. Hewitt pulled back to land a particularly savage kick on William's back, laughing as he did so.

William cried out when Dr. Hewitt kicked him, yanking the outlet cover away from the wall. Inside, he saw frayed wires, powdery insulation, and old wooden beams. Perfect. Apparently liking the sound of his pain, the doctor kept kicking him, but William focused through the pain. Trusting the plastic handle to protect him from the charge, William thrust the metal end of the screwdriver into the hole and shoved the wires into the insulation, trying to stretch and fray them further. A few sparks leapt, sizzling and dying quickly. Maybe the insulation wasn't flammable? But there was paper backing. He dug a hole in the insulation and nested the wires inside, right up against the paper.

At that point, he couldn't take the kicking any more. He shoved the outlet cover back, making sure it stayed in place because he didn't have time to replace the screws. It stuck, so he slowly pushed himself up to his hands and knees, concealing the screwdriver and looking up at the doctor, who was beginning to calm himself. William's breath was coming in short, fast gasps; Dr. Hewitt had done some damage with his stylish loafers. But not enough to save him, William was sure. The fire was still raging inside him, and soon, hopefully, would rage in the walls.

   Dr. Hewitt cleared his throat and tugged his coat straight, "Now, the next time you think about pulling stunts, think about that." he looked to the orderly and nodded, "Restrain him."

   "Hey!" the nurse suddenly shouted, launching herself at Susan who had just gotten her chains unlocked.

   Kicking the chains away, she shook her head, "No!" Susan wailed, scooting back and not making it very far at all. The nurse grabbed her by the arm and held her firmly.

Sure enough, William felt heat beginning to radiate from the wall beside him. To distract people from it, and from Susan, William launched himself at Dr. Hewitt with a scream of rage.

   Dr. Hewitt was caught by surprise, and when William collided with him he lost his balance and they crashed to the floor. The doctor threw a punch at William, aiming for his face in general.

   Susan clutched her torn shirt to her chest with one hand, the other arm in the grip of the nurse. The orderly moved to drag William off of Dr. Hewitt, dodging the flailing legs as he tried to do so. Watching William gave Susan such warmth, and she felt so proud of him. Letting her shirt go, she reached up and scratched the orderly down the arm viciously, drawing blood. The woman cried out and let go of Susan, clutching at her arm.

William's ears rang after Dr. Hewitt's desperate punch hit him right on the temple. The two struggled on the floor, William trying to pin the doctor's arms, the doctor trying to wiggle away. When the orderly bent down to grab him, William shoved down on Dr. Hewitt's arms with all his weight, lifting his legs. Then he swung his legs forward, putting his knees right next to where his hands were, re-pinning the doctors arms.

Then he sat up and swung his fist at the orderly's neck. The man tried to dodge it, but William was determined. Perhaps the man would have tried to dodge it harder if he knew what was clenched in William's fist.

The screwdriver punctured the side of the orderly's throat. He fell back with a surprised expression on his face, gurgling.

William felt nothing but rage. He had killed before. At that moment, the fire alarm began blaring. Black smoke was streaming from all the outlets on the wall.

   Susan was shrinking away from the advancing nurse when the fire alarm went off. The woman looked up to see the orderly bleeding profusely, and the doctor pinned beneath William. Her mouth dropped open. Before her mind had fully made up her mind on the action, Susan's foot lashed out and kicked the nurse in the abdomen. Wheezing, she fell.

   Holding her shirt, Susan got to her knees and then her feet. Heart pounding in fear and excitement, adrenaline surging through her veins. Legs like jelly, she hurried over to where William and Dr. Hewitt were struggling.

William took the bloody screwdriver in both hands and drove it down toward Dr. Hewitt. Not to kill; they needed him alive to get out. He stabbed the meat of his upper arm. The old man wailed. As William reared back to stab the other arm, he gasped, "Susan, bring the chain!"

   Grasping his meaning, Susan quickly turned and crouched down to grasp the heavy length of chain and haul it over to William and Dr. Hewitt. Her back seared with pain at the aggravation and spots clouded her vision for a few seconds, fresh blood oozing from the wounds, "Where do you want it?" she asked between breaths.

William climbed off the whimpering doctor and yanked him up to a sitting position, keeping an eye on the nurse. Beside him, the orderly finally stopped gurgling.

"Manacle him, then wrap the chains around him. Wait," he said, quickly going through Dr. Hewitt's pockets until he found his wallet. "Okay." William's dark eyes lingered for a moment on what he could see of her back; then he returned his gaze to the wheezing nurse.

   Susan knelt down behind Dr. Hewitt. The key was still in the lock where she had left it after getting herself loose earlier. She secured the doctors' hands behind him, blinking hard every few seconds to keep her vision as clear as she could. Grabbing the chain, she stood with a lurch and walked around the man on the floor. How she hated him. She knew in that moment, that when or if the time came, she wouldn't hesitate to let him die. Even now, she didn't know if she could kill him herself.

   She wrapped until there was not enough chain left to drag, only needing to circle him three times. Susan stopped to catch her breath, holding the end of the chain tightly in her determined grasp.

William took the end of the chain from her and tucked it securely through a loop of itself, tugging it tight. Then he stood quickly, and walked toward the nurse who was still trying to get up, clutching her abdomen.

She shrieked and raised an arm against his attack, but he only grabbed her wrist and tugged off her sleeve. He spun her all the way around as he yanked off her white lab coat and sent her spinning back into the corner. Then he turned away and walked back to stand before Susan. He held up the coat for her to put her arms in, and only then could she see the trembling of his hands in the shaking white fabric.

   If their time hadn't been so precious, Susan would have reached out a hand and tried to comfort him. Calm that terrible storm she could see raging in his eyes. But they didn't have time, and a part of her knew that right now, nothing could ease the strong emotions in him now. So, she slid her arms into the coat and let the garment cover her back. It was painful, but it would help more than hurt now.

He stood for a moment, just looking at her. The smallest of smiles twitched the corners of his mouth, but it was gone again in a second. "It's escape or death," he declared softly, close enough to be heard over the sound of the alarm. "We will get out, or we will make sure they can never hurt us again."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Wed 22 Apr 2020.

   Susan reached out to take his hand and squeeze, her eyes locked on his with a look of determination and resignation. It was time. To get out of this place together, or die together. It took only a fraction of a second to communicate their pact, but it felt much longer, "Escape or death." she echoed, before releasing him and buttoning her coat on the way to open the door for William and their prisoner. Smoke was filling the room and the flames were eating the walls from the inside out. Taking hold of the door handle, she looked over her shoulder to William, her eyes now ablaze with their own fire.

William stood for a moment, looking at her, then looking down at Dr. Hewitt, and it was like all the years of torment were circling him like vultures. The fear, the conditioning, the belief that he would never escape... Then there was Susan, breathing life back into him. The fire in her eyes now reminded him of the day they first met. Reminded him of how wretched he had been before she had saved him. He took a deep breath as he regarded the memories swirling around him...

But they only circled, frenzied. They didn't land. William's shoulders stayed broad and straight, his back unbowed. He calmly opened the doctors wallet and removed the card he knew they'd need, keeping it in his hand with the screwdriver while tucking the wallet into his pants pocket.

The smoke was stinging his eyes. Dr. Hewitt started hollering for help. William leaned down and slapped him across the face with his open hand, hard. Then he pulled the dazed man to his feet and shoved him through the door Susan held open.

   Susan smiled a terrible, wicked smile when William slapped Dr. Hewitt. Shuddering, she didn't dwell on those feelings before she followed them through the door and closed it. There were shouts in the distance, but no one in sight. Yet. She looked both ways down the hall, thinking back to when she was brought to this level. Looking to their left, she felt sure that the stairs were that way, "I think the stairs are this way." she said, nodding down the hallway as she buttoned a few buttons on the coat she wore.

William nodded for her to lead on, one hand holding a handful of the doctor's collar at the back of his neck and the other holding the screwdriver under his chin. "Quick as you can," he said, enough compassion in his voice to tell her not to push herself harder than she could.

   Susan gave him a half smile, her heart warming, and turned to go down the hallway. Her legs did feel weak, but they worked. The tile floor was cold under her bare feet, but the smoke in the air was getting thicker, and she could feel the heat coming from the wall to her left. Ahead, the hall turned into an intersection. More rooms down the right side, restrooms to the left, and the stairs straight ahead. When her eyes saw the sign to indicate stairs, she pointed, "There!"

   A few feet from the intersection, they heard the rushing of feet and from the right hand hall a group of orderlies filled the intersection, a few holding fire extinguishers, a few holding dart guns and tasers.

   Stopping on her toes, Susan hurriedly backed up and grabbed onto William tightly, her breath coming and going in sharp gasps.

"Behind me, Susan," William breathed in her ear. Then he filled his lungs and bellowed at the orderlies. "I'll kill him! Drop your weapons! I'll kill him!" The smoke made his voice ragged. He kept taking small steps forward. He stared at them from under his heavy brows, menace radiating from him as he jabbed the screwdriver deeper into the wattles under the doctors chin. The old man was muttering a constant stream of filth and expletives, eyes rolling wildly, blood dripping from his fingers.

   Susan held on to William's shirt as tightly as she could and stayed right behind him as he moved ahead. She hunched down slightly, making herself as small as possible.

   The orderlies were already angry, but as William hadn't stopped they shuffled and moved back slightly as a group. They seemed to be waiting for orders from Dr. Hewitt, and kept looking from the doctor to the patient with the screwdriver. Disgruntled mutterings and curses came from the group. A few of them looked down the hall and shouted. The fire had spread, and was now in the hallway and getting hotter.

William gave the doctor a savage shake and hissed in his ear. "Tell them to drop their weapons and kick them toward us. Now!" The hand holding the screwdriver was shaking. William was finding it very difficult not to give into his rage and just end the evil mans odious life.

   "Do it!" Dr. Hewitt shrieked, his own life, as always, foremost on his mind. He inflicted pain, he didn't endure it. He studied it, didn't experience it.

   The orderlies with the stun guns and tasers stooped to set their weapons on the ground. They paused, as if the doctor would change his mind, but when no other order was forthcoming, they viciously slid them over. The men with the extinguishers kept looking down the hallway, and seemed to realize that the red canisters in their hands would do little to stop the spreading blaze.

   Susan kept one hand on William and crouched to grab a taser, her raw back protesting painfully, Letting a breath out through clenched teeth, she straightened and turned the weapon on the shuffling group.

Still moving forward with small steps, William instructed Susan to fill her pockets with tasers and to put some in his too.  He tried not to get too upset listening to her gasps and groans as she moved; the hand holding the screwdriver wanted to just shove, hard, but he couldn't. At least, not yet.

When there was a dart gun dangling precariously in one pocket and a taser in the other, William moved a little faster, inching their way across the intersection toward the stairs.

Dizzy now, Susan kept a tight grip on William, blinking hard every few seconds. They circled each other, and inch by inch they got closer to the door leading to the stairs. The group of orderlies kept shuffling, muttering to each other and a few broke from the pack to run down the hall with their canisters to try and put the fire out. The rest of them finally elected a spokesman and pushed him forward. He pointed a threatening finger at William, "This will only end with you in pain." he said harshly, "We'll be following your every step."

Down the hall, the orderlies called out. The fire was too hot, and had spread too far within the walls of this old section of the hospital.

They reached the stairs' door and Susan took hold of the knob and turned it, opening the door to the small landing.

William quirked a smile at the orderlies. He lowered his head and whispered in Dr. Hewitt's ear. After a motivating jab in the throat from the screwdriver, the doctor called out. "Toss your keys to Subject Black! All of you!"

All of them obeyed, on edge from the growing fire and getting more concerned for their own escape.

Susan crouched down again, steadying herself against William's leg as she gathered up the card keys and an assortment of metal keys. She stuffed the cards into one of the pockets on her nurses coat and straightened, the metal keys in one hand. Anticipating William, she went into the stair well first and began trying keys to see if any would lock the door. The third out of the five did fit and she looked up, "Let's go." she said, reaching out to take hold of William's shirt to guide him through the doorway.

Before backing up, William let go of the doctor with his free hand and drew his dart gun. He didn't bother checking what it was loaded with; it was undoubtedly unpleasant and fast-acting. He shot the orderly spokesman in the chest before any of the others could react, then quick stepped back through the door. He didn't want any of them trying to charge them while they locked the door. He wanted them distracted, concerned with how they were going to get out while carrying an incapacitated co-worker.

He didn't care if they all died. He honestly could not dredge up one iota of concern.

It worked. The foremost orderly gasped and a moment later dropped onto his face in a stiff and paralyzed heap. The others shouted, and in their haste as a group to get to Dr. Hewitt stumbled over each other. Jane swung the door closed the next moment and turned the key, locking the door a split second before one of the men seized the handle and yelled obscenities in anger.

Susan realized she was panting from fear and backed away from the door with the key in hand. Turning her wide eyes to William she swallowed and said breathlessly, "Up we go."

William looked up. He could only see through a small gap between staircases, but it went up and up. "We'll rest as often as you need to," he said, tucking the dart gun back in his pocket. He tried to hide his own trembling. The fire was still burning in him, but he had been in a coma just a few minutes ago. His inner flame was keeping it away for now, but he didn't want to push it.

There were undoubtedly other stairwells, and the orderlies might even chance the elevators. He didn't expect to get to the surface without more confrontations, but he knew he and Susan would handle it together.

He could feel the doctor seething in his grasp, but William paid him no mind. He was just another key they needed to get out.

In case they were surprised by enemies coming into the stairwell, they made Dr. Hewitt walk ahead of them as they climbed. They stayed close together, and whenever Susan's breath started coming in heaving gasps, she would grab William's shirt and they would stop until her breath returned. Keeping a hand on the railing helped her through the dizzy spells. About seven flights up, and she was wishing that it was over.

The slow beats of three sets of footsteps echoed in William's ears, a staggered staccato to match his labored heartbeats. He tried not to show it, but he needed the rests as often as Susan did. The stabbing pains in his abdomen, which started before the second flight, had been getting slowly worse as they climbed. He tasted metal every time he swallowed. Where had his fire gone? He quested for it, felt it smoldering at the edges of him, tugging him gently onward. At least it hadn't gone out.

William found himself smiling. He wished he had a hand free so he could hold Susan's hand. Every time she touched him goosebumps shocked across his body, spreading in waves from the point of contact. Every step they took brought them closer to freedom, and also closer to recapture. He wondered if they would get far enough to see outside; it had been years since he had seen the sky, since he had even allowed himself to think about it.

He paused to glance up, but the stairwell still seemed to have no end. The smell of smoke was stronger now. Glancing down, he saw firelight.

Maybe they wouldn't make it. He had to consider it; he and Susan had committed to this. Escape or death. If the fire he had started wouldn't get them out one way, then it would get them out the other. This stairwell was probably their best bet. All they had to do was climb over the rail...

The screwdriver in his hand trembled as Dr. Hewitt swallowed. He gave a moments consideration to the death of the good doctor. The screwdriver would do for him. He didn't deserve anything quick or painless.

They were coming up on another landing with a door. William tried to shake these slow thoughts from his head and be ready for anything. Probably it would be nothing, and they could lock it as they had locked all the others behind them. He knew they didn't have the only keys to these doors, but it would slow down their pursuers and give away their location. He looked over at Susan to see how she was doing.