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.