Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“Whose damn dog is that?” Rory asked. “Where’d you go, Pay?”
His flashlight swung back and forth across the floor of the room. Just as his flashlight beam met the edge of my feet, a sickening thud, followed by a moan, and then a heavy body falling to the floor. The flashlight rolled across the floor until it came to rest against my foot, and I snatched it up quickly before killing the light.
“It’s okay, Pet. It’s just me.” Max said quietly before hunkering down beside me. His arms came out and framed my face, and I instantly felt better. My stomach stopped rolling and even the baby quieted down to a weep instead of wailing.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“The lights for the generator are working on every floor except for this one. The only person that would have the knowledge to cut off only one floors power would be an experienced electrician. It all makes sense that Rory is here now seeing as he’s worked on the hospital’s power grid before.”
As soon as he mentioned the power, the lights flickered twice before blinking on, blinding in their intensity. I surveyed the room, and then looked down to the little girl who was startled out of her crying. I reached over to the cradle, grabbed an infant nursette bottle, and started feeding the hungry baby. She attacked the nipple as if she was starving, making hungry sucking noises. Max chuckled at the little pig noises she was making.
“What about the woman?” I asked while looking the baby over for any noticeable injuries.
I felt his body go immobile, his breathing freeze, and then a cackling laugh came from behind Max. Max slowly turned and faced the woman who had laughed like a horror movie reject.
I recognized her immediately, and saw red. This woman was paid to watch the young mother, and was very close to harming an innocent child with her careless disregard of her job. I was so upset that it took me a moment to realize that Max had his gun in his hand pointing straight at the aid.
“What’s going on?” I asked with a deep foreboding.
“Oh, not much.” The woman said with an evil smile on her face. It made her look all wrong. Where earlier I was just uneasy around her, now I felt downright disturbed.
“Put your gun down, darling. Surprised to see me?” She asked.
I turned and looked at Max. His face was set as hard as granite. He was working his jaw, as if he was afraid if he didn’t clinch it he would say something that would set the woman off. His eyes flicked down, and then just as quickly flicked back up.
“Tell your dog to back off.” The woman said before bringing the backpack she had strapped to her back around to give it a good shake in front of her body. The sound of snuffling, and then a lusty cry reverberated through the quiet room, and I could no longer hold the throw up that had been stewing for the past few hours. I bent over and puked until all that was left was dry heaves.
What is wrong with this women and hurting innocent babies. How were we going to get the baby away from her? What if the baby was hurt? Whose baby was it? All these thoughts continued swirling through my mind as Max said the command for Alpha to stand down. He stopped where he was, but didn’t stop the menacing growling.
“I’m going to leave this floor, and if you don’t have anyone follow me, I’ll leave the baby on the elevator.” She said as she carefully placed the backpack back over her shoulder.
“O’Hare, keep your word.” Max said as he lowered his weapon.
O’Hare backed out of the room, and then disappeared into the chaos of the hallway. Nobody stopped her. The alarms that signal that a baby was leaving the authorized area flared to life, but were quickly extinguished as she found a way to override the locked elevator and shut them off. Bile threatened to rise again, but one look at Max’s face helped me persist through the nausea.
He had his phone to his ear, and started speaking authoritatively to whoever was on the other end. I walked out into the hallway to see the rest of the nursing staff running towards the elevator.
“Why did it unlock?” Tina cried as she watched the numbers flow down to the basement level.
Max was there with me, gun tucked back into his holster. “Stay here, I’m going down to the basement as soon as I see that the baby is on the elevator.”
We all watched with bated breath as the elevator returned back to the third floor. The doors swished open, and every last one of the nurses that were crowded around the elevator let out a loud cheer, and then started to cry. We all felt responsible for the fact that we lost a baby. It was our job to make sure that they were safe and protected, and we had all failed.
Tina bent down to scoop the baby up. Dressed in the hospital attire of onesie and animal blanket, she looked oblivious to the world. Not even disturbed in the slightest to be lying on the floor. Thank God.
Max left within the next minute, following the same route down to the basement. It was only then that I realized that he was by himself going after a psycho woman. Saying a small prayer, I went back to work. I checked over the small infant who was still strapped to my chest by the bed sheet. The doctor pronounced her fit as a fiddle, and then returned to the other babies to do his rounds.
Cheyenne was propped up in a rolling desk chair at the nurses station with a white cold pack pressed to her bandaged forehead. “This is your entire fault.” She moaned.
My stomach dropped and I closed my eyes tightly, but then snapped back open when she said, “I told you I needed that stun gun! Why didn’t you let me get it?”