“Oh my god,” PC Dumbarse exclaimed, sinking to his knees to help up the damsel in distress. It was at that moment that Ronnie quickly slipped the child from the room and placed her in the wheelchair, battered face covered by the oversized fluffy hood of her onesie. Promptly, Zach made a U-turn and was once again moving quickly back through the ward, his entire body pounding with adrenaline as his palms sweated and the bones in his legs turned to jelly. The double doors to the ward were in sight, and the feeling of ecstasy was making Zach feel quite giddy. He had to stop himself from grinning like an idiot and arousing suspicion at the last moment, especially when the end was so deliciously close.
“Excuse me?”
The voice that addressed him hit him around the head like a sack of bricks, everything inside him freezing stiff as he stopped in his tracks and turned to see a short, plump woman in scrubs standing behind him. She had an eyebrow raised, piggy eyes looking him up and down, scrutinising him. She reeked of a person who’d been given a tiny titbit of authority and was now milking it for all it was worth.
“ID?” she asked, searching his uniform for a badge or card.
“Lost it,” Zach replied, his voice as cool and collected as ever, whilst his fingers twitched nervously as they gripped onto the handles of the wheelchair. Zach was a confident young man, but even he found it impossible to stay truly calm when there was so much at stake. If he was caught, it would look like an abduction. And he couldn’t very well explain that the reason he didn’t want to come forward as the child’s older brother was because he was, in fact, a hardened criminal who was perpetually on the run from the law along with the rest of his family.
“What’s your name?” the nurse asked, brow furrowing as she folded her arms.
“Fred Mathers.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“A few months,” said Zach slowly, “now, I’ve got somewhere to be, so…” he went to turn and continue pushing Flo back towards the double doors to the ward, but a pudgy hand was stuck out and collided with the bare skin of his elbow.
“Hold on. Who is that you are moving?” she demanded, nodding towards Flo’s slumped figure, her face still concealed by the fluffy orange hood of her outfit. “Nobody is scheduled to be moved today.”
Zach stifled a groan of irritation.
Just fuck off and let me go, you stupid bitch.
Just as he opened his mouth to say something else, the shrill shriek of the fire alarm blasted loudly into the air, silencing him and everybody else. At the same time, the sharp sting of smoke crept up into his nostrils.
“THERE’S A FIRE!” another nurse yelled from somewhere else, immediately causing total carnage to ensue as now panicked visitors, workers, and patients all headed for the double doors to the ward. The fierce gush of people practically carried Zach and the wheelchair with it as the mob flooded out into the corridor, and the suspicious nurse was soon just a long distant nightmare. Zach allowed himself a sigh of relief and a small smile as it occurred to him that it must have been Stella or his father saving his arse.
Despite the chaos, Zach abandoned the wheelchair and carried his little sister over his shoulder as though he were a doll. He ripped off the top half of his uniform so that he just looked like an average person in a normal t-shirt. He couldn’t have the nosy nurse calling security. As agreed, the young man sprinted through the hospital to the female toilets on ground 3, where Minnie waited, her hair twisted into an unfamiliar style and tinted glasses partially covering her face. Wordlessly, she took her daughter from Zach back into the bathroom to change her again into a different outfit and hastily chop her hair so that she would not be recognised.
A few minutes later, the Garnet family was regrouping and dashing out of the hospital alongside the clusters of other panicked residents responding to the deafening bleating of the fire alarm. Outside, there were already dozens of fire trucks and firefighters, as well as a dazzling collage of flashing blue and red lights lighting up the faces of the thousands of people who seemed to be standing outside.
“Shit, look at the road,” Stella hissed breathlessly as the family crossed the heaving car park, “Lloyd will be stuck.
