The Highway Held a Second Fire

By the time they left the hospital, the sky had started to gray out. Not dawn. Smoke. Elias loaded Mia into the back of a rescue van that had just arrived. Kelly Brooks climbed in after them with a box of first-aid supplies and soot streaked across her face. Grace took the front seat and looked back at the hospital glowing red behind them like a nightmare that refused to end. “Where to?” the driver asked. “North,” Elias said. “Take I-93. Not the main arteries.” The driver frowned. “That side is closed.” “Then it’s the side they haven’t fully taken.” Two blocks out, an explosion rolled from the hospital parking structure. Orange fire climbed the walls, and black smoke pushed through the vents like someone had driven a fist into the building’s