Chapter One - Before the Lights Went Out

A man shoved the person in front of him so hard they slammed into a filing cabinet, and when he stepped on the shards at the threshold, blood appeared immediately on his calf, the heat already drying it before it could run. "Move!" Elliot shouted. At the stairwell door, a security guard was trying to pry open the fire door. Beyond it, the outer maintenance platform had warped in the heat. The handrails bowed into ugly curves. Sweat had carved white lines through the dirt on the guard's face. "There are three refrigerated medicine trucks in the basement garage," the guard gasped. "If we can get them out, the hospital can—" "The hospital is already failing," Elliot snapped. "First survive."