Chapter 9 - The Ashes
Marcus left David tied to a tree and sped toward the burning city hospital.
The sky was painted orange from the massive flames consuming the building.
Fire trucks surrounded the perimeter, spraying thousands of gallons of water into the inferno.
Marcus bypassed the police barricades and sprinted toward the main entrance.
A police officer tackled him to the ground, shouting that the building was structurally unsafe.
Marcus punched the officer in the jaw and scrambled to his feet.
He wrapped his wet jacket over his head and plunged into the burning lobby.
The heat was absolute torture, peeling the skin from his arms.
He remembered David saying the antidote was in Isabella's original locker in the staff wing.
Marcus navigated the crumbling, smoke-filled corridors from pure memory.
He kicked down the door to the staff locker room, coughing violently.
Most of the metal lockers were already melting from the intense heat.
He found locker number forty-two and smashed the lock with a heavy fire extinguisher.
Inside, resting on a top shelf, was a reinforced steel lockbox.
He grabbed the box just as a burning ceiling beam crashed down behind him.
He clutched the box tightly to his chest and dove out of a shattered ground-floor window.
He landed hard in the bushes outside, gasping for fresh air.
Paramedics rushed over to treat his severe burns, but he pushed them away.
He threw the heavy steel box onto the concrete pavement to break its hinges.
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The lid popped open, revealing a perfectly intact syringe filled with a golden liquid.
He finally had the real cure.
