Page 56 of Already Lost

“Not at all, not at all,” Zach said. “Iwas just on my way out. Looks like you two are about to have a splendid lunch!”

Chris grinned at that, stepping in throughthe door and then to one side in order to let Zach out. Zach passed by him,nodding at Laura. She felt frozen, like she couldn’t do or say anything. Shehad no idea how to stop this from happening. All she knew was that somehow, atsome point, this situation was going to go from smiles and handshakes to themost violent end possible.

“Well, I’ll speak to you in a month, then,like we said,” Zach told her, smiling benevolently. Laura almost cringed. Wasthat it? Was Chris going to be jealous now? She swallowed down bile, trying tobreathe.

“Oh?” Chris asked, polite casualness,looking between him and Laura. “What’s in a month?”

“Building committee meeting,” Zach said,still wearing that same smile. He lied easily, Laura thought. Too easily. Whatelse had he lied about? “I’m one of Laura’s neighbors here. We’ve got someimprovements coming up and we like to involve as many of the residents aspossible.”

“Right,” Chris nodded, smiling back athim. “Well, good luck.”

Zach nodded at Laura one more time andstarted to walk away, smile still on his face. Laura only saw it falter for amoment as he took that first step. For a moment, she cursed him. What if Chrishad seen that happen? She went to close the door –

But something was wrong. Zach had clutchedhis hand across his chest, staggering to one side instead of continuing to walkstraight on.

“Zach?” Laura said, opening the door wideragain.

He was falling to his knees.

Chris rushed forwards, out into the hall,and he set his briefcase down on the floor beside Zach, rapidly grabbing holdof him. “Can you hear me?” he asked. “Can you tell me what you’re feeling?”

Zach only made a choking noise, but hemanaged to gesture to his arm and his chest, his face going red. He fell downto the floor, laying out flat –

Laying out like Laura had seen in herdream.

Chris thrust his briefcase open and rifledthrough it, the lid of it open towards Laura so that she couldn’t see what hewas doing.

She had seen this so many times. Zach onthe floor. Chris over him. Adrenaline took over. She didn’t even think. Shecouldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t let Chris kill him. Whatever he wastaking out of the briefcase was –

The knife –

She pulled her gun, pointing it at Chris.“No!” she yelled desperately, forgetting all of her training in an instant,forgetting to be clear and give directions, only knowing that she needed tomake him stop.

Chris stared at her, pausing, frozen stillas though she’d managed to stop time. Zach was moving, but only a little. Hewas still making that choking noise.

“Is he allergic?” Chris demanded, reachinginto the briefcase again. His other hand was visible now beyond the edge of it.He was holding a syringe.

Laura stared back at him.

“Laura?” he barked, every inch the medicalprofessional, needing the quick answer so that he could save a life.

“I don’t know,” she breathed, dropping thegun by her side.

Chris turned, ignoring her now and focusedon Zach, and used one hand to hold him still. “Just hold on,” he told the otherman, and then his hand came down, plunging the needle through Zach’s chest andreleasing the plunger.

There was a tense moment, and then Zachgasped for breath, color slowly returning to normal in his face.

“Call 911,” Chris instructed Laura, stillnot looking at her. “He still needs to go to hospital and get checked out. He’sjust had a heart attack.”

Laura fumbled to holster her gun, reachingfor her cell phone instead. She opened it and dialed automatically, and whenthe dispatched asked for details she said them like she was reading them from apiece of paper. Ambulance, her home address, heart attack, given shot of –Chris told her it was adrenaline. The dispatcher said that help was on the way.Laura put her phone in her pocket.

Everything was happening so slowly and yetfar too fast. She didn’t know if she’d taken a breath since Zach fell to theground. It was like her body was trapped in treacle. She didn’t even know ifshe would be able to take a step or if she’d just fall over.

“The ambulance is on its way, sir,” Chrissaid, reassuring Zach as he folded up his coat and put it under his head forsupport. “You just hold tight until then. We’ll have you in great condition inno time.”

“Th-thank you,” Zach managed to saybreathlessly.

“Don’t thank me. Just stay still and don’ttry to talk,” Chris instructed him. “Help will be here soon, but don’t stressyourself out until then.”

“Alright,” Zach replied hoarsely. Heleaned his head down on the jacket and seemed to relax, looking up at theceiling.

“And then, when the ambulance has come andgone,” Chris said, looking at Laura. “We can talk about what the hell thatwas.”

Laura swallowed hard, taking a step backinside the apartment.

She’d screwed up.

And she had no idea how she was going toexplain any of this.