Page 114 of Riot Rules

Wren stirs back to life, jolting in the passenger seat next to me. I chance a quick sideways look to check on him. I wish I could check on Carrie, too, but I’m going ninety down a sketchy mountain road, and I’m not crashing through a guard rail and killing us all after miraculously finding these guys in time. Wren’s eyes roll in his head. He groans, his breath stuttering.

“Hey. Hey! Stay awake. Tell me what the fuck happened?”

He’s lost too much blood to be coherent. “I—I didn’t even mean to—”

“You did good, man. You got her out of there. Won’t be long now. A couple more minutes and we’ll be at the hospital.” I hope it’s only a couple of minutes. I don’t know how long Carrie has. She was so cold in my arms. Lifeless.

“I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have fucked with him,” he whispers. “I’m sorry. I’m really…fuckingsorry.”

He’s talking about Fitz. Now isn’t the time to yell at him for his mistakes, though, so I focus on the road, and I try to keep him awake. “Don’t worry about that now. Elodie’s gonna be coming soon. Just stay awake, dude, okay?”

His head lolls, smacking into the passenger side window when I drift through the intersection that leads into town. It’s nearly three in the morning, and there are no cars on the road. The hospital is a straight shot from here. I put my foot down and I punch it.

When I pull into the parking lot, there are already people gathered outside the emergency room entrance with a gurney, waiting for us; Mercy or Elodie must have managed to call ahead. The tires squeal when I skid to a stop in front of the well-lit sliding doors. The people in scrubs—three doctors—don’t wait for me to get out. They pull open the Charger’s doors themselves, taking custody of my friends.

“What happened?” one of them demands.

“I—I don’t even know! She has a stomach wound. She’s really bad. His arms are all cut up. Please!Helpthem!” I drove like a psycho to get them here. Now that we’ve arrived, there’snothingI can do. I’m fucking helpless.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got them.” All three of them are women. Efficient, calm, and quick. I don’t even have time to get out of the Charger before they have Carina on the gurney and Wren onto another.

“Pulse is thready. BP’s in the tank,” one of them says over Carina’s lifeless body.

Relief hits me like a wrecking ball; I was terrified she wouldn’t evenhavea pulse by the time we got here.

“This guy’s not much better. No upper body wounds on him, though. Let’s get ’em inside.”

I try to follow them inside, but one of the women turns around and yells over her shoulder as she disappears with Carrie into the building. “Move the car! You can’t leave that there!”

“Fuck the car!”

“The emergency bay needs to be kept clear. Move it now!”

Cursing violently, I move the Charger, abandoning it in a disabled spot by the entrance, and then I’m in the building, tearing down the hallway—

“—two ways about it. We’re short. We can’t treat them both.”

Wild-eyed, I slide on the linoleum, stopping in front of a nurse who’s talking to the brunette doctor. “What? What do you mean, you can’t treat them both?”

The nurse frowns, ignoring me. “Black Mountain General are driving some over, but that’s going to take at least an hour.”

The brunette laces her fingers behind her head, her forehead rucked with deep lines. “Okay. Fuck. Give it to the guy. He’s in better shape. Just.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you seriously prioritizing one life over another right now?”

The nurse is already walking away. The doctor turns and regards me wearily. “That’s what we do here, kid. Welcome to triage. I’m sorry, I know this is hard, but our blood supplies are at nil and—”

“Wait! Wait! I’m—I’m awhatdoyoucallit. Universal! I’m a universal donor!”

The doctor stills. “You serious?”

“YES!”

“Because we don’t have time to test you. And if we give your friends incompatible blood, it’ll probably kill them.”

“Yes! Yes, I’m fucking serious! I was here last year. Check! Check my records. I’m O negative, I swear!”

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