Dr. Shield's Arc

Chapter 7 of 13

Shield folded the map back into her jacket and checked the warehouse perimeter through the cracked window. The sun had dropped below the roofline two blocks over. Shadows stretched across the dirt lot outside. She'd been here six hours since Rosie left, and the quiet felt wrong. The bike appeared first—bright paint splashed across rusted metal, leaning against the warehouse's east wall where nothing had been an hour ago. Shield recognized the tags immediately. Ravens marked their territory the same way everywhere in Rust Creek. She moved to the patient's bedside and checked his pulse. Still steady. Still breathing. But the Ravens had found Echo Warehouse, which meant Rosie's deal had already failed. Shield pulled the IV line and disconnected the monitors. She had maybe twenty minutes before they came through the door. She spotted the ambulance two blocks north while hauling the patient toward the back exit—white paint peeling, red lights cracked, but the engine compartment looked intact. Shield dragged her patient across the dirt lot and laid him in the back. The vehicle's interior still had a stretcher bolted to the floor and cabinets along the walls. She strapped him down and grabbed what supplies she could carry from the warehouse. The map pressed against her ribs inside her jacket. The Ravens would tear this place apart looking for it, but they wouldn't find anything. The ambulance coughed twice before the engine caught. Shield pulled onto the street and drove toward the old veterinarian office on the east side—the building she'd used before Sherrie forced her to Echo Warehouse. It had no generator, no steady supplies, and the walls let in cold air through broken windows. But the Ravens didn't know about it yet, and that made it safer than anywhere Rosie or Sherrie controlled. Shield glanced at her patient in the rearview mirror. His chest rose and fell with the rhythm she'd fought to restore. She'd lost her supply deal and her protected location. But she'd kept him breathing, and the map was still hidden. That would have to be enough.