Chapter 6 - The Night the Hospital Went DarkSt. Catherine's lost power at 11:18 p.m.
Backup generators failed.
The emergency lights flickered.
Patients remained connected to life-support machines.
Evelyn was working in the ICU.
She immediately understood.
This wasn't an accident.
Someone had disabled the backup system.
“Get portable oxygen!”
She shouted orders.
Nurses moved.
Doctors ran.
Then smoke entered the hallway.
Fire.
Not enough to be random.
Enough to create chaos.
Evelyn went room to room.
She moved patients.
One by one.
A child.
An elderly woman.
A trauma victim.
Then she saw a familiar face.
Holloway.
Standing at the far end of the hall.
He smiled.
“You always did have a hero complex.”
Evelyn stared.
“You're done.”
He shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Dominic arrived.
Security surrounded them.
Holloway raised a phone.
A video appeared.
Dominic's mother.
Alive.
She had been kidnapped months earlier.
Dominic froze.
“You see?”
Holloway smiled.
“I kept your mother.”
Dominic stepped forward.
Holloway continued.
“If you want her alive, walk away.”
Evelyn stopped him.
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“We do this together.”
They followed Holloway's instructions.
The trail led to an underground facility beneath an old clinic.
There they found Dominic's mother.
Alive.
Weak.
But conscious.
She looked at Evelyn.
“You're Claire's daughter.”
“Yes.”
She began crying.
“You have her eyes.”
Dominic freed her.
Holloway fled.
But before he escaped, he triggered an explosion.
The facility shook.
Fire spread.
Evelyn and Dominic carried his mother out.
The building collapsed.
Holloway was presumed dead.
The evidence survived.
The hospital was saved.
Public investigations began.
Within months, the network was dismantled.
Holloway's body was never found.
Dominic expected the nightmare to end.
But Evelyn knew better.
People like Holloway survived by planning beyond failure.
She was right.
Three months later, she received a package.
Inside was a single patient bracelet.
Her mother's name.
Claire Whitmore.
The date was recent.
Evelyn stared.
Her mother had been treated somewhere.
Recently.
She hadn't imagined it.
Someone had been caring for her.
A message was attached.
She is not the only one who survived.
Evelyn looked at Dominic.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't know.
They followed the address.
A private clinic.
Inside were files.
Patients who had disappeared.
Some were alive.
Some were dead.
Some had been hidden under false names.
And one file contained a shocking photograph.
Grant Holloway.
Alive.
Sitting beside a man Evelyn did not recognize.
The caption read:
Phase Two.
May you like
Dominic looked at the date.
Tomorrow.
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