The sound of sirens causes me to blink rapidly as my eyes flutter open. Flashing lights dance at the edge of my vision and I can’t tell if they’re real or just a figment of my imagination. Everything in my head is blurry, including my memories of how I got here. That’s not anything all that unusual though, at least, I think it isn’t. It’s hard to think clearly, especially as the rough asphalt scratches and bites at my bare skin.

I smell iron and feel wet, dark blood. My whole body aches and burns. The sound of the sirens gets louder and now I can also hear shouts from somewhere in the distance. That means I’m probably not alone, and that this probably isn’t all in my imagination.

As I start to wake up a bit more, another even more pressing thought forces its way into my mind. How did I manage to get out, and where am I now? Whatever happened, I would surely get punished for it but at least they couldn’t punish me with anything too horrible. After all, I already lost everything when I lost her.

With my eyes fully open now, I can start to see clearly again. There are fire trucks painted bright red and police cars painted a dark blue color, like the color of the sky at nighttime, at least so I’d been told. They each have distinctly different sounding sirens that blend together into an awful cacophony of noise and if I could move I would clamp my hands to my ears to try and drown out the sound. Either that or I would try and run away. Even though it wouldn’t work, anything would be better than going back there.

People try to rush towards me and panic rushes into my system faster than a speeding bullet. There are so many of them, and some of them wear those all too familiar white lab coats. If I wanted to have any chance at all of making my getaway, I would have to do it now. Taking the deepest breath I can, I try to drag myself to my feet, only to fall hard to the ground with all my weight landing on my knees.

Still determined, I force myself to crawl, even as I feel little bits of glass and gravel dig into the already open cuts that I have all over my body. Nothing else matters except getting away from these people and away from this place!

I’m in so much pain that I’ve practically been brought to tears, they must have given me the drugs that would make it so I could feel pain…it was unusual for me to feel pain…

My thoughts are wandering. Is it maybe a result of blood loss? Am I lightheaded? Is this what death feels like? Somehow, the idea of death scares me much less than the idea of being caught by the people in the lab coats. Maybe it’s because I know what the lab coats mean, what they represent, how they destroyed everything.

Tears start to mix with the cuts on my face and the salt makes them burn even more, if that’s possible. If she was here she would know what to do, how to help me, where to go so that we would be safe. I should have saved her…

“Ma’am, can you hear us, tell us what happened? Do you know if anyone else made it out?”

I jerk my head up at the voice. This woman wears a lab coat but I don’t see any long needles in her pockets or anything. I still scoot backwards to try and get away from her though, there’s no telling what she could do.

“Ma’am, it’s alright, I’m not going to hurt you.”

As she keeps coming towards me and showing no signs of stopping I do the only thing I can think of: let out an ear piercing scream. Nobody will come help me but maybe I could scream loud enough that the people trying to hurt me would have a harder time subduing me. It’s all just a matter of time at this point.

“Ma’am, you need emergency medical care. Please stop moving, it’ll only make your injuries worse. It’s a miracle you survived that explosion at all, our teams haven’t found any other survivors. We need you to stay calm and stay put so that we can help you.”

“Explosion? What exploded?” Having not used my voice in the five months since they dragged Amy to the basement, it comes out as just a weak croaking sound.

“It looks like some sort of giant laboratory, it’s a couple miles up the road but you can see the flames from here. The blast radius is huge.”

A laboratory? Did that mean the lab was gone? Was I…safe? I didn’t dare to hope, didn’t dare to think but…

“Ma’am, ma’am please say something if you can. Can you respond?”

I want to say something but I can’t. The words won’t come out. Everything gets blurry again and I hear the beeping of machines along with peoples’ desperate shouts and then…nothing.