Free Equinox by Lara Morgan

normal. Heart pounding like she was high on stims, she pocketed her com and headed for the door.
    The hospital seemed quieter than usual. There was no one on the front desk or in the halls. That should have been a big clue right there, but she wasn’t thinking straight. It wasn’t until she got to her dad’s floor and looked through the window into the doctor’s office that she got it. The doctor was in there, but there were also two big men in Senate uniforms. They wore guns strapped to their hips, and both of them saw her.
    Rosie froze. She stared at them, they stared at her and for a nanosecond nobody moved. Her only thoughts were: they know about the vision; they’ve come for me. Then instinct took over. She spun on her heels and bolted back down the hall.
    “Stop!” one of the men called, but she didn’t turn around. She skidded around a corner, knocking over a trolley of medical supplies, and kept running. Adrenaline pumped through her veins like cold fire, her back prickling with fear that at any moment she’d feel a shot.
    The men pursued her, their boots thundering on the hard floor. Her dad’s room was on the second floor and Rosie had no idea where the stairwell was. She’d always taken the lift. Terrified, she ran blindly around the next corner and past the bank of elevators. It had to be close. A door. Rosie saw a sign on it saying
No Admittance
before she ran through and slammed the door shut, locking it behind her. A heavy fist smashed on it, rattling it in its frame.
    It was dim inside, hard to see. Opposite the door was a flight of stairs going down. Rosie took them two at a time, almost twisting her ankle as she rounded the platform at the bottom of the first flight.
    Now that the Senate knew, how long would it be until one of Helios’s moles saw the vision and spread the word?
    Crashes came from above like someone was trying to kick the door in. The stairs ended at an outer door. She pushed it open. Directly opposite was a small car park with a few solar cars and a big hover delivery truck. Thick trees and scrub backed onto the far side of the car park. There were more buildings on the right and open lawn on the left. She ran towards the car park but caught a movement from the corner of her eye. A Senate guard was sprinting across the lawn. She ran as hard as she could for the car park, not really sure what she was going to do.
    “Stop,” the guard shouted, and she heard the whine of a weapon powering up.
    Rosie ducked, but not quickly enough. A pulse shot swiped her shoulder. She screamed and staggered. It burned like a rod of fire scraping her skin. Tears filled her vision, but she kept going. The Senate guard was bigger, faster. She couldn’t outrun him, but she’d be damned if she was going down without a fight. She reached the car park, but he was almost in grabbing distance now. Then there was the rumble of an engine and she looked up to see a bio bike racing down the centre of the car park. It swerved side-on and screeched to a stop next to her. The black-clad rider turned to her, the visor on his helmet reflecting her petrified face.
    “Get on!” The voice seemed familiar and a gloved hand reached for her.
    She grabbed it instinctively, the skin of her left shoulder burning, just as the guard closed in. The guard snatched at her, but the man on the bike yanked her onto the seat, out of the guard’s reach, and took off.
    “Son of a bitch!” Rosie heard the guard shout, and she hunched down as a shot of pulse fire whizzed past her head.
    “Hold on!” the driver yelled. She clutched at his waist as he manoeuvred the bike out of the hospital car park and onto the road, cutting in front of a catering transport. Brakes squealed and Rosie thought they were done for as they headed straight for the side of another truck. The bike corrected at the last minute, leaning hard sideways to come up alongside the truck. Rosie could hardly breathe. Her shoulder down to her elbow felt like it was