Free Catalyst (Book 1): Decay Chains by Kate Wars Page A

knocked about like they were in a hot frying pan. It wasn’t an image Stormy would forget easily or ever remember without feeling nauseated.
    The hall returned to deathly silence. Dr. Louboutin closed the space between him and Vicky. He wound his arm around his wife and guided her to a cleaning cart a few feet up the hall. A handful of towels later, she was still shook up, but the brain matter was gone.
    Stan checked his magazine. His eyes met Stormy’s and then turned away. He wasn’t getting off that easy.
    “Asshole!” She went ballistic on him.
    Flattened against a wall, Stan had no choice but to play punching bag. He let the first few hits go before grabbing her wrists and twisting them in on each other. He flipped her around and held her hands behind her. The wall was a distant memory. Stormy seethed until she broke down in sobs.
    “I know you don’t get it and you hate me.”
    “More than you can possibly fathom.”
    “I had to. And the only thing I regret is that I might have hurt your wrist.”
    “You’re hurting it now.”
    “Oh, sorry.” Stan’s grip loosened a bit.
    That was all she needed. “But I’d rather you break my damn wrist than shoot my boyfriend.”
    Stormy dropped all her weight, which sent them both to the floor. She wrenched her hands free and toppled him again. Most of her jabs completely missed, but she landed a few solid hits to his face. If she blackened or clawed out an eye, she might be temporarily satisfied.
    If Stan was angry, he never let it show. He bit down on his lip as he flipped her onto her back and grappled with her vying fists. Defeated, but still putting up a resistance, she writhed against his hold.
    “You want me dead, I get it. But what you don’t want me to do is leave.”
    “He’s right, Stormy,” Dr. Louboutin said. “Can’t you be unreasonably angry and walk simultaneously?”
    Stan waited for her to burst into a fresh wave of sobs before getting off of her. “Leave her be for a minute.”
    “Fine, but she’s only getting one,” Dr. Louboutin said. “We don’t have many left.”
    “If you’re in that big of a hurry, go,” Stan said. “I’ll wait with her.”
    “I will never forgive you, no matter how long you wait,” she said.
    “We cannot separate now,” Vicky said. “I won’t leave either of you behind.”
    “Fine,” Dr. Louboutin said. “We’ll die here in the middle of her pity party.”
    Stormy sucked in a deep breath and held it till her chin stopped wavering. “Fuck all of you. Well, not you, Vicky.” She pulled herself off the floor and pushed past the doctor.
    The curved ceiling helped the light bounce off it and frag in all directions. It would’ve been glorious on any other day. No one said much as they took on the hall. Stormy led by no less than six feet the entire way. She ignored the noises that came from inside the patient rooms. Their doors were closed, so their threats were staved, for the moment. They didn’t start finding dead bodies until they were three quarters of the way to the skyway.
    “I think they got this tower too,” Dr. Louboutin said.
    “Looks like it,” Stan said.
    They weaved around the bodies, mindful to make sure none of them were still moving. Stormy listened closely and tried to decipher a faint sound. After several minutes, she realized it was music. It made more sense when they hit another string of bodies and one had an iPad in her hand. That mindless dance song could never sound as trivial as it did in that moment. It was eerie for some reason. She didn’t want to hear it anymore.
    The hall led to an atrium, which housed the skyway, more elevators, and a massive lobby. The skyway funneled people between the towers, but never before today, with such emergency. Below lay a meandering common area, curvy sidewalks, a fountain, and a handful of busts sprinkled between well-manicured gardens. The aerial view today lacked the peace it had only yesterday.
    Chaos ensued below. A stately gated