Heartless (Steel Demons MC #6) - Crystal Ash Page 0,6
was in sight on this floor, so I opted to go exploring. Heading for the elevators, I pressed an UP button and was surprised to see it light up. The panel above the doors counted down from five floors, then the door slid smoothly open when it reached my floor. Freyja walked into the metallic box like she rode in elevators all the time.
I hesitated for a moment, then stepped inside, still in a state of awe. It had been years since I’d seen or been inside a working elevator. Luxuries like these ceased to be maintained once the Collapse hit. Now it just had to not get stuck on the way up.
I hit the button for the second floor, stepped back, and held my breath. The door slid closed with a soft ding and the sound made a giggle burst from my chest. Who knew an elevator would be such a luxury?
When the doors slid open again to another lobby, this time a woman’s head was visible behind the front desk.
“Hello,” I called, eagerly stepping out and heading toward her.
She jumped, looking at me with startled, wide eyes. “Goodness!” She brought a hand to her chest. “No one comes through this way, I didn’t expect to hear a voice.”
“Didn’t mean to scare you.” I stopped at the edge of the desk. “I’m Mariposa. I came into town last week.”
“That’s right.” The woman’s eyes narrowed in recognition at me, but more out of curiosity than suspicion. She was middle-aged and solidly built, with streaks of gray through her carefully curled dark hair that fell to her shoulders. “You’re the one who saved the governor’s daughter.”
“With the help of a few good men,” I laughed lightly. “But I’m trained as a medic and wanted to check out the hospital. So far, it seems a bit, ah…”
“Empty?” the woman chuckled. “That’s because it is. I’m Rhonda, by the way.”
“Well-met, Rhonda.” I shook her hand across the desk, noticing her pale blue scrubs were well-worn and carried various stains that lingered after probably hundreds of washings.
A memory hit me of some of the nurse instructors back in school. They wore their old tattered, stained scrubs with pride until they were threadbare. Every rip and stain was like a badge of honor, remnants of someone they once helped.
“If you’re looking for the doctor, he’s in surgery at the moment,” Rhonda said, straightening up.
“Oh, no problem. I don’t want to bother him—”
“Good,” she smiled. “Because you won’t be.”
I couldn’t resist the smile back. Typical head nurse, stern and quick to put people in their place, but kind once they got to know you. At least I hoped so. It felt like I was back in nursing school, and the nostalgia bloomed in my chest.
“But seeing as there’s no one rushing in here with blood pouring out of various orifices,” Rhonda continued, making her way around the desk toward me, “I can show you around a bit.”
It wasn’t until she grabbed a cane and leaned on it heavily that I realized she walked with a significant limp.
“Gunshot, border wars,” she grunted out. “Don’t know what they’re calling it now, but it was at the old Oregon-Idaho border about five years back.”
“Sorry to hear that.” I picked up my pace as she walked alongside me. Even with a cane, she was fast.
“Heh, I’m not. About time I got a soldier’s welcome everywhere I went,” she cackled. “And all these nice young men offering me their hands and holding things for me. It’s not a bad trade at all.” Her sharp eyes roamed over me as we walked down the hallway, my boots and her sneakers an odd mix of sounds.
“I did about three years in the border wars too,” I said. “From East Texas to Arizona, just following the battles west.”
“You’re in damn good shape for being a battle medic,” Rhonda observed. She was right—I had no major scars or injuries to speak of from those times.
“I don’t know how,” I admitted. “I traded pills to get me out of some hairy situations, but even still, I got lucky.”
“Someone must’ve been watching out for you,” Rhonda muttered.
Freyja’s loud purr sputtered to life as she headbutted my ankle, walking in perfect time with my leg as she rubbed against me.
“Maybe.” I smiled. “‘Til I ran into a biker gang, and then they became those someones.”
Rhonda lifted in an eyebrow, taking note of the black cat for the first time. “We don’t usually let animals into the hospital, but