Nolan plodded to work three hours late. When he stepped up to the glass doors, he knew he might be fired, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. His one reason for living now waited in a pile of stinking bodies to be dropped into a hole and covered with dirt. More tears pricked at his eyes. How had this happened?
He wandered into the supply closet and slowly took out his equipment. Where was Samuel? Normally the old man would be all over him by now with questions. Pushing his mop bucket in front of him, Nolan went out in the hall to look.
He made it down two long corridors before Samuel came barreling around a corner, his good eye wide.
Warning bells began to toll in Nolan’s head. Had the drug finally cracked the old man’s brain? “What's going on?”
Samuel grabbed Nolan by the sleeve, dragged him into the supply closet and locked the door. Then he stood with his back against it, panting.
“Is something wrong?” Nolan asked.
Samuel nodded, his tongue ringing his lips. The old man gripped Nolan's arm and pulled him close enough to whisper in his ear. “Your girlfriend's coding.”
Nolan pulled back. “What?”
Samuel's eyes flicked back and forth as if scanning the small storage closet for intruders. “The Plan B girl. She's coding.” Nolan shook his head and Samuel gritted his teeth in frustration. “The baby died. The treatments aren't taking.” He squeezed Nolan's arm and peered at him with his good eye. “They're going to kill her. Today.”
It felt like a boulder slamming down on his heart. “What? Why? They can't.”
“Oh yes, they can.” Samuel licked his lips and drew an object out of his coverall's pocket. The handgun trembled in Samuel’s grip when he raised it.
Nolan staggered back. “If they find you with that, they…”
“They'll shoot me,” Samuel said, nodding, his wild hair fluttering like scraps of cloth in a breeze. “This is the moment we've been waiting for. We can redeem ourselves.” Samuel lifted his wrinkled face to Nolan's, smiling, a manic look in his eye. “This is how we save our souls.” He lifted the black handgun and tapped it on his heart.
Nolan's heart continued pounding until it blotted out all else. This was crazy. He should say so. Take Samuel's gun and throw it away. They could go on and pretend nothing had happened. One death today was enough.
Instead what he said was, “What's your plan?”
Samuel smiled, his shaggy eyebrows creeping up. “That's right!” He slapped Nolan on the arm, turned and yanked open the door. “Follow me.”
It was a death mission. A plan and simple suicide. Nolan watched his supervisor stride out of the closet, gun in hand, and knew that this was the last day the old man would draw breath. Then he turned and strode out after him.