I regretted going the way I had right when I had done it. Running upward when trying to escape someone had been a terrible idea. What would happen when I reached the top floor? I could try to go to the roof, but then what? I would be stuck. 

I looked back. The man was fast, and he was catching up to me quickly. My heart hammered. There had to be a way for me to escape. If the guard caught me, then I would be discovered. There would be no way for me to save myself if that happened. 

I looked to my right. There was a rail. I wasn't close enough to it to know how far the jump would be. Seeing how close the guard was, though, I couldn't take any chances.

Without thinking, I ran over to the rail, placed my hands on the bars, and swung my body over. 

I fell a little over ten feet before hitting the ground. I landed on my side, causing the entirety of my right arm and leg to ache. It took a moment for me to recover my breath. Each one brought a sharp pain to my lungs. Fortunately, though, I couldn't find anything to be broken.

I climbed back onto my feet. My head began to pound. I took a moment to get used to the headache before looking around. I was back on the third floor. 

The guard hadn't gone down the stairs yet. I ran across the hall and to another set of stairs, which went down to the second floor. My body hadn't recovered from the fall yet, causing me to slow down. I would have to find a place to hide. I wouldn't be able to continue like this for much longer.

I scanned the rooms around me. They all risked having guards in them. Maybe there was a hall I could turn and hide at. If he ran past me, then I could go back up to the fourth floor and continue. He was on my tail, though, he would see me turning. My head throbbed harder. None of my ideas seemed plausible.

At some point, my lungs and body ached so badly that my pace slowed to a jog. I looked around one last time. There was nowhere for me to hide. 

The guard came from behind and grabbed my arm. I didn't try to resist. I didn't have enough energy to. The man pulled me back upstairs. My body grew heavier with every step and my eyelids threatened to close. I felt my adrenaline escape out of my body. This was it. I had failed my mission. 

I should have known that getting caught was inevitable. All I had been doing was stalling the process—and hurting myself. 

"Stop."

The guard halted. I hadn't registered that I was supposed to stop, too, and kept walking. The man shoved me backward. I groaned as my head snapped back. 

"What is the meaning of this?"

I finally looked up. My eyes widened. Hiram stood in front of us, his arms crossed. I tried to make eye contact with him, but I couldn't tell what he was looking at with his shades on. 

"She's being taken in for suspicious actions," the guard said. He gripped my arm harder.

Hiram turned his head to look at me. He acted like he had just noticed my presence. "Her? Haven't you heard?"

"What?"

I tried to blink my drowsiness away. Hiram was here to save me. Our scheme wasn't hopeless.

"She's new," Hiram said. "She signed up to work as a nurse yesterday." He leaned in closer to the guard and lowered his voice. "Just came out of years of therapy. Has intense PTSD. She's kind of scared of everything—especially people. She'll run away from anyone."

The guard loosened his grip on me. I held in my sigh. "Well then, she's unqualified for her job. I need to turn her in either way."

"Let me take her," Hiram suggested.

There was a pause. "I'm not sure that I believe what you're saying. She ran away from me, why would she do that unless-"

"She's scared of you. Let me take her," Hiram repeated.

After a minute, the guard released my arm. I walked towards Hiram. He nodded towards the guard, placed his hand on the square of my back, and walked us away.

"You couldn't have come at a better time," I muttered once the man was out of sight. "Where's Marcus?"

"Looking for you. The rumors of a suspicious nurse made him worried. Hopefully what I told that guard will steer them off of your track." 

I couldn't help but smile. I didn't know what I would have done without Hiram. He and Marcus had truly been saving my butt these past few days. 

"Hey, did we tell you to do something to cover your hair?"

I felt my head. The blood in my face drained. My hat must have fallen off when I had jumped off of the rail. I had been too dazed to notice that I had dropped it. 

Hiram shook his head. "You're lucky that that guard was an idiot. Anyone else would have caught you right away."

He was right. I started to panic. I couldn't walk around in plain sight anymore. How was I supposed to walk around, then? There weren't many places where I could hide. 

Hiram watched me from the corner of his eyes. A smile played on his lips. "Don't worry, Kat. There's been a change of plans. Marcus and I are going to distract everyone."

"How?" 

He didn't respond. I sighed. I loved having their help, but being the last to know their plans was getting old. 

He had stopped at a door. It had golden letters, just like all of the other ones. Hiram fished out his key card, scanned it, and went inside. 

Marcus was sitting on a bed. He stood up when he saw us. His eyes flicked from Hiram and then to me—taking a moment longer to look at the nurse outfit. He snickered at my disguise.  

He opened his mouth to greet us, but I beat him to it. "What's this distraction that Hiram's talking about? What's going on?" 

Marcus grinned. He sat back on the bed. "We're starting an insurrection." 

Hey guys, happy Tuesday! How have you all been? Are you enjoying this book so far? Is it going too fast? Too slow? Love to check in!

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This song is called Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. How could I possibly go through this entire series without putting this song in at least once?