Chapter 42: The Backup Light

Evan began his cardiac crisis at 5:12 in the morning because Nathan had become punctual about blood pressure. Twenty days underground had taught him the building's habits. The pipes dropped pressure at four. The office light stayed empty through the first round. Nathan carried a red emergency bag now, and every night the AED chirped through its self-test in the corridor. Locking up a nurse who had already died once came with obligations, it turned out, even for a zealot. Nathan had stocked the shelf to match: two saline flushes, a sleeve of gauze, antacids. He called it comfort. Evan called it inventory. At supper Nathan had told the tray, not Evan, that his wife would come to the door at dawn to bargain. He'd said it like a forecast. Evan had lain awake and made his list out loud into the pillow. She comes. She trades. I walk out.…