Before he could finish, I lunged out from behind the door and swung the IV pole with every ounce of strength I had left. The metal stand whooshed through the air and crashed hard into the slim man's side. It wasn't a clean hit but it struck his ribcage and knocked him off his feet. The tray flew from his hands, clattering to the floor. The syringe skittered away under the bed.
"Jesus!" the bigger one hissed in surprise. No more pretenses. He barreled through the door, coming straight for me. In the gloom I caught a flash of something in his hand a pistol drawn from his scrub pocket.
I didn't think; I just reacted. I hurled the IV pole at him. It wasn't elegant, but it caught him across the arms before he could aim. The pistol went off, a muffled phut sound, silenced and a bullet punched into the wall behind me. Plaster dust rained down.
The big guy snarled and swung at me wildly with the butt of the gun. I ducked, mostly.
The gun clipped the side of my head but it still lit up my skull with stars. I stumbled, blinking through the flash of pain. He didn't wait. A thick hand clamped around my throat and slammed me into the wall like I weighed nothing. My ribs lit up, fire under the bandages. I gagged, breath caught in my throat with blood.
"Should've stayed in bed, asshole," he growled, pressing his forearm to my throat. In the dim light I could finally see him up close a shaved head, jaw like a cinder block, and just visible peeking above his collar was a tattoo: the leering face of a monkey.
He leaned in with his weight, and I felt my windpipe closing.
I twisted, desperate, and drove my knee up into his ribs. He grunted, his breath hitching for half a second. It was like kneeing a brick wall, but he grunted and his grip slackened a hair. I sucked in a bit of air, enough to fuel next moves.
With his body pressed to mine, he'd made a mistake: he ignored my left arm, assuming it was dead weight. Truth was, so did I but I decided to gamble. I willed my cybernetic arm to cooperate for once. It responded with a delayed convulsion, but I managed to get it up and clamp my metal hand around his throat.
My arm trembled violently, the servomotors misfiring, but the sudden pressure made his eyes bulge. He let go of me and grabbed at my robotic hand.
I gulped air and coughed. "Not so fun on the other end, is it?" I rasped.
His only answer was a strangled gagging noise and a string of spit on his lips. I tightened my cybernetic fingers, feeling the feedback sensors go numb as they dug into the flesh of his neck. Another few seconds and he'd be out cold or worse.
But fate wasn't in a giving mood. My arm spasmed again and suddenly the actuators released. My grip loosened without warning. The cybernetic hand jerked open against my will. The thug sucked in a raspy breath and tore free of my weakened grasp.
"You piece of..." he wheezed, voice ragged. With a furious snarl he drove his fist into my gut, right where the bandages were thickest.
White-hot agony. I doubled over, a scream caught in my throat. If he hit me again like that, I'd be kissing the floor.
Behind him, the smaller guy I'd knocked down was recovering, swearing under his breath. We were out of time and I was out of tricks.
Big guy was catching his own breath.
Using his momentary distraction , I wrenched free and dove past him, scrambling over the fallen IV stand and spilled tools. I nearly slipped in my own blood dripping but momentum carried me forward. I barreled through the half-open door and out into the hallway.
"Stop, you bastard!" one of them shouted behind me. A gun fired again with that horrible muffled cough. The bullet bit into the doorframe inches from my head as I stumbled into the corridor.
I needed to put distance between me and them. The elevators were a no-go, they'd box me in for sure. I half-ran, half-limped toward the green EXIT sign indicating the stairwell. My vision blurred from the pain and adrenaline.
Doors to other rooms stayed shut; if any patients were inside, they were either asleep or too scared to peek out. The whole floor might as well have been abandoned.
My bare feet slapped the cold tiles. Another silenced gunshot pfft past me, striking a gurney parked against the wall. The noise echoed strangely in the emptiness. They were right on my heels.
Up ahead was the nurses' station and the junction to the stairwell. I could see the heavy metal fire door slightly ajar at the end, someone had propped it open. If I could reach those stairs, I had a chance.
As I passed the nurses' desk, I grabbed the nearest rolling cart and shoved it hard behind me without looking. It spun out and slammed into the hallway with a loud clatter. A second later, I heard a surprised shout and the unmistakable crash of someone eating floor tiles. It bought me a breath.
"Move, idiot!" one snarled. The other cursed. Good, they tripped up, even if just for a second.
I pushed onward. The blood soaking my bandages was warm against my skin; I could feel a trickle down my abdomen. The stitches might have torn in that scuffle. Just a little further.
I slammed into the stairwell door with my shoulder and stumbled into the dark stairwell. The lights here were on emergency power only, a dim red bulb on each landing. Shadows upon shadows. I didn't even see the body until I nearly tripped over it.
Almost losing my balance on the top step. It was a man in a security guard uniform, sprawled awkwardly on the landing. A dark wet pool spread around his head. The sweet, metallic smell of blood hit me.
A quick glance the guard's throat was slashed, eyes glassy and fixed on nothing. Poor kid looked barely older than twenty. He never had a chance.
I could hear my pursuers pounding toward the stairwell door behind me.
Grabbed the railing and threw myself down the stairs, more fall than run. I bit down on the pain and kept going, there was no other choice.
I hit the landing and kept going down, around and around. Second floor... first floor... each impact sending shockwaves of pain through my torso. Blood loss and shock were doing a number on me; the edges of my vision were going black.
The door above banged open. A voice echoed in the stairwell: "He's in the stairs!" Then rapid footsteps, the metal steps clanging as they gave chase.