The hospital emergency alarm was blaring and loud footsteps could be heard running down the halls as Daniel considered his options. He could teleport for one thing. Just leave all this behind, give up, and try again later. But that would mean leaving Caspian behind. Daniel wasn’t willing to do that. He’d already been stuck inside this place for the better part of a week and who knows what it's done to him already?

Melos took one look at his face and said, “so I guess we’re not leaving.”

“Can you scout this floor?”

“Some, but you need to stay close to me unless you have the essence to extend the tether?”

Daniel didn’t. He barely had any left at all.

“Okay, we’ll sweep through this floor,” said Daniel, “with you checking every room, and then we’ll try the fourth floor before working our way back down.”

“What about the security?”

Daniel unhooked the fish bat from his belt. “The stealthy approach is over.”

He left the room and made his way down the hallway while Melos ran side to side, checking each room. When they got to the end of the hallway, the demon shook his head. Not here.

The pair went into the stairwell and up to the top floor. As soon as Daniel entered the fourth floor, a guard turned towards him and there was a moment where they locked eyes. That ended when Daniel sprinted towards him while the guard reached for the radio on his shoulder.

“Control! He’s here. He’s on the…” the guard stopped and let go of the radio when Daniel’s fish bat connected with his wrist. The man howled in pain, but Daniel wasn’t done. He followed up with a kick to the side of the man’s knee, causing him to fall. Daniel was on top of him a moment later, securing his wrists and ankles. More duct tape went on the mouth, but he didn’t bother to try and hide the man. It would take too long and unless one of the guards was secretly carrying a knife, they’d need to waste precious time finding something to cut him loose with.

Daniel stood up, heaving for breath. He was sweating through his ski mask and had to resist the urge to take it off. Less than thirty seconds of violence and he was already tired without essence.

“How we looking?” he asked Melos.

“Nothing so far, but I need you to get me closer to check the last rooms.”

Daniel grimly nodded and moved down the hallway. He stopped when he heard a distinctive ding of an elevator ahead of him. Two guards stepped out. Both men were bigger than the last guy.

“Okay, he’s not on this floor,” said Melos.

Daniel turned and ran. The guards chased after him as he made his way back to the stairwell. Their shoes squeaking loudly on the linoleum floor.

At least none of them will be sneaking up on me.

Daniel burst through the stairwell door. People could be heard talking and moving down below, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He flew down the stairs, his fatigue forgotten as soon as the adrenaline started pumping.

“He’s here!” one of the guards behind him yelled.

Daniel had three more floors to cover and wasn’t sure how much fighting he was up to without essence.

Melos went down ahead of Daniel and warned him. “There’s three coming towards you.”

Sure enough, he saw two men and a woman coming up the stairs with batons in hand. All of them were angry and eager to mete out violence. Daniel didn’t slow down as they drew closer. He waited until he was almost in baton range before pulling out the can of mace.

Three quick spurts left the guards blind and yelling. They waved the batons out in front of themselves, hoping to get lucky. Daniel ducked under their flailing arms and kept going.

Huh, these gadgets are useful. I should start carrying more stuff like this.

He hit the second floor, which was different from the others. Instead of sleeping rooms, it had a nurse’s station, a pharmacy behind glass, and several larger rooms. A nightshift doctor and a nurse had locked themselves inside the pharmacy and were hiding under the counter. Normally, it might have been something Daniel would have missed, but Melos saw everything.

Daniel approached the pharmacy counter where there was a little hole to dispense medicine through. Not enough for him to even reach through and grab one of them, but it was enough that he would be heard.

“Where are you holding the new patient? It’s a man in his mid-twenties, blond hair, and doesn’t speak English.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The two inside the pharmacy ignored him.

Daniel sighed before handing over the last of his essence to Melos.

“Unlock the door,” Daniel said.

The demon did and the two nurses cried when they saw the door open and Daniel storm in.

“Fuck, I thought I told you to lock it!” the doctor snapped.

“I did!” said the nurse, before bursting into tears.

Daniel slammed the fish bat down on the counter.

“New patient. Where is he?” Daniel asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He had perhaps a few moments more before security found him.

“I can’t give away patient information,” said the doctor, his jaw set.

Daniel hit the desk with the fish bat again and the two of them flinched.

“John, for god’s sake, just tell him where that psycho is,” said the nurse.

The doctor swallowed nervously as Daniel pointed the bat at him.

“He’s in the safety room C at the end of the hall,” said the doctor.

Daniel nodded. “Keys?”

The doctor unclipped them from his belt. His hands shook as he held them out. Daniel swiped them and jogged down the hall. There was a visiting area, several classrooms, but no safety rooms. When he reached the end, he realized that the doctor had lied to him, but there was no time to go back. Six security guards appeared, many of them still red-faced from the mace.

“Where are the safety rooms?” Daniel asked.

The doctor might have been lying about them being on this floor, but it seemed unlikely that the entire thing had been a fabrication. That, and one of the keys he’d given him, had safety RC written on it. There were two floors left to search, the first floor and a basement level, but if one of the guards was stupid enough to save him some time, then he would’ve appreciated it.

“You think you can get past all of us and get into the basement level?” a younger unbruised guard sneered. He looked familiar to Daniel and giving him a second look made Daniel remember. He was the guard with full tattoo sleeves that had caught him snooping around earlier in the day.

Looks like he picked the wrong night to do overtime.

Daniel squared up with the bat in one hand and the mace in the other.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Melos. “I’m rooting for you, but this is a little ambitious, even for you. Those batons aren’t toys either. One wrong swing to the head and they could kill you. Hell, they might kill you anyway and claim it was an accident in self defense.”

Daniel shook his head.

All that talk about coming back later was nonsense. They’d massively increase security by then and make re-entry impossible. This is the only time that the break out could work. I’m not giving up and I’m not running away. We’ve made it this far. We can go a little further.

The hallway was wider than Daniel would have liked. It allowed three of them to walk side to side, with another three behind them. Other than avoiding blows to the head like Melos pointed out, the key would be to avoid them surrounding him. Once that happened, the fight would be over.

Daniel took control of the fight by attacking first. His fish bat had a shorter reach, but he could be lightning fast with it as he brought the bat crashing down on the first guard’s forehead. Daniel would not be avoiding head strikes. This had now escalated into a life and death fight, with Caspian hanging in the balance.

Unfortunately, the guard had a thick skull and didn’t go down from the blow. Daniel wanted to hit him again, but his two friends swung at him and he had to back off. Daniel tried to spray one of them with mace, only nothing came out. The can was empty and the six of them enjoyed learning this fact at the same time that Daniel did.

Daniel inwardly cursed. As much as he hated to admit it, a couple of months worth of training wasn’t going to be enough to fight six grown men at once without essence. Plan A of sneaking the entire time hadn’t worked, and plan B of fighting with the fish bat wasn’t going to cut it either. That meant going to plan C. Daniel hated plan C, but it was that or leave Caspian in an alien world to rot.

He took back the essence that Melos was holding onto that gave him a presence here in the world. Daniel checked his core and found that it would be enough. He was almost disappointed by it.

“I’m sorry,” said Daniel.

One of the guards laughed. “Not as sorry as you’re going to be.”

Daniel dropped the can, held up his right hand, and summoned Army of One.

All six of them froze as the magical gauntlet formed. They were briefly confused and mesmerized by it.

It was the last mistake any of them would ever make.

Daniel sprang forward with the claws out. He cut two throats before the rest even knew what was happening. A third swung his baton and Daniel sliced his arm off at the elbow. He ignored the man’s screams and kept moving. The claws sank into flesh easily. Tearing a chunk off of somebody’s side, piercing the heart of another, before finally cutting the throat of the final guard. In less than ten seconds, he’d killed all six of them.

Daniel tried to block out the blood and the pain, but it was almost overwhelming. He finished the job by killing the guard who’d lost his arm and who hadn’t stopped screaming since it had happened. He did his best to avoid looking at the faces, but he knew that he’d probably see them again in his memories.

Daniel returned to the pharmacy covered in blood. The nurse and the doctor turned white as a sheet at the sight of him.

“I’m sorry. It’s in the basement. I swear,” the doctor sputtered.

Daniel grabbed him by his collar and yanked him out into the hallway.

“Show me,” Daniel snarled.

The two of them took the elevator this time and found more guards waiting for them at the bottom. Daniel held the doctor close and wrapped his gauntleted hand around the man’s throat.

“Back up or he’s dead,” said Daniel.

The guards remained where they were, unsure of what to do.

“Do as he says!” cried the doctor.

The guards began backing up, and all of them walked together to safety room C. This one did have a window on the door and Daniel could see a lone figure sat on the floor with his back turned to the door that looked like Caspian.

Daniel held the doctor close as he used his other hand to unlock the door. He pulled the doctor inside with him and ordered the man to lock the door and then to block the window with his body.

The doctor obeyed, and Daniel went over to Caspian. “It’s me,” he said, switching to Lirian. “I’m getting you out of here.”

Caspian looked up at him with a dull, unfocused gaze, not comprehending a word of what he’d just said, but looking anyway simply because it was a new noise in the room.

“What did you give him?” asked Daniel.

“Just a mild sedative and some anti-psychotics,” the doctor explained. “But you can’t let him out. He’s dangerous!”

Daniel grabbed Caspian by the shoulders and focused on the vibration in his chest. The doctor moved away from the door and the guards ran in, but by the time they did, Daniel and Caspian had teleported away.