My eyes are wide as I absorb the scene before me. Lying unconscious on a cot in a corner of the cramped, pure white room is Mara, her face bruised, tubes running from her pale arm, one of which is filled with a red liquid that looks suspiciously like blood.

Beside the IV pole that stands next to the cot cowers Hattie, the usually sour-faced nurse, her eyes fixed on Rogan as he heaves Matt's body off the floor.

"YOU!" He thunders, pointing at her with his handgun, "Gets those tubes out of her, NOW! Or I swear to God, I'll set him on you when he turns!" He flings Matt's body at her feet, his gray eyes flashing dangerously.

The room is silent as I turn to Doyle, who stares back at me with a look of shock. We knew Rogan was a bit...hot-headed, but......hell.

"NOW!" He roars at Hattie, who jumps as he nears her, cocking his gun. Her dark eyes dart to a desk that stands against the wall opposite the cot.

"Don't...." Rogan takes another step toward her, "Even think about it." Her eyes flutter back to the desk frantically, focusing on single, narrow drawer.

With the gun trained on her forehead, Rogan repeats his demand. "Get those tubes out of her!"

The woman just stands there, unmoving, her eyes now fixed fearfully on the gun in Rogan's gun. "Do it, NOW!" He says, lowering the gun to aim at her foot. His finger squeezes the trigger, and the sound of her agonized screams mingle with the loud clap of the gun discharging.

"Rogan, what are you doing?!" Doyle cries, as Hattie sinks to the floor, whimpering.

Rogan, unsurprisingly, ignores him and grabs her shirt in his fist, pulling her to her feet. "Get the tubes out of her."

Hattie slumps onto the bed, her hands shaking as she reaches for Mara's arm.

"That wasn't necessary!" Doyle steps around Rogan and quickly stabs Matt through the forehead.

Rogan wipes a bloodstained hand on his coat. "That woman is responsible for Mara being half dead. I was being merciful." He spits, never taking his eyes off of the woman as she unsteadily frees Mara.

Doyle opens his mouth to retort, but apparently thinks better of it, because he stalks toward me, grabs me by the arm and mutters something about finding Seth before pulling me from the room and back into the hall.

"He is insane," he whispers, looking back over his shoulder at Rogan.

"I told you," Izzy startles us from where she stands in the doorway farthest down the hall, "But at least he had a decent reason this time. By the way, Seth's in here."

"Oh my God, is he okay?" I gasp, quickly heading over to her, Doyle right at my heels.

Izzy just shrugs and steps aside for Doyle and I to enter the room. This room is identical to the one Mara is in, except he's missing the scary tubes and instead of a desk there's a chair.

Seth is awake and sitting on the bed, pale and tired, but alive. His face splits into a grin as we approach.

"I was just telling Izzy that it's about time you got here," he says, right before I smother him in a hug that's just as surprising to me as it is to him. He laughs as he pats me on the back.

I pull away as Doyle asks, "What happened to you?"

Seth runs a hand through his dark hair. "Well, they poked a bunch of needles in me - for some sort of test - and gave me some mess through tubes. When I got over my cold or whatever it was, they got bored with me pretty fast."

"'They'?" I ask, "You mean Matt and that Hattie woman, right?"

"Yeah," Seth replies, standing, "And Natalia, too."

"God, I hate that bitch," Izzy grumbles, shaking her head.

Doyle hands Seth a knife that was hidden in his boot and pats him on the back.

Seth glances at me and Izzy. "I thought they'd gotten one of you two."

"No, it was Mara," I reply, "Which was a big mistake."

"Yeah, because they triggered Crazy-Ass Rogan," Izzy says, "Not that he isn't always crazy."

"Mara wasn't here very long, but I think they gave her a harder time than me," Seth tells us, shaking his head, "She's okay, isn't she?"

"I don't know," Doyle says, "She looked pretty bad."

"I heard shooting, who did Rogan kill?" Seth asks.

"He killed Matt and shot the nurse in the foot," Izzy replies, sounding pleased, "But Natalia's only unconscious, so I can -"

"No, Izzy, you can't kill her," Doyle interrupts. Izzy grunts in frustration. Doyle shrugs, "I'm sorry, but you can't."

"Why not?!" Izzy demands.

"Because, you're not supposed to kill people, that's why, Izzy!" Seth exclaims.

"Ugh! Fine....." Izzy groans, rolling her eyes.

+++++

We're leaving. They'd throw us out anyway. Especially since Rogan made things infinitely worse by killing Hattie. So, with the blood of two people on our hands, we gather up our weapons, warm clothes, and as much food and water as we can carry.

"Look," Izzy begins, throwing bread into a backpack, "since we're leaving, can't I at least just-"

"No!" Doyle tells her for the hundredth time, "you can't kill Natalia, so please shut up about it, okay?"

"Okay!" Izzy snaps, "I was just checking!" She tosses a couple jars of peanut butter into the pack.

"When are we leaving?" I ask as I strap rolled up blankets to the top of Doyle's large backpack.

"As soon as it's dark," Doyle replies as he packs, "and since y'all got the gate open when Mara showed up, that should be easy. But not being seen is going to be a whole lot harder. Let's just hope it's cloudy tonight."

"Speaking of Mara, I'm gonna go check on her," Seth says, heading from the kitchen into the living room and up the stairs.

"I wonder why they were running tests on her?" Izzy remarks, "I mean, she wasn't sick or anything."

I shrug. "We could ask Seth, I guess, since he was there, he might know." I stand up from sitting at the table. "Let's go get some extra clothes, Izzy."

She follows me upstairs, and we find Seth closing Mara and Rogan's door quietly behind him.

"How is she?" I ask in a whisper.

Seth shrugs. "She's asleep right now. She woke up for a minute, Rogan said. But she's not well; they drew a bunch of blood...too much....."

"The barbarians....." Izzy growls, "I'm glad they're dead now."

"Two wrongs don't make a right," Seth says glumly, heading down the hall toward his room.

Izzy hurries to his side, "but if they weren't dead, they'd do it to somebody else."

"If they weren't dead, we wouldn't have to leave," Seth tells her, opening his door and entering his room, Izzy on his heels.

"Well, I'd rather leave than stay here with evil people," Izzy says heatedly.

Seth shakes his head. "Izzy --"

"Do you know why they were testing Mara?" I cut in, trying to prevent an argument.

Seth doesn't answer, but instead turns to the dresser, jerks open a drawer and begins tossing clothes onto the bed.

"Well?" Izzy demands impatiently.

"Look, I'm can't tell you," Seth mutters, "okay?"

"Why not?" I can't help but ask.

"Because, it's....um...I just can't!" He stammers.

Izzy, with a grunt of frustration, stomps from the room. I step closer to Seth.

"I'm not going to tell you," he states firmly, gathering an armful of his and Doyle's warmest clothes and brushing past me.

I trail after him. "What's so special about it that you can't tell?" We head down the hall and stairs.

When we reach the kitchen table, he drops the crumpled clothes onto it with a sigh. Doyle grabs a couple shirts and stuffs them in a backpack.

"Fine, I'll tell you," Seth's voice is barely audible. Doyle leans in closer, and I hold my breath. "But you can't tell Izzy, because she'll probably never shut up about it."

"What are you telling us exactly?" Doyle murmurs.

"Something that could change our plans dramatically."

Doyle's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"Apparently, Mara and Rogan are....together...."

"I kind of already figured that," Doyle says. Yeah, it was kind of obvious.

"....and, um, well, they....a while back....um....well, she....." Seth's face begins turning pink, "It's not.....I shouldn't tell you...."

"What can be so -" Doyle's voice cuts off suddenly, his bright hazel eyes widening in realization, while I'm still oblivious as to what's being said.

He gasps. "You don't mean......?"

Seth nods grimly.

"What?" I hiss in confusion.

"How much do you like babies, Wynne?"

 Holy shit.