We circled around some more, until, finally, José went off looking for the hospital by himself. We put Lux down against a wall, sitting up. Her head hung from her neck like it was broken. I took her face in my hands and pulled it up so that she looked like she was sleeping with her head leaning back against the wall.

“Lux?” I said. “You’re gonna be fine. I promise this will all be fine.” But even as I said it, I could feel the blood soaking her coat. Was I lying to my dying friend? I had to. I didn’t know what else to do.

After what seemed like forever, José came back. He had found the hospital. We picked Lux up and carried her there, not stopping once. We knew we were there when we saw a giant building with a mural on the side. Even in the dark, the pastel figures of nurses and doctors helping patients shone. I’d taken someone here once before, a traveler kid who had been staying in our squat and OD’d. I swear, the nurses and the doctors hadn’t even seemed like they judged us. They saved his life, then a nurse talked to him a little about getting clean. She didn’t even push him, just asked him if it was something he saw himself doing. They hadn’t even asked me much besides what he’d taken so they’d know what to do right away. Right then, with Lux leaking blood everywhere, I hoped they would be able to help her as much as they’d helped that kid.

We walked through the front door of a completely empty waiting room. The lights were out, and the only glow came from a flashlight that had been left at a desk. The room was entirely abandoned. No screening nurse sitting behind a desk, no one waiting. There were still marks on the wall where the water had gone up to before receding, and there were chairs scattered all around the room.

I stepped over to the flashlight. In its glow, I could see the blood all over José and Sebastian’s clothes. I couldn’t see it on my or Lux’s black clothes, but I could feel its wetness on me. José leaned back against a wall, and he and Sebastian let Lux’s body slump against him.

“There has to be somebody here,” I said. “It’s a fucking hospital. I’ll look around.”