I run for the door and launch into it knowing beyond a doubt that my weight and velocity aren’t enough to break it down. I’m not solid enough. I’ll break and I don’t care. I’ll get to the ceremony held up by shattered bones.

Running shoulder first, full speed on bare feet, I brace for impact and feel nothing but soft tissue. Air on my face. Breath leaving a set of lungs with an involuntary oof.

I land on a big-bellied guy in a goatee and a blue shirt. His gun goes off as he loses his feet under him. I roll off him as he’s propelled back and his head smacks against a corner of a metal computer tower. It’s against the wall. There’s nothing to absorb the impact. When his skull opens, it sounds like the pop of bubble wrap.

Plaster rains from the ceiling where his bullet hit, dusting his chest in white.

Looking back, the door to that devil hallway is wide open. The guard had started to check on me by himself, as if a gun would stop me.

There was no one to call. Everyone’s in the Dome for the wedding.

Before I can even get my legs under me, I hear someone gasping fast and hard, with little whines between every breath. I was wrong. Cracked Skull wasn’t alone.

Doctor Palmeri holds a laser printer over his head. I bet Nico hooked up that fucking thing. Now he thinks he’s going to use it as a weapon against me.

“Fuck you.” I roll under the desk where I’ll be protected from the printer and where I can reach the guard’s gun. His fingers haven’t gotten stiff yet, so they’re easy to pry off the gun. I point it at the doctor. “Drop it.”

He drops the printer and holds up his hands. They’re shaking. Fucking coward.

“I… I… I’m here to get you ready for release.”

“Thanks. But I have it.” I release the safety.

“There’s three locks!” he blurts. “Between here and the upstairs. Three doors with thumb locks. I can open them.” He’s shaking with desperation. “You can’t. Without me…” He holds up his thumb. “You’re stuck here.”

I could put a bullet in him right now, but there’s the matter of the number of bullets I have and the number of people I’m going to have to shoot between me and Sarah.

I could force his ass through all three doors, but then what do I do with him?

“On your knees,” I say.

He hesitates. I have no time for this, so I hit him in the head with the butt of the gun. As he falls back, I yank him to the floor, face down, and put my knee on his back to pin him.