Coyote Prose

  As I passed by the skywalk overlooking the lobby, a number of uniformed faces locked onto me from below. The security detail in the atrium had increased significantly. Hands tightened around rifles as a pack of combat-dressed soldiers muttered to one another, too far below for me to hear. But their gestures in my direction weren’t comforting. Are they planning on fighting a fire with bullets? I wondered as I quickened my pace, smothering a cough. My eyes stung as I accidentally wiped soot into them from my stained wrists. The headache throbbed on, as eerily present as ever. The consistency would have been comforting if I weren’t having such a hard time. I stopped at the door to the shared labs, bracing myself on the frame and waiting for my vision to clear. I took a few stabilizing breaths and wiped my face with the inside of my lab coat. The outside had left sterile white behind for troubled gray, oddly reflective of the condition of the night behind me. Quick footste...

  A choking sound was all I could come up with in response to the curling wisps of white smoke. I stumbled back into the protruding alarm panel, jabbing my shoulder blade painfully against its sharp corner. My eyes went wide, darting around the annex, searching for unfriendly company. “H… hey! Hello?” I finally managed to croak. As if in response, the alarm panel beeped three times, signaling its return to WALK TEST . This unfortunately meant the system was ignoring the very real danger unfolding beneath its compromised sensors in the server room. I rushed forward, stumbling over a coil of data cable. Hugging the corner, I kept my distance from the smoking server room door, which remained tightly shut, tendrils of smoke rising and pooling at the ceiling. I crossed the floor of the main office space and tried the front security door. The handle turned, but the door wouldn’t budge. I threw my weight against it with a grunt. The shoulder I had jammed into the fire panel thro...