Adam

HE found Herrick at the nurse's station, making entries in a chart by flashlight.

"She's bleeding," he said. "A lot."

Herrick dropped her pen and came around the desk into the corridor, practically ran down the hall.

"Is this normal?" Adam said.

They passed through the open door into Stacie's room and Herrick stopped, staring at the bloody sheets, the dark drops falling into a puddle on the floor.

"Stacie!" she yelled, and Adam followed her to his wife's bedside. "Stacie. Can you hear me?"

Stacie still held the baby in her arms, but her eyes were closed, and even in the lowlight, Adam thought she looked pale.

Herrick lifted Stacie's wrist, checked her radial pulse.

She turned on her flashlight and lifted Stacie's hospital gown.

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"Shhh."

A beat of terrible silence, and then Herrick turned and faced him.

"She's postpartum hemorrhaging."

"What does that mean?"

"She passed the placenta immediately following birth. What I'm guessing is there's still a piece of it in there."

"Why is that bad?"

"Because it's stopping her uterus from contracting."

"How much blood has she lost?"

"I don't know for sure, but at least half a liter, which is past the point of being okay."

"Oh God."

"Listen to me."

"Can you fix her?"

"Yes, but I need your help."

"Anything."

"I think I can stop the bleeding, but she's lost so much already, she's gonna need a transfusion."

"Okay."

"You have to go down to the blood bank."

Adam felt a tremor of fear ride down his legs.

"Where's the blood bank?"

"The basement."

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, are you fucking kidding me?"

Herrick actually took a step back from the minister, her eyes going wide.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"It's quite all right, pastor, we're all under a great deal of stress. You'll need this." Herrick lifted his overnight backpack off a rocking chair. Adam overcame the tremor in his hands, finally managing to unzip it and dump the contents--a change of clothes and some toiletries.

"How do I get there?"

Herrick walked out of the room into the corridor, pulling him along.

"Through those doors, then you go to the end of the hallway and take a right. Go to the end of that hallway and take a left. On your next right, four doors down, you'll see a door leading to the stairwell. Go all the way down, and when you come out, go left, right, left, and then right again, all the way to the end of the last corridor. You'll see the sign for the lab. Refrigerators are in back. Grab at least five units of O-positive."

His head was swimming.

"O-positive. Okay."

"Help me with this."

They slid the furniture back from the door, and then Adam stared through the window. The paper that Herrick had stapled over the opening had blown away.

"Coast clear?" she asked.

"For now."

He heard the locks sliding up, his heart beginning to pound at the thought of going out there.

"Adam?"

He looked at Herrick.

"I know you don't want to go out there, but your wife will die if she doesn't start receiving new blood in less than thirty minutes."

Adam's daughter began to cry at the other end of the wing.

He wondered if he'd seen the last he would ever see of her.

"I'll take care of your girls, Adam," Herrick said. "Now get going."