* * *
Nurse Pam looked up from her paperwork behind the desk in the nurses’ station.
“Mr. Burke, what on earth are you doing up and dressed and out of bed?”
“Leaving.”
“Leaving?” She said it like she didn’t comprehend the word. “The hospital?”
“Wayward Pines.”
“You’re in no condition to even be out of—”
“I need my personal belongings right now. The sheriff told me the EMTs may have removed them from the car.”
“I thought the sheriff had them.”
“No.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I can put on my Nancy Drew hat and—”
“Stop wasting my time. Do you know where they are?”
“No.”
Ethan turned away from her, started walking.
Nurse Pam called after him.
He stopped at the elevator, punched the down arrow button.
She was coming now—he could hear her quick footsteps on the checkered linoleum.
Turned and watched her approach in that lovely throwback of a nurses’ uniform.
She stopped a few feet away.
He had four or five inches on her. A few years as well.
“I can’t let you leave, Ethan,” she said. “Not until we know what’s wrong with you.”
The elevator doors screeched open.
Ethan backed away from the nurse into the car.
“Thanks for your help, and your concern,” he said, pressing G three times until the button illuminated, “but I think I got it figured out.”
“What?”
“It’s this town that’s wrong.”
Pam stretched her foot across the threshold, blocked the doors from closing.
“Ethan. Please. You’re not thinking clearly.”
“Move your foot.”
“I’m worried about you. Everyone here is.”
He’d been leaning back against the wall. Now he pushed off and came forward, stopping inches away from Pam, staring at her through the four-inch space between the doors.
He looked down, tapped the tip of her white shoe with the tip of his black shoe.
For a long moment, she held her ground, Ethan beginning to wonder if he would have to physically remove her from the elevator car.
Finally, she pulled her foot back.
* * *
Standing on the sidewalk, Ethan thought the town seemed quiet for late afternoon. He couldn’t hear a single car engine. Nothing, in fact, but the sound of birds cheeping and wind pushing through the crowns of three tall pines that loomed over the hospital’s front lawn.
He walked out into the middle of the street.
Stood there watching, listening.
The sun felt good and warm in his face.
The breeze carried a pleasant chill.
He looked up at the sky—dark blue crystal.
No clouds.
Flawless.
This place was beautiful, no question, but for the first time, those mountain walls that boxed this valley inside instilled something in him other than awe. He couldn’t explain why, but they filled him with fear. A dread he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
He felt...strange.
Maybe he’d suffered an injury. But maybe not.
Maybe being detached from the outside world now going on five days was beginning to take its toll.
No iPhone, no Internet, no Facebook.
It seemed impossible as he considered it—to have had no contact with his family, with Hassler, with anyone outside of Wayward Pines.
He started walking toward the sheriff’s office.
Better to just leave. Regroup. Reevaluate from the other side of those cliff walls.
From the comfort of a normal town.
Because something here was definitely off-kilter.
* * *
“Sheriff Pope in?”
Belinda Moran looked up from her game of solitaire.
“Hello,” she said. “How can I help you?”
Ethan asked a touch louder this time. “Is the sheriff in?”
“No, he stepped out for a moment.”
“So he’ll be back shortly?”
“I don’t know when he’s due back.”
“But you said ‘for a moment’ so I figured—”
“It’s just a figure of speech, young man.”
“Do you remember me? Agent Burke from the Secret Service?”
“Yes. You have your shirt on this time. I like this look much better.”
“Have there been any calls for me?”
She squinted and cocked her head. “Why would there be?”
“Because I told some people they could reach me here.”
Belinda shook her head. “No one’s called for you.”
“Not my wife, Theresa, or an Agent Adam Hassler?”
“No one’s called for you, Mr. Burke, and you shouldn’t tell them to call for you here.”
“I need to use the telephone in your conference room again.”
Belinda frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
She didn’t have an answer to this, just maintained her scowl.