Just a little farther now, Hollis.

She wondered why the voice didn't just call 911 but thought that was probably too much to ask of a figment of her imagination.

There's the doorway. Feel it?

She felt the threshold under her sore fingers, ancient weather stripping or something that was mostly rust. Beyond it was the broken concrete of a stoop or walkway. Hollis prayed there weren't any more steps.

Grimly, she pulled herself across the threshold and out of the building, shivering as the full force of the cold wind out there cut into her. There was one painful step down, then a walkway that seemed to be more rocks and gravel than concrete. It hurt like hell to pull herself across that jagged surface; the only saving grace was that it continued to guide her toward the street.

She hoped.

Not long now, Hollis. You're almost there.

Almost where? she wondered. Out in the street so a car could run over her?

He's near. He'll see you any minute now.

Before Hollis could wonder who was supposed to see her, she heard a male voice utter a shocked exclamation, then hurried footsteps coming toward her.

"Please," Hollis heard herself say in an unfamiliar, thickened voice. "Please help…"

"It's all right." The man's voice, near now, sounded nearly as thickened as her own had been. And shocked and horrified and compassionate. He touched her shoulder gently with a warm hand, then said, "I don't want to move you until EMS gets here, but I'm going to cover you with my coat, okay?"

She felt the blessed warmth and murmured a thanks, allowing her weary head to fall so that it rested on her forearm. She was very tired. Very tired.

Sleep now, Hollis.

She thought that was a good idea.

Sam Lewis checked her pulse just to make sure, then took a couple of steps away from her and spoke urgently into his cell phone. "For God's sake, hurry! She's-she's in bad shape. She's lost a lot of blood." His gaze followed the startlingly bright smeared trail of blood that marked her progress across broken concrete all the way back to the gaping doorway of the long-abandoned old house.