The nurse crumpled in one of the chairs in the corner, slouched down so low that she was invisible to someone standing on the pad, wasn't actually watching the monitors. That would have required understanding that the screens were video; during the day, she would have delighted in flipping through them, but now she hunched in the chair, letting the flickering lights amuse her without trying to understand their meaning.

The voices, however, spurred her to action. The chair spun around, and she lurched up and out of it, heading for the source of the noise. One hand held a clipboard; she broke it in half as she advanced, creating two sharp-pointed pieces of wood.