Page 40 of The Final Storm
Lori raises one shoulder in response. “I should be.” She’s right. We’re never hungry anymore, but we should eat.
“I’ll get us something if you’re staying here,” I tell her. “You’ll stay? No running off again?”
She grabs my hand and squeezes. “Sounds good. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m too wired to sleep. I thought…” she trails off. “I really thought I was coming back to find him dead.”
“But you didn’t,” I say and squeeze her hand back.
“Hurry back. I don’t want to be alone when the creepy other woman comes by.”
“I think you kind of do,” I yell as I leave the room. “I don’t think you would hold back at all if you saw her.”
“Damn right,” Lori yells back as the door closes behind me.
It’s a quick trip to the cafeteria, not that I’ve gone more than a few times. There are a lot of oatmeal options, and my stomach grumbles at the thought. There’s also fish, and I gag. Between our time on the island and these boats, I’ve had a lifetime’s fill of fish. I make a few choices, knowing Lori won’t each much of it anyway, and head back, looking over my shoulder the entire way.
Once I turn the corner to the medical unit, dread creeps in and sends my heart racing. I hear the blaring sounds and watch the nurses pour inside. I drop the food in my hands, and it splashes on the floor at my feet while I sprint forward.
When I bolt inside, I find the room a frantic mess of nurses hovering over Luke, and a few kneeling down on the floor. They’re moving their hands over Lori, who is bleeding from her head. The images flash in sequence with what I see before me, and I suck in a shallow breath, chastising myself for being so stupid as to leave. Blood creeps in a line down the floor, trailing to where I stand.
“What happened!” I scream, but no one answers me.
The sound of the machines is loud and sharp. Covering my ears, I step closer and scream again. “What happened?” I doubt they hear me and I stumble over my feet when a nurse brushes past, clipping me on the shoulder. I skid in the blood and I let out a shuddered sob.
One nurse presses on Luke’s chest while another one grabs cords from the ground, frantically reconnecting them to his machines.
“Lori!” I yell down at her, but she doesn’t move. “What happened?” I try one more time.
“Not sure,” a male nurse yells back. “Came in and this one’s on the ground,” he nudges his head to Lori, “and this one’s unplugged.”
My head spins. “Is he dead? Is she dead?” I rage at him. He doesn’t answer and busies himself with examining Lori’s gushing head. I see her arms lift to her wound and a small relief washes over me because she’s moving. I rush over to Morgan’s box to find it empty.
“Where’s my child!” I scream so loud it blares over the machines, and another nurse looks up. She’s finished with the wires scattered on the floor, and the noise of the sirens softens. “Where the fuck is she!”
She rushes over, placing her hands on the box, and moves her head from side to side, looking around.
“Where the fuck is she?” I yell again. I grab her by the shoulders and shake her. “Tell me!”
She doesn’t answer, but all the color drains from her face. My heart races so fast it might explode out of my chest. I can’t breathe, and when I scream at her again, my words are broken and choked. “W-where…” But I can’t finish the question. I stumble out of the room and slam into the wall of the hallway, my vision tilting and turning. I hear voices behind me. “The baby. Did you… discharge… no?”
I stumble down the hallway and look around, deciding where I should go.
Where would Cecilia go?
She’d go where she can find Sam.
I take a right and run as fast as my legs will take me, skidding around corners, and smashing into people along the way. When I make it to engineering, I taste copper in my throat from running fast. My chest burns and I scream at the first two men I see. “Where’s Sam?”
They look startled by my presence, but I don’t give a fuck. “I mean Nico. Where?” I demand, slamming my hand on a table in front of them.
“He’s still on the island. He radioed that he’s coming back in the hour, but…”
I don’t let them finish, and I turn and run back to our cabin. She would want to see him, to confront him. If she’s holding his child, it would force him to listen. The minutes it takes to get to our room feel like hours. My panic echoes in every cell of my body and I’m desperate to move faster to get to them. When I burst through the cabin doors, there’s no one inside.
It’s empty, and I hold back the vomit that threatens to escape.
“No,” I mutter to myself, turning over the blankets in the bed, and looking around the room. I see the black box is on the floor… open, and the sight of it stops my frantic search.
“Yes,” I hear a harsh voice behind me. I whip around, but I’m met with blackness. The world goes dark before I see who’s there, and I’m falling into nothing, descending into the quiet void of the dark.
