My stomach sank to my feet like a ton of bricks were tied to it every time I thought of Daniel being in there. The seconds moved like minutes. Time was ridiculously slow.
Every time I thought of him in that hospital, I could only see Jackie. Her black teeth biting into what was left of her father’s body that she had torn into pieces.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how I lost my family there. The ones I loved most. Even though Adam had scarred me deeply with his infidelity, he was still my husband. He was still the man I had chosen at one time to spend the rest of my life with. He ripped out my heart, but I had given it to him. And now I was scared that the man who held the broken pieces was going to run into the same fate.
I think the kids could sense I needed to keep my mind off things as they were both chattier than I had ever heard them be.
“What are you going to name the baby?” Brian asked.
“Haven’t decided yet,” I told him.
“I think you should name her after your sister,” Lasa suggested.
“Or name her after Wonder Woman,” Brian stated.
“Diana?” I asked.
“No, name her Wonder Woman.” He said like that was the most obvious thing.
I laughed and told him I would think about it.
We played Monopoly because it was the only thing the two of them would agree on. It helped some to keep my mind off things, but the time was moving so slowly. The longer Daniel was gone the more my mind went into a dark corner. Imaging the worst possible scenario.
I think it was about four hours into waiting or two hundred and forty since time was moving so slow, Phoebe barged in the room.
“We need to go,” she announced.
My heart stopped in my chest as I just knew the worst had happened.
Chapter 17
She drove Lasa, Brian, and me to the hanger. She wouldn’t tell me what was going on. It infuriated me. Though I didn’t think she fully knew herself what was happening.
When we got inside the hanger a wave of relief washed over me as I saw Daniel. He looked tired and there was blood on his arm.
“Oh, thank God,” I cried as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I told you didn’t need to bring her here yet,” Daniel said to Phoebe even as he wrapped his arms around me tightly.
“She would kill me if I didn’t,” Phoebe said honestly.
“What’s going on?” I asked, pulling away from Daniel. After all, all Phoebe had said was, we need to go. “Why is there blood on your arm?”
He looked down as if he hadn’t noticed it. “It’s not mine.”
Before I could ask more, Rebecca appeared.
“It’s good she’s here, I just got confirmation a plane is on its way,” Rebecca said. “Not the safest thing but we really have no choice now.”
Daniel looked at me then. He looked defeated.
“What happened?” I asked. “Where’s Gerald and Luther?”
Brian held on tightly to my leg as I mentioned his dad.
“They’re okay,” Daniel began.
“Mostly,” Rebecca said. “Luther is performing emergency surgery on Gerald right now.”
“We barely got out of there,” Daniel said. “We never stood a chance of getting to the eighth floor. We fought them off, but Gerald fell over the railing and broke his arm. The bone came out of his skin. I guess that’s where the blood came from”
I covered my mouth, the nausea washing over me as I pictured the wound.
“Luther had to get some metal to be able to do the surgery. That’s part of what took so long.”
I placed my hand on Daniel’s shoulder. He wanted to pull away, I could feel it, but I grabbed his hand.
“It isn’t your fault,” I told him.
“It feels like it was,” he replied.
“Daniel, you know it wasn’t,” Phoebe countered. “They wanted to help and alone you probably would’ve died in there.”
He sighed heavily but didn’t argue with us.
The three hours waiting for the plane did not pass nearly as slowly as the hours waiting for the guys.
Luther advised that Gerald’s surgery went well, and he would be fine but would take a lot of time to heal.
Daniel got our stuff from the dorms. We were ready as soon as the plane landed, which is what they wanted. They only wanted to fuel up and be back in the air. No time for any undead creatures to join us on board.
Rebecca looked apprehensive about letting me go but said we had no choice. She told me the doctors on base in Japan were aware to the situation and up to speed.
We hugged Luther and Brian goodbye. Gerald was still asleep, but Luther told us he would let him know we said bye. I hadn’t seen Kent since we got to the base and didn’t ask where he was. There was no time.
We boarded the plane. Lasa sat between me and Daniel. I let out a breath as the engines fired up. I had never been much for flying and was even more worried than if it was just an average flight since Rebecca had said under normal circumstances, she would have advised against flying in my condition.
About an hour into the flight, we hit some rough turbulence. Lasa was scared. Phoebe was the one who had to comfort her. I was suddenly overtaken with pain. Worse than the night we had made it to the base.
The pain was so bad and intense, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut willing the pain to go away but it somehow managed to intensify.
It hurt so
