slides to my shoulder. “How bad is it?”
It was fine until he asked. Multiple injuries flare to life. The emitter in my arms all of a sudden gains a hundred kilos. I try to take the strap off, but my shoulder is having none of it.
Radcliff lifts the weapon with ease. “Did it work?”
“Yes. It did great. Just too…many of them. And they…” The floor buckles under me and I stagger to the side.
Radcliff puts his hand on my waist to steady me. I hiss in pain.
“You need to go to the infirmary.” He calls for my parents to escort me.
They admonish me for not saying something sooner. Dad puts my good arm around his neck, supporting me as we navigate the hallways. My mom clucks at me, but I’ve no idea what she’s saying. It takes all my concentration to stay on my feet. The nurses in the infirmary frown at me.
They shoo my parents out of the exam room. And then they torture me by taking off my jumpsuit and cleaning my injuries. Trust me, I’m not exaggerating. Too bad I don’t have the good sense to pass out.
Another doctor comes in and inspects my wounds. She introduces herself as Dr. Bharathi. After the examination, she declares that two of the four punctures are shallow enough to heal on their own, but the other two are going to require minor surgery. My parents are fetched to give permission.
Before I’m wheeled out, I ask about Niall. “Any news?”
“Still in surgery.”
I grab Mom’s hand. “Is he going to make it?”
She hesitates. No doubt trying to put the best spin on what she knows.
“Please don’t lie to me,” I say.
“I’m not. I just don’t know his prognosis and was trying to come up with something encouraging.”
“Sorry.” I squeeze her hand. “Did you think of something?”
She gives me a wry smile. “He’s young and healthy and was smart enough to curl into a protective ball. They’re all points in his favor.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I focus on those positives as I’m prepped for surgery. He’s my last thought before everything spins to black.
I wake. My old friend, the mechanical beep, is once again keeping watch over me. Beep—you got that right.
The lights are dim and my father is sitting in the chair, reading from his portable. The clock on the wall says it’s sixteen hundred hours. I slept all day. It takes me a few moments to remember why I’m here. Fear sharpens my groggy thoughts. “How’s Niall?”
“He’s out of surgery,” Dad says.
“That’s good, right?”
“He lost a lot of blood, Li-Li.”
Oh no, he used my nickname. Beep—calm down. Beep—you’re jumping to conclusions. Dad frowns at the machine behind my head. I take a few deep breaths to steady my heart.
Once the beeping slows, I ask, “What does that mean?”
“He could have brain damage.”
Beep—he said could. Beep—doesn’t mean he will.
“When will they know?” I ask.
“When he wakes up.” My father glances away.
The unspoken, if he wakes up, hangs heavily in the air.
Dad clears his throat. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore. Tired. Was anyone else injured?”
“Minor cuts and bruises.”
At least there’s some good news. “What happened down in the lab?”
“According to Officer Tora, all the lights in the lab just died without warning. Both she and Niall immediately turned on their flashlights in time to see the doors to the pits break open. She mentioned a wave of cold air hitting her before Niall pushed her toward the stairs. HoLFs attacked and she ran, thinking he was right behind her.”
And Niall was worried about me risking myself. “What happened to the lights?”
“Officer Dorey is still working on figuring it out, but he did restore power to the rest of the base.”
For how long? “Dad, what if the lights go out again?”
“We’ve opened all the shades in the labs to let the sunlight in. And we have the portable floodlights for night. Also we’re working on an evacuation protocol just in case we need to leave the base.”
All good measures. “What about—”
“That’s enough questions. If you get plenty of rest, the doctor said you might be able to leave tomorrow.”
No way I’m leaving. Not without Niall.
After reassuring my parents a half-dozen times that I’m fine, they go to catch up on some much needed sleep. Since it’s pretty late, I try to doze, but my thoughts keep circling back to Niall. What if he doesn’t wake? Or if he has brain damage? Or he dies! Each scenario is scarier than the last. And after cycling through them all