Then there was silence again. Utter silence. Except for the familiar beeping sound somewhere nearby.
“What will we do if the power goes out again? This time for good?” Addy heard the underlying fear in her sister’s voice, but she couldn’t hold onto the thought.
“Hush, we won’t think about that right now,” her father said. “We’ll get her out of the city. Take her home. We can care for her there. She belongs in her own home.”
Addy drifted momentarily, came back with a stronger awareness of her surroundings. It was as if she had been underwater, and she was intermittently breaking the surface, flailing, but getting stronger. There were soft, clean sheets beneath her. And lights overhead. Machinery. The beeping.
Someone, Parisa, was leaning over her, and her voice was saying quietly, “We’re taking you home, Addy.”
“Where am I?” she tried to ask, but her words were silent, her question staying confined to her own mind. It was impossible to keep her eyes open, but she kept trying.
She heard Lathan’s voice nearby. “I went over her latest test results. I think it would be all right to move her. Of course I can’t say this officially, but I think it would be best if you got her out of here.”
“My advice to you is to get out of the city, too, son, as soon as you can,” she heard her father say. “If you decide to do that, here’s our address. If things are as bad as they say they are- ”
“I know,” Lathan replied quietly, but with an underlying urgency in his voice. “I’ll think about it.”
Despite the blinding light, Addy did manage to open her eyes again. She heard Parisa’s gasp, and then Parisa’s voice as she said her name. “Addy.”
Then Lathan was standing over her blocking out the lights. Lathan in a white coat. Lathan, still long-haired but cleanly shaven.
“Lathan,” she whispered faintly. “What are you doing here?”
“He’s been your doctor, Addy,” her father answered her. “All these months.”
Confused, she questioned the vision before her. “But it’s . . . Lathan.”
“Yes. Dr. Lathan Daniels,” her father said. “We have to get you out of here, Addy.”
Here was obviously a hospital room. But there was a commotion going on out in the hallway. She heard shouts, people running.
“The last thing we want is to be trapped here.” It was her father talking again.
She felt the pain of the splinter in her hand again, heard her father say, “We just took the IV out of your hand, Addy. Try to hold still till the bleeding stops.”
Wearing a white lab coat, Gage Lacroix rushed into the room. “They’re turning people back at the front doors,” he told them. “But I know another way out of here. We’ll have to go out the back way.”
There was a loud whirring sound overhead. “Those are more military helicopters,” her father said grimly. “We don’t have much time. Do you think we can find a wheelchair somewhere?” he asked someone.
They wrapped Addy in blankets. There was no time to get her dressed. Strong arms picked her up as her father said, “Just lean into Matthew, honey.”
“Matthew, you’re here?” she whispered weakly.
“Of course I’m here for you, Addy.”
“Matthew. We have to go. Now.” Even half aware, Addy couldn’t help but be alarmed at the strain in her father’s voice now. She had no choice but to let everyone help her. She felt weak as a motherless kitten as she clung to Matthew.
They wasted no more time in leaving the hospital room. In the hallway Addy smelled food. Two tall racks of lunch trays stood by a wall, forgotten now in the confusion that was being played out all around her.
“This may be your last chance,” her father said to Lathan and Gage. “You’re welcome to come with us.”
It didn’t take long for both men to make the decision to go with them. Matthew hurried down the hall with Addy in his arms. They all ran, not stopping for anything, amidst screams and shouts and growing panic. Like they were heading for the parting of the Red Sea, they had to reach safety before the waves came crashing down upon them. With the whir of the helicopter blades overhead like churning chariot wheels, they had a single, fixed destination in mind. Home.
Combat boots resounded in the hallway as soldiers swarmed out of the elevators. But by then, the heavy double doors at the far end of the hallway had closed behind the small group. They were on the fourth floor so they made their way quickly down the stairs.
“What happened to me?” Addy managed to ask.
“You were wounded in an attack by a suicide bomber. You had a severe head trauma and you’ve been in a coma for almost a month. But you’re going to be fine,” Lathan quickly assured her as he hurried down the steps alongside her.
A soldier was with them. Dalin Young. He was dressed in military fatigues.
“Sisha,” she said so softly that no one could make out the word.
“What is she saying?”
“The baby,” she whispered.
“She must mean that baby that was brought in here last night.”
“The baby’s fine, Addy. They took her home already.”
“What’s happening out there?” she wanted to know. Even in her half-confused state, she knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
“It won’t do us any good to sugarcoat it, Addy,” Matthew said. “There’s a sickness going around. The dead are coming back to life and this may be our last chance to get out of the city.”
She remembered then. The explosion. Her fault. She’d insisted they go to the mall that day. She’d been arguing, unreasonable, unfair to her mother. The last thing she remembered was seeing her mother lying beside her, too far away for her to reach, with blood dripping from her face and the jagged end of a bone protruding from her arm.
“Where’s Mom,” she asked though she was terrified to hear the answer. “It was my fault,” she said tearfully as grief suddenly and unsparingly washed over her like an engulfing tidal wave.
“No, Addy. No,” her father said adamantly. “It was a terrorist attack. You had no control over that.”
“Your mother’s fine, darlin’,” Matthew told her, breathing heavily as he stopped at the bottom of the last flight of steps. “She’s waiting at home for you.”
Home. Her mother waiting for her.
Please don’t let this be a dream, she prayed.
They pushed the heavy doors open. As soon as they stepped outside, sunlight washed over them, clean and fresh and hopeful in spite of the chaos all around them.
They ran through the parking lot. Other cars were leaving and no one was stopping them. At least not in this parking lot. But that would probably change. Soldiers were setting up road blocks not far away from them. Led by Dalin, they hurried through the rows of cars. Soon Matthew was driving the family’s SUV while Addy was being supported in the middle seat by Lathan on one side and Gage on the other.
To keep her from being jostled around by Matthew’s erratic driving, Lathan put his arms around her and gathered her close to him. To Addy, he said, “I didn’t come with you this far to lose you now.”
Out of nowhere a helicopter dropped out of the sky and swooped dangerously close to the road. The noise of the blades and the engines was deafening. Parisa screamed. Matthew swerved, barely able to keep the car on the road. The helicopter streaked overhead, leaving a churning trail of black smoke behind it. It kept falling. Everyone that could turn around in their seats looked behind them to see the helicopter crash into the open field in front of the hospital. Luckily, it did not burst into flames like helicopters always seemed to do in the movies.
A police car with sirens blaring and lights flashing sped by them.
“Am I still dreaming?” Addy asked. It was almost too much for her to take in.
“I wish we were all dreaming,” her father answered her. “But we’re not.”
“Is it true then?” Addy asked. “About the dead coming back to life?”
�
��Don’t worry about that right now. I’m sure they’ll have this under control in no time,” her father assured her.
“They won’t,” Addy whispered against Lathan’s white coat. “This is only the beginning.”
Deadrise (Book 4): Blood Reckoning Page 18