“How many died?” asked Debbie.
“Only three that we know of so far,” said Ron. “We’ve been real lucky.”
“And Leslie?” asked Debbie.
“She’s fine. You’ll be seeing her in just a few minutes,” promised Dr. Wilson, walking up to the group. “We got her out hours ago, right after Marci. She’d been sitting out the battle in some dark cell under the arena until we’d rescued her. She had no idea what had happened in that arena.”
“Debbie nodded. “Then she doesn’t know about Camron?”
“No,” said Wilson. “We really don’t know his status, at least not for sure. He’s still in Scotland. He was too sick to move. You see, he has stage four lymphoma. It’s inoperable and his parents declined chemotherapy considering the situation. It would only have prolonged his suffering for a few months. He was sick even before he went over there.”
“He didn’t tell us until right at the end,” said Debbie. “He volunteered to go on that mission to the Koth knowing that there wasn’t anything here on Earth for him but death. I wonder if his parents realize that he is a hero.”
“I doubt it,” said Wilson, “and I’m not all that sure that they ever will. You see in just a few days this entire project will be falling under government supervision. This project was too important to fly under the radar for long. The NSA will be taking over. I suspect that much of what you’ve experienced is likely to be classified.”
“Why?” asked Debbie.
“Well, would you really like the general public to know that the drells exist, or maybe I should say did exist,” said Wilson. “We’re talking extraterrestrial intelligence here and not very nice ones. It might cause a panic. At least that is the way the government sees it. I suspect that you and the others will be asked to sign a nondisclosure document not to reveal to the general public what happened over there.”
Debbie just shook her head. “How is Connie?”
“In intensive care,” said Ron, his voice faltering. “She’s not doing so well. She suffered severe internal bleeding and the bones in her legs, well, they’re shattered and a pretty bad infection has set in. She will probably lose the left one, maybe even the right, even if she does survive. The doctors there are giving her a fifty-fifty chance at life, maybe.”
“Oh my God,” gasped Debbie. “She did so much for all of us.”
“She wouldn’t have had it any other way,” said Dr. Wilson. “Let’s get you to your room. I’m sure you and Leslie have a lot of catching up to do, and I think we can let David in too, at least for a while. Please don’t tell Leslie about Camron, at least not yet. We’re not all that sure of our facts.”
Debbie nodded. At least on that decision she agreed.
Debbie and Leslie spoke well into the night of the adventure they had shared on the far side of their long sleep, and of how glad they were to be home once more. Their joy was made even greater as a young girl in a wheelchair was brought into their room.
“Hi,” said Gwen, a broad smile on her face.
“Gwen!” exclaimed Debbie, reaching out to the radiant child with a trembling hand. “I’m so glad you made it back.”
“She can only stay for a few minutes,” said the orderly. “She needs to get her sleep, but she insisted on coming down here to see you.”
“Marci would have dropped in too but they transferred her over to the hospital for observation,” said Gwen. “It was something about her leg. They said it was just a precaution. She’ll probably be back tomorrow. You know, she says that she wants to return to the Marine Corps after this is all done and she has recovered. She said her time over there probably made her a better soldier.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” said Debbie.
Debbie turned to the orderly. “How’s Connie Cox?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know,” replied the orderly. “She was taken to Memorial this morning, and she’s in intensive care. That’s about all I can tell you.” The orderly glanced at his watch to discover that it was well past eleven. “Look, I can only give the three of you a few minutes together, it’s late. You’re going to have to get some sleep.”
As the orderly left the room, Debbie turned to Leslie and Gwen. “I’m worried about Connie. We might still be over there, or worse, if it weren’t for her.”
“She was so nice to me,” replied Gwen, the trace of a tear in her eye. “In the dungeon, she gave all of us hope. It isn’t fair what happened to her.”
The three joined hands in a prayer for the brave woman who had given them hope and a new life. They prayed for her swift recovery.
“Highly irregular,” complained the nurse as she walked into room 124 and roused Leslie from a sound sleep. “I’m sorry to wake you, dear, but there’s a long distance phone call for you and the man on the other end of the line is quite insistent about talking with you. I’ve transferred the call to your phone.”
Leslie rolled lazily over and fumbled with the receiver, “Hello?”
“Is this Leslie Cosland?” asked a weak raspy voice on the other end of the line.
“Yes,” she replied, trying not to fade back into sleep.
“I guess it’s still pretty early there in the states, I’m sorry if I woke you, this is Camron Mac Lure.”
A jolt of pure adrenalin shocked Leslie into total alertness, “Camron!”
“Yes, it’s me. I came out of the coma on my own yesterday morning. It was just like I said, too. I was in my own bedroom, with a darn pretty nurse watching over me. I’d dare say that I put a real shock into her when I sat up in bed after nearly a year in a coma.”
“How?” asked Leslie, tears of joy streaming from her eyes.
“I’m really not quite sure, I was hoping that you weren’t just a dream,” continued Camron, his voice full of emotion. “The last thing I remembered was hitting the crystal that was the drell’s power source. Next thing I knew, I was here. I’m sure glad you’re okay. I was so afraid that something terrible happened to you.”
“No,” said Leslie. “I ended up sitting out the entire battle in that dungeon. They were going to come for me right at the end. They said something about a grand finale or something like that, but by the time they got around to me I was gone.”
By now Debbie was awake as well, straining to hear both sides of the conversation.
“You were told the secrets of the universe? You’re going to have to tell me all about it. Maybe you could write a self-help book.” noted Leslie, a broad smile on her face.
“Look, I can’t stay on long,” apologized Camron. “I’ll be off to the hospital, again. You see, I had cancer, stage 4, but now they can’t find it. It has everybody in a tizzy except me. Abaddon said something about this happening and, well, he’s an angel, sort of. He doesn’t lie, never. I’ll have to tell you all about that too.”
“You’ll have to,” confirmed Leslie.
“I’ll be making a trip to the states in a few weeks,” continued Camron. “My father thinks it a might strange, but he went along with it nonetheless. Mind if I drop in?”
“I’d love it!” said Leslie excitedly.
“Great,” replied Camron, “I’ll be in touch to give you all of the details.” He hesitated for a second, “I love you.”
Leslie’s expression became absolutely radiant. They were such beautiful words. “I love you too, Camron,” she said, hanging up the phone.
“Camron is alive?” asked Debbie.
“Yes!” replied Leslie, riding on top of the world. “He said that Abaddon rescued him, returned his soul to Earth. He said that Abaddon was not supposed to do it but he did it anyway. In the process his body was purified. He no longer has cancer.”
“Well thank God,” said Debbie. “Now all we need is for Connie to recover.”
It was late afternoon two days later as Ron and David wheeled Debbie into Connie’s room in intensive care. A mass of tubes and wires attached the brave woman to her life support systems.
“She’s been conscious o
ff and on all day,” noted her doctor. “I’ve never seen such total destruction of tissue as I saw in her wrists and ankles, and the damage isn’t confined to there. Right now, we’re barely hanging onto her.”
“Doctor, isn’t there something that can be done for her?” asked Ron, fighting to remain in control.
“Dr. Griego, there’s just nothing that I can do,” admitted the surgeon. “She might have days, or just a few hours. I’m sorry.”
The three sat about Connie’s bedside. Ron took her hand in his, caressing it gently. She opened her eyes and looked up to see him looking over her, tears in his eyes.
“I’m glad that I got to see you one more time,” she said in a weak voice. “Did we get them all?”
“We’ve pulled 163 kids out of that terrible place so far, and there’ll be more,” promised Ron.
Connie turned to look at Debbie. A weak smile came to her face. “Debbie, it’s good to see you up and around, welcome home.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” said Debbie, taking Connie’s other hand in hers. She did her best not to cry.
“I suspect that you had a lot to do with the deliverance of those children too,” replied Connie. She turned back to Ron. “We performed a miracle with FENS, I told you we would.”
“Always the optimist,” admitted Ron, a slight smile on his face. “You were right. We all should have believed you.”
Connie gazed at the three concerned faces about her. Her expression turned serious. “Keep a watchful eye open in case the drells return someday. You’ll have to be ready for them, even if I’m not there.”
“Connie,” objected Ron.
“Please Ron, don’t patronized me, you’re not too good at it. I’m not going to be here next time to help you, but you’ll get through this okay, all of you. Don’t forget how to make those magic circles.”
“I’ll keep practicing,” promised Ron, fighting back the tears.
“I wish we’d had more time, my love,” replied Connie, squeezing Ron’s hand a final time, before fading back into a deep sleep. Her heart rate and respiration grew slower as the minutes passed, as she drew ever closer to eternity. Then they ceased altogether.
“I think she was only holding on to life long enough to say goodbye to you,” said David, who could hide his tears no longer.
Debbie planted a kiss on Connie’s forehead. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Ron fought to control his emotions, but to no avail, he wept openly. He planted a last kiss on Connie’s still warm lips. It was with the greatest reluctance that he rose to his feet and walked from the room. He gave no notice to the doctor who slipped into the room behind him.
The doctor looked over the young woman even as the last of the color drained from her cheeks. He shook his head. “I am probably going to get in trouble for this,” he lamented.
He slowly ran his hand up Connie’s legs, across her chest, over her arms and hands, finally ending up at her forehead.
“I fear I am not terribly good at this,” he lamented. “I never had much practice.”
Connie’s eyes opened to see the unfamiliar face.
“There was a bright light,” she said. “It was so beautiful. There was someone calling my name from inside that light. I walked toward it then suddenly I was here again.”
“I hate it when good people die young,” said the doctor. “Call it a weakness if you will. And I don’t like to see evil get its way either. Allowing you to die would be like allowing Dre Kon to have the last laugh. I can’t permit that. This will probably go on my record but so be it.”
“Who are you?” asked Connie. It was only then that she realized that she was talking to an empty room. Someone had been there. She was certain of it.
Ron was full of grief as he fought to get out of the chair in the waiting room. He’d been there for over twenty minutes but still his legs were like Jell-O. It was then that the doctor approached him.
“I simply don’t understand it,” he admitted. “We’re taking Connie back down to radiology. I’ve got to know what’s happening.”
“What’s happening is that she’s dead,” replied Ron.
“Dead, hardly,” replied the doctor. “She probably should be but she isn’t. Her blood oxygen level is back to normal and her blood pressure looks good. The bruising on her wrists and ankles has nearly disappeared. It’s impossible, but it’s true and I’ve got to know why. Right now I think she’s going to pull through. If you want to talk to her some more you’ll need to come back in about three hours, this might take a while.”
The doctor hurried down the hallway leaving Ron positively stunned.
“She was dead,” he said. “I was sure of it.”
“She wasn’t breathing,” said Debbie. “It’s like Camron, another miracle. We have a guardian angel.”
“And I think we have two,” noted David, their names are Abaddon and Lenar.”
Ron and the others walked across the parking lot of the hospital. It had been a remarkable day and he felt like he was floating in the clouds. He took no notice of the tall dark bearded man who stepped from a green station wagon gripping a high power rifle. The man took careful aim at the doctor, applying ever greater pressure to the trigger.
David could hear the cry within his mind, the voice of his father. He turned to his left to see the gunman. “Get down!” he screamed. David didn’t even need to think, he interposed himself between the gunman and Debbie.
It all happened so quickly. A loud voice, followed by three quick shots rang out. The sniper hit the ground before the echo of the last shot died away.
Detective Hicks and Special Agent Davis rushed up to Ron, who by now was sprawled across the pavement. “Are you alright Dr. Griego?” he asked, still training his pistol in the direction of the fallen gunman.
“Fine,” replied Ron, as the detective helped him to his feet.
“That was mighty quick thinking, lad,” said Davis, turning to David. “We trailed that joker all the way from the clinic, he’s been watching you folks for days.”
“He’s dead, Agent Davis,” noted a second officer running back from where the sniper lay in a pool of blood.
“A pity,” lamented Davis, “I’d like to have known who hired that hit man. My men caught another goon trying to break into the Parker household early this morning. The guy was armed like a commando. When he realized that we had him trapped he turned his gun on himself. He didn’t have a scrap of identification on him.”
“The station wagon has Jersey license plates,” noted the uniformed officer.
“Just like the other one,” observed Hicks, making an entry in his notebook. The detective’s expression softened as his line of questioning changed. “How’s Connie?”
“We’re not sure but they think she’s going to be OK,” said Ron.
“Wonderful,” replied Hicks, placing his hand on Ron’s shoulder. “I’ll see that you folks are escorted back to your clinic, or wherever you were heading. I think this might be the end of it. Our surveillance only revealed two men, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
“Do you think it’s over, Dr. Griego?” asked David.
“I wish I knew,” admitted Ron.
“We managed to save nearly two hundred children from that hell the drells had created,” announced Sybil, sitting in a comfortable chair across from Dr. Matthew Martin in his study. “To our knowledge we only lost six. Debbie and the others are back with their parents now, ready to resume their normal lives.”
“I doubt their lives will ever be quite normal again,” observed Matthew, setting his pipe aside. “It’s hard to imagine what they went through.”
“Could it happen again?” asked Sybil.
“By Heavens, I hope not,” replied Matthew. “I’d feel better if we had Victoria Barda behind bars. I fear that she has fled the country with the crystal ball. The FBI and Interpol have been searching for her for months, but she’s pulled a real vanishing act. So long as even one of th
e members of the Sisterhood of Twilight live, there will be the danger of this thing cropping up again.”
“Matthew, I feel like we’ve failed, like those kids are still in danger.”
“Nonsense!” retorted Matthew, taking her hand in his. “We simply need to remain alert. We’ll be ready the next time.”
“What about that crystal ball that Keira had?”
“The one we recovered from her parent’s home? I still have it, but it’s grown strangely quiet in recent days,” said Matthew. “I keep it in my vault. I may eventually study it, but for now, it’s too dangerous to handle. How is Connie doing?”
“Connie is doing pretty well, considering, but I’m afraid she’ll always have a pretty bad limp. I wonder who that doctor was. The one that appeared by her bedside after my nephew was sure she had passed.”
“Excellent question,” said Matthew.
“You know they’re getting married,” interjected Sybil. “At least something good has come out of this whole thing.”
“More than one thing,” assured Matthew. “Friedrich Nietzsche said that which does not kill us makes us stronger. I’m not a fan of Nietzsche, but it happens to be true.”
“But so many good people have died in our struggle against the drells,” noted Sybil.
“It could have been so much worse,” assured Matthew. “It would have been worse if you and Dr. Wilson’s team hadn’t stopped them.”
“You know he’s still in charge of the FENS Project?” interjected Sybil. “Even though it is now under government supervision and is a highly classified operation they were smart enough to realize that they needed him in charge.”
Matthew chuckled. “It’s ironic, that so few people will ever hear, no less believe, the stories of this dreadful conflict. The sacrifices that you and the members of that research team made will go largely unsung, yet think of the thousands of young lives that will be spared as a result of what you did.”
“Just another mystery that we are privileged to know,” said Sybil.
Matthew smiled as he rose from his chair and walked to the window. He gazed through the trees at the rising full moon. “I wonder what became of the wulvers.” He turned back toward Sybil, “I suppose we shall never know.”
The Realm of the Drells Page 40