Primeval Origins : Paths of Anguish - Award Winning, New Epic Fantasy / Science Fiction (The Primeval Origins Saga Book 1)
Page 32
Silence, except for the rhythmic beeping. How many beeps, she didn’t know…she didn’t count. Then a squeak echoed all about, followed by clicking footfalls of shoe soles on tile calmly retreating. Unintelligible grumbling started once the clicking steps were lost to mechanical beeps.
Wanting to see her circumstances, she tried to force her eyes open. The darkness lessened a little, but her eyes wouldn’t open. Images started flashing before her…confusing, strange, yet somehow familiar. Prickling skin and bristling hair announced painful chills all over her weightless body. A body she did have, and it hurt all over. Images of vicious teeth with horrid breath she remembered, and smelling them so close. That foul smell filled her nose, causing her to gag. A spear whooshed past her head, sinking deep into the skull of a monster. Then her skin prickled painfully as a twin row of living steak knives clomped shut a breath away.
“Nikki!” a familiar voice called to her.
Her name was…not Roga…it was Nikki.
“Nikki!” the voice called to her, again. “Come on. Open your eyes. Wake up.”
Painful, blinding light filled her eyes. Reflexively, she closed them and raised her hand to shield them from the light. Blinking a short time allowed Nikki to open her eyes well enough to see that she was in a blurry hospital room. Sunlight filled the room through a window draped with washed-out red curtains. The room was run down, though the IV stand and heart monitor confirmed she was in a hospital.
“Why am I in a hospital?” Nikki slowly asked an unshaven Dr. Shawn Anders. Her mouth felt painfully dry.
“Coma, after you reappeared from that…” Anders cut off his words as he looked nervously at the room door. “Better to have this conversation someplace other than here.”
“Why?” Nikki asked. Her cardboard-like tongue made it difficult for her to speak.
“Good questions, Nikki,” Anders answered with a distracted tilt of his head. Something was happening in the hall just outside the room. He stepped away from her bedside to sneak a look. After a few moments, he appeared satisfied -- or more accurately, relieved. Anders returned to Nikki’s bedside. He put a bottle to her lips, carefully tipping it so just enough water touched her lips to wet them and her tongue. Nikki’s mouth immediately felt better. Anders looked at her with a worried smile. “You looked like you needed that.”
Nikki started to ask her unanswered question, again, but Anders cut her off with fingers to his lips. With his eyes darting between Nikki and the door, he whispered, “Not here. Not now. Listen to me. A lot has happened since your…incident. You need to keep quiet until I can get you out of here. If they do press you with their questioning, claim you can’t remember anything since you woke…that morning.”
“That morning…?” Nikki was confused at Anders’ insinuation that some time had passed since she lost consciousness. She asked in a low voice, “How long?”
Anders raised the water bottle to her lips. She willingly accepted it. Her tongue and mouth felt dry, again. He talked while she drank. “Almost two weeks. We thought we lost you along with the others. Your heart stopped. We gave you CPR for a long time, but without a defibrillator there was little we could do. You wouldn’t respond. We thought you dead. You were like that for more than thirty minutes. No heartbeat, and you weren’t breathing. Then, your heart just started. If I believed in miracles, I’d say we had one with you.”
“Two weeks?” Nikki asked, to make sure she heard him right. Anders nodded his confirmation. He mentioned others who were lost. She immediately became alarmed for Jimmy. “Who else was ‘lost’? Jimmy?”
“He’s alive,” Anders answered quickly, cutting short his words. He cocked his head, listening at the hall. Footfalls grew louder in between the heart monitor beeps. “Not now. I’ll answers your questions later…when we’re away from here. Just remember what I told you…you don’t remember anything.”
Nikki made to protest with more questions, but stopped when two well-dressed figures entered the room: a frowning tall blonde woman in a dark-gray suit and business coat that had a tailored fit; and a black-haired man a few inches taller than the woman, also dressed in a fitted dark gray suit and coat.The blonde looked around the room, then at Anders. When she put her eyes on him, he swallowed hard, as if he were afraid of her. Anders never lets a woman intimidate him…I know, I tried.
The blonde woman cast her gaze on Nikki. She wore a stoic cloak for her face…no, a hardness void of compassion. The blonde took Nikki in for a few moments, then broke out in a practiced smile of sadistic satisfaction. “We have questions for you.”
And the story continues…
Book 2 in the revealing of the universe of
Primeval Origins: Light of Honor, is to be released in 2015.
Follow the adventures of Nikki, Rogaan, Pax, and others
beyond the Paths of Anguish,
Visit the Lexicon and Encyclopedia,
Find the latest News on Primeval Origins,
And much more at:
www.primevalorigins.com