Sorry for the absence again. My computer needed to be fixed. And my mom got in a car accident, so I've been at the hospital constantly. Her leg's broken.
Two chapters left (after this one) until The End…
No Words Here
Chapter Eight: The Odds Against Tomorrow
"I lay dying
And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
I'm dying, praying, bleeding, and screaming
Am I too lost to be saved
Am I too lost?
My God, my tourniquet
Return to me Salvation…"
—Evanescence
Jack Hall was in a position that he never could have ever even conceived of being in. He was sitting, crouched over his nearly comatose son, in the back of a brutally beaten pickup truck, heading to what remained of an American refugee camp to get help. Sam mumbled incoherently under his breath as Jack observed his bloody son with worry in his heart and mind. Two other survivors, also with a splay of red on their outfits, were in the back with them, but they were conscious, and probably would survive. In the driver's seat was a man Jack recognized, a man who was in the library in New York named Luther. From Luther's looks, you couldn't tell if he even had driven before, but luckily he had, and the weary five stayed silent.
Three understandable words sounded from behind Sam's lips. "Dad? Where's Laura?"
"She's okay, Sam, she'll be alright," Jack whispered, although those words could be lies. But his son believed. He tried to believe.
Sam blinked slowly, coming to his senses even more so. "You didn't answer me," he mumbled. "Where is she?"
"She's at what's left of the U.S. Embassy. She was hurt…" Jack fumbled on his words. "… Badly… they took her first, then I came back for you…"
It took a minute for this to register with the seventeen-year-old's currently poorly functioning brain. "What about Mom?" Sam's astonishingly blue eyes were filled with horror and a heart shattering sadness.
"I—I don't know…"
Lucy fled the safety of what remained of the U.S. Embassy, wearisome tears being blinked away from her eyes. Here, outside, there was a heavy, painful reminder of how horrid the situation had become. It was beyond any disaster that she knew or understood; she could only observe.
Pillars of black smoke met the cold, overcast sky above the hellish scenery. Fires burned everywhere, and not a thing was standing. The ground was rippled and scorched, and in the further, Lucy could see that soil where the fingers of the blast had touched was practically reduced to a deep, singed hole. It was hard to believe—to hope—that anyone was left alive. For a moment, she felt like the only person on earth, until her acute sense of hearing picked up the low roar of a vehicle. Lucy swiveled around, seeing the truck deliver a bittersweetly welcomed sight.
Brian was in the back of a small pickup truck with a hefty amount of survivors; dazed, bleeding and confused as they stared at the devastation around them, trying to make something of it. Another person, another member of the 'library gang', a girl named Elsa sat upright, holding an infant in her arms, remarkably unharmed, then handed the child over to another as she spotted Dr. Hall. Then, Lucy saw whom Brian was near to.
Laura. Lucy could barely distinguish her; she was covered in blood and multiple injuries, and Dr. Hall's medical instincts kicked in. She ran faster than she ever had her life, which was saying something, as in high school, Lucy held the school's highest track record to this very day. "She needs help, Dr. Hall," Brian stated the obvious as Lucy examined the pale, unconscious Laura. Resting her middle and pointer fingers on her neck, where the two major arteries lay under Laura's skin, Lucy felt a pulse. It was slow, but a signal that she was still alive.
"Will she be alright?" Elsa questioned anxiously.
I hope so, Lucy answered mentally. She put her ear next to Laura's mouth, feeling a labored breathing. "We need to get her inside, now." Suddenly, Lucy's attention fixated upon her son. Where was Sam? "Sam… where is he?"
"Don't worry, Jack's with him." Brian answered as he, Elsa, and Lucy gently lifted Laura with extreme care.
"Jack?" Lucy repeated. "J-Jack's…" she gulped. "… alive?"
Brian and Elsa nodded in union.
Lucy felt slightly less aggrieved. The rest of her pain would go away when she could see her family together again. But for now—for the second time, she realized—her son, and her husband were out there, and she was truly alone.
J.D. watched the full descent of the helicopter with this mother and Aaron, dust and other assorted, lightweight objects still wavered in the air as the blades slowed. A limp, still conscious young woman in a makeshift stretcher that could only be Laura came out of the copter with a few very official-looking government workers, and Brian and Elsa.
The half-reunited library gang acknowledged each other's presences and silently followed Laura and the officials to the hospital wing, until they reached what was the improvised ICU, where the doctors wouldn't allow them to go any further.
The three were still silent as they watched hopelessly from a window, and Elsa noted something being uttered from Laura's lips.
"Sam…" she mouthed.
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter guys, but I promise a longer one next time!
Next Chapter: The beginnings of a Brian/Elsa 'ship (YES!!!); Laura's condition worsens as Michelle and Tobias arrive; Jack and Sam arrive at the US Embassy… and, of course, I can't tell you everything!
P.S.: Hey, guys, if this were a real sequel to The Day After Tomorrow, who would you cast as my OC's?