Chapter 28- Some Good Fortune, and Some Bad

Matt's eyes widened and he ran to Julie's side. With little ado, he rolled her body over and checked her vital signs.

"By God, she's alive!" He shouted.

Drake's heart leapt. She was alive?!? But, how? Drake jumped up and ran to her side. "How?"

"I don't have that faintest idea! But she's fading fast… her heart has too much stress on it. It's beating at an extremely slow rate." Matt tore open Julie's jacket, placed both of his hands over her heart, and began to press down.

"What are you doing?" Keith said.

"I'm trying to get her heart to beat by artificially pumping it. CPR and stuff, you know!" Matt said.

"When did you learn that?" Flynn said.

"When I was about 17, I joined the army and I was a medic for about three years, during that war. I learned almost everything I know about medical stuff during that time, except for a small amount that I got in my ninja times, but that was all herbal-based." Matt checked Julie's vitals again.

"How is she?" Drake said.

"This isn't good." He said. "She's going into cardiac arrest; her breathing for the most part has stopped, and her heartbeat is falling slowly. If we don't do something quick, she'll die."

"What are we going to do?"

"Would it help if we found a hospital?" Helen asked. She seemed very concerned.

"Yeah, that would be good." Matt said. He picked up Julie's body and threw it over his shoulder. "Where do you suggest we go?"

"There's a city over here!" Flynn said, standing atop a hill. Matt ran past Flynn so fast that even though he never touched Flynn, Flynn fell over. "Whoa!"

Drake ran to the top of the hill to see a huge cloud of smoke marking Matt's trail. He began to follow, and heard the others behind him. They followed the wake of destruction made by Matt's insane speed and found him in a hospital, laying Julie on a bed.

"Good, you caught up." He said. "Just…don't do anything unless I tell you too, and if I do, move!" He tore open the top of Julie's shirt, flipped a switch on a machine, and grabbed two huge pad-type things.

"What are those things?" Drake said. "What are you doing?"

"Haven't you watched any of those stupid medical shows? This is a defibrillator, it's meant to prevent cardiac arrest. Someone stand by the machine!" Flynn stepped closer. "Turn the knob to 100 joules!" Flynn cranked the knob to 100. Matt pressed the huge pads to Julie's skin. There was the sound of charging power, then a thump, and Julie's body jumped. "Chikushou…"

"What?" Drake said. "What's wrong?!?"

Matt shook his head and pressed the pads down again. There was the charging sound, another thump, and Julie's body jumped again. "Chikushou! Flynn, turn it to 200 joules!" Flynn did so. Matt pressed the pads down again. The machine charged again, gave off another thump, and Julie's body jumped again. A bead of sweat leaked out from under Matt's headband.

"CHIKUSHOU! Flynn! 300 joules!" Flynn cranked the knob farther to the right.

"What's wrong?!?" Drake said.

"It's not working, why do you think I'm so aggravated!?!" Matt said. He pressed the pads down again. There was no sound. Matt's eyes widened. "Oh, shit… not good!"

"What happened?" Keith said.

"We don't have enough power! Something must have gone wrong with the power when the fiends attacked! And now there isn't enough to give a 300 joule shock out! Why now?!?" Matt said. His eyes began to dart around the room. "There has to be something… Keith! Helen! Run downstairs and check the power stuff! See if anything's been destroyed and be quick about it!" Keith threw open the door and dashed out, closely followed by Helen. Matt continued to curse under his breath. Drake was scared.

She's going to die! He thought. We don't have enough power to shock her heart back into rhythm! And if Keith and Helen can't find anything wrong that we can fix… Keith burst through the door.

"The power connection has been fried! We can't get anything from the power plant, we're running on the emergency generator, and that thing is smoking like crazy!" He said.

"Chikushou…" Matt hissed. His eyes focused on his hands for a moment. "Flynn, drop the power to 250 joules!" Flynn turned the knob again. "Come on… work…" Matt pressed down again. The machine charged, gave another thump, and Julie's body jumped again. This time, however, Julie gagged and began to breathe again. Matt's hand went to her Adam's apple for her pulse. His face relaxed. "She's fine…"

"Thank God…" Drake said. "Did it work?"

"Huh? What? Oh, yeah." Matt said.

That was strange. Drake thought. Why was he so distracted? He looks tired now… much more tired than that should have made him! I thought I saw something on that last shock, but what was it?

"Keith, Flynn, Helen. Go check and see if there's any food around here. Drake, take a break. You've been under a lot of stress lately." Matt said. Keith, Flynn and Helen went out the door. Drake fell into a seat near the door. He was relieved that Julie was safe, but he was suspicious about Matt. Had he done more than had met the eye? He could have sworn that there was a very faint greenish aura around Matt's hands during the last shock.

Matt flopped down into a chair across from Drake and looked into Drake's eyes. "I'm exhausted."

"How can you say that? You've hardly done anything!" Drake said.

"What.. did you say?" Matt said quietly. His voice was filled with venom.

"You haven't done anything! All you do is sit back and let us take the beating!"

"It is not advisable to disrespect someone who can kill you in an instant…or has saved your life before." Matt said

"Prove it!"

"If I had not helped you out, you would have been easily overwhelmed during the first invasion by the fiends. Furthermore, you would have been killed by the hounds at the very beginning of the second invasion if I hadn't stopped them all. And also, I have saved your lives countless times with my knowledge of medicine. What do you have to say to that?"

"I…uh…we…uh…you keep putting us in life-or-death situations! You said you could see the future!"

"I said I could predict future events with a certain degree of accuracy. That doesn't mean I can prevent them."

"But…but…you said you saw almost all of these things coming!"

"Did you ever stop to consider that maybe that was the best way to get through it?"

Drake opened his mouth, then shut it. No, he hadn't thought about that. "That's not the point!"

Just then, Keith came bursting through the door. He was so loud that Julie sat bolt upright, looking dazed.

"What happened? Shouldn't I be dead?" she mused.

"Don't worry about that!" Keith said. "We have a problem!"

"What is it?" Drake said standing up.

"Look outside."

Drake pulled back the curtain from the window. Spread out before the hospital was a massive array of fiends, and they were pounding on the hospital door. "They've found us!"