Lydia was confused. Was she dead?
She could hear voices. Different voices trying to talk to her but she couldn't respond. What was going on?
"Lydia."
The voices were muffled, distant. She couldn't move her body. Maybe this was the afterlife.
"Lydia Martin, you're going to be okay."
It didn't even feel like she owned a body. Just her mind, floating in the middle of nowhere and these voices weren't helping her figure out where exactly she was floating to.
"Miss Martin, everything is going to be just fine. We're putting you into a helicopter and taking you to the hospital."
Hospital?
Hospital.
She was alive.
She had been rescued. After all this time, she was being rescued.
As soon as she felt her heart rate increase, that's when Lydia realised she did in fact, have a body. Every pain, every ache hit her like a ton of bricks. Her head, oh god, her head. It felt like her brain was oozing out. Like her skull had shattered into pieces.
She sensed she was being lifted onto something, and that brought out of the slicing pain in her right arm. Broken. She could tell. What else?
"Her pupils have dilated. She's coming to."
That's when the rays of sun blinded her eyesight. She could now see, and it hurt. Her eye sockets were burning. She ran her tongue across her lips and wished she didn't. Flakes of dead skin fell straight off and into her mouth. She didn't even want to know what she looked like.
"I..." Lydia croaked so quietly and pathetically she barely heard herself. The sun disappeared, a quick flash of helicopter rotors and then she could see much more clearly.
Three doctors were hovering over her, two males and a female but she was certain there was more inside the helicopter.
"It's okay, don't speak. Just concentrate on taking even breaths." The female doctor spoke clearly above the sound of the helicopter taking off. "Is this how you found her?"
"We were flying over the West of the island and we saw her fall down the cliff. We dropped immediately but she was dead on the scene. If this isn't a miracle then I don't know what is."
Lydia's pound heart stopped. She had died. She had died and they brought her back to life. Lydia had died and now she was alive.
Her heart was racing once again, gaining the attention of one of the male doctors. "Lydia, I'm going to ask you to count to ten, all right? I'll count to ten with you."
No. Lydia didn't want to. She knew this speech. They wanted to sedate her and she didn't want to be out cold again. She shook her head as much as she could.
"No...no..."
"All right, all right." He soothed. "I need you to keep your heart rate at a regular pace, Lydia, or I will have to put you under."
She nodded, closing her eyes to control her breathing.
They were flying now, Lydia was sure of it. Her stomach turned as they flew higher and higher. She just wanted to be at home. She didn't like feeling like this.
"Lydia, my name is Dr. Hartley. We have authority heading to your family's homes to take them to the airport. We're transferring you to the closest hospital, okay?" The female doctor explained.
Lydia felt her head throb as she looked up to the roof of the helicopter. She swallowed, wanting to ask the question she'd been wanting an answer to since she arrived on the island.
"Where am I?"
Dr. Hartley smiled down at the red-head sympathetically. "Kiribati island."
Lydia searched her brain. Kiribati island, just over the borderline between the North and South Atlantic. A little lonely island with no population, except for herself these past three and a half weeks.
Lydia felt her eye sockets ache as fresh tears began to produce.
"We're taking you to Hawaii Community Hospital, about an hour's journey. I would really prefer it if you got some rest." Dr. Hartley peered down at Lydia.
Lydia blinked up at the doctor with watery eyes. "My family-"
"They'll be there when you wake up, okay? Everything's going to be just fine. You're going home soon." Dr Hartley smiled and Lydia's vision began to blur as the aesthetic began to take affect.
Lydia took in a shaky breath before letting her eyes close.