Timeline - November 6th
"Please god don't leave me too."
Eko jolted awake, heart pounding, as the remnants of the nightmare clung to her. The dark room's confines pressed in around her, filled with the sterile smell of antiseptic and the relentless beeping of monitors. The dim light cast long shadows on the walls, creating an eerie atmosphere that amplified her sense of isolation.
Beside her, Jesse groggily opened her eyes and turned her head towards Eko. "Bad dream?"
"Hmm," Eko answered as she diverted her gaze to watching Matthew still lying there before them in the infirmary, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
"Go back to sleep," Jesse whispered, nestling back into the sofa chair and curling her legs up. Before long, Eko heard her heavy breathing, knowing Jesse had fallen asleep again.
But sleep eluded Eko. No matter how hard she tried, the moment her body slipped into the realm of dreams, it was consumed by relentless nightmares. Images of what had happened on Creon haunted her, the guilt gnawing at her soul.
Her gaze fell back on Matthew. Three days had passed and he still hadn't woken up. Each day had been an agonizing stretch of unrelenting worry, marked by no change in his condition. Eko replayed the moments over and over in her mind: the chaos, the fear, the sense of helplessness as she watched him die on her.
**** ****
When twenty minutes felt like a lifetime, the ship finally docked at Allegiant. As soon as the back doors opened, a swarm of medics engulfed Eko. Nurses and doctors poured in, their faces etched with determination, their urgent whispers mixing with the sterile scent filling the air.
Eko didn't know what they were saying, but she could tell by their expressions that it was serious. She knew, looking at Mya, that they didn't have the confidence to tell her that Matthew would be okay.
Toni's firm grip then pulled her backward, giving the medic team space to work. Amid the chaos, she noticed Jesse ahead of her, more hysterical than she had ever seen. Jesse's hands clawed at the medical staff, trying to get past them, her eyes wild with desperation as she shoved bodies aside to reach Matthew's lifeless form.
"Move! Mattie! Let me get to him, get out of my way!" she screamed, her voice raw with anguish. Her red hair whipped around her face as she argued with anyone who got in her way with those that pushed her backwards.
It broke Eko's heart, and that's when the guilt really consumed her. The moment she met Jesse's eyes, the woman stared at her with the same hatred she reserved for idiotic fan club girls she wanted to throttle.
The doctors swarmed around them again. Amid Jesse's incessant screaming, Richie appeared out of nowhere, wrapping his arms around Jesse's waist and hauling her backward off the aircraft.
Jesse fought with all her strength, her screams piercing the air, venom almost dripping from her tongue. "Stop it! Let go of me, Richie! STOP!"
Suddenly, Jesse was yanked further back, disappearing from view. Eko's eyes darted to the medical team, a frantic whirlwind of white coats and precise movements.
She glimpsed disjointed scenes: the harsh glare of medical equipment, a medic swiftly inserting an IV, another frantically applying pressure to Matthew's wounds, which stubbornly resisted healing despite their powers, the blood refusing to be staunched.
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