Days of Darkness: Awakening

Chapter 6: A New Alliance

As the days went on everything remained quiet. Diamond stayed hard at work in her office figuring out the next move to make while Cyris trained day and night. In the meantime, Christian continued to stay by Damien's side, ever vigilant in waiting for his best friend to wake up.

Damien's condition did improve over time. Each day looked a little more hopeful. A flinch here. A twitch there. Things finally appeared to go in the right direction. Damien's doctor, Nadia, remained a constant variable in his well-being. She spent hours upon hours watching over him, nursing him back to health. Even when she was off duty, she would spend time with him in his room reading to him and doing everything that she could to make him comfortable. 

Christian stood up and began pacing back and forth. Even though Damien did show improvement, he still worried that he wouldn't wake up. Nadia did what she could to ease his worries. But as his friend – his brother – lay in bed helpless, he didn't know what to do.

"Can you stop that pacing, Chris? You're making me nervous," Damien said wearily. 

Christian turned around in disbelief. "Finally! You're awake!"

"What do mean, 'Finally?' How long have I been out?"

"Too long! About a week," Christian answered. "Hold on. I'll be right back."

As Christian left the room in complete excitement, Damien sat up still feeling the effects of the sedatives that he was on. He glanced around the room trying to figure out exactly where he was but couldn't quite get his bearings. His vision was blurry, hazy even, and he was still disoriented. Needless to say, though, he had a ton of questions that needed immediate answers.

A few minutes later, Christian came back with Diamond, Cyris, and Nadia. Immediately, Nadia began to check all of Damien's vital signs and any signs of lasting damage.

"Damien," she said, "My name is Nadia and I'm the physician here in the bunker. I'm noticing that your heart rate is still a bit high and irregular. I'm going to draw some blood from you just to make sure we're not missing anything, alright?"

"Sounds good to me, doc," he replied. "Do what you gotta do." That's when it hit him... "The kids in the mall?!"

"They're fine. They're all safe here in the bunker as well," Cyris answered. He then walked up to the side of Damien. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing pretty good, I guess, considering I've been out of it for over a week. I'm just glad to be alive. I'm glad to be here... wherever 'here' is."

Diamond stepped in. "You're safe here, Damien. I'm Diamond. This is my second in command, Cyris. Right now, you're about 10 stories underground. We're the leaders of a small group of fighters called The Pack. Cyris brought you, Christian, and all of the children back here after your fight with the Night-stalkers. I have to say... I'm impressed. You took on seven of them by yourself. That's not an easy task."

Damien laughed. "Yeah, you can say that again. I'm just glad everyone is safe. So what's up? I see it in both of your eyes. You wanna ask something."

"Right now may not be the time," Diamond replied. "It can wait."

"Is any time ever the right time?" Damien asked. "You might as well just ask now, at least, while I'm awake."

Cyris stepped in. "We want you and Christian to join us, Damien," he said. "We're fighting a war, son. There's no denying that. And you and Christian have been doing this for a while now on your own and that's good, too. But we're losing this war. Any moment we could all be wiped out. But you're special, son. To do what you did and make it out alive – it hasn't been done. We can both see that there is truly something special with you."