Starcosmo

Chapter 7: Survive This

Zero Hour + 6 hours

Iowa City, Iowa

The hospital corridor was cold with silence.

At an otherwise-deserted nurse's station, the farmer stood, back straight, eyes quiet, his demeanor very still. He looked into the eyes of the head nurse on rotation, one R. Shaw, and his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

He wasn't going anywhere.

"My daughter is in there, and I want to see her," he said again. He was a broken record. This was a man who was accustomed to working with the land, and coaxing from it the bread that sat on her table. He was going to get his way.

"Sir, you know what's going on --"

His gaze stopped her cold. Yes, he know that in the last twenty-four hours the United States, and the world beyond her borders, had been thrown into a near-panicked chaos by the arrival of the mysterious Lights, and its just-as-sudden disappearance. He knew -- better than most -- that prior to the appearance of the object, thousands of sites in the Western hemisphere had been peppered by the Silver Rain, which had planted Spoors or Star Seeds in the ground. He knew because his daughter had witnessed this. He knew this because his daughter had partaken of it.

"Sir. I can't allow it." Her eyes flicked over his shoulder to the uniformed cops standing at the entrance doors to the ICU,which was in the process of being turned into a bio-hazard lock-down.  They shifted their gazes to her nervously, then looked at each other. She registered their expressions. Fear.

Infection was the worry. Spread of whatever bacteria or viral vector the girl had no doubt contracted from God-knows-what had landed on this planet. As far as Nurse Shaw was concerned they were under premeditated biological attack by aliens. That's what The Lights was, it was aliens, a goddamn mothership, and it had just silently unleashed its opening salvo on them. God help that little girl.

"Sir." Shaw lowered her voice and leaned forward. "We could be at war. Now I know you're worried about that little girl but I'm going to need to you to stand over there and wait until we can tell just what her condition is.”

"My daughter is in there, and I want to see her."

Luther Shadenfort leaned forward as well, his face a blank mask of impassive power. "Nurse Shaw. I spend my days coaxing living things out of the ground so that you and the rest of my fellow Americans can eat them. I milk cows and raise pigs and butcher chickens so you can have food to eat that doesn't kill you. I understand that you come to this hospital, day after day, and tend to people who do get sick and some of them do die.

“And I want you to know that I understand that my daughter might be one of those people. But you also need to know that if she dies, I'm going to be with her at the very end. And because of that I need you to let me in to see her. She's my only daughter and my only real love in the world and I need to be with her."

Shaw faltered.

"Please."

It was the 'please', finally, that broke her will. She could see his eyes fill up with tears and it was too much for her. She stood up abruptly, almost against her will, and marched around the desk that separated them. She took Mr. Shadenfort by the crook of his elbow and led him to the guards.

"Mr. Shadenfort is going in for the duration," she said to one of the men. "He's going to be with his daughter. Please let him pass."

The cops looked at each other and one batted the door open.

Luthor Andrew Shadenfort passed through the doors knowing he might be passing through the gates of Hell. But it didn't matter to him. He'd be with Jaden.