When We Seared The Sky

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Risk of Infection

Alexis turned over restlessly in her bed, sweat beading on her brow and settling itself in a thin, uncomfortable sheen over her body as she lay amongst the twisted blankets. Her mind was running away without her, her overactive imagination taunting her with the events of the last few hours as she mentally replayed her rescue in her head, silently watching the memories run like a movie in front of her eyes.

Two hours into this torture, she sat up with a groan, trying not to move her throbbing leg. The drug that the doctor had given her had now almost completely worn off and she was really beginning to feel the physical pain of her wound. She reached over with a trembling hand and grasped the glass of water her mother had placed there lovingly, raising it to her lips and taking a deep gulp of the lukewarm fluid that hydrated her parched throat but still left her hot and sweating. She kicked the covers off with her good leg and leant back on her pillows, wiping her upper lip with the cuff of her pyjama shirt.

With Sam’s help she had hobbled up the driveway and let herself into the house, but by the time she had turned around to thank him, he and the Hummer were already speeding back down the road and into the night. Her mother had screamed and panicked when she had seen Alexis’s injury but her daughter had assured her that she had been treated and cared for by a search and rescue operative.

And yet... there were too many things that didn’t make sense about what had happened.

Why, for example, had Sam Witwicky been in the hills in a Hummer? He was an average kid like herself, and as far as she knew was not medically trained. Further still, what had been that weird symbol on the doctor’s chest – a sort of mask? That wasn’t a medical sign as far as she knew…

She ran a hand through her short, sweaty locks and frowned as she remembered her odd little vision.

She had put it down to it just being a funny reaction that the anaesthetic must have had on her, but she could have sworn that she saw the doctor disappear into thin air once the procedure was complete. The guy had been right in front of her, but then she had blinked and he was just gone. And had she imagined that giant of a man in a suit? The drug sure must have been having a weird effect on her.

She made a mental note to have a talk to Sam Witwicky at school. She had never really spoken to him before, but he seemed nice. Maybe she could probe him for some more information about that doctor and the symbol that was emblazoned on his shirt.

The heat in the room was getting quite unbearable; it was the muggy, sticky atmosphere of a tropical rainforest, and she did not like it one bit. She finished the water quickly before placing the empty glass back on her bedside table and swinging her bare legs out of bed, reaching for one of the crutches that Sam had left on her doorstep before he dashed off into his Hummer.

With its aid, she limped painfully across her bedroom to the window before she leant heavily on the windowsill and reached up to undo the latch. The window swung open soundlessly and she breathed a sigh of absolute relief as the cool night air caressed her flushed cheeks.

The stars burnt brightly above her, scattered across the heavens like fairy dust, and she smiled in childish wonder at them. She had always loved stars. The way they sparkled and shone had delighted her from a very young age, and it had followed her all the way into near-adulthood.

Maybe her love for them was what had fuelled her enthusiasm for her father's career. Her desire to fly.

Cupping her chin in one hand, she leant on the sill and kept her eyes on the stars as the gentle breeze cooled her uncomfortably warm skin. She began to wonder whether she had an infection in her leg that was manifesting itself as a fever, but somehow she doubted it. The doctor had put something on her injury that had stung like hell, but had probably also erased the risk of infection.