The Skylar Experiment : The "X" in Apex

Chapter Thirty - Backseat Conversation

I was in the field again, surrounded by hills of dead kids. A foul odor had poisoned the air. My stare latched on to Emma's lifeless, hollow eyes. A sea of motionless arms and legs entwined with her own. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream, a muted hint of the painful death she'd met.

I stirred awake. My body was sore from napping on this crammed plastic chair.

Various machines beeped on either side of the desert hall. The sun hadn't risen yet, rendering the white walls a pale shade of grey. I searched for Ben and Ethan, alas no sign of them.

Blinking away the weariness, I went to check on Emma. I'd never set foot in a hospital except that one time some buffoon ran into Mom at a red light. Dad never got seriously injured, and he often did his appointments alone at a base.

I never got sick, but worries had cropped up when all my surfing peers had boobs and a period and I, at the tardy age of fifteen, only grew into a luckless beanpole.

Various doctors from Dad's base couldn't offer my parents any satisfying answer. When I finally joined the big girls' club later that year and began to fill in, they figured it was a rare glitch. It happens in some girls, so it seems.

I passed by open rooms, catching glimpses of patients asleep or staring at the ceiling. Water droplets raced down the windows.

I approached the stretcher to find that my friend didn't look all that different than in my dream. The nurse had changed her into a hospital gown and tied her hair. Her lips were almost as white as her face. Dark veins trailed over her skin like a distorted spiderweb.

Her chest rose weakly, lids twitching but never lifting. Deep teeth marks protruded on her shoulder. They were clean, so the nurse must have disinfected them in my absence.

I left to make another call but spotted Luc around the corner, phone to his ear, massaging the back of his neck.

Since Moss Grove, he'd changed the dirty jacket for a clean shirt. His hair was shaped back into something decent. I couldn't see a single bruise or cut.

After we left him in the woods, there had been no news. I almost ran to him.

He hung up abruptly and peered at me through faded green eyes. "Well, look who's awake."

"You've been here a while?"

"We chased until the cops clocked in, then we got here. Everyone went home. We should leave, too." He anticipated what I'd say next. "Emma is in good hands, there's not much else we can do tonight."

I wanted to cling, but I wasn't going to make Dad stay awake all night for me and keep Luc on his feet any longer.

We quietly exited the floor through the elevator and passed through the main double doors.

In the parking lot, he peeked inside his car and winced. I had to inform him of Emma's foaming and the heap of twigs and grass on the mats. But when I noticed bloody smears on the leather, I asked if we had anything to clean now.

"Out here, just like that?" he questioned, leaning an elbow on the door.

"It's a hospital. Who's gonna get ideas?"

"Right." He rubbed an eye, stretching out the shadow underneath. "I have stuff in the trunk to take care of this mess."

I stole the march to the trunk, keen on helping out in any manner I could. He was driving me home, as if I wasn't knee deep in his debt before this.

In the back, he carried a spare tire and more car supplies, but also blankets, large Z-ploc bags, duct tape, blue dish gloves, a sponge and rags... It went on and on.