Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 20: Matthews' Four

Mike must have fallen asleep despite all his resolutions because Winn had to wake him up when they landed on the hospital's roof.

Maggie Sawyer was the first person to greet them upon arrival on the second floor. She grabbed the small bag from Mike and rushed to bring it to Eliza and Caitlin. The nurse on that wing was kind enough to check on Mike's injury again, changed his bandages and offered the men beds to rest for the few hours left until the flight. Mike went out like a light bulb the moment his head hit the pillow.

He met Eliza for the first time on the ride to the airport. The group of eight were in a van, followed by an ambulance carrying Kara. Mike and Winn were surprised to meet Barry and Eve again who had decided to return to the States as well on that early morning with them.

It was absolutely hectic at the airport. With Maggie pushing Alex's wheelchair, Eliza and Caitlin looking over Kara's status as the medics rolled her gurney towards the right gate and others trying to catch up and not losing their luggage as they boarded the exclusively arranged flight for Kara to National City.

The eight-hour flight itself turned out far better than Mike had expected. Even though he was never used to sleep on planes in that uncomfortable position, his body under the heavy effect of painkillers, urged him to sleep and he listened. There wasn't anything he to do anyway. He slept soundly through most of the trip and Winn once more had to wake him up as they were preparing to land.

It was around 1 pm local time of National City when they stepped out of the airport. An ambulance was waiting for Kara and Eliza mounted the vehicle to be with her adoptive daughter on the ride to the hospital.

The group split there. Eve and Barry bid them goodbye after exchanging numbers, while the rest went to the hospital. Kara got wheeled into ICU immediately once again and Eliza went into the labs along with Caitlin to continue working on the antidote. Mike was beyond anxious, thinking about the yet hypothetical Serum. What if the scientists couldn't make the antidote without it? What if his hesitation right now could cost Kara her life?

There was absolutely nothing for Mike and others to do except waiting. No matter how much Maggie insisted, Alex refused to go to their apartment and rest. Alex, in turn, suggested the two men were welcome to stay at their place, however, Mike knew the couple probably had Eliza to stay with them, therefore politely declined the kind offer, and claimed he and Winn were going to a hotel.

Mike would have wanted nothing but to stay at the hospital, but his mind was all over the place. He needed to get a hold on the situation as much as he possibly could. He needed to know if the Serum really did exist and where it was.

He and Winn crashed at a cheap three-star hotel near the city center and spend the day checking their phones obsessively for any new messages from Alex.

Winn still had his laptop from the Park with him, but unfortunately, nothing on the cloud he had saved from the Cadmus secret files contained a clue about the Serum. If any information had ever been registered, it was buried deeper than that.

After a long call with John, who had stayed behind on Isla Nublar to take care of the Park and protect the Hybrids' bodies for later persecution, Mike entrusted the man with the mission of finding any information on the unknown substance, starting by retrieving still working hard disks from the ruins of Cadmus. It was decided that John would need the help of Amy to make sense of the data.

While waiting for their friends on the Jurassic Park, Mike searched the news to see how the world was reacting to all that had happened on Isla Nublar. Many of the last visitors had been busy giving juicy interviews, half lying, half exaggerating what they had seen on the Jurassic Park to get attention and money. There were gossips and unbelievably far from the truth circulating the media and there was no mention of even Maxwell Lord, let alone anything on the Luthors' death. No one had even the tiniest clue about what had been going on in the Park. All they had seen were a bunch of dinosaurs on the loose. He darkly thought maybe that was for the best. People were better off not knowing the horrors that had taken place there.