Chapter Fourteen

I woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. Panicked, I bolted up from the bed. I felt pain assailed my whole body and my surrounding spun as I fell right back. After a few shaky, deep breaths that seemed to send more pain in my body, I looked around the room.

It looked like a make-shift hospital room equipped with only a few machines. The room wasn't as clean as a hospital should be but it looked like people had cleaned it. I saw an IV connected to my wrist and some other devices I had no knowledge of. But it looked like one machine was for my heart.

I sucked in a deep breath that sent fires through my lungs. I felt like my whole body was bandaged. And that I was bruised black and blue. But I wouldn't blame it after the war I've been through.

Then, everything that has happened flashed before my eyes and I looked around. Where are the others? I removed everything that was connected to me and tried to stand up. Tried was the perfect word for it. Because I fell down to the bed more time than I could count before I sat up.

With clenched teeth, I ignored the protest of my body as pain attacked me. Then I tried to stand up from the bed but I rolled down the straight to the floor where I fell with a thud. My back arched at the pain and I bit my lips to stop myself from screaming.

I heard footsteps outside my door and I tried to crawl away to look for anything I could use to protect myself but there was nothing. Sighing in defeat, I continued to lie down on the floor as I looked up at the ceiling. Black dots danced on the white ceiling and I succumbed to the pain.

The door opened, but I hadn't had any energy left to even look at the people who entered. I heard a gasped and someone shouted something but it all sounded so far away. Their voices fading as I tried to keep my eyes open, but they kept on closing in. But before I lost the battle of consciousness, I saw Zoi's worried face as he carried me back to the bed.

I woke up to a beeping sound on my right. I furrowed my brows at the machine that was making a slow beeping sound. I heard something moved from the couch on the corner of the room. I slowly turned towards it to avoid any pain but I still felt a pricking ache.

"You're awake," he whispered, more to himself than me as he made his way towards my bed.

I gave him a weak smile, "what happened?"

"I'll tell you everything later. For now, you need Carly. I'll call her,"

I nodded at him meekly but before he could open the door, I asked him, "the others?"

"Alive. We all are,"

~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~

"You'll be fine," Carly breathed in joy with the rest of the group listening through the open door.

Since I was far from healed, and with some of the wounds still open, Carly and Zoi were the only ones allowed inside the make-shift hospital room. I hadn't understood why Zoi was allowed, since, like the rest of us, he was clueless about medicines and all. But maybe since he's ability is healing, Carly deemed him knowledgeable enough.

Tash was smiling at me from the door. If I hadn't witnessed it, I wouldn't even believe she was so sick. Carly had saved them from the illness taking over their body. She suspected that it was a virus that was discovered back a couple of decades ago when it almost wiped a whole town.

And if she was a day late, the others would have succumbed to it.

Apparently, I was asleep for almost four weeks and everyone had started to worry. Carly said if I wasn't awake by the third week, the chances of me ever-waking up again were slim. But we all knew how hard-headed I was to even let statistics decide my future.

Through the course of the weeks, Carly had only healed small wounds with her ability. My body was slow at healing its own because of the lack of nutrients that came with the winter. But Carly said it was normal because I had taken a beating that most people would have died from.

I had the gunshot to my stomach, which thankfully had not hit anything important. A gunshot through the shoulder, a few broken ribs, and I was also burned from the explosion but Carly had taken care of that. I was stabbed with a few shards of the explosive device which was the most dangerous. She had to perform a surgery with nothing but a clueless student and a chemistry teacher as her assistants because some had gotten inside of me.

My body was far from healed. And she said I should expect muscle pains and soreness every morning even when completely healed. Which in my shoes seemed little compared to the fact that I freaking survived.

"How did you survived the explosion?" I asked.

They all turned to look at Griffin before Drew answered. "We were near each other when Jack noticed the soldier with the launcher. We called for your name as we ran towards the main cabin for protection but you were so far away. Jake tried to fly towards you but even before he could leave the porch, the rocket exploded.

"I knew you could do it, Griffin," I said as I looked at him, gratefulness in my eyes and voice. "And the soldiers?"

The others couldn't look at me in the eyes. Zoi stepped towards me before he answered, "The few remaining managed to escape; including your father. We did not go after them because we couldn't eliminate the risk of an ambush outside the woods. And we were worn-out ourselves to even fight for another minute,"

I nodded solemnly at him. Then, I smiled at all of them. "You all did great,"

~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~ ~oOo~

After another few weeks, I was strong enough to walk around without crutches or support. The group had found an empty two-story house that was hidden enough from sight. Though, precautions were made in case someone would stumble by it by chance, which was exactly what happened to them.

Drew destroyed the army trucks during the war but he rebuilt one to use as a transport because it provided more warmth and space than our old beat-up truck. Though, they abandoned the army truck the first chance they got. They stumbled along the area when they were hiding from traveling people. It was old and creepy that gave the expression no one had lived in it for years.

They cleaned and renewed the inside but left the outside as it was to give the vibe of it being abandoned. So far, it had worked. Though, as soon as the snow melts off the ground, we would turn the backyard into a farm. Sadly, no livestock of us survived.

"I can't believe he was your father!" Rose cried as we circled around the fireplace to talk since I was deemed okay enough to be stressed again.

I gave a dry laugh. "We never looked like each other. I take after my mom. Only our eyes were the same,"

"Are you sure you're okay to talk about your dad?" Steven asked.

I nodded at him. "You all deserve to know my story if I were to stay with you all,"

They told me they never even thought about me leaving the group and that they never wanted me too no matter what I tell them and it made my heart swell to know these people, who weren't even connected to me besides the hell we were going through, would stay by my side.

"My dad worked for the military ever since I was a child. He was a general," I started. "When I was eight, my mom revealed to me she was a Rein, a fact she has hidden because of her ability,"

"What ability?" Jake asked as he leaned forward to hear more of my story.

I looked at each face before I answered, "The ability to bring the dead back to life," the room was filled with gasped at my answer. "Reins discover their abilities at nine. If you never did, you're normal. But mom discovered hers when she was eighteen. It was too late to change her registration and since her ability was powerful, she was introduced to the world as a normal human. She told me everything about it. But—no sooner than that, my mom died. Since I was young, it never occurred to me that dad might have been the one to kill mom. Even though he made it clear that he wasn't mourning her loss. A few weeks later, when I turned nine, I discovered my speed of light. I was happy about the fact that I was special like mom so I quickly told dad,"

I gave a dry laugh, "Now that I think about it, he was frigid when I gave him the news. For weeks he acted strangely. But I never gave it any thoughts. Until one day, a soldier came to the front door to tell me that my father died. As you could guess, I believed that he was dead until. . . Until that day."