To the heart

Chapter 17: Lifeline

Jude's flight had finally landed and he had finally begun to hear the news. He was too late he thought to himself until he saw a bulletin to be on the lookout for a person with gunshot wounds to the arm and leg. He stayed glued to the screens in the airport as he watched the footage and listened to the police reports. After standing there a good 30 minutes he manages to deduce that Lily had been shot, possibly bleeding out somewhere and the city is on lockdown so she's hiding somewhere and her phone is possibly dead but unfortunately for Lily, things had just escalated.

The authorities now were searching the warehouses and factories so a very weak and wounded Lily was now forced to play hide and seek until she found the exit but lucky for her Jude had already put his skills to work and was heading that way. Lily managed to escape into an alleyway across from the factory and that's when she began to black out. She looked up at the sky and whispered "take me, I'm ready to go home with you mom". Just as her eyes began to flutter closed, there was someone standing over her; it was Jude. He put her in the car and drove away before the cops less than a few hundred feet away noticed. He pulled over in another alley a few miles away and took stock of lily's condition and it wasn't good.

She was cold and barely had a pulse. Jude didn't know what to do but as luck would have it, he used his head and checked Lily's phone. Mr. k had left a message 7 hours ago that read: if you're injured, make your way to this address in the Shinjuku district, they'll patch you up and get you out of town to a hospital. By now the authorities had left the Shinjuku district and were focused heavily on the factories, but Shinjuku was still under surveillance and Jude treated it that way. He drove carefully and put a blanket over lily in case there were any drones or cameras until they made it to the address. He knocked on the door and said "I got a delivery from Mr. k and the guy at the door asked "what type of flowers are they and Jude said, "they're lilies". The guy opened up and had two men quickly bring her inside.

The guy looked at her and said "we gotta get her heart rate up before we do anything, just wait outside, this'll get messy". Jude waited outside in the lobby, staring at the various medical degrees on the wall until an hour and a half later, the guy who was apparently a doctor, called Jude in. He smiled and said, "she's stable but we've got to get her to a hospital and as luck would have it there's a private hospital on the outskirts of town past that roadblock". Jude sighed and said "but how do we get across?" and the guy said, "Mr. k already bribed a general to escort you past the blockade to that hospital where she will be cared for, no questions asked".

By the end of the day, Lily rested in a hospital bed with Jude sitting next to her. The doctors had patched her up and given her some blood, with no questions asked and no cops called. Jude was angry she lied but more so happy she was alive. It would be a few hours until she would wake up if she would wake up at all. She was dehydrated, and low on critical nutrients and electrolytes her body needed and her wounds had been infected badly.

In that moment as she lay there, she looked more beautiful than ever. She was at peace but more importantly, she was alive and that's all that mattered. Tears trickled down his face because it was scary, he almost lost her forever, it felt so surreal that one minute she could be smiling and giving him kisses and the next, lying in a bed fighting for her very life.

He couldn't imagine how much pain she felt mentally and physically but he did know that if she woke up he would hear her out. She lied to him and almost got herself killed and that's pretty hard to just overlook but as he sat there, he realized he how much life would suck without her and knew that he could never truly be happy without her. Several hours later as if on cue, Lily's eyes fluttered open and she felt something in her hand.

Lily's neck was in too much pain to move so she squeezed the object which was Jude's hand; startling him awake. "Lily," he said and a weakened voice said, "yes, I'm here". Jude stood up immediately and leaned over her with tears in his eyes...she was finally awake.