Storm and Sea - Book 1

Chapter 15

Giulia didn't know how she began working with the staff. But as soon as she stepped in, wrapping wounds, even stitching together skin until a doctor could do it properly, nobody questions her presence. Another helping hand was a blessing. The nurses even began asking for her to help carry a patient into surgery or clean a wound before it was stitched up.

Slowly the cries and moans died down as all the survivors received the attention they needed. Giulia stood in the quiet hallway of the hospital. The floors were streaked with bloody footprints. Only then did she look down and notice she was covered in blood and who knows what else.

A nurse gently tapped her on the shoulder.

"We have sanitization showers on the second floor. Here." She handed Giulia a pair of light green scrubs. Giulia tried to smile as a thanks but couldn't bring herself to do it. Not after what she saw today.

She went to the second floor, washed, and dressed in clean clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror. Now she really did look like a nurse.

Giulia hadn't seen Mattias since entering the hospital. He was in the surgery room, not taking a break between life-saving operations.

As she walked back to the first floor, the glass doors burst open.

"Giulietta!" Massimo called, nearly crying.

"Papa!" Giulia broke into a fit of tears as her father's arm wrapped around her.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, papa, I'm ok." She pulled away. Then she noticed Massimo cradling his hand. Deep cuts etched into the skin.

"What happened?" She asked as she simultaneously found a cart with disinfectant wipes and fresh bandages. She began cleaning and dressing her father's hand.

"Luca. He ran away." Massimo said.

"Luca did this!?" Giulia couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It as an accident." He said, shaking his head. "But Giulia, I came here to find them. Have you seen Alberto or Luca?"

Giulia had been in every patient's room at this hospital since she arrived. She knew every single patient here..... well, the ones that were still alive.

"No. They are not here." She said. But they couldn't be dead. She had seen all the fallen bodies as she searched for survivors. None of them had been her brother or Luca.

"It is what I feared." Her father said, trembling. Her father was shaking. She had never seen him so broken. It made her fear spike even higher.

"Where are they?" She asked.

"I think they have been taken." He said, his deep voice cracking.

"No." She stumbled, almost losing her balance. She sat on an empty chair, her head in her hands. "This can't be happening." She moaned.

"I am going to search for them. There was a ship close to the harbor. I think they are on it."

"You'll never catch them, papa!" Giulia cried out. Her insides felt dead. If her brother and Luca had indeed been taken - given what she had seen today, there was little chance either of them was alive.

"I will try!" Massimo shouted, making Giulia jump. "I will not give up on my son!" And he turned, storming from the hospital.

Giulia watched her father march away as she cried into her hands.

Luca and Alberto. They were gone.

~.~.~.~.~

Mattias's hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up at him. He looked absolutely exhausted.