As they continued to enjoy their walk, Emery suddenly felt sick. At first it was just mild nausea, but it quickly started to get worse. She felt hot and cold at the same time, she felt dizzy, and she felt like her legs were going to give out from underneath her. She was trying to ignore the feeling and hide it, but it felt like a wildfire spreading through her body.
What the... Emery thought to herself in unbearable pain. I haven't felt like this since I was a child. Something then sparked in the back of her mind. She knew what this was, she knew that she would need to go back to the doctor, and she knew that she couldn't tell Atlas because she didn't want him to look at her differently.
She kept walking, trying to push through the pain and nausea, hoping it would just go away. But it didn't. It only got worse. As they kept walking, Emery found herself wanting to vomit, yet she couldn't. She found herself feeling weak, yet she couldn't sit down in the middle of the trail. She found herself feeling like she was falling, yet she didn't fall. She felt like she was dying, yet she didn't die.
Emery was filled with fear, filled with pain, and filled with nausea. She was alive, she was in pain, she was scared, and she was filled with the knowledge that this sickness is the one from childhood, the same sickness that killed her father.
As she continued to walk, she struggled to move forward, she felt the autumn air on her skin, she heard the rustling leaves in the distance, and she saw the sun setting through the trees. Emery was filled with love, love for Atlas, love for Bridie and Wilson, and love for her friends, family and the life she had made.
Emery knew that she needed to sit down and think about this, but she couldn't let Atlas find out. What would he think? Would he look at her differently because she kept this from him? Would Atlas leave her?
Never. Emery knew Atlas wouldn't leave her, but thought to herself he might treat her differently knowing about it. So Emery kept quiet.
