It's All Over

|01

I wait for the bullet to enter my head, to end my life after all of the things that I have been through, but it doesn't come. Instead I open my eyes and see Dr. Hale's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood three feet away from me.

I try and speak, but no words come out. I look to see where the source of the gunshot came from and I see a man with dark brown hair standing there, gun held out in left hand still pointing at where Dr. Hale was just standing.

"Who are you?" I ask him, having never seen him before in my life.

"No time to explain, we have to get out of here," he says and unties the ropes that are holding me to the pole.

He lifts me up, knowing that I am too weak to get up myself. As he puts me down so that I can stand up myself I collapse.

Everywhere on me hurts and I feel too weak to even stand. The man looks at me with a confused face.

"Pick her up," the man says as people start to round up behind him. "Be careful," he warns them.

A muscular man with light brown skin picks me up, holding me like a baby. He holds me close to him, and I feel that he is wearing padding like police officers do.

"Come on, let's get who we came here for then let's get out of here," the man that spoke earlier says.

The man, along with me and everyone else that followed him walks over to Marcus and Tara, whose mouths are still wide open. All of the guards who were watching them fled in fear of being killed.

"Aria," Marcus says and smiles wider than I thought was humanly possible. "You're okay," he says, "We are all going to be okay," he says as a tear rolls down his face.

"Who are you guys?" Tara asks the man holding me. It seems as if she doesn't trust anyone after what we have been through, anyone besides Marcus and me anyway.

"Let's just say that we are your friends, and right now, your way out of here. We will explain more later, but for now we need to go before anyone tries to attack us," he says, looking down at me. "You're going to be okay," he says and smiles.

"Thank you," I say to him. "Can we hurry up and get out of here because right now I'm in a lot of pain because I got beat up so bad," I say as everyone looks at me. "I think a couple of my bones, including some of my ribs are broken," I say, wanting to rest.

"Do you want a sedative or something?" A woman asks me with genuine concern in her voice. "I have one in my bag if you are in that much pain," she says and smiles at me.

"Yes please," I say to her, smiling at the thought of getting some relief from the pain.

The woman grabs a needle from her bag with a light blue liquid in it. She takes the needle and walks over to me. She injects the liquid into my skin, giving me immediate relief before I pass out.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I wake I am lying in a bed with light blue walls around me. Across the walls are medical diagrams. A hospital, I think to myself.

As I begin to sit up I see Tara and Marcus in beds beside me, both of them reading a book, not noticing that I woke up.

Marcus has a bandage around his head and wrist, and beside him is Tara with an eyepatch on her right eye, and a bandage over her right knee.

"Hi," I say, barely audible. "Hi," I say again, this time my voice is even quieter than before, like I am just lip wording instead of actually speaking.

"Don't speak, you're too weak. You sustained major injuries to your vocal cords, along with three of your ribs, your left ankle, and a couple of other places. You are lucky that you survived, and you won't be able to speak until your vocal cords are healed, and you will have to use a wheelchair until your ankle heals. We did multiple surgeries while you were out, and we managed to repair your ribs," a nurse says, smiling to try and hide her concern.

"It's good to see your eyes again," Marcus says to me, getting up, Tara following right behind him. "We have a lot to explain."