Discovery

Chapter 13

I opened my eyes to find myself laying down in the same room I was in just a few seconds ago. As I blinked slowly to gain my bearings, I could hear the soft beeping of a machine and the sound of a generator churning nearby. I felt like something was covering my mouth and blinked slowly as I looked at it. It was one of those hospital oxygen masks that they used on patients. I stared at it for a few moments as realization hit me. The only way we'd get a generator, oxygen mask, and anything else that was monitoring me was by going back to the human world and taking the items.

I could feel my breathing getting worse as I began to panic. The soft rhythmic beeping turned to a loud frantic beeping and within a few seconds, I saw two people rush in. Jason and Riley stood there with shock written across their faces. They made their way over to me and Jason placed his index finger on my wrist and frowned. He said something to Riley who responded to him shortly after. I didn't understand what was happening, all I knew was that my lungs were aching with pain and I could not stop the pain.

"April...calm...breath..." Riley said as the ringing in my ears began to fade away to allow me to hear them.

I glanced at him and then at Jason as I gasped for breath. Where was Mary, Mark, and Mabel? Did they see me like this? I could barely breath as I panicked, and I fought for breath while Luke burst into the room with worry.

"Luke, don't!" Samantha yelled from the main room where Luke had just burst in from.

"Luke, you need to get out of this room immediately!" Jason yelled as Luke looked right at me.

His eyes were more normal than they were before, and he looked so worried. There were heavy bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in months. He had a small five o'clock shadow around his jaw. His hair had also been cut short as well. He looked completely different then he was the last time I had seen him.

"No, he can stay. He's calming her down without actually being close to her. We should let Luke explain what's going on to her. He'll be able to calm her down once she learns why and help her get through this." Riley said as he moved between my stare with Luke.

"Bu-" Jason was saying only to have Riley cut him off.

"Luke and April have known each other longer than you have known her. He knows her much better than I and we need to leave them be. Luke will explain everything to her and if she has questions, we could answer them for her afterwards." Riley said as Jason looked back at Luke and I before leaving.

Luke walked slowly to my side as he pulled a chair out, setting it beside my bed. He sat down in the chair and looked at me with sadness clouding his eyes. He grabbed ahold of my hands and gave me a small reassuring smile that somehow seemed forced.

"Guessing your curious as to how we got all this stuff, huh. Tomathan headed out once he heard you had passed out. He had his son, Timothy, go with him and Timothy insisted Fawn join them since Samantha had told her what they would need. Tomathan, Timothy, and Fawn had set sail on the Zackarath and went back to Miami, Florida where they took as much as the list Samantha had made said on it. They returned here and Riley and Jason immediately got your room fully set up with what Samantha had asked for. It was hard keeping you here with us when the griffins came demanding that we give you up to them. They said they could help, but I think they just wanted to eat us like they had tried to before." Luke said as he focused on rubbing small circles into the palm of my hand.

"W-What is wrong w-with me?" I asked as I heard how broken and cracked my voice sounded.

"T-The R2A is causing your body to shut down when you have a panic attack. If you get too panicky, the R2A immediately shuts down your body and makes it almost impossible to stop you from dying. James was right, we need to rid your body from it before it actually kills you." Luke said as he pressed his forehead to the top of my hand.