"Stop the drilling!" I shout, almost breathless and I see Ales turn to me as I keep limping.
"Valerie?" Alex says, his jaw dropping.
"Valerie!" I hear mom squeal a her, dad, Carter and Alex come running to me.
I begin to cry as my parents and brother hug me. I look up at Alex and hug him tightly.
"Where's Leo?" I trail off, my knees feeling like jelly.
"He's okay." Dad tells me and I sigh.
"Okay, good." I slur as my eyes shut and I begin to fall.
"Val!" I hear Carter exclaim as he picks me up in his arms and I open my eyes.
||
"Here you go, sweetie." Dad says, handing me a cup of water.
"No, I'm fine. Take me to Leo. I wanna see him." I pant, leaning my head back against the ambulance bed.
"Will you stop worrying about other people and worry about yourself for once?" Carter says, peering down to me.
"You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine." I breathe.
"You fainted, Val. Just drink some water, please." Alex says and I slowly nod, taking the cup from dad.
"Where did you even come from, Valerie?" Mom asks me.
"I don't remember. I crawled from a tunnel over there." I say.
"A tunnel? This whole toke we thought you were in the cave." Alex says.
"I was." I say.
"How?" Carter asks me.
"There must have been some lower cave." I tell him.
"Did you know about this?" Dad asks mom and she shakes her head.
"It's probably a natural cavern that's wasn't connected to the cave we knew until the first blast made an opening." The construction worker says.
"I tried to yell to stop the drilling but no one could hear me. Then I saw an opening in the rocks, and I crawled in just as it collapsed. Then I was free. I can still hear it, it's like the drill is making a hope in my head." I say, holding the side of my head as I set my water down.
"Like a prison break." Alex says and I chuckle, nodding at him.
"Mom, where's Leo? Dad said he was fine but I wanna know where he is." I say, looking up at her.
"Oh, honey, he's in the hospital." Mom says.
"What? But I thought he got out. I told him to run." I say as the medics bandage me up.
"He did, but, uh...he's sick. He contacted some sort of virus." Mom tells me.
"But he's gonna be okay, right?" I ask as she doesn't say anything and neither does dad.
I look back at Carter and Alex and the just look at me in a blank.
"I wanna go there. Please. Now." I state.
||
"Can I get you anything?" Mom asks me.
"No, mom, thanks. I just really wanna see him." I say.
"Valerie, he's unconscious. Potentially contagious. We know so little about what he has. You, however, really do seem fine." The doctor says and I shoot her a grin.
"What?" I say as dad sighs, putting a hand on mom's shoulder.
"Our biggest fear was that you might have the same virus as Leo. That's why we tried so hard to get you out of there as soon as possible." Dad says.
"I actually think I did have that virus." I admit.
"What do you mean?" Mom says.
"Well, most of the time, I was passed out. But when I woke up, I felt groggy. I could barely move my body. I felt frozen." I say.
"Really? So, how are you-"
"I don't know. I fell back asleep and then, I woke up again, I felt better." I shrug at the doctor.
"Think, Valerie. Was there anything you saw, or did or touched that might've helped you?" The doctor asks me.
"There was a mouse." I blurt out.
"A mouse?" Alex asks me.
"And water! It showed me to the water, and I drank it." I say.
"What water?" Dad asks me.
"I don't know. There was just a pool of water on the ground. And it was also drilling on the rocks, too." I say.
"That might be it." Mom nods at me.
"You said the magnetite was in this cave, correct?" The doctor says.
"Yes." Mom nods at her.
"I wonder if somehow the earth and rocks reacted to it, and over the thousands of the years, formed some sort of an antidote to the virus. The water could've been filled with it." The doctor says.
"That's great! We need to get Leo to drink some of that water." Alex grimaces.
"There's no way. The second explosion buried everything. It's completely caved in." Mom says.
"Damn." Alex sighs.
"I don't think we need that water at all. The antidote to the virus might be right here in his room." The doctor says and my face drops.
"What? Me?" I ask.
"I think so. We can take bone marrow from you and transplant it into Leo's blood. I'll have to consult with some of my colleagues about this." The doctor says, turning on her heels.
"Wait, Dr. Hovey. Do you think I can save him?" I ask and she turns to me.
"I don't know. But it's the only chance we have right now. Excuse me." She says, leaving the room.
"I should call Carter." Mom says and I nod at her as she dials on her phone.
I let out a sigh as Alex holds my leg and I couldn't help the water in my eyes roll down my face.
||
"I'll never forgive myself for not my going in there instead of you." Alex says and I shake my head, putting my hand on top of his.
"We would've just been in reverse positions, Alex. It's not your fault." I tell him.
"I could tell something was wrong. I tried to look for you, but then...Brooke and I got stuck in that secret room. Oh, god, Valerie, when you showed up...I thought I was dreaming or something." Alex sighs.
"Don't talk to me about dreams." I chuckle.
"Why?" He asks me.
"Well, when I was in the cave, I had-"
"Leo's about to go into surgery. We're ready for you, Valerie." Dr. Hovey says.
"Okay." I nod.
"There are two ways we can extract the blood cells. One is quick, but because of your allergy to lidocaine, it will be very painful. The other one is slower, but it won't hurt nearly as much." She tells me.
"The quick one." I state.
"Valerie-"
"Let's do it. Whatever it takes. Let's save him." I say, cutting Alex off.
"Okay." Dr. Hovey nods and leaves the room, getting her stuff ready.
||
"Honey, if you wanna this another way..." Mom trails off as I lay on my left side.
"No. Just do it." I say.
"Okay, Valerie. Hang on, okay? I'm gonna count to three." Dr. Hovey says and I nod.
"Okay." I nod.
"One...two...three." Dr. Hovey says and sticks the needle into my butt.
I let out a shriek as I clench my fist, letting a tear slip my eye.
"Oh, honey." Mom says as she squeezes my hand tighter.
"We're done." Dr. Hovey says and I let out a breath as I unclench my fist.
I let out another sob as she puts a bandaid on me.
"Your daughter is a hero. Thank you, Valerie." Dr. Hovey says to me as I pant.
"We need you. Now." A deep voice says, bursting into the room.
"Hey." Alex says, holding my hand as mom and dad leave the room.
"Alex, what's going on?" I sniffle.
"I don't know." He sighs at me.
"What happened?" Alex asks as I hear my mom's heels from behind me.
"While they were preparing Leo for surgery, he went into multiple organ failure." Mom says.
"What does that mean?" I ask.
"It means every system in his body is shutting down." She says and I clench my jaw.
"He's not dying, right? He's can't die!" I say, raising my voice.
"No, no, no, no." Mom says, rubbing my arms.
"He can't die, mom!" I sob at her.
"It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay." Alex says and I sob harder.
"Why did he have to him? It shouldn't been me." I sob into the pillow.
"I'll be right back." Alex says and he speeds out of the room.
"Where is he going?" I ask mom as she wipes my eyes.
||
"How is he?" I say, looking up at Dr. Hovey as she enters the room.
I swear my heart is beat out of my chest any second now.
"Your idea of cooling down his body, well...it saved Leo's life." Dr. Hovey says and my face drops.
"Oh my god." I sigh, my eyes watering again.
"Leo's systems are all starting to work again. It'll be a while before he's off all those machines, but his body is reacting well to the antibody. Thanks to you, Valerie." Dr. Hovey says, grinning at me.
"Thank you." I breathe, tears rolling down my face as mom wraps me in her arms.
Thank you, Alex. Thank you.
"Can I saw him now?" I ask
"Yes, a nurse will bring you out." Dr. Hovey says and I nod as a blonde woman comes in.
She leads me to Leo as she opens the door, letting us in and I bite my lip as I see Leo hooked up with all those machines.
I give the nurse a nod and she nods back, shutting the door to leave me alone with Leo for a moment.
"I'm glad you're no dead. I wouldn't know what to do if you were gone." I breathe, tears rolling down my face.
"Don't cry." I hear him croak out as his eyes flutter open and I sigh.
"Hey, Cruz. You'd do anything to get out of class, wouldn't you?" I chuckle, sniffling.
"Only if you're not there." He breathes and I laugh, wiping my eyes.
"You're gonna be okay. You're okay, you're fine." I say to him.
"Are you?" He says.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm not as sick as you were. Well, I was but now both of us are fine. I'm just glad you're alive. I was scared shitless." I say and he scoffs.
"As long as you're okay, I'm okay." He says and I grin down at him, placing my hand on top of his.
This is a miracle.