Project Songbird

Chapter 20

"Jack." I hear a soft voice.
I blink my eyes as they adjust to the soft light coming from behind me.
"Jack, you need to eat Dear," I focus a bit more on the voice, recognizing Amy.
I hear a slight grumble.
"I know you're exhausted, but you must keep your strength up, at least for Mark's sake." Amy whispers.
It's quiet for a few seconds before I hear a quiet clang of a utensil against a plate.
Jack must've taken the plate.
"Are you sleeping okay here? This place isn't exactly comfortable." Amy had raised her voice to a soft tone, assuming no one else had awakened.
I hear a grunt come from Jack.
He doesn't seem to want to hold a conversation.
"It's seems his fever has gone down a bit." Amy says, "If it breaks by morning, we can get the healers in to see if they can help his process."
I can hear someone gulping down water and then a loud 'ahh'.
"You're not dehydrated, are you?"
"Would you leave me alone."
"Jack," Amy, and I am, is taken aback by his sudden rudeness; even separated from Mark, Jack had never once snapped at anyone. I hear shuffling and then a soft sob. Amy sighs, "Okay, I'll leave you alone. Please try to get some rest." I hear her heels click as she quietly makes her way back out of our makeshift medical ward. I shift around in my own sleeping spot, trying to get comfortable again.

I'm not sure what woke me the second time. There were a lot of extremely hectic movements going on in the room. I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes.
"Hurry, hurry! He's going into cardiac arrest!" I hear Amy shouting.
She is positioning people around Mark, yelling a bunch of medical terms that I know nothing about. Rose was standing nearby, he looked a little concerned.
Another one of the healers, named Travis, was keeping Jack back away from the crowd. He was doing his best to comfort him.
"Rose, I need you to focus!" Amy states, just barely is there a tremble in her voice. "You need to administer a very small shock to Mark to restart his heart."
"Me? Why??" Rose wrings his hands nervously.
"We don't have the proper equipment and he could die, please, we need you to do this now." Amy grabs Rose's sleeve and pulls him over to Mark, "Nothing too big or fancy, just a voltage of 200."
"Amy..." Rose says worried.
"Trust me Rose, I am a medical professional. I have done this a thousand times over." Amy places Rose's hands where the paddles to the machine would usually go. "Trust me."
Rose nods frantically before he administers the voltages asked of him.
It felt like the whole room had gone completely still; everyone was holding their breath. It took a few seconds before the heart monitor began to read that Mark's pulse had restarted and was stabilizing. Amy carefully moves Rose back out of the way as other medical professionals begin to check the rest of Mark's vitals.
"Thank you Rose," Amy smiles softly as she pats his back. Rose gives a shaky nod. He seemed shocked. Jack makes his way over, hugging the electric man tightly. Rose pats Jack's back gently.
"We'll need you to recharge the batteries to the machines in the morning." Travis speaks up as Amy takes control of the situation with Mark.
"I can do that." Rose agrees.
Jack slowly lets go of Rose and makes his way to a nearby spot to sit and watch. He begins to nibble his thumb.
"Is he going to be alright?" Rose gestures to Jack.
Travis shrugs his shoulders "Mark's condition will let us know. Why don't you head back to bed? If we need you again, we'll let you know."
Rose says goodnight and makes his way out of the medical ward.
I lay down as the chaos slows and try to get some more sleep.

"Have a bit of a rough sleep?" Hailey asks as she and Rose join me for breakfast. I squinted as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight that was peeking through the trees.
"Eh," I shrug a bit, "I'm okay, things were definitely more tense for others."
"I guess the commotion woke you last night." Rose sets his plate down, he has grabbed a bunch of bread and lightly toast it with his fingers.
"A little lack of sleep in that situation isn't the end of the world." I take a bite of my eggs. Hailey looks between both of us, "What happened last night?"
"Mark's condition got a little worse but with Amy's expertise, we got him stable." Rose explains briefly, he dips his toast in his runny eggs, "You know, it was a good thing we were able to get that camping gear from the stores."
"Yeah! Angie decided that it was a good idea to go to the city and try to gather as much supplies as we could for ourselves. Amy had taken her own group back to the hospital we came from to salvage a bunch of medical equipment but obviously they could only keep it to the small stuff." Hailey smiles a little, "It was interesting going to the city and seeing everything for the first time. It was an interesting experience."
Rose takes a second to stop dunking his toast, "Wait, how did you get the supplies if you don't have any money?"
I halt my own actions as I also want to know the answer.
Hailey pulls out a wallet from her pocket, "I found this in Andrew's drawer." She sets it down on the table.
Rose and I share a look before I reach forward and grab the wallet. I opened it to find quite a bit of money, a few credit cards, and a couple of pictures stuffed inside. "I guess they still paid him for his work??"
Rose leans over and pulls out the pictures. One was what I can only assume is a family photo. Andrew stands tall in the back. Hair combed back and a bright smile on his face. Slightly in front of him sat a woman in a wheelchair. She also wore a bright smile. The second picture was of a young girl, who I assume was Andrew's daughter that he lost in the incident.
"It's weird to think of Andrew as a happy family man." Rose stuffs the photos back in the wallet.
"Yeah, to see a smile on his face is strange." I agree as I close the wallet and hand it back to Hailey. Felix wanders over and snatches the wallet before Hailey can grab it. He raises a brow before opening the wallet. He thumbs through it, silent, his facial expression is unreadable. Content with his search, he gives the wallet back to his daughter before he crosses his arms over his chest and looks at me, "Ethan."
"Yes?" Why do you always have to give me the stern looks?? I had nothing to do with your daughter having Andrew's wallet.
"I think we should train everyone a bit more before we make any plans to go further with our freedom." He speaks.
"That's a good idea." I agree with him.
"There is a lot that has to be done. We must be prepared for anything." He shifts his weight a bit and I notice a change in his face. I wasn't sure what it was but it wasn't his normal stone faced glare. "Dad, calm down, you sound like we are about to be under attack." Hailey turns to her father, trying to get him to relax. "I think we all need a break and just bond with one another. Get to know one another a lot better. A lot of people are kind of afraid of you Dad," She giggles a bit, "You glare at everything."
Felix grumbles but doesn't say anything against her words.
"Why don't we focus on the beautiful nature around us? Everyone has been on edge since you guys returned." Hailey continues, "I have an idea! Why don't we celebrate the upcoming holiday??"
"Holiday?" Rose questions, throwing his feet up on a nearby chair.
"Yeah! I remember hearing something about the Festival of Lights that's supposed to happen in a few weeks!" Hailey tells us, looking excited.
"Oh, right, the Festival." I lean back in my chair, "Has it been that long already??"
"What's the Festival of Lights?" Rose looks at Hailey then to me.
"The Festival of Lights is a party thrown by the city to celebrate triumph of hope over the despair that the city faced centuries ago. As the story goes, there are lights that touch the Earth from the Heavens itself as a guiding light for settlers who got lost in blinding snow." I recall the lesson I learned in school as a child.
"I haven't heard that story in years." Bob makes his way over, carrying his young son. He sets the small child down in the closest seat, and snatches a piece of toast from Rose.
"Hey-!" Rose grumbles but doesn't take the piece back.
"I thought you weren't from around here." I look at Bob, remembering the conversation we had a couple of days ago. Bob scratches at his chin, "Oh, no, I didn't grow up in this city, but I was born here. My grandfather used to tell me about the Festival. He always wanted to take his grandkids to see it but he died before that could happen."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Hailey says.
Bob looks indifferent to her words.
"But it would give everyone a chance to relax and have a good time." Hailey glances at her father, probably hoping he'd agree with her.
He, too, looks indifferent.
"I think it's a wonderful idea." Amy replies as she steps over. She has a plate in her hands and a soft but weary smile on her face. Rose stands and offers her his chair. She sits down and her shoulders slowly relax as if she's been tense this whole time.
I glance around for a second before looking back at her, "I haven't seen May this whole time."
Amy just smiles and begins to eat her food.
"Oh, uh, Miss May didn't make it in the escape." Hailey speaks softly.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
Hailey makes a face as if she was trying to hold back tears, "I bumped into her in the middle of our escape. A soldier had me cornered, he was prepping his weapon to kill me, and suddenly he let out a yell. It startled me. He was in hand to hand combat with Miss May. She yells at me to run, which I do, and I hear this loud, sharp sound behind me. I never saw Miss May afterwards, and no one could find her anywhere."
"Oh." I look back at Amy. She's quiet while Hailey explains what happened. She just munches on her food.
That explains her staring into the distance with that look in her eyes.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
Amy clears her throat, scraping the rest of her food onto her fork, "Thank you for the condolences. So back to the Festival idea, should we get supplies from the city and decorate?"
"What's decorate?" Rose questions.
"It's where we take specifically made items and place them in different areas to make the area look nice and festive." Bob explains, "It's usually done for holidays, birthdays, or special events."
"It sounds like a lot of fun!" Hailey expresses and looks back to her father, "Can we go back to the city and get decorate?"
"Decorations." Amy corrects her.
"Oh, can we get decorations?" Hailey fixes her words. She's very excited, probably a good way to keep her mind off of all the horrible things that everyone has been through recently.
Felix glances around before beckoning Wade over, "Why don't you take a small group to the city and gather supplies for the Festival?"
Wade tilts his head for a second, I feel his presence within my mind as he gathers the most recent conversation.
"Oh, sure, sounds like a marvelous idea!"