CHAPTER 19
ALEX
Alex's eyes fluttered open for a brief second before he squeezed them shut, a sharp stab of pain piercing his temples. Bright lights overhead seemed to sear directly into his brain, and a dull ache settled in his bones. Where was he?
The steady beeping nearby pulled him to reality—the hospital. The memories rushed back, but they were fragments, blurred at the edges. The plane. Ava. The jungle.
Panic welled up as he forced his eyes open again, searching the room. He had to find her. The last thing he remembered was sending her coordinates, helping her and Kyle through the jungle. But after that? He didn’t know if she made it. Had he passed out? Or worse—had something gone wrong?
“Ava,” he croaked, his voice barely above a whisper. Where was she?
He recalled coming here since with the deadly fluspreading through the small town of Hemlock Falls and threatening to wipe it off the map before Ava had climbed aboard a plane bound for South America.
His heart skipped a beat before it ramped up, pounding harder against his ribs as the heart monitor matched its frantic pace.Ava.
He recalled the chaotic moments as her plane went down, searching his memory for some resolution to that nightmare.
Why was his memory so fuzzy?
She’d been alive, right? His forced his thoughts to slow before he reassured himself that they had spoken. She’d been alive and insistent on finding the cure despite the crash.
He’d sent the coordinates to her phone, then prepared to help her infiltrate the facility, hacking into the security system.
It had taken Ava and Kyle a while to navigate through the thick jungle surrounding the pharmaceutical facility. Had they made it?
He didn’t remember. Why didn’t he remember?
Panic gripped him, and his stomach tightened into a knot. He tried to find a memory of opening doors for Ava or the triumphant moment where they got their hands on the cure, but he couldn’t remember anything like that.
Maybe he’d fallen asleep, dozed off while they were walking, and they hadn’t reached it yet.
He risked opening his eyes to slits, allowing them to adjust to the light before he finally opened them a little wider.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Kyle answered with a grin.
“Doc?” He groaned, wondering if he was dreaming or maybe hallucinating from the fever. How was Kyle here? And more importantly where was Ava?
“Yep. It’s me. Your savior.” The man glanced at the monitors before he flicked his eyebrows up. “Looking good, Mav.”
“What? How are you here? Where’s—” His words stopped as a sinking feeling filled him. Ava had been sick. When he’d talked to her last while they were walking to the facility, she’d said she had the flu.
What had happened to her? Was she still sick? Was she worse?
“Ava,” he said, his broken voice barely above a whisper. “Where is Ava?”
“Hey, he’s awake,” Sebastian said as he entered the room. “You look a lot better. We really thought we were going to lose you.”
“You weren’t in great shape, Mav, that’s for sure,” Kyle echoed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come out of that coma, but you’re looking good now. Look at these vitals. Fever’s down, heart rate is normal, breathing normal, how are you feeling?”
“Coma?” Alex’s heart skipped a beat. “I was in a coma?”
“You were, yep,” Kyle answered with a nod.
Alex’s lower lip started to quiver. “Well, then how did you and Ava get into that facility? Where is Ava?”
Kyle glanced at Sebastian who stood at the foot of the bed.
The muscled man shrugged. “You had already hacked into the security system, so I just helped clear the halls and let them into the biohazard lab.”
