WORLD 4: AWAKENING
Chapter Twenty-Three: My Home

Sounds started to come in. Muffled, slurred voices, the beeping of some sort of machinery. Then came the light. Flashes of it, appearing and disappearing as I struggled to keep my heavy eyelids open. It took me several minutes, but finally I was able to hold them open long enough to take in everything around me.

I was in Med Lev, on a bed in the high priority area where we leave surgical patients. I’d been cleaned and dressed in new gray Colony pants. My shirt was gone. In its place were a series of thick, white bandages that wrapped around me from my belly to shoulders. The hand that had received Arison’s torture was wrapped securely and laid in a sling someone had put around me.

The second I tried to move, I realized just how beaten-up I’d become during my ordeal. Every limb ached to some degree and there were countless cuts and scrapes covering my body. I’m sure they’d given me numbing medication, but my hand and the stab wound on my shoulder still throbbed uncontrollably.

Officers were laying everywhere around the room. All beds were taken, so blankets had been set up on the hard gray floors for less critical patients. Some exam beds had their opaque holographic screen up around them. The man next to me was unconscious with what looked like a serious head wound and I could see Athan sleeping a few beds away, still recovering from his gruesome attack. Every Med Lev Officer still alive was present, milling about and working overtime caring for their patients. It took me a minute to realize that Gabring was sitting on the floor next to my bed.

“Gabring?” I croaked weakly.

He popped up from the floor. “Hey! We were wondering when you’d wake up.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ve been taking turns with your dad and Baylen to watch you. You were beat up pretty bad. Didn’t even make it to Med Lev.” He frowned and took my hand.

I cleared my throat. “Oh yeah, I think I remember crashing to the ground somewhere.”

He squeezed my hand. “Yep. Someone on their way to Med Lev found you, unconscious and bleeding everywhere.” His forehead wrinkled and he hesitated. “They were worried you wouldn’t make it for a few minutes.”

“Oh…wow, I’m glad someone found me.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry we didn’t see how bad you were. Just got caught up in what was happening outside, I guess.” He grimaced sheepishly.

I barely squeezed his hand back. “It’s okay, Gabring, I’m fine now. Tell me what happened out there.”

“Well, —”

“Mayla!”

My heart sank. Ty ran to me and grabbed my hand from Gabring’s grip.

“Oh, boy…I’ll be going,” said Gabring. He shot me an apologetic look. “So glad you’re recovering, May, I’ll come by again later.” He turned and took off through Med Lev.

“You’re awake!” Ty exclaimed. He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I was so worried. I can’t believe what happened. I just — I’m so glad you’re going to be alright.”

He pressed a button to raise the head of the exam bed so that I could sit up more. I attempted an awkward smile; I had no idea how I was going to be able to bring up what had happened out there with Baylen. My voice creaked some more as I attempted to talk again. “So what’s going on with me? Injuries, I mean.”

Ty’s face lit up. His whole body tightened, it was just about bursting with joy at what he’d accomplished. “I operated on you! Kai took Second Commander since he needed surgery immediately as well.”

“Wes! Is he alright?”

“Huh? Oh, yes he’ll be fine. Anyway, I had three assistants this time! I made them fabricate more blood for you — you lost a ton, May — and then I repaired all the tissue and bone damage from the stab wounds, closed up your other injuries, some minor other stuff.”

“Wow, I —”

“The broken bones in your hand were an easy fix, just used the bone fusion machine, you know. You notice it doesn’t hurt very much, right?”

I cleared my throat again, finally sounding more normal. “Uh, well I guess the bones don’t hurt, just the stabbings. It’s probably not as bad as it should be.”

“Right!” Ty said happily. His gorgeous blue eyes were sparkling with excitement as he recalled the whole experience. “I’ve been applying a layer of numbing cream all over you periodically instead of just the injectable stuff, that way you wouldn’t feel so drugged out when you woke up. The Skin Repairer sealed together most of the cuts but you’ll still need time to heal. I’m not going to lie — it was almost as good as Athan’s surgery. I can’t believe I pulled it off!”

I squeezed his hand and smiled a fake grin. It’s all I could give. “That’s so great, Ty.”

He became much more serious and touched my cheek tenderly. “Listen, I think this whole experience just solidifies that we’re meant to be together, doesn’t it? I mean, we almost died out there…it’s like we were saved just so we could spend forever together.”

I fought hard to keep obvious annoyance from my face. He in no way had almost died out there. Me, Baylen, Wes, Athan — almost every single other person out there besides him had either died or almost died. I took a moment to think of a response that was kinder than my first instinct.

“May!” Baylen was running from across the room. He wrapped his arms around me as best he could. “You’re awake! You’ve been out cold for two days. I was over there with my dad — he’ll be okay — and saw you up and…” His voice trailed off and we looked at each other with affection, forgetting for a moment that Ty was staring right at us. Baylen stroked one hand down my cheek.

Ty wrinkled his face and gently guided Baylen to step away from me. “Uh, thanks Bay, for coming over and everything…but I’ll take it from here.”

The familiar nausea began to rise again, this time because I knew what I was about to do was going to be terrible. “Ty, we need to talk!” I blurted out. Baylen knew exactly what that meant and backed away with a quick wave goodbye.

“What is it?” asked Ty. He watched Baylen hurry away back to Wes.

I fidgeted with the bandages around my middle and stared at my feet. “You’re an amazing person, Ty. A great doctor, great everything — anyone would be lucky to have you. But…I don’t think we belong together anymore.” I finally dared to look right at him.

“Mayla.” He raised an eyebrow. “This is normal, you know, to reevaluate your life after a near-death experience, to want to change things, and whatever else. But studies have shown it’s based more on false —”

“Baylen is in love with me!” I cut in quickly. Ty’s face hardened and his shoulders rose.

“I knew it,” he whispered angrily, then his voice steadily rose. “The way he looks at you all the time, how he speaks to you! He really thinks it’s okay to mess with your head and try to convince you to break it off with me?” Ty pointed at himself sharply. “With someone like me?! I’ll show him exactly what happens to people who try that.” He immediately turned to leave but I caught the edge of his light blue shirt, tugging him back.

“No!” I took a deep breath and prepared myself mentally for the next part. “Ty…I feel the same way about him.”

It took him a minute to process. Finally, his expression changed from anger, to shock, to devastation. He sat close to me and took my hand again. “No you don’t, Mayla. It’s just from everything that’s gone on, and —”

“I do, Ty. It’s got nothing to do with all of this, I just finally realized how I felt out there.”

“No. We’re going to give it time, see if these absurd feelings go away,” he said in sad denial, shaking his head.

The exchange was so horrible I swore I could actually feel the awkward desolation covering everything around the two of us. My voice was barely above a whisper. “They’re not going away. Please, I’m just so sorry.”

Ty stared at me incredulously. After a few seconds of disbelief, he finally jumped up, throwing my hand to the side as if it were toxic. “Him? HIM, Mayla?!” He pointed across the room at Baylen. “You would choose mister fix-it over there who makes deliveries and smells like machines, over ME?!”

I held up my hand and tried to calm him; patients and Med Lev Officers around the room were beginning to stare as he grew louder. “Ty —”

“I’m going to run my own Medical Level someday! I’ll be a Senior Officer! Commander’s daughters don’t end up with a low-life like Baylen, they end up with people like me!”

“Stop it, Ty!” I scolded. People were legitimately gawking. “I think you should leave.”

Baylen walked up behind Ty. “She’s right, you should probably just go.”

Ty finally noticed all the people staring at us. He spun around, his cheeks flushing to full crimson immediately. He gave Baylen a shove. “You!”

“Back off, Ty,” Baylen warned loudly, his hands up.

“You’ll never amount to anything, you pathetic nobody.”

Baylen took a step forward and spoke more forcefully. “Just walk away, it’s not worth it.”

“You’re right about that one,” chuckled Ty. He straightened his light blue shirt. “People like you aren’t worth my time.”

He pushed past Baylen and stormed through Med Lev, trying to ignore all the looks he was receiving. Reaching the doors, he flung over the sign-in table, sending equipment flying as he left. It took a minute for all the questioning stares and gossipy chatter around the room to finally die back down to normal.

Baylen sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my arm. “You okay?”

“I think so,” I replied quietly. Even though I was more sure than ever that Ty wasn’t the right person for me, I still felt terrible for hurting him.

“At least it’s all over now,” he said.

“What happened out there? Gabring didn’t get a chance to tell me.”

Baylen couldn’t help but get excited. “It happened just like we planned. We snuck out there and your dad took out two guys that came at us, like that!” He snapped his fingers. “Never seen an ABW fired so quickly! Our five red shirts from the ship were able to get into Protection Shelter and take over there, get more weapons. They met us at Science where some hostages were being held.”

“Was everyone okay?” I asked, dreading the answer.

He paused. “We were able to get to the ones who survived.”

I closed my eyes. “So some of them died.”

“Yeah…some of the hostages were killed.” He stroked my hairline, rubbing his thumb over the sealed-up laceration on my cheek. “But the good news is that the majority of Arison’s people surrendered. Only had to take out some who were too stubborn.”

I scoffed. “That’s good news?”

“Yeah, it is.” Baylen smiled. “Your dad was right, it’s better to offer a surrender instead of just killing everyone like it’s nothing.” His face became more serious. “It’s really hard to kill a person and not feel it afterward.”

I put my hand on his leg. “Did you have to kill people?” He just looked down and nodded. “I’m so sorry, Baylen.”

He blew out a large breath. “At least we got the hostages out. After we armed the ones from Science, we were able to take over really easily, got the hostages from Food Lev as well.” His face lit up. “Oh! We found Brynn in Science — she’s beat up, but alive! Even helped us take over at Food Lev.”

I cried out in relief. “I’m so glad! What about Aymin?”

Baylen’s face relaxed and he just barely shook his head.

I closed my eyes tightly, giving Aymin a silent, guilt-laden apology for not being able to save him.

“Hey!” Sirone limped over to me from across the room and sat on the bed opposite Baylen.

“Sirone!” I startled out of my sadness, shrieked, and pulled her in for a long hug. “You survived!”

“Hard to believe, right?” she joked and laughed sadly. “I was one of the lucky ones. Almost all of the green shirts they caught were killed…not important enough to keep, I guess.” Her eyes trailed downward as she remembered her ordeal and she took a deep breath. “I convinced them that I was Second President Daman’s daughter so I’d seem more valuable to them. They believed me partly because I wasn’t wearing that uniform, like usual. Made the story more credible…who knew fashion could save your life?”

She pulled on the filthy red blouse she still wore, shaking her head in guilt. Considering how much hatred I knew Sirone harbored for the government, it must have been very uncomfortable for her to know that Daman had indirectly saved her life.

“So what did they do to you?” asked Baylen.

“Well, they stabbed me right through my leg a bunch of times. Thought it would get Daman to force Archauus into cooperation.” Her face softened. “Thankfully it only got that far. There were others being held that weren’t so lucky.”

I took her hand and held it firmly. “I’m so sorry.”

Her sad frown began to turn upward again. “After they stabbed me the fourth time, Gabring and a few others busted through the door and destroyed those idiots! It was fun to watch them squirm after hurting so many of us.”

Baylen laughed and looked at me sideways with a proud smirk. “I was one of those people who busted through the door.”

Sirone pointed at him. “Yeah! Who knew Baylen could punch people like a pro?”

We all laughed. It may have been inappropriate, considering all those who’d died, but laughter was something we desperately needed.

“OH!” Sirone exclaimed as something came to her. She leaned in. “You’ll never guess who decided to come out into the land of the living all of a sudden.”

“Who?” Baylen and I both asked at the same time.

“Banner!” she said and scoffed. “Daman, too. I heard they came out all bold last night, ordering Archauus around, acting like they were in charge of this world — planet! Sorry, Mayla, I meant planet.”

I chuckled. “I can’t believe they’re behaving like that! It’s weird considering we haven’t heard from them in five years.”

Baylen rolled his eyes. “Well, I kind of expected this, didn’t you? Now that we’ve settled, they’re going to want to be in charge again. Who knows when they’ll finally realize their time is up.”

“I’m not too worried,” I said and smiled. “My father can take them on, no problem.”

“They’ll probably want to take over Colony Three now since their leadership over there were all killed,” Sirone said with a deep scowl.

I sat up quickly and winced in pain. “What do you mean?!”

“I heard it from the cute white shirt that was in the bed next to me yesterday. He said that Three is in shambles right now. Every single leader in any high position was killed.”

“Arison said that he took them out, but I didn’t think he’d killed all of them. Wow, I can’t believe it,” I said softly and leaned back again. Imagining all the death and torture and fear that we’d experienced, I could hardly imagine that just hours away, there were others going through the same thing. Worse, even. The far-reaching reign of terror that Arison had inflicted was hard to believe.

“Your dad sent people over there right after we took back control. Captured or killed all of Arison’s idiots there.”

“Well,” said Baylen, “looks like both Colony’s prisons are going to be pretty full for a while.”

“Definitely,” said Sirone. “Well, I better go, I’m trying to get them to sign me out. Oh!” She kissed me on the head and pointed at Baylen and me. “And just so you know, I always figured this would happen eventually.” She snickered and limped away, waving flirtatiously at an injured black shirt on the way back to her bed.

I burst out laughing at Sirone’s personality and pressed the button that lowered my patient bed all the way flat again. “Bay, come here.” I pulled him down to me as my laughs subsided, scooting over.

He laid himself down to face me and I turned onto my good side as much as I could, leaning my head close to his. He gently scratched what little skin was showing between my wrapped-up arm and shoulder.

“What are you thinking?” I asked, echoing his question to me from the night we’d kissed on the rock.

He smiled and his brown eyes stared straight into mine. “I’m thinking that life is pretty good.”

“Really? Life’s just beautiful right now, isn’t it?” I asked sarcastically and giggled.

He swept some hair behind my ear. “I know everything out there is kind of bad right now, but in here, on this bed…everything really is beautiful.”

My expression became serious and I took the time to study his face. I smiled. Finally, it was time. “I love you, Baylen.”