Chapter 16 Badger
SIXTEEN
BADGER
I woke up with an oxygen mask over my face, an IV in my arm, and, to my surprise, Machine asleep in the chair next to my bed.
Where the fuck was I? I looked around and saw Evelyn lying deathly still in a hospital bed two bays over from me.
She was covered in bruises and cuts, but she hadn’t been at Dominos, so what the fuck happened to her?
Machine stirred in his chair and opened his eyes.
They were the softest I had ever seen them, as if he were trying to tell me something through that one look.
Despite my opinion of Machine, I felt better knowing that he was here with me.
I had almost died, and somehow the one person I least expected to care was here.
From what I could remember, he was also the reason I got out of the burning building.
“Hey, you,” Machine said, placing a large hand on mine. His touch felt warm and comforting.
I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them slowly. I removed the oxygen mask and let out a cough.
“You need to leave that on,” he instructed, moving the mask back over my mouth and nose before resting his hand on top of mine again. “You inhaled a lot of smoke. Do you remember anything?”
I made the “so-so” motion.
“That’s to be expected.”
Machine glanced down at the floor and then back up at me. An expression I could almost label as sympathy crossed his face. I tilted my head in confusion.
“There’s something you should know,” Machine said solemnly.
I stared at him, unblinking. My heart rate began to speed up, and a feeling of dread washed over me.
From my understanding, I was the last to get out of the building.
Well, it had seemed that way as I had gone from room to room looking for stragglers.
The last thing I remembered was coughing and seeing a tall, broad-shouldered Machine running my way just before I collapsed.
“I’m so sorry, Jess, but Arrow is gone,” Machine said softly.
The monitor beside my bed began to ding as my heart rate skyrocketed. This couldn’t be happening. Not my best friend. It couldn’t be true. I shook my head as tears filled my eyes.
“You’re lying!” I yelled hoarsely through the oxygen mask.
Machine sighed, and before he could say anything more, Buddha and Zombie appeared beside him. Their faces told me what I didn’t want to be true, and I shook my head as tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Tell me it isn’t true!” I demanded.
They both looked down at the floor and then back up at me. Both of them had tears in their eyes, and that’s when I knew this was real. No matter how many times I blinked to try to get out of this dream, Arrow was gone.
I began thrashing and screaming as agony coursed through me. I started to feel light-headed as pain ricocheted through my brain and dots started to cloud my vision. I heard someone yelling to me, but I didn’t absorb what they said.
Arrow is dead.
That was the last thing I thought before everything went black.