Chapter 15
ALEX
Alex shoved down the fourth cracker drowned in spray cheese, trying hard not to gag on it as he swallowed it down. As it slid down his throat, he let his head fall back against the pillows.
Alex could feel the illness sinking deeper into his bones with every passing second, but he forced himself to smile, not wanting to add to Ava’s worry.
She was already on edge, and the last thing she needed was him complaining.
Besides, the hospital felt like a place people went to die.
If he could just stay here, cocooned in the motel’s rough blankets, maybe he could stave off whatever fate had in store.
He wasn’t ready to give up, but each breath felt like a struggle, and he hated the thought of dragging Ava into that dark place with him.
“No good?” Ava questioned.
He offered her a thumbs down. “Can I go back to sleep now?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod as she checked her phone again.
As he slouched down further in the bed and pulled the covers over him, he slid his stinging eyes closed. He hated that she’d checked her phone multiple times but hadn’t said anything.
There was likely no news–or worse, bad news that she didn’t want to share. Exhaustion washed over him despite his desperate attempt to stay awake and alert. If he could just get a little more sleep, maybe he’d start to feel human again.
And outside of using the rest for his recovery, he didn’t want to be awake. Everything hurt, even his hair. His skin crawled when anything touched it, his joints ached, and the fever made him feel horrible all over, not to mention cold.
Alex felt like he’d never get warm again as he snuggled deeper into the blankets.
The mattress shifted under him. The comforting form of Ava pressed against him, threading her fingers through his. “I’m here, Ace,” she whispered.
It gave him some reassurance, but the illness ravaging his body made it difficult for him to feel any measure of relief.
Every second that passed with no change in his symptoms other than perhaps a worsening, made him worry that he would soon be facing his final days.
The death rate at the hospital as tracked by his little program looked grim, hovering around sixty-eight percent.
And those numbers didn’t even reflect the people who were passing away from this at home without seeking treatment.
The thought made his stomach clench–or maybe that was from the pills. Either way, after a wave of nausea rocked him, he drifted off to a dreamless but feverish sleep.
A shaking sensation pulled him back to reality. He fluttered his eyes open.
Ava hovered over him. “Wake up, babe. You’re going to the hospital.”
Panic made his heart pound hard against his ribs as he squinted his tired, burning eyes at her. “Hospital?”
Was he that bad off? Had something changed?
“Yeah. Doc may have found something, and we need to track it down. You need to be monitored, so you’re going to the hospital while I go with Doc to find a cure.”
He groaned internally, hating both the idea of going to the hospital and Ava leaving him. He hated hospitals on a good day, but this was even worse. When he wasn’t feeling well, he wanted to do nothing more than curl up in his own bed and ride it out. Even being in the motel was bad enough.
But even worse than that, he didn’t want Ava tracking anything down. This was dangerous enough, and now he’d have to lay in his hospital bed worrying about her.
“Ugh, okay,” he murmured, unable to stop it from moving forward. “But I don’t like this plan.”
“I hate this, Alex. I hate leaving you when you need me, but I have to. I have to find the cure... for you, for all of us. We’ll beat this, I promise. I just—I can’t stay here, not when there’s a chance to save you. Even if it means we’re apart for a little while.”
“I know, I know,” he said as he sat up when a knock sounded at the door.
Ava opened it to allow the paramedics into the room. They fussed over him, getting his vitals and inserting an IV into his hand that made him grimace before they strapped him down to a gurney for the short ride to the hospital.
The moment they wheeled him into the sterile, white hallway of the hospital, Alex’s anxiety spiked.
The sterile smell of disinfectant stung his nose, mingling with the faint scent of sickness that clung to the air.
Even with Ava’s hand in his, a sense of dread crawled up his spine.
He didn’t belong here, not with all the other sick people—people who were dying.
His pulse quickened as the medical staff swarmed around him, checking his vitals, inserting needles into his arm.
Every time they touched him, he wanted to pull away, afraid that accepting their care was admitting defeat.
As Kyle eyed his monitors, jotting down a few notes on his chart, he fidgeted in the bed, his eyes glued to Ava with Sebastian outside of his room. “So, where’s this supposed cure, Doc?”
“Looks like South America. Look, Mav, if it wasn’t entirely necessary to have Ava with me, I would definitely not be taking her, but I think we can all agree, I’m not the best with a gun.”
Alex offered a weak chuckle before he frowned, the effort to laugh making him feel worse. “You’re not. And I get it. Ava is awesome. I just…hate this. I hate her leaving, I hate being sick, I hate being in the hospital.”
“I know,” Kyle answered. “But with any luck, in two days we’ll be laughing about this over coffee, you’ll be back to normal, and we’ll have saved this town from complete destruction.””
“I hope so,” Alex said with a sigh, his eyes still fixed on Ava. “How sure is the lead?”
“Not one hundred percent, but it really makes sense than they would have something prepared in case this got released accidentally or if one of their own gets sick, right?”
Alex bobbed his head, immediately regretting it as it made the tension at his temples a hundred times worse.
“So, let’s hope The Board planned ahead, and Ava and I can just swipe a drug that’ll clear this up and be back here in a jiffy.”
Alex laid his head back against the pillow. “It could be worse. She could be going with Shadow.”
“Nope, she’s going with me. And you get to hang out with Shadow.”
“Maybe that’s worse,” Alex said with a groan. “Hey, how do my vitals look? I’m going to be in the thirty percent who live, right?”
“You’re holding your own,” Kyle answered. “And I am leaving detailed instructions for you to receive a very specific regimen of medication that is our best shot at keeping the grim reaper at bay.”
“Awesome,” Alex said. “Does it include Jello?”
Kyle grinned at him. “It does not, but I can grab you some if you’d like.”
“I have no appetite, but the goo may actually stop my throat from hurting so bad.”
Kyle held a finger in the air as he backed from the room, returning with two cups of jello, one red, one blue.
“You’re the best, Doc,” Alex answered as he tore one up, the energy he used zapping his strength.
Ava wandered into the room, sidling next to Kyle. “You got him to eat. You must be an excellent doctor, Doc.”
“I am,” he answered with a grin.
Alex scooped more of the wobbly half-liquid, half-solid from the cup before he poked the spoon at Ava. “You didn’t get me jello.”
“Sorry, babe, I got whatever the SmartMart had.”
“Which was?” Kyle asked.
“Spray cheese and crackers. Also got him to eat a protein bar, but he complained the whole time,” she answered.
Sebastian entered the room a second later. “Jet’s fueled and waiting.”
Alex’s stomach lurched at the words. He had known they were going to be leaving soon, but he wanted more time with Ava.
Actually, he didn’t want her to go at all, but having her leave only a few minutes after he’d been settled in the hospital was a bitter pill to swallow.
“Right,” Ava said with a nod. “I guess that’s our cue.”
Avs…” Alex’s voice was barely a whisper, heavy with fear. His heart felt like it was being crushed under the weight of what was happening—her leaving, his sickness. The panic was overwhelming.
She crossed the room quickly, setting aside the Jello, and took his hand, her fingers warm and reassuring in his.
“I know you’re scared,” she whispered, her voice steady, though her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
“But it’s going to be okay. I’ll go with Doc, we’ll get the cure, and I’ll be back before you know it.
” She leaned down and kissed his cheek, and for a moment, Alex could almost believe her. Almost.
He bobbed his head, loving how simple it sounded when she said it, but knowing it wasn’t going to be that simple.
“Hey, I won’t be long, okay?”
“Yeah,” he answered, tears forming in his eyes. He tried to blame the emotion on the sickness–he was weak, feverish, but the truth was that Ava was leaving, and he may never see her again.
This flu moved quickly. He wasn’t certain she’d make it back in time to save him.
“I’m serious, babe,” she said as she leaned closer to kiss his cheek. “You literally won’t even know I’m gone. You’re going to be hanging out with Shadow, enjoying the jello, and then bam! I’ll be right back with your life-saving medicine.” She grinned at him.
“Yep. I hope they have enough jello, but since you won’t be long, I shouldn’t need much.” He glanced around the room. “Oh, please tell me you brought my laptop. I want to monitor this entire operation.”
She chuckled at him as she crossed to her bag and pulled it out. “I did. And…”
She rummaged through her bag again before she pulled out the brooch he’d wired with a camera. “Pearl cam!”
“Yay,” he cheered with a weak smile as he opened his laptop and toggled open the monitoring software for his little device while Ava pinned it onto her hoodie.
“Can you read me, Ace?”
His own image bounced onto his screen causing him to frown. He looked really sick. “I can. Wow, I look awful.”
“Soon, you won’t,” she said with a squeeze of his hand. “Now, I’d love to stay with you some more, but we should get going. The faster we get this and get back, the better.”
“Good luck,” Sebastian said as he shifted to stand next to Alex’s bed. “If you need anything, call.”
Ava nodded before she and Kyle disappeared from the room, leaving only Sebastian and the should of his heart monitor behind. Alex shifted in the bed, stared at his laptop screen to follow Ava out of the hospital and into the car.
As the engine roared to life, and Kyle backed from the space, Alex settled back into his pillows to watch the ride to the airport.
“You should try to get some rest. It’ll take them at least thirty minutes to get to the airport,” Sebastian said as he settled into a chair next to Alex’s bed.
“Pass. I want to watch this.” He worked on hacking into the pharmaceutical facility’s security system until they reached the airport before his eyelids grew heavy, and he eventually slid them closed, drifting off to sleep.
When he opened them again, a variety of alarms sounded. He screwed up his face, glancing at his own monitors, but everything on them looked to be within normal range.
Alex’s stomach dropped when he saw the look of pure horror on Sebastian’s face as he stared at the monitor. Heart pounding in his chest, Alex turned to his laptop screen, and his breath stopped cold.
The plane was lurching violently, the cameras shaking as alarms blared in the cockpit. Kyle’s wide-eyed terror was clear as he clutched the seat beside Ava.
The pilot’s voice crackled over the intercom, chilling Alex to his core. “Brace for impact. We are going down.” The words echoed in his head, and for a moment, everything froze. He was helpless, a prisoner of his own sick body, watching in horror as the woman he loved hurtled toward death.