Escaping Grace: A Turning Grace Novel (21 page)

“They had to kill him. It was either their lives or his.”

My heart sank.

I turned away from her and glanced down at my hands. He didn’t deserve to die this way.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, attempting to comfort me, but I shrugged it away. I didn’t want to be touched. I didn’t even want to be near anyone at that moment. I wanted to go home. I wanted to get off this island and as far away from it as I could.

I was so angry. I was so pissed at all the things this stupid place had taken away from me. I lost someone that I could have loved. I lost life-long friends that I could have had. I lost my innocence to a world that I once felt safe in. I lost a relationship with my mother that I wasn’t sure I would ever get back. I lost any hope that I would ever be a normal person again. And now I lost the closest thing I’d ever had to a father.

I didn’t think I had enough tears to shed.

Ian placed a bottle of Z juice in front of me. “Drink up, doll. It will make you feel better.”

I felt drained and void of any feelings. I was emotionally shattered.

“Do you wanna talk about it,” Sonny asked in a small voice.

I shook my head no. Talking about it would only make me feel like crying, and I didn’t even know if I could.

“So Kate, what’s the plan?” Ian asked.

“Well, my dad might have hated me, but he had no one else to sign this place over to except me. I was with him when he made his Will.”

“Didn’t he know how much you hated him?” Sonny asked.

“Nope. I pretended to enjoy what I did. He wanted me to take over the facility and continue his research if anything happened to him. Little did he know, I had my own plans all along.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, curious to know how she planned to get rid of the residual Dr. Roberson wickedness.

“I want this place to be exactly what he claimed it was. Everlasting Paradise. A place of sanctuary. A place for you guys to get the right treatment, the right food, and the right help that you need. No more traveling the world and injecting random people. No more newbies. It ends now. And you know you guys need human flesh to stay sane, but we will figure out something else other than killing people.”

“What about the other doctors and guards? Won’t they wonder what happened to Dr. Roberson? And will they even listen to you?” Ian asked some really good questions.

And Kate had some really good answers. “I’ll come up with something about my dad and his death. For all they know, the turn didn’t work. But as long as this place is mine, they can either join us or leave us. I run things now.”

“I can help. Daddy can donate money and help get Zombrids here,” Sonny added enthusiastically.

“And the other Zombrids? The group that was sent to East Cocos after the incident?” It had just occurred to me that they weren’t around when we were there.

“Dr. Roberson had all of them killed. They were too far gone. But now that they are all gone, we can focus on the ones that we can help. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I think we can do it.” Kate was nothing like her father, I could tell.

“Ian, turn on the TV. Let’s just chill for a bit,” Sonny ordered before taking a swig of her Z juice.

Ian walked around the bar and turned the television on. It was already on CNN.

“Ugh! No news! Put on MTV or something.”

I watched the pretty, dark-haired news anchor while Ian searched for the remote. It was muted so I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but underneath her was a headline that read: Supermarket Epidemic Coverage.

“Wait! Ian, turn that up,” I demanded.

He reached up to manually turn the volume up louder.

“…Authorities are urging residents to stay inside their homes until further notice. A spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that given the time it took for the individuals that were all attacked at the supermarket to become ill, it seems this virus could spread at an alarming rate. They have also released a list of symptoms to look out for that includes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding of the ears, nose, and eyes, increased hunger, and aggressiveness
.”

A piece of paper slid across her desk and she looked down at it.

“
Okay, it seems we are just getting word that there have been several attacks at the hospital where these patients are being treated. Uh…we aren’t sure exactly what is happening but we’re going to take a quick break and when we come back, we’ll have our correspondent Dan Michaels, who is at the scene in Tampa, Florida, fill us in on the new information
.”

Sonny, Ian, Kate, and I glanced at each other.

“An epidemic?” Sonny asked.

“Kate, do you think it’s because of Serum Z? The mutated version?” I wasn’t certain that she could even answer that, which was scary. Dr. Roberson traveled the world injecting people left and right with that stuff. Not to mention, there were tons of different formulas. How could he have known which one would eventually mutate into a contagious virus?

I was hoping she’d say they never went to Florida to revive someone.

“Um, I don’t know.” She glared into my eyes with fear that stared back at me. “But…we went to Tampa a month ago.” 

Shit.

Epilogue

“Where’s Eve?” My voice was hoarse.

“Oh, don’t worry. She knows you’re here. I called her after we worked on you a bit. Man, you are one lucky guy. You got pretty banged up.”

“Is she coming?” I needed my Eve. I already knew I was banged up because I couldn’t move. Soon enough I would find out what my injuries were. Right now, I just needed to know if my wife was on her way.

Mark’s expression changed into a sincere one. “Sorry, Jack. She has to stay home and take care of Grace,” he explained.

I suddenly felt a small burst of energy rise up in my stomach. “Grace. How is she? Is she okay?”

“Oh, yes. You don’t have to worry about her. She is recovering nicely, pal.” He set a hand on my shoulder. “You just relax and focus on getting better. You need to get back to her.”

Now that I knew Grace was safe and well and at home with Eve, I needed to know what my injuries were. “How bad is it?”

He glanced over my body once before answering. “Got a few broken bones. You fell down a ravine and landed head on into a tree. You have some broken ribs and a distal radius fracture of the right hand, probably from holding on to the steering wheel when you hit. Your left shoulder dislocated. Your legs were crushed into the dashboard, which caused an incomplete fracture of your left knee. But the worst is the compound fracture of the right tibia.”

Shit. “External fixator?”

“Yes, sir. And a free lap. We are going to have to apply an internal fixator as soon as we can. It’s a wonder that leg didn’t snap off completely.”

Great. I closed my eyes, taking in everything Mark just told me. “What about my head?”

“Got some stitches from making contact with the driver-side window. Your face is bruised up quite a bit from the airbags. CT says your brain is intact.”

“How about internal?”

“No bleeding confirmed,” Mark answered.

“Anything else?” I was trying to be funny, but it was hard to smile.

“Not that I could see, Doc. Like I said, you’re pretty banged up. But at least you’ve got your looks,” he grinned.

I could care less about my looks. What I needed to do was get back to my wife and child, but with this external fixator, that would probably not be possible anytime soon. What that meant was that a device with metal and pins was holding my bones together until the tissue around it was strong enough to withstand surgery. And then an internal fixator goes in.

But with all the rest of my fractures and broken bones, there was no way I was going home to make Eve take care of me. It was enough she had Gracie to worry about. I would just have to stay where I am. Which brought on a question…

“Where am I, Mark?” I didn’t think I was at my hospital. I was still about an hour away from home when the accident happened. I had to be at Baptist or Memorial.

Mark walked over to my chart at the end of my bed. He wrote something down before answering. “You’re at my place.”

“You’re place? You mean your office?” Maybe I heard him wrong. I still felt a bit out of focus and groggy.

“Oh, c’mon, Jack. Like you didn’t know. I opened up my own clinic. We are not a full-functioning hospital, but we have the necessary equipment.”

Mark was an old friend and colleague of Eve. They met in college, and ended up doing their residency together. It had been a couple of years since I’d seen him, but Eve still kept in contact. I guess she just never told me about this place.

His specialty was general medicine, but he was a highly intelligent individual. He dabbled in many different areas of the medical field, including emergency medicine, microbiology, and even my field of orthopedics.

He was a good man and a great physician. I trusted I was in good hands, but I didn’t understand how I ended up under his care.

“Were you the one who found me?”

He set the chart back down and came over to my side. “Well, yes and no. I sort of intercepted you. I was at Memorial, in the emergency room believe it or not, when you came in. After checking to make sure your injuries weren’t dire, I had you transported to my place. I figured you would be more comfortable here. And that way Eve knows for sure I will call her with every update,” he explained.

I guess that made sense. I suppose if Eve was okay with this, then I was too.

Mark pulled up a chair next to my bed. I thought the conversation was coming to a close, but now not so much. Unless he planned on watching me sleep, because the fatigue was coming on strong.

“Jack, I need to tell you something,” he said in a low voice. This made me nervous. His demeanor changed into a more serious one.

I braced myself for horrible news. Did he find something in my scans? As a physician, I’d like to think that I took good care of myself with annual checkups and what not. But as I scrambled my brain to think of the last time I had one, I realized that it was over a year ago.

Was Mark going to tell me he found cancer somewhere in my body?

“There were some complications with your daughter, Grace.”

This was going to be worse than cancer. “What do you mean?”

“Well, she suffered so much dehydration and illness from the virus that it was too much for her little heart.”

Oh no.

“Eve called me when she couldn’t get a hold of you. I rushed over to them, but it was too late. The virus had already taken over.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“We performed CPR and defibrillation, but there was no reaction.”

I suddenly wished I would have died in the car accident. “Mark, what are you saying?” I tried to maneuver my body into an upright position. It hurt till no end, but I managed to sit up. “Are you saying Grace is gone? Because you just said she was recovering.”

“Now, now, Jack. Quite the contrary,” he soothed as he gently pushed me back down onto the bed. “Grace is alive and well.”

Relief washed over me. “I…I don’t understand. You just said CPR and defib didn’t work.”

“It didn’t. But I had the solution.”

His eyes glistened and he smiled. It was obvious he was proud of this, but I still needed more information. “You have to explain this to me, Mark.”

“Yes, it’s true. Grace could not overcome her illness. She expired on the table for twenty-three minutes.”

My heart was literally shattering into pieces every time he opened his mouth.

“However, I created a serum to replace those methods of revival. When injected, it restarts the heart and all functions of the body. Jack, this discovery is revolutionary.”

“So, you injected Grace with this? Is this how she’s alive?”

“Yes, Jack. She is alive because of Serum Z. Do you realize how valuable this method could be?”

“But what about the side effects? Did you check her to make sure she was fully functioning? And what about long term?” I was worried. Part of me wanted to kiss Mark for bringing me daughter back. The other part of me was in daddy mode.

“We have done the diagnostics. Of course, she is still in need of some more examination. There was an episode the other night, but Eve called me immediately and we are working to figure it out,” he said nonchalantly.

“What episode?”

“No need for concern right now, Jack. She is doing fine. And Eve is taking great care of her. She will fill you in once you are well enough.”

I allowed myself to relax again. Hearing that Eve was with her sent a tranquil ease through my body.

There was silence for a moment.

“Serum Z. Is the Z for your son?”

Mark grinned. “It is. Unfortunately I couldn’t come up with this sooner, but it’s because of his death that Grace is alive now. He was what pushed me.”

“He would be proud, Mark.”

“Indeed he would,” he stated. “But there is something else I would like to bring up. Serum Z has remarkable capabilities of restoring and re-stimulating the body. Not only was Grace revived, but she was almost immediately free of the virus that riddled her body. Now, I wonder if maybe you would be interested in allowing me to inject you with the serum.”

“Me?” It was a silly question. Who else would it be?

“Yes, you. Don’t you want to get back home to your wife and more importantly, Grace? You don’t want her to see you this way. And you don’t want to add more stress onto what Eve has already been through. What if we eliminate all of that, and at the same time fix your body?” There was eagerness in his tone. He was excited about this idea.

I, on the other hand, was not. Sure, it sounded perfect: a medication that would just magically heal me. Then I could get up and walk out of here as if there was no accident.

But nothing was perfect in this world. Everything came with a price, a consequence if you will.

Dr. Mark Roberson may have been a smart man. He may have just altered the field of medicine as we knew it with this serum, but I needed more than that. God forbid something happened to me because of this serum. This whole situation I’m in now would have been for nothing.

I could have easily died in that car tonight. I had a second chance at life.

“Mark, I don’t think I can do it.”

He inhaled deeply. “I figured you would say that. But I must point out to you that you have a daughter and a wife that need you right now. Eve may be a strong woman, but she is under a lot of stress. Knowing that her husband is seriously injured and that her young daughter had to be brought back to life has been hard for her. She’s not doing well emotionally. ”

Eve was an extremely strong woman and hearing that she was stressed and emotionally distraught was actually surprising.

I closed my eyes, imagining what going home would be like. Holding Grace after everything she had been through was going to feel different, I just knew it. It was going to mean more, and believe it or not, I somehow have more love for her now. Maybe it was hearing that I almost lost her.

I imagined holding Eve and realized right then that I loved her even more now too. If I had died tonight, I wouldn’t be able to see her beautiful face again.

“How much time are we talking for surgery and recovery? You’ve seen my leg. How much time before this is fixed…without the serum?”

Mark searched the air for numbers. “Uh…we are talking a couple of weeks before surgery. And then once the surgery is done, we’ve got to rehabilitate you.”

“Okay. I’d say about a month and a half for enough recovery to walk on my own.” I was really talking to myself. After all, I was the orthopedic here. “What about with the serum? What are we talking?”

He peered right into my eyes. “Jack, we are talking…minutes. Once the serum is in your bloodstream, it immediately does its job. You could be up and walking out of here by the morning.”

By morning? That response took me off guard, and made the decision more difficult.

Mark must have noticed my deep contemplation. “Jack, we will monitor you every step of the way. My team is here and ready to react if need be.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“The worst thing?” He shrugged his shoulders. “That it just simply doesn’t work and you stay the same.”

Damn it. I was used to making big decisions for my patients. But for myself? That’s a whole other story.

I glanced at Mark, who was sitting patiently, awaiting my response.

A good, full two minutes passed before I finally said, “Okay.”

He sat motionless and smiled, although I could tell he wanted to jump out of his seat with joy. “That’s great, Jack. That’s really great. Okay, I’m going to get the serum ready. You just…stay right where you are.”

“I don’t plan on going for a run, Mark.”

He laughed. “Well, you better plan it for tomorrow then. You’ll be ready to run a marathon. I’ll be right back.”

I stared up at the ceiling once he was out of the room. I was rationalizing our conversation, and trying to figure out if this decision was a good one.

My Gracie died. She literally died, and I was not there to be with her…or to hold her.

I made the decision right then to change. I was going to take what happened to Gracie and what happened to me as signs. I wasn’t a very religious man, but even a child could understand that God was trying to tell me something.

I needed to lay off the constant working and being away from home. I needed to spend more time with my family and show them that I still cared. Grace would be easy to win over again, but Eve has been neglected for far too long. It was time to rekindle what we once had, which was a love that nothing could break.

Mark entered the room again, this time with a nurse following close behind him wheeling a tray.

“Okay, Jack. Are you ready to feel better?” he asked enthusiastically.

I didn’t feel as confident. I was afraid. Afraid that this decision may be the wrong one.

As a physician, I strived to give my patients the best treatment I could possibly give them. I answered all questions honestly and tried to give them any and all information I could regarding their condition.

But now it was down to the wire. This was me we were talking about. I was the patient. The shoe was officially on the other foot.