The Darkness Within Us

Chapter 2

I rushed along behind the gurney as it hovered down the hall with Charlie perched on my hip. She was still sniffling. I think I'd stopped most of her bleeding with the part of my shirt I'd ripped off, so my biggest concern was Jackson. His breathing was ragged and caused considerable pain despite a heavy dose of painkillers administered by the medics that attended to him at the scene. I ignored the insistent beeping in my head coming from my Halo. It would stop once my heartrate and cortisol levels fell.

Focusing on Jackson and Charlie distracted me from my guilt at suggesting he let her die. I knew I hadn't meant it like that...or at least I thought I knew. My back ached from carrying the girl, but I wasn't about to let her out of my sight before her father found us. I'd taken on responsibility for her care like it would absolve me of my earlier sins.

Jackson wasn't bleeding, but considering the size of what hit him, I knew there had to be major internal damage. I'd only seen an accident like that once before when a transport blew up as it was preparing to leave the bay. Those people didn't make it and, remembering their deaths, I was struck by an overwhelming fear that I would lose Jackson, too.

Once we reached the med bay, we were bombarded by a flurry of activity as medics, doctors, and nurses flitted around from one injured person to the next. I covered my mouth and nose with my free hand to try to stop the sensory attack of antiseptic that had my eyes watering. A doctor ripped Charlie from my arms while another demanded to know what happened. An older nurse snapped at me to move away from the bed. My Halo beeped wildly in my ears as I was pulled between different people all insisting on my undivided attention. I told the one working with Jackson all I knew, but it wasn't much. The other doctor whisked Charlie around a corner. I craned my neck to see where he took her, but they were completely out of sight.

A man sitting on a cot behind me spoke up. "I don't know how he got to her so fast. He dove for her – the child – and I knew he wasn't going to make it. Next thing I know she was flying across the hall. She hit her head on the screens about the time the rig hit him. I was a good three meters away from him and I still heard the crunch when the wheels went over." The man's face was pale and he looked like he was going to throw up. "I didn't expect to find him alive."

"What hit him?" The doctor grabbed his body scanner from his pocket and ran it over Jackson's battered body. I took a step back just to be safe. The doctor was aiming his question and his demanding glare at me.

My eyes went wide and I shook my head. "I don't know what it was. It was a huge piece of machinery with some kind of boom arm attached." I chewed my lip, crossing my arms over my chest.

"It was a heavy container handler they brought up for the new lab equipment. They were trying to move it to the main hangar bay and it got away from them." A female security officer said as she rushed by me with two men clinging to her shoulders, the scent of blood wafting after them. Her hair was pulled back in such a severe ponytail, I wondered if her eyes would close when she took it down.

"Why in the worlds were they moving it through a student area?" The doctor asked as he ran his hand over Jackson's chest. He pressed on one spot and Jackson groaned through the medicine that should have knocked him out cold.

"Hard to say. Heads are probably gonna roll over this, though. Not as many injured as could've been if it had happened just a few minutes sooner." The officer plopped each man on gurneys across from Jackson's. Both men had injuries that looked painful, but not too serious. "Ran over a few feet, got one guy in the shoulder. Stopped when it came to a junction. Too bad for the woman that was standing there when it hit." Her words fell from her mouth like rocks over a hill, one tumbling on top of another, which was jarring considering her otherwise calm demeanor.