We walked for about an hour. The desert felt like it would never end. I held onto him because exhaustion was taking over my body, and his as well. After a long time of walking, something came up behind me so fast that I didn’t have time to react. Something hard hit the back of my head and I was immediately knocked out for a few minutes.
When I came back to consciousness, Angel was fighting a bald man who matched his physical size. When my eyes went into focus, I saw that both men were beating the crap out of each other. Angel was bleeding from his fresh cut in his eyebrow, and his lip was busted open again. The other man was cut in the ribs by Angel’s combat knife.
Punches were being thrown over and over. I wanted to run towards Angel and help him out, but my vision was dancing. I sat up and touched the back of my head, blood.
I looked at the other man more closely. Tan cargo pants, black tee shirt, black boots, and dog tags. This couldn’t be happening. This man wasn’t a terrorist; he was one of us, an American. Why would Angel be fighting one of his own men?
Angel punched him hard and the man went down on all fours, spitting out blood and laughing. “You really thought that this was only about saving some stupid rich girl, huh?” He got back up and gave Angel a bloody smile. “But it goes much deeper than this. A conspiracy that you could never imagine. One thing I wasn’t expecting was for them to send YOU out here. YOU made everything more difficult for me. The negotiations between the Americans and Afghanistan are in trouble because of you. But it seems like you were too busy to realize what was going on around you. You were too busy fucking the bitch.”
“What does Samantha have to do with any of this?”
He got up and laughed again. “Kerry, you were always military smart, but never had any kind of common sense. What do you think? That this has to be over oil? Are you as naïve as every other American back home? Think about it.”
I didn’t believe what he was saying. He was simply trying to get under Angel’s skin to irritate him.
“You think the President didn’t know about her disappearance? You think that this wasn’t planned? It was all about the money. One hand always washes another. And we are tracking down those who might know about America’s treason, beginning with your Captain, and continuing with you.”
Angel straightened his stance and just looked at him in confusion. Angel began to throw the knife up in the air and caught it, showing that he was calm. “What makes you think that you aren’t next on the hit list?”
“Oh, I got security from both parties.” He reached behind his back to where his gun was hidden. “You are just a leftover veteran who must be disposed of.”
The gun glinted into view. But Angel didn’t see it; he was looking at me with sad eyes. The man never noticed that I had woken up. He pointed the gun at Angel at the same time that I ran towards him when the trigger was pulled.
“No!”
The bald man gave me a shocked look. I fell on my knees with short gasps. Angel dropkicked the bald man. There was another struggle when the gun went off again, hitting me with another painful gasp and I collapsed, when Angel broke his nose. He grabbed the man’s gun and pulled the trigger five times. The gun was smoking by the time Angel lowered it.
Once he cleaned his fingerprints from the gun, he said, “I’ll make sure you stay down,” and turned to me. I felt him take off his shirt and press it on me.
I looked at the sky and saw a shooting star and smiled. I closed my eyes and gave in to sleep. I heard his voice urging me to stay awake. But I’d finally found the moment to give up. I gave up the fighting. I gave up trying to survive. Emotionally, physically, and mentally: I was done.
Chapter 13
I heard more gunshots, never ending gunshots. It sounded like there was an army of people running around near me. It sounded like there were hundreds of choppers in the air. I heard people screaming.
I felt someone pick me up. I felt his iron grasp. I knew it was him. The sun was shining bright; the helicopter was loud. It had finally showed up. The ride was bumpy.
I was moved again. This aircraft was moving much faster. With lightning speed. I opened my eyes once, but all the faces around me were unfamiliar. Where was he? Had he left me already?
The peaceful thing about this place was that it was extremely quiet. The only thing that I heard was laughter right next to me. I got up from the bed in surprise. It was a white canopy bed with white sheets in the middle of the desert. Hunter wrapped her cold fingers around mine. They were cold, dead, and sculpture-like.
“Why are we back here?”
“This wasn’t the place I wanted to be either. But I’ve been stuck here this whole time. I’ve been waiting for you so we could finish this chapter and never look back into this nightmare.”
I looked at her and her black hair shone in the sun. She was wearing the same pale blue dress she’d died in, though it wasn’t covered in blood. The winds made our hair fly. I looked at her and began crying. She turned to me with tearful eyes and hugged me. “Samantha, don’t come with me. Your time isn’t up. Mine was. I wanted to stay here long enough to lead you back home. Don’t die in a place like this. Do it for me.”
I broke from her hug and began to cry even harder. “How can I move on? You were everything I had and you know it. I have nothing back there. I don’t care if I have to die in this nightmare. I’m going with you.”
She grabbed my hands and squeezed hard. “My life ended a long time ago Samantha. I want you to do everything that I didn’t get a chance to.” She wiped my tears away and kissed my forehead. “Go. Finish college and travel the world, take lots of pictures, get married, and grow old with a guy who you will argue with everyday.” I laughed and her face brightened. “Don’t stay here. Do this for me. I will continue living the life I couldn’t through your eyes.”
With that she let me go. She stared out at the desert and said, “Don’t let them win Samantha.”
We looked at each other and I gave her one final hug. I breathed in her exaggerated perfume smell of vanilla and smiled. I’d finally been able to say my goodbye.“I love you.”
She let go of me and said, “I love you too. Now go.”
And I did. I turned from her and walked in the opposite direction. She began to walk towards the sun. “Samantha,” I heard her say. I turned and looked at her. “Tell my parents that I love them.”
A tear escaped my eyes and I nodded. She blew me a kiss in the quirky way she always did, and I watched her go until I couldn’t see her silhouette anymore…
“CLEAR!”
I felt shock go through my entire body. For the first time in weeks, I felt alive.
“We have a pulse!”
I felt my soul and my body come together. I felt my brain gaining control of my body. I moved my fingers. There was silence in the room. There was something in my mouth and I couldn’t swallow.
“She’s coming back,” I heard someone say.
I tried to move my hands so I could remove the tube from my mouth, but they were restrained. I opened my eyes with difficulty. They felt like they were sealed shut with glue. A nurse came and appeared in my view. It was a beautiful, short African-American woman with curly hair and a brilliant smile.
I pulled on my hands even harder, but it was impossible. They felt like they were tied with rope and I felt a panic attack coming. The monitor on my right was beeping quicker now. I needed to get out of here before they tried to kill me. She was going to try to kill me.
She put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Honey, it’s okay. You’re safe now. Your hands are restrained because we didn’t want you to remove anything that might harm you. My name is Deanna. I’m going to call the doctor so we can get an order to remove some of these tubes and stuff. I’m also going to call your father and let him know that you are out of the coma. Now, I’m going to give you something to sleep so this process will run smoother.” She injected something in my IV and ran her hand through my hair before she left the room. But I was f
alling asleep before I heard her footsteps disappear.
I woke up a few hours later. This time I was sitting up slightly and my hands were free. I still had oxygen coming into my nostrils and there were a few tubes sticking out from my body. Panicked, I looked around the room. There was a small TV above me, a bathroom to my right, and a few chairs and a computer in the room.
Right when the panic was getting worse, my nurse walked in and I sighed in relief. “How are you feeling? Now, I told I would get all that stuff off. Right?”
“Fine,” I said. My voice sounded rough and my throat was in severe pain. I brought my hand to it and it felt swollen as if my tonsils were infected.
She had a sympathetic look to her, walked around the bed and checked on the IV bags. She turned to me and said, “The tube was there to help you breathe since you’ve been in a coma for seven weeks.” I gave her a shocked look. “You are at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital; you were transferred here from Princeton University after your gunshots.”
“What happened?” I asked, still holding my throat.
She sat on the chair next to me. “You were shot twice in Egypt by an unknown person. Once here, only about two millimeters from your heart,” she pointed to a place underneath my heart where it was tender, “and here,” she pointed at my stomach. “Your left lung collapsed, that’s why you needed help breathing. There is still a tube removing excess fluids from your lung and there’s a tube collecting your urine from your bladder. You were purposely intubated by us so you could heal quicker, but you went into a coma mysteriously.”
A tear escaped my eyes and I looked out the window. We weren’t that high up. “I was raped.”
Her eyes shone with tears and she patted her eyes before she handed me a tissue. “Honey, I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine going through the stuff you went through. There will be a few doctors and psychologists coming around now that you are awake. But I can assure you from a medical aspect that you’re okay. All of your blood tests came back negative. And other than a few infections here and there, you are severely anemic, which is something we all expected. You will be just fine.”
Just fine. Those weren’t the words that I would explain my future with. Even though this was somewhat important, I wasn’t worried about that. It seemed like nothing mattered to me. I just wanted to give up on life.
The nurse sensed that I wanted some space and she left without saying another word. I cried silently for hours. I’d wanted to die back there and not come back alone. The worst feeling in the world was to wake up from a coma all alone. I would have thought that my father would be here at least until I woke up. But I guess his life was more important than mine. He was probably showing off to the press. I could see it now: “Samantha is alive!”
I felt like I was in that tunnel back in Egypt. But I was alone, in the dark, and I was just running and running without reaching the exit.
I must have dozed off because the next thing I remember was hearing, “Samantha,” from a soft voice.
I opened my eyes and saw Annie, Hunter’s mother. I was still in the same sitting position. As soon as my eyes landed on Annie’s face, I broke down and started crying loudly. She sat on the bed and hugged me tight. I hugged her back and we sat like this for a few minutes, crying hysterically.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I feel like this is my entire fault. Hunter shouldn’t be dead. Not her. I can’t see my future without her.”
Annie pulled away from me and began to wipe my eyes. “We would never blame you for what happened back there. None of this is your fault. It was her time to go.” She began to tear up as well. She’s such a beautiful person, both inside and out. Her mother had the same black hair and brown eyes and ivory skin. It felt like I was looking at Hunter all grown up twenty years later, which made me cry even more.
Annie continued. “We all miss her. She was the sunshine in everyone’s life. Never a dull moment around her and you know this very well. Samantha, I don’t blame you, and I never will. I would never wish that it should have been you dead and her here. So I don’t ever want you to feel guilty again. Do you understand me?”
I nodded and she gave me another quick hug. “Harold comes every couple of days.” She began to wipe away the new tears, referring to her husband and Hunter’s father. “Sometimes, he brings books that he used to read to you and Hunter and reads them to you. You know what he said to me? He said that Hunter is still living though you.”
I looked out at the setting sun again. I heard her laughter again; I’ll always hear her laughter. “I will make sure I live my life to the fullest. I want her to be proud of me.” More tears were streaming down my eyes. “I saw her just before I woke back up from the coma. She told me the same thing you did. And she wanted me to tell you guys that she loves you.”
Annie held both of my hands and smiled. “We thought that we were going to lose you as well. A few weeks back, on your birthday, your heart stopped beating. We thought we’d lost you forever.”
“Where’s my father?” She might know what was going on with him.
Her eyes darkened, but she quickly smiled to remove any trace of it. “He couldn’t make it today. But he will be here tomorrow morning. He promised. And happy belated birthday Samantha.”
I smiled at her and we changed the subject to something less depressing. I wasn’t surprised to hear that my dad wasn’t coming today. I was already expecting that. After a few hours of chatting about some of my favorite TV shows and celebrity gossip, Annie kissed my forehead and told me that she would be back tomorrow with Harold.
I would be alone, for hours. The nurse would come in a lot and give me medications, or check on my status, but I would be alone often. I told the nurses know to only let immediate family in; I don’t want to see Craig yet. I don’t know what to say to him. But I don’t want to see him. Dozens of doctors came and went, giving me the same information over and over.
Deanna came back with some of the other nurses. They noticed that I was feeling a little down, so they started talking about celebrities and their personal lives while in the room with me. I knew what they were doing. They didn’t want me to feel lonely.
And then they began to talk about Angel and how hot he was. I caught up quickly because I felt the familiar tingle on my skin when I heard his name.
“He was the one who saved you, right?” My heart skipped a beat and the monitor went off. Some off the nurses started laughing at the gesture. I nodded at Deanna. “I tell you, he is eye candy. He usually stays about two hours later than the end of our visiting hours. But we never had the courage to say so. Besides, we all enjoyed the eye candy.”
Most of the ladies nodded and smiled in agreement, which made me laugh out loud, something different for a change. I saw some of the nurses straighten their scrubs and fix their hair. This would have made most girls jealous. But to me, it was reassurance because I wasn’t the only female who was affected by his beauty. I wonder what I looked like. Right when I was feeling self-conscious about my image, the nurses surrounded me as if I was in a day spa.
“I know this is uncomfortable, but until we get a doctor’s order, you aren’t allowed to do almost anything. Your hunk doesn’t know that you’re awake because we don’t have authorization from your father to release any information to him.”
So Deanna and the Asian nurse were the only two who stayed behind. They closed the door and pulled the curtains. One nurse filled a basin with hot water, and the other put a heavy wet shower cap over my head. Before I knew it, I was stripped of my gown, lying completely flat, and being washed with baby shampoo by them. I did feel weird. I felt awkward that they were there washing me from head to toe while I just lay there useless. I was able to move my arms and legs with only minimal pain, but I was on bed rest until further notice.
I looked down at my body and saw the damage. Golden bite scars all over my body, some around my breasts. There were two pink bullet holes, they looked completely healed, and there was a tube
coming out from my side, and another one coming out from my bottom.
Once they had me washed up, I turned from side to side a few times so they could do my back, change the sheets, and put my gown on. They rubbed baby lotion all over my body, which felt incredible and smelled yummy, and sat me completely up for the first time since I’d woken up. The Asian nurse towel dried my hair and combed it out. She then parted it down the middle and began to French braid my hair from root to tip. My hair was completely down to my waist now, probably past it. Securing the rubber bands, she stepped away and Deanna came with a cup of water, a ready toothbrush, and a mirror.
I brushed my teeth and looked at myself in the mirror. My face was completely rested. I had no dark circles, but I was a little puffy. My skin was a little flushed, but clear from any type of mark beside the ugly scar on my chin. I looked at my teeth and they were decent. They were not the way I expected them to be, but I understood the reason for it. The dentist was on my agenda once I got out of here.
Once I was done looking at myself, the nurse took all the stuff away and they both left without another word. I sat there with my hands on my lap, listening to the eerie quietness in the hospital, except for the monitors going off at the nurses’ station. I closed my eyes and laid my head back.
That’s when I felt him first. I thought it was because we had spent so much time together. We had gone through too much together. It was like a hush in my brain where all of my thinking had suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes when I heard the footsteps coming closer. The nurses went quiet in the hallways as well. Some mumbled hello, some just stared. He walked into my room and stopped at the doorway. He simply looked at me. His eyes were shining with tears.
He looked amazing in a white tee shirt, and dark denim jeans that showed how perfect his body was. He had a helmet in his hands. He looked like he’d lost some weight.
My Sweet Escape: A Touched by an Angel Novel Page 15
