The Babysitter

Flatline

Lapis's PoV:

"Hey mum..." I whispered, walking quietly into medbay and sitting down on the tiny plastic chair beside the bed. "You awake?"

It seemed that she wasn't, so I just reached over and held her hand. Watching the vitals.

Somehow it was slightly comforting, just watching the heart monitor, hearing the little rhythmic beeps every now and then... because it meant that she was alive, she was going to be okay.

But... she was not going to be okay.

A small alarm went off, and I noticed the heartbeats getting less in rhythm... I didn't know what half of the numbers on the screen meant, but they all rapidly changed and I could just tell that it wasn't anything good.

"M-Mum are you okay?" I shout, tears filling my eyes, "wake up! You can get better, you're strong... you have to survive..."

By this point, my whole body was shaking as I gripped tightly onto my mother's hand, watching her chest slowly rising and falling..... until it stopped. I was frozen in fear until I saw the screen flatline.

Then I ran.

***

"What?!" Lime exclaimed after just hearing the news that my mother had stopped breathing, dropping his tablet onto the floor of reactor in his panic.

"Lapis, take the children to the cafeteria" Black ordered, before grabbing Lime's arm and telling him to head to medbay.

"W-Where are you going?" Lime quickly asked

"Vents are faster" Black reminded him, before disappearing into one. The other adult stepped into decontamination and the doors slid shut.

"L-Lapis?" One of the children murmured.

"Yes Indigo?"

"Is your mommy okay?" She asks, stepping forwards and staring up at me with her huge innocent eyes.

"She... she needs to be.." I say, putting on a brave face. That's the thing with leading; you have to remain calm, controlled and optimistic, otherwise the rest of the crew won't. They can't see me anxious or upset, otherwise they'll fear the worst too.

"So... cafeteria?" Coal reminds me.

"Yes" I mutter, only half listening as I stand in front of the decontamination doors that were just about to open. "Okay, follow me to the cafeteria! The adults will be back soon but for now we have to stay together and be safe."

"Okay" they all say, forming a sort of straight line. Chocolate was at the back, so I marched over to him, took him by the hand and led him to the front so he didn't get left behind.

"Let's go!" I order in a voice as cheerful as I could muster, leading the way as the doors finally slid back open.

Chocolate's PoV:

Honestly, I was scared for Lapis... I really didn't want his mommy to die like mine had. He was really tough, as a leader should be... but it still would have hurt him a lot.

I held my breath like I always did when the weird steam filled the narrow hallway of decontamination, and quickly grabbed onto Lapis's hand. He turned around to look at me, very confused, but he didn't pull away.

My mommy always held my hand when we were going through here... it made me feel safer.

Finally, the other doors opened and we all poured out into the hallway, then I began breathing again. We were out of the scary place, but I still held his hand all the way to the cafeteria.