ELBINA 3

Chapter 27

Lucas
"How's she doing?" She's still there, except this time there's a different doctor just finishing with her leg now as he wipes up the last of the blood.
"She's stable and it seems the meds are kicking in too."
I smile, a pressure off my chest at seeing her look. "She looks more relaxed." I glance down at the hand she has on my elbow.
"I'm glad you found her. Looks like she really needed your help." I shake my head.
"She just needed someone in her corner." It falls from my lips as a whisper, and I receive a squeeze on my elbow from Riley once she hears me.
I had to remember that I didn't have time to be here, and so I turned to Riley.
"I need a phone." She nods in response, leading me away quickly. Pulling at my elbow as I glance back at the doctor who is checking over Ella.
"There's one near the office space of the building." We weave through the corridors, moving further away from both the entrance.
"Is there a computer too?" She nods again, pulling me through a door to a hallway lined by carpet in comparison to the rest of the hospital. It's much quieter through here too, the sounds of the hectic crowds and the running staff are lost once the doors close behind us.
She stops us at a small empty desk, dropping her grip on my arm to start it up. Quickly typing in her own login details and pulling the phone beside the computer in preparation for me.
"I'm going to head back to Ella, okay?" I switch positions with her so I'm in front of the computer now, and as she's about to move away I call out to her.
"I'm sorry." She looks at me in confusion, "for everything I've put you through the past 24 hours." She shakes her head as if to cut me off.
"You don't need to say sorry for anything. You're not a bad person... You're just trying to do the right thing, so don't say sorry... It's okay." She gives me one more smile until she jogs back down the hallway leaving me at a loss for words.
Even if she didn't mean it, what she'd said hit me like a train.
I wanted to think it through but again, I didn't have time.
Eventually, since I didn't know Gerald's number, I found the office number. Hoping against anything that I'd manage to get something coherent out of me when I'd been left rattled once again by Riley's words.
The minute I hear the beginning of an opening message from some receptionist I cut them off.  "I need to speak to Gerald Truemen."
"He's currently out of the office right now." A huff in their tone at being cut off by me, I grip the phone tighter.
"I already know that, what I need is for you to pass me his mobile number." A scoff sounds in response.
"Sir, I'm not going to give over his mobile number to you. That's just not going to happen." A laugh plays on her lips over the phone.
"I'm not going through this again! Call him and he'll tell you that he wants to speak with me." The last we'd spoke, he was supposed to be coming to find us. He was too late then, and she'd got to us before he had the chance. I couldn't wait any longer, otherwise the same thing would happen again. Except this time, there wouldn't be a second chance.
She sighs. "Who are you?"
"Lucas Diremen. You might as well pass his number over now otherwise you're going to face a backlash from him if you waste my time." I didn't know what I was saying at this point, I just needed something to work.
"I don't think you realise how many people pull the same shit with me Lucas. I'm not giving you his number."
"He's in Manchester right now, trying to find the people behind today's attack. I'm the only one right now that knows where they are, now you can either help me or you can know for certain that I will make sure you get fired the minute that I get back in contact with Gerald."
There's a long pause over the phone, and for a moment i'm really not sure if I'm even going to get anything from her. In all honesty I half expected the phone to just cut out with the slam of the phone being put down.
I wasn't expecting her to start calling out his number, so I almost missed the first few in the rush to write them down on the paper in front of me. I don't even thank her in all honesty, I slam the phone down and I start dialing.
Hoping that she didn't give me a false one just to get me off the phone.
It's dialling, so at least it was a real number. My heart thumps hard in my chest again, and the sweat builds in the palm of my hand.
This corridor is too quiet, it's unnerving and my eyes can't stop looking up and down it, thinking that she'll just suddenly come walking towards me.
We'd come a long way, I wasn't about to be stopped now.
The minute the ringing stops, Gerald's voice calls out my name.
"Lucas?" He'd expected me, or at least he hoped it was me. Calling from an anonymous number, because the last he'd heard from me was back at that apartment building. He must have seen the aftermath, and knew that we weren't there when he finally got there too.
"Nero's alive and we're at the hospital." I gasped, trying to get it all out before I didn't have time.
"How the hell did you make it out of there alive? By the time we got there, everyone was gone and the residents of the building were hysterical." I stop him from saying anything else, dropping my head down and planting my hand out on the desk as I lean over myself. Trying to be pragmatic, trying not to remember the events of today and how much it scared me.
"She did get to us, just not in there. But then we managed to escape the building she trapped us in, before it blew up." Don't think about it.
Just say the words and don't think about it. 
Or else, I'll never get what I was supposed to say out. And that wouldn't help.
"You were in that building? Jesus, Lucas. Are you okay?" My head shakes, clamping my hand around the phone tighter somehow.
"At the moment, we're okay." She was, Riley was there. She wouldn't let anything happen to her either, she was being looked after. 
There's a slight pause from him, the sounds of movement on the other end. "What do you mean at the moment?"
"She doesn't know if Nero's dead yet. So we think she's going to come here to find him, to finish the job."
"Come to the hospital?"
"Yes. You need to get here quick and I mean that. You need to get here in the next few minutes." I rise up again, hearing movement down the hallway but not really hearing anything more other than that.
"We'll do what we can." My teeth grit when I hear him say it, the sounds of further movement on the other end.
But I lower my voice, knowing that there may be someone listening in further down the corridor. People that could interrupt me tring to get the help where we needed it. "Considering your abilities to get anywhere in time, I really hope that for once in your life. You'll actually get it done, you've messed up too much for me to believe you. Now I'm just hoping that this time things will be different. Don't fucking let me down again." I hissed.
"I'm in the car now, is that not good enough?"
"It's not going to be good enough until you're in this hospital and arresting her!"
He doesn't say anything to my anger, knowing more than likely that he deserved it. "We're a few minutes out. Is she there yet?"
"I don't think she's here."
But then I hear muffled voices from down the hallway, I lift the phone from my ear listening in. A furrow of my eyebrows when I hear faint words travelling down the corridor to me.
"When did they go offline?" I listen closer.
"A few minutes ago, they just stopped working."
"Lucas? What's happening?" His worried voice calls out to me through the phone, I ignore him for a moment. Stepping out from behind the desk, the cord between the phone and the handset stretching as I step further out into the hallway. The sight of two men stood looking at each other, there's voices still muffled between them as they kept talking.
I follow one of the security officers' eyes, watching them tilt their head up to the camera in the corner of the ceiling.
"The CCTV's down." I say to him in realisation.
"When?"
"A few minutes ago." I say distantly, analysing the hallways for any possible signs of anything different but there's nothing.
"She's in the building." I whisper, my stomach dropping harsh till it hurt and all I could do was grip the phone in my hand harder to ward off the cold sweat soaking the palm of my hand.
Then all of a sudden, he gets cut off.
The phone line dialing out with one single long beep, never ending and droning on.
The phone lines were down too now, Gerald gone from the other end leaving me on my own.
She was most certainly here now, whether we were ready for it or not.
"Fuck."
The security guards continue mumbling to each other, before one of them pulls the other with them into the side door. Presumably to understand why the cameras had stopped working. Slowly I drop the phone back onto it's holder, it's useless now.
The sudden drop in my gut won't leave, my eyes flitting across the entire hallway thinking about how she could be anywhere.
But she wouldn't come into the hospital and just wander around, she'd know where he is. So she'd head straight for him.
The more I think about it, the more worried I become. Ella was at the front of the hospital, the main entrance and if the camera's were down why would it matter what entrance she took? Which means she could very well pass right by her, and what's to stop her seeing her?
I couldn't let her be found, she's my priority above all else.
Maybe I should have listened to Nero? Maybe I should have gotten her out as soon as possible.
I shook off that thought, knowing by the time I'd made that decision... it would have been too late anyway.
But should I head for Nero first? If she's already in the building, I'm not sure where she's got to and I can't let her go surely?
I see her body being slammed against the boxes in that warehouse, her body crumbling beneath her without the energy to hold herself up anymore. The pain in my gut as I watched them roughly drag her away from me, so I couldn't do anything and all I could do was watch.
The thought solidifies my decision as I sprint down the corridor, pushing against the doors and back out of the carpeted flooring. Heading straight for the entrance again and weaving through the corridors until I finally reach the A&E ward again.
My feet hit the ground hard, pushing myself on faster in hopes that maybe I could reach her first and hide her away from possible enemy eyes. She needed to stay dead if she was going to survive today, and it's the same for me too.
At this point, I didn't care what really happened to Nero.
He'd brought it on himself.
"Lucas!" I hear a distant shout off from my right, Riley's voice echoing in my ear but I don't listen.
I didn't have time for distractions, I needed to get to Ella before Arden did.
I push on, skidding to a stop in front of the sectioned off bed that I'd left her in before.
Except, she's not there.
All there is, is an empty bed. The staining of her blood is still on the plastic covering, not even dried yet and a flustered doctor cleans up the mess left on the ground beside it.
The only thing I can hear is the thrumming of my heartbeat in my ear, quick and thudding so intensely that I get a headache brewing.
Knees weak, I don't hear Riley again until she grabs at my elbow making me jump. Heart already in my throat when she looks at me just as flustered as the doctor behind me, her frays of hair even more wild and her eyes flick to them behind me in a frenzy.
"Where is she?" The words fell from my lips in a whisper, not quite believing that things had taken such a turn so quickly. She was just here.
I look back at the bed. She was just there not moments ago.
"She saw something, and then she was just gone."
No.
I shake my head, seeing the doctor pick up the end of a catheter. The same catheter that had been placed into the back of her hand, now thrown onto the ground in whatever altercation that occurred here not moments ago.
"Where did she go?" I manage to say, a dry throat makes it come out hoarse.
Not wanting the answer that I was sure to receive, her hand pushes back the frays of baby hair from her forehead as she looks back down the hallway.
"We tried to stop her, I swear."
I cut her off, "How long ago?"
"I'm not sure, a couple of minutes. No more than that." This can't be happening, I can't lose her again.
"She went for Nero, didn't she?" I said, shrugging her hand off my arm and stepping back. My skin igetting hot in panic, my breathing getting heavier.
She shakes her head instead, "You. She thinks you're with him right now."
I place my hands on her shoulders, keeping her eyes set on me. Hoping that she realises how serious I am right now when I lower my voice to her.
"Someone's coming. His name's Gerald, you send him straight to Nero's room and tell him to hurry."
"What's happening Lucas?" Her eyes wide, her own breathing in a frenzy.
I didn't answer her though, it was too difficult to explain anyway. Instead, I squeeze her arms a little tighter "Tell him to hurry."
And then I run,
Run back to Nero's room as fast as my legs will carry me.
And hope more than anything in the world, that I'm not too late.