Tabula Rasa

Chapter 30

Sofia closed the cabin door behind her and collapsed into the seat between Yelena and Katya. The medic said nothing as she stared blankly at the trees in front of her.

They were in an idyllic location, in a private log cabin near Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania. The decking at the front of the property was furnished with comfy rocking chairs with hand-knitted afghan throws, and it offered an amazing view of the thick woodlands that surrounded the area.

But none of them cared. This was just a convenient stopping place.

"Still no change?" Katya guessed.

Sofia shook her head. She seemed to be fighting to keep her eyes open, so Yelena offered her the rest of her coffee. Sofia gulped down the lukewarm liquid without a grimace. She must have been as exhausted as she looked.

"Why isn't she waking up?" Yelena asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "Its been two days."

"She lost a lot of blood from the wound, Yelena. Blood that she couldn't afford to lose after cutting her treatment short."

Yelena crossed her arms and kicked at one of the plant pots decorating the deck.

She hated this.

She hated feeling so helpless.

And so guilty.

The only reason the other Widows had been injected with those nanites was because of her defection. If it wasn't for that, they wouldn't have needed that damned plasmapheresis thing. Volkov's men would never have tracked them to South Carolina.

And Calina would never have been shot.

If it wasn't for you, they still would have been locked inside their own minds in the Red Room.

The voice in her head sounded suspiciously like Nat's.

She wished she could talk to her. She needed her big sister. She needed Nat to tell her that she was doing a good job leading the Widows, despite all evidence to the contrary.

You're not responsible for us. We're sisters. Team mates. But we're not your burden.

That voice was definitely Calina's. She'd said the words to Yelena just a few weeks ago. Yelena hadn't believed them back then, and she didn't believe them now, either. She was responsible for the Widows that she'd freed. She had made the decision to take down the Red Room. And until that job was complete - until they'd killed every last one of the bastards who'd worked there - she was in charge. She was responsible.

Which meant, when one of them got hurt, it was on her.

When one of them died, it was on her.

First there was Kira...

She didn't want to lose Calina too.

"Is there anything more we can do?" she asked.

"No. Not without an intensive care facility and a lab."

They'd made the decision as a team not to take Calina to a hospital. It would have been too easy for Volkov to track her there, and a gunshot would have raised too many questions - questions that might have gained the attention of the agencies in charge of the Sokovia accords.

They'd tried to reach the new base in Maine, but Calina's condition had deteriorated in the van, so they'd found this secluded cabin and set up a makeshift hospital room. Sofia had managed to stabilise her, thanks to the supplies they'd stolen from a nearby emergency clinic - oxygen, antibiotics and multiple bags of fluid and O-neg blood.