Lost and Found (ONC2024)✅

Chapter 15

Jude

No matter how much and how loud I called Percy's name, he didn't come back. He was nowhere. I was in a state where I didn't know what was real and what wasn't. Everything went by so fast, my vision blurred. Is this an ambulance? I wondered as I lay on a stretcher, attached to all kinds of tubes. Why did I need this oxygen, anyway? I yanked the tube off, flinging it at the man beside me. A woman sat on the other side of me. If I was in an ambulance, then they must have been paramedics.

"You're okay," Judah, the woman said. "Everything will be okay."

"I need to go back," I muttered, but I doubted anyone heard me. "Send me back!"

As I lay flat on my back, I didn't notice the woman standing behind me. "Don't let him fall asleep," she said. "Give him another shot of epinephrine."

"But we just did twenty minutes ago," the man said.

"Give him another one. He's very sick. We can't risk him passing out and disappearing on us. He may not make it back."

As soon as they jabbed me, my heart raced, and I felt like I was crawling out of my skin, yet I couldn't move. I couldn't sit up or do much of anything else except call out Percy's name. Upon reaching our destination, only the darkness revealed the time, nothing more. I had no idea where we were.

The paramedics rushed me into a building, down an empty hallway, and into a room. The stark white walls blinded me. I hadn't yet realized we were in a shower room. Two men and one woman entered, all dressed in gowns, face shields, and gloves, reminiscent of the 2020-2021 COVID era. Maybe I'd gone back to 2020.

"Is this 2020?" I asked them.

"No. It's March 10th, 2024," one man said, standing beside me.

"Hi, Judah. My name's Tanya and I'll be your nurse. This is Dr. Rossi and Evan, one of the aides."

"Call me Mike," the doctor said. "Just relax. We're here to help you. First, we're just going to clean you up."

Evan and Mike undressed me before transferring me into a shower chair. My limbs were like jelly. Without warning, Evan sprayed with hot water, soaking me. Once I was sopping weight, Tanya lathered my hair with shampoo while Evan scrubbed every inch of my body with soap. Despite the humiliation of someone washing parts of my body I only ever let Percy wash, it felt damn good to rid myself of those bugs and anything else I might have been carrying.

"See this rash..." the doctor said to Tanya and Evan, acting like an instructor, using me as a learning opportunity. "This is indicative of typhus, a very contagious disease caused by lice. He'll need an antibiotic."

"You're gonna be okay, Judah," Tanya said, helping me into a johnnie. People needed to stop telling me that. It was nothing but lies. "We're here to help you. We'll let you sleep soon... real sleep."

Real sleep. I'd forgotten what that felt like.

Yet, the fate of Percy remained a mystery. Was he here, too?

Lightheaded and dizzy, I struggled to sit up, my head still pounding, my body shivering with chills and a fever. Suddenly, the projectile vomit returned. With no food in my stomach, I threw up bile. I'd never been so sick in my entire life. I hoped they could help me.

On another stretcher, I lay on my stomach in a brightly lit room. I was with it enough to know we were in an operating room.

"Hello, Judah," a woman said. I recognized her voice from the ambulance. Her voice seemed to come from all directions. "I'm Dr. Carmen Rodriguez. We met a few years ago. Don't worry. We're all here to help you. It's time to end this nightmare. Now you'll just feel a pinch."