More. || Eric Coulter

Fourteen.

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The room was dark with only a few lights from machines illuminating the surroundings when Vinnie opened her eyes.
Her throat felt dry and it was almost impossible to gulp without pain.
Looking around, already adjusted to the darkness, Vinnie could see machines surrounding her and tubes and needles sticking out of her arms as well as some patches on her chest so she figured she must've been in a hospital bed. She desperately wanted to know what time it was though when examining the room, she discovered that there was no clock and weirdly enough not even windows to let her know if it was day or night.
A dull pain accompanied by pressure started to make itself noticeable in her thighs though because of the darkness and a blanket covering her, she couldn't tell what the cause of this pain was, yet. So she propped herself up as best as she could with her weak arms and slowly moved her legs over the edge of the bed to find a light switch.
But she couldn't even make one step forward before her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, the tubes and needles pulling at her uncomfortably and painfully.
Groaning in pain and grabbing the side of the bed, Vinnie desperately tried to pull herself up though both, her arms and legs, betrayed her and failed miserably. Soon after, a door opened before someone finally switched on the light.
Another person rushed in towards her.

"For our factions sake, couldn't you have stayed in bed and pressed the call button?" The woman who picked Vinnie up said, checking if the needles and tubes were still in place and secured.
In return she shot her death glares at her stupidity. She just woke up in complete darkness and in an unknown bed so how was she supposed to know where that damn button was?
Finally being able to see what caused the pain in her legs Vinnie looked down and saw bandages poking out underneath the hospital gown.

"Gun shot wounds." clarified the woman and lifted the gown, revealing the rest of the blood stained bandages. "Do you remember what happened?"

Scenes of where Vinnie had been and what had happened replayed in her head and she nodded before giving an answer. "I was shot at an intersection by a divergent and then there was an explosion."

The woman nodded in response while another nurse handed her a glass of water. "You lost a lot of blood out there and wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for the belts. Did you do that?"

Vinnie simply nodded, trying to replay every detail when she remembered that Freyr was with her at the intersection and what had happened to him.

"Where's Freyr? Is he alive? Can I see him?"

"He's still asleep. We had to put him in an induced coma because his burns were quite severe though he seems to recover fairly well and might be able to wake up in a day or two.
For now, we'll have to examine you first before we can let you out of the room let alone visit him."

Vinnie nodded again, worry flooding her even though the nurse assured her that he was recovering, before she asked the next question. "How long has he been in the coma?"

"Six days. You've also been unconscious because of all the blood loss but we're happy that you've woken up now."

"What about the war?"

"It successfully ended two days ago."

"And how are the stats? And where are Frank and Eric? Are they okay?"

"I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that but I can call Max to visit you as soon as possible? Now let's get you examined and then you're almost free to go."

"What do you mean by 'almost'?"

"Well, your legs are obviously still too weak to hold you on their own so you will depend on a wheelchair for some time and it is also 4 am which means you're not allowed to roam around the halls of the infirmary until at least 6 am."