Dark Blood

Chapter 18

The weight and caress of cool sheets on her legs awoke her. She flexed her fingers, feeling the mattress beneath her.

Damn. That was one fucked up dream.

Kara inhaled and went to turn onto her side, expecting to open her eyes to the sight of the beach and a beautiful sunrise from her hotel window. Instead, she hissed in pain and fell back into the bed. It felt like she had been through the most grueling workout of her life. Everything ached; her legs, her back, her shoulders, her head, her lungs, her torso. Everything just fucking hurt.

She opened her eyes and squinted against the light, seeing nothing but white. Man, if this is my welcome to Heaven, I'm gonna have to have a word with one of the angels. This sucks.

Turning her head to the right, she saw the shape of a man sitting by her bed through her bleary vision. She blinked and squinted. He seemed familiar.

"Dad?" she croaked.

The person jolted, surprised to see her awake, and leaned forward. A chiseled face with a buzzcut and blue eyes came into focus.

"Not exactly, kid." Stephens. Huh, he's got blue eyes.

Kara tried to smile at her Colonial Marine friend but the attempt turned into a grimace; the left side of her face felt stiff and she realized that she couldn't open her eye. Stephens rested his hand on her arm.

"Try not to do too much, kid. You took one hell of a beating and your body needs some time to heal. Lie still or you'll rip the stitches."

She panned her working eye around the room. She was propped up in a bed in a hospital of sorts; it had the curtains on either side of her, IV drips, beeping medical devices, and white tile floors and ceiling one would expect. The only difference was that everyone she could see through the little gap in her privacy curtains, even the doctors, were wearing a grey camo uniform similar to Stephens'.

"Where are we?"

"In the hospital wing of the Colonial Marines' headquarters. You've been patient number one for the past two days. They've had you on some serious fluids in order to keep you functioning," he said, pointing to the IV taped to her hand. "Had a few scares, but you pulled through no problem."

Two days? She'd been out of the Hive and laying in a hospital bed for two days.

"How...?"

Stephens chuckled. "How'd we get here? Let me tell ya, kid. It wasn't easy."

After she had blacked out, Tyler had gotten in contact with the people in charge of the operation, letting them know that the mission was complete and that they needed help getting out of the Hive. Xenos were banging at the door the whole time the four were hunkered down in the Queen's chamber. Stephens said he had tried to rouse her, but she just fell limp in his arms and wouldn't stir. Backup arrived quickly and had no problem taking care of the rest of the Hive; without their Queen, the Xenos were less organized and more frantic. They didn't try hiding or sneaking around, instead attacking recklessly and leaving themselves out in the open for the other Marines to mow them down.

"It was a real bloodbath," Stephens said. "Lots of acid puddles and sizzling corpses to avoid."

When backup arrived and opened the door, they got her on oxygen and a compact stretcher and toted her out of the Hive to a waiting helicopter. Apparently, Kara was a much heavier deadweight than they had anticipated, and they had nearly dropped her off the stretcher a few times climbing the stairs. When they brought her into the hospital unit, the doctors were baffled that she was still alive.