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21

ALAYNA

I WAS IN PAIN. So much pain. Every breath I took was sharp, stabbing,

blinding pain.

Dizzily, I staggered through the wilderness, looking for bars on the

phone, looking for a place where my repeated call to Hudson's cell would

go through.

And now I had finally gotten to him, finally heard his voice and told

him the words I had to leave him with. I'd held out for this, fought against

loss of consciousness so he would know before I went.

"Let them know I loved them.”

FOR THE SECOND TIME, I woke up not knowing where I was.

This room was much brighter than the last one, everything white and

sterile. There was a steady bleep-bleep-bleep sound that matched the blip

on the heart monitor next to me. Oxygen flowed through a tube inserted at

my nose, and another tube connected my wrists to an IV drip.

I turned my head to look at the other side of me, and there was Hudson

in a chair pulled up right next to the bed that I lay in, so close he'd fallen

asleep leaning over on the mattress