Survivors

The next thing that Luke was aware of was a throbbing vibration in all of his bones. He didn’t open his eyes just yet as that felt like too much effort. It slowly dawned on him that he still couldn’t hear anything properly, the only thing he could make out was what sounded like a low hum. He lay still trying to piece together what had happened and what was currently happening right now. His thoughts were still jumbled and in the end he had to open his eyes and look around to try and make sense of everything. What became pretty obvious was that he was in a helicopter lying on some sort of stretcher. Everything hurt and he had several bandages wrapped around different parts of his body. Some of the bandages were stained with blood but compared to the rest of his clothes they still looked clean and fresh.

In the helicopter were several other men. Some of the men were also swathed in bandages and all of them were covered in black soot. Luke frantically scanned the faces around him trying to find Joe and Holly. From the position he was laying in he couldn’t see them. He painfully sat up, his head instantly started swimming and he thought he was either going to be sick or pass out again. A hand reached out and touched him gently on the arm. He looked round. It was Holly and she was smiling at him. She started to speak but he couldn’t hear her so without thinking he flung his arms round her neck and hugged her tight. Then almost as quickly he roughly pushed her away.

“Where’s Joe?” he said. Holly looked puzzled then said something back to him that he again couldn’t hear. From her expression Luke guessed that she hadn’t been able to hear him over the din of the helicopter, which ironically he couldn’t hear.

“Where’s Joe?!” he yelled. This time she heard him and smiled and she moved to one side. Lying down on the other side of the helicopter was Joe. He looked ghostly pale and had a drip in the back of his hand and several other things either stuck in or on him. He really didn’t look good at all. Joe’s shoulder was covered in a thick wodge of cotton wool and all sorts of bandages, plasters and bits of tape, but blood was still seeping through. But he was obviously alive, even if it was only just.

“Only just is all the chance we need isn’t it little brother” thought Luke “The rest is down to Bretnel’s cocktail of DNA and your pig-headed stubbornness”.

Holly was holding Joe’s hand. As Luke noticed this she held out her other hand to him. Without hesitating he took it and squeezed it tight. The three of them then sat like this in silence as the helicopter flew them from the mainland out towards the island, the Human Free State and safety.

Epilogue

Holly and Luke sat in the small hospital room where Joe was lying in a drug induced deep deep sleep. Joe was going to be fine, they were all going to be fine. It had been touch and go a couple of times for Joe within the first few hours of arriving on the island because of the sheer amount of blood he had lost. As his blood type was (thanks to Bretnel) now something that no doctor had ever come across before the only donor who could be found was Luke. Every few hours he had offered another pint until he too had collapsed through exhaustion. But the worst was now well past.

Luke’s hearing had been muffled for a few days but it had gradually come back. He still had the odd shooting pain in his right ear but it was nothing much to complain about. Especially considering the number of Aliens that they had taken on.

“What are you thinking?” Holly asked.

“Nothing” replied Luke vaguely.

“Oh come on” said Holly grinning “I’ve known you far too long to let you off the hook that easily. There were obviously some deep serious Luke thoughts going on in there. What is it, tell me?”

She playfully punched his arm.

Luke started to grin back, then his face hardened and he looked at Holly totally serious.

“I’m going to go back one day” he said firmly.

“What!? To the mainland”

“Yep” he replied “I’ve got to”.

“Got to?” said Holly “I don’t understand”.

“It’s something that Darius said when we were in the wood” he went on “He talked about duty and responsibility and how I should have learnt about that by now. At the time I don’t think I really understood what he meant. But after the fight at the beach when I thought I’d lost you and Joe I think I now know what he meant, so that’s why I’m going to go back and get him out”.

“But he said he wouldn’t come without the others” protested Holly “It wasn’t your fault”.

“I know that. Darius said he wouldn’t come without the others” replied Luke “He couldn’t leave them behind, like you wouldn’t ever leave me or Joe behind. So I will get them too. All of them. All the ones that Darius wants to bring with him”.

“You said there were hundreds of them”

“I know” said Luke getting up. “Then we need to find a way to get hundreds of them out then don’t we”

“But… How Luke?” asked Holly

“I have absolutely no idea” he replied. Then with a big grin he added “Yet!”

and with that he left the room.