It showed multiple fractures in one arm, three broken ribs and a fractured skull. Lilly had taken a beating saving that man from the falling building. It was a foolish and risky thing to have done, but he’d never felt more proud of her. She might have inherited some of Joliet’s brashness, but she’d also inherited her strident sense of right and wrong. A willingness to risk her life to save others was a quality that parents feared, but also hoped their children would develop. Part of him said that if Lilly had better training, she might have made it out unscathed, but he knew that no one else on the planet could have escaped that falling building alive, let alone with a startled janitor in tow.
The machine then went to work, administering general anesthesia and quickly cutting away her clothing. Next, it set bones and cleaned wounds, the robot arms, all bearing a logo reading Mohr, moved in a perfectly choreographed dance. Wounds were glued shut and bandaged. Her set arm was sprayed with a foam that expanded and hardened from her wrist to her shoulder.
Hawkins wondered if the machine would have made the same call if it knew Lilly was covered in hair. That foam was going to be hard to remove.
Lilly was then lifted up, and her torso was wrapped in a wide, white, rib belt that would protect her from jolts and keep everything in place. Her head was wrapped next. Lilly was placed back on the table, and then the robotic arms slid silently back into holes that sealed behind them. A message blinked on the screen.
Bed rest – 2 weeks.
Rib belt – 3 weeks.
Cast disintegration – 6 weeks.
At least the cast will take care of itself, Hawkins thought.
A small tray extended from the side of the machine. It contained a single orange pill bottle labeled:
Percocet - 5mg/325.
Take orally as needed.
Max 12 tablets in 24 hrs.
The clear cover lifted away with a hiss, and the machine fell quiet. While Endo was right, that Lilly’s injuries would be tended to quickly, he still had an unconscious girl, who outweighed him, to get back outside.
The facility shook from some kind of impact, the lights flickering. Hawkins turned his eyes to the ceiling. He didn’t know how far below the surface they were, but that they could feel the impacts of the Kaiju above told him they weren’t quite deep enough to not worry. To make matters worse, they were behind enemy lines with three of their party injured.
Hawkins searched the large medical room for a gurney or wheelchair to roll her out in, but found nothing. Looks like we’ll have to use the field stretcher, Hawkins thought, heading toward the door to get Alessi. He was stopped by a weak voice behind him. “Why do the cheeseburgers taste like pancakes?”
Hawkins did an about-face and dashed to Lilly’s side. “Hey kiddo. You feeling okay?”
“I wanted a cheeseburger, but all they have are pancakes...and tweetie birds.” Her face fell flat for a moment, and then she laughed. “Tweetie birds aren’t real food, are they? But, they are for Sylvester.” The laughter just as quickly transformed to pouty crying. “But I wanted a cheeseburger.”
Hawkins wasn’t sure which was worse, an unconscious and still Lilly, or a mobile tripping Lilly. He put his hand on her good shoulder. “Hey Lilly, look at me.”
Her head lolled, but she made eye contact. Her pupils were dilated, causing her to squint when she saw the lights on the ceiling. “So bright in here.” Then she gasped. “Are we on a spaceship? Oh. My. God. We were abducted!”
The smile that came to Hawkins’s face was unbidden, but he couldn’t hold it back. Their situation was precarious, but he still wished he had a video recorder of some kind to capture this.
A sudden commotion from the hallway caught his attention. Shouting voices. But no gunfire.
“Lilly,” Hawkins said, making eye contact again. “Do you know who I am?”
“Daddy,” she said with a smile, and she leaned her head on his chest.
You’re breaking my heart, kid, he thought, wanting to just hug her until her head cleared. Instead, he pushed her back. “Lilly, I need you to wait right here. No matter what you hear, just wait for me to come back.”
She seemed to sober a little. “And if you don’t come back?”
“I will.”
Her eyes glazed over again. “Get me a cheeseburger.”
“Tomorrow,” he said, heading for the door. “Tomorrow, you can have all the cheeseburgers you want.”
Lilly tried to clap her hands, but was befuddled by the cast that kept her arm bent at an unmoving forty-five degree angle. “Awww.”
Hawkins pushed his way through the doors into the hallway, and then he stopped. Woodstock and Alessi had taken cover behind medical equipment and were aiming their weapons down the hallway, where Silhouette, once again dressed, but without his telltale reflective mask, stood with four non-BlackGuard soldiers. While the soldiers had M4 rifles, Silhouette appeared unarmed.
“Ahh, Ranger,” Silhouette said. “Was wondering where you were. Is your kitty all patched up now?”
“Go to hell,” Hawkins said. He had a sidearm, but hadn’t thought to bring anything bigger, as he had been preoccupied with carrying Lilly.
Silhouette smiled. “How about this? You and your pals can walk. We’ll hang on to Lilly.”
“What happened to your word?” Hawkins said. “You said you wouldn’t take her.”