Coming Home

Shock was the only thing I could manage to process. We had spent months thinking our girl was dead. We had spent months trying to find out how she died. We had spent months campaigning for better gun control. Charlie and I had each gone through our private and together depression. I couldn’t even describe the emotion I was feeling at seeing her face.

She was pale and thin, but she was alive. I kept holding onto the phone like she would call us back and stay on until we got to her. My magical girl was still alive. I didn’t care how; I was just happy that she had made it out.

“Matt, stop staring at your phone. We’ve got to get moving. I know you’re shocked, but wouldn’t you rather hold onto Rae in person?” Charlie threw a pillow at me as he moved around the room, gathering up trash and shoes so we could head to Virginia Beach.

“She’s alive, Charlie.” I laced up the ties to my Adias shoes. “She’s alive and wants to see us.”

Charlie paused as he zipped up his hoodie. “Don’t get too emotional just yet, Matt. We need to hold her, talk to her in person before we decide anything.”

I nodded my head. I knew he was right. We couldn’t rush into anything because we had no idea what Rae had been through. All I knew was that I wanted my girl in my arms, and I wanted to protect her. The hospital was a bit foreboding. It was clean, cleaner than most outsides of buildings should be. It looked like it had recently been repainted to cover up that it had been a military testing site. And I knew it had been a military test site because my first assignment before becoming a SEAL was at this base. They had torn it down a year later, or so I thought.

Charlie furrowed his brow. “Wasn’t this an old Navy base?”

I nodded. “Yeah, back when I was first in the service. They tore it down because some fucked up testing was being done here.”

We both looked at each other and wondered why Rae would be here or why the hell they would turn this place into a hospital at all. We tried to push these thoughts out of our minds as we entered the hospital and asked for the room of Rae Martinez.

A few of the nurses exchanged looks and grabbed a phone to call someone. This was also a warning sign to me. There was no one in the waiting room or even what would normally be the emergency room. Something was seriously weird about this place.

Two men approached us, each wearing the doctor’s white coat. In my mind, I viewed them as scientists who had done the experiments here all those years ago. I’m sure normal people would think they were actually doctors but everything seemed sketchy now.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Gomez and this is Dr. Farrow.” A man with tanned skin and dark brown eyes pointed at another man with Nordic features. “You’re here to see Lieutenant Martinez?”

Charlie looked over each man. “She’s not really a lieutenant anymore, is she? If you don’t mind, we’d like to see her now.”

The doctors nodded and motioned for us to follow them. I still got this creepy feeling on the back of my neck as we walked toward her room. Everything felt off in this place. They were only a few other patients in rooms and the rooms were locked from the outside.

Dr. Gomez and Dr. Farrow stopped outside one such door. They had to swipe their ID badges to get in. Another unsettling feeling rested in the pit of my gut. Something was just not right here.

The door opened to reveal our Rae. She was still pale and thin, but a smile ruptured across her face once she saw us. After I looked over her face, I saw that she had two feet. That was strange. Last time I saw her, she had one.

“You have two feet!”

Notes

Short but sweet