Chapter 2 - The Poison in the Veins
The courtroom erupted into total chaos the moment Colonel Aaron Carter’s voice boomed against the wooden walls.
Judge Richard Hanley slammed his gavel twice, but the sharp crack-crack was swallowed by the sudden rush of footsteps. Bailiffs converged on the well of the court. Paramedics, who had been stationed in the hallway for another matter, burst through the heavy double doors pushing a gurney.
On the floor, my vision was narrowing into a pinhole of gray static. I could hear everything, but it felt like listening to voices underwater.
"She’s fine! Stop this charade!" Patricia’s sharp voice shrieked from the front row. "Your Honor, she’s manipulating the court! This is an insult to the legal system!"
Daniel leaned over the wooden railing, his face twisted into a mask of contrived exasperation. "Look at her! She does this every time we get close to a decision. She takes some pills, faints, and expects everyone to feel sorry for her!"
Colonel Carter didn't look back at them. His large, calloused hand stayed pinned to my carotid artery. His dark eyes were cold, focused, and terrifyingly calm.
"Shut your mouth," Carter said, his voice dropping into a low, lethal register that made even Daniel flinch. "I’m a flight surgeon with fifteen years of combat triage experience. Her pulse is forty-two and dropping. Her pupils are non-reactive to light. She is in acute neurotoxic shock."
"Neurotoxic?" Judge Hanley echoed, his face draining of color. He stood up behind his elevated desk, looking down at me on the floor. "Colonel, are you saying—"
"I’m saying if these paramedics don't get an IV line in her arm and push atropine within three minutes, her diaphragm will paralyze and she will stop breathing right here on your courtroom rug," Carter snapped.
The paramedics dropped to their knees beside me.
"Systolic is seventy over forty!" the female paramedic called out, her hands flying over her kit. "She’s going into heart block!"
"Load and go," the male paramedic barked. "Get the monitor on her!"
Daniel took a step backward, his smirk suddenly wavering. He glanced at his mother. Patricia had stopped shaking her tissues; her hand was frozen over her designer handbag, her eyes darting toward the exit doors.
"Daniel," Patricia hissed in a low whisper that picked up on the court reporter's microphone. "We should leave."
"Nobody leaves this courtroom," Judge Hanley roared, pointing a finger directly at Daniel and his mother. "Bailiffs, lock those doors! Secure the room! This hearing is suspended pending a medical evaluation, and I want a full transcript of everything said in the last five minutes!"
Strong hands lifted me onto the cold canvas of the gurney. Straps were pulled tight across my chest. As they wheeled me down the center aisle, the fluorescent lights flashed overhead like rhythmic bursts of lightning.
I caught a brief glimpse of Colonel Carter walking briskly alongside the stretcher, holding the IV bag high above his head.
"Hang on, ma'am," he said, looking down at me. "My name is Aaron. I’ve got you. Stay with me."
"My... my daughter," I managed to rasp out, my voice sounding like broken glass. "Lily... Sunday..."
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"We'll find your daughter," Carter promised, his voice steady as iron. "Right now, you fight."
The double doors swung open into the cold afternoon air. The siren began to wail, piercing through the fog in my brain before everything swallowed into pitch-black darkness.
