Page 6 of The World Undone

Like a veil had been lifted, the quiet calm of the grounds disappeared the moment we stepped inside.

Chaos didn’t even begin to describe the med center.

Sounds flooded me, cluttered and competing for my attention until they all just blurred into unintelligible noise.

“Fuck,” Izzy muttered, her eyes wide as she took the place in. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Nope.”

Compared to the high-tech labs and the med center at Headquarters, I wasn’t sure this small log cabin could even be called such a thing. There were a handful of rooms, a cellar downstairs, and that was about it.

Beds were crowded and cluttered twenty to a room, packed tightly together like sardines. Most of the equipment was outdated, and the chorus of moans and screams from the patients locked in the terror of their trauma—both physical and mental—echoed on a constant loop. It was the soundtrack of nightmares.

Eli was already here, running from bed to bed, his arms covered in splotches of red, despite the crisp, clean latex gloves he changed between each patient. My eyes found him instantly, like they’d been searching him out the moment we’d stepped through the door—my body aware of his presence long before my mind.

A grunt pulled my attention in the opposite direction. “Thought I told you to stay home today.”

Somehow, even surrounded by the agony and horror of the room, I smiled.

A small face, mapped with wrinkles, appeared at my side.

“Morning, Greta.”

She grunted again, shaking her head with affectionate frustration. “Bentleys never have been much for listening, have they?” Her hand reached for Izzy's, giving it a small squeeze. “Good to see you again, Isadora. Though not at all surprised to find you here on your first day with amended clearance.”

Izzy winked. “You too, you old bat. Put me to work today, okay? I’ve been bored senseless locked up in those rooms. It’s nice to finally stretch my legs.”

Finding out that Greta had been working at the Lodge for months was a downright gift from the gods. It wasn’t entirely a surprise though. She’d always had a spark of rebellion about her and had bent the rules of The Guild from the very moment I met her. Maybe that was why I’d taken an instant liking to her.

She had a way with patients, her personality and bedside manner molding to whatever each person responded best to, what they needed. Without her help, we would have lost dozens of those we brought back here from The Guild. Something about her presence was like a balm for the soul.

She snorted but walked off without complaint. I was never able to get more than a sentence or two at a time from her. She was spread too thin. Even with all the volunteers in here, it wasn’t enough. “Heard you got clearance to check on Seamus this morning. Charlie’s down there now,” she called back, her voice nearly swallowed by the chaos of the room. She nodded to the end of the hall where I knew a heavy, metal door was sitting. It wasn’t enough to keep me out, but I’d done my best to honor their wishes here, to stay out of their way as long as I could. “Bring Eli with you. The kid’s going to fall over if he doesn’t take a break. And he listens to me about as well as you do.”

“You’re one to talk,” I muttered, receiving nothing but a loud, cracked chortle in response.

Greta wasn’t exactly a spry young thing—she’d retired twice over already—and I was fairly certain she didn’t sleep. Like, at all. Still, she seemed to have more energy and stamina than the rest of us combined. If she kept up her current pace though, she was going to burn herself out.

I’d need to get her full story one of these days. I had a feeling it was a captivating one—but there hadn’t been much time for friendly conversation since I’d found myself on The Lodge’s front steps. Other than the look in her eyes when she’d first found me here, the warm hug that had me melting into a puddle of tears, her condolences pressed into me without a word, we’d hardly had time to truly reconnect.

Eli’s dark gaze replaced hers as he wrapped me into his own tight, warm hug. His nose pressed into the curve of my neck as he took a slow, deep breath. My skin tingled where it met his. I felt him relax against me, the tension lining his body softening just a touch.

He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead before pulling away and sparing a brief glance to my left before his eyes found mine again. “Good to see you, Izzy. Welcome to the shit show. I hope you have a strong stomach.”

She arched a brow, surveying the room. “I’ve seen worse.”

A soft grin tugged at his mouth as he pulled me against him until our sides lined up, glued together.

I didn’t fight it. My body craved his, just, I imagined, as his craved mine. And despite living in the same small cabin and working together here, we hadn’t had much time to simply exist with each other.

We spent all of our days here in this small wooden box, tending to patients and helping Greta, and most of my nights were spent hovering over Atlas, trying to help him find his way back to himself—back to us.

Was it weird to miss someone I technically spent most of my time with? Because I did.

The small grin faded from his face as his eyes found mine. “Ready?”

I nodded, grabbing his hand and giving it a soft squeeze.

Eli saw his father every day, but I knew that each visit stabbed at him.

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