Chapter 143: She’s Awake!

Wesley's shout rang out in the empty storeroom, startling the other three.

Justin recovered quickly. His eyes settled on the hand sticking out from behind the cartons. It didn't move. The exposed skin was dry and pale, the fingers curled slightly, and there was no telling whether the person was still alive.

He stared for a moment, then slowly walked toward the corner.

Chen grabbed his arm. "Be careful."

Justin waved him off to say there was nothing to worry about. He stepped around the scattered cartons and soon saw who was lying behind them.

The person lay facedown, mostly hidden by the boxes. Their clothes were caked with dust, and there wasn't the slightest movement anywhere.

Justin didn't touch them right away. He waited a moment, and when there was still no reaction, he crouched and lightly tapped the person's shoulder. Nothing. He pushed harder a few times.

"Wake up."

Still nothing.

After a moment's hesitation, he took hold of the shoulder and slowly rolled the person over.

When he saw the face, he froze.

It was a young girl. Her face was deathly pale and her lips were badly cracked. There wasn't a trace of sweat on her cheeks or forehead. Tangled hair clung to the side of her face, dusty and matted, and her eyes were shut. He couldn't tell whether she was breathing.

Justin held a hand under her nose.

After a few seconds, he felt a faint breath.

"She's alive!"

Tom, Chen, and Wesley hurried over. All three stopped short when they saw the girl on the floor.

"What's she doing here?" Chen asked.

"I don't know." Justin looked up at them. "Never mind that. We need to help her."

Tom took out his water bottle and knelt beside her. He meant to give her a drink, but she showed no sign of waking, and he didn't dare pour water straight into her mouth. He tipped out a little and carefully dampened her cracked lips.

Her lips twitched slightly, but she didn't wake.

Tom stopped there, screwed the cap back on, and looked at the others. "Now what?"

"We take her back," Wesley said without thinking. "We can't leave her here. She'll die."

"No." Chen shook his head. "There's no doctor at the agricultural supply center. We should take her to Jack's place while it's still cool outside."

Justin disagreed.

"She can't survive a bumpy ride in this condition." He glanced down at her. "It's a long way to Jack's. She might be dead before we get there."

Wesley frowned. "We can't just leave her lying here and wait."

Tom thought for a moment, then turned to Justin. "Go back to the entrance and contact Jack on the CUEV. Ask him to send someone. The three of us will stay with her."

Justin considered it briefly and nodded. "All right."

He hurried out of the storeroom and retraced his steps to the entrance of the electronics mall. Tom set his water bottle within easy reach, and Wesley moved several boxes aside to clear some space around the girl.

Justin reached the CUEV and switched on the communication system.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

After a moment, two voices came through almost at once.

"This is Cass."

"This is Noah."

Justin was taken aback. He hadn't expected both of them to answer. He quickly recovered.

"We found someone at the electronics mall. A young girl. She's unconscious and barely breathing. Can you send someone to take a look?"

"Hold on," Cass said. "I'll tell Jack."

"Okay."

The line went quiet except for the occasional crackle. After a while, Jack's voice came through.

"Justin, what's going on?"

Justin told him how they had found the girl in the corner of the storeroom and what condition she was in.

"We don't know how long she's been there. Her lips are completely cracked, and she still hasn't woken up."

"Did you move her?" Megan asked.

"Only to turn her over. Tom dampened her lips with a little water. We haven't touched her since."

"Don't move her again, and don't give her anything to drink," Megan said. "Stay where you are. We're on our way."

"Okay."

When the call ended, Justin hurried back to the RCCU storeroom.

At the shelter, Jack and Megan started getting ready. Megan went to the shelter and packed medicine, bandages, and other supplies into a medical case.

Jack returned to the convenience store and prepared a large bottle of drinking water. When he got back to the trading post, he saw the ice synthesizer still running, so he went back to the warehouse for an insulated cooler and filled it about three-quarters full with ice.

By the time he finished, Megan had arrived at the trading post with the medical case.

Jack called Vane over. The three put on their protective gear and loaded the medical case, the water, and the cooler into the Tesla. Megan drove out of the trading post toward the electronics mall.

As the sky grew brighter, the temperature outside began to climb quickly.

Justin was sitting in the CUEV, having refilled the pouch in his cooling vest with ice and clean water. When the Tesla finally appeared in the distance, he got out at once.

The Tesla stopped near the entrance. Megan picked up the medical case, and Jack and Vane took the water and the cooler. As soon as the three stepped out, Justin led them in.

"She's in the storeroom at the back."

They hurried through row after row of display areas. When they reached the RCCU storeroom, Tom, Chen, and Wesley were still waiting beside the girl, who still hadn't woken.

Megan went straight to her, knelt, and checked her breathing and pulse. She touched the girl's forehead and the side of her neck.

Jack and Vane stayed back and didn't get in her way.

Megan opened the case, took out what she needed, and began treating the girl. The others waited quietly, occasionally handing over water or whatever else she asked for.

Jack looked at the unconscious girl, then glanced around. The sun couldn't reach them inside the mall, but as the temperature outside rose, the air in here was getting stuffy too. Their protective gear would hold up for the time being. The girl couldn't be left lying here.

He thought for a moment and turned to Vane. "Take a CUEV back and have them get a bed ready at the underground clinic. Once Megan has her stable, we'll bring her over."

Vane blinked. "Isn't the clinic still unfinished?"

"We don't have a choice," Jack said. "There's no spare room in the shelter, and we can't leave her lying under the canopy."

The clinic was still under construction, but the entrance and steps were done, and the PCCUs were keeping it cool. If they cleared a section away from the work and set up a bed, it would still be far safer than the electronics mall or the canopy.

Vane thought it over and nodded. "All right. I'll go now."

He had barely turned to leave when Justin called after him.

"Wait."

Vane stopped and looked at him.

"We've found cable," Justin said. "We moved some of it near the CUEVs. Take a load back with you, and we'll keep hauling while you're gone."

Jack looked at him in surprise. "You've already found cable? Is there a lot?"

"A lot. Several kinds, in different thicknesses. We don't know which ones will work, so we picked some lighter ones and carried them to the entrance. The rest is still inside." He pointed at the boxes around them. "And the RCCUs. There are plenty of those, too."

Jack's attention shifted at once. "Where are the RCCUs?"

Justin gestured at the rows of unopened cartons. "These. They should all be RCCUs, but the models look different."

Jack walked to the nearest box and read the name printed on the packaging.

Residential Climate Control Unit.

One carton had already been opened. Inside were a flat fixed main unit, a wall-mounting bracket, a controller, and other parts. Farther in, identical cartons ran along the metal racks all the way to the back of the room. There were a lot of them.

Jack crouched to look, and a smile slowly spread across his face.

Meanwhile, Vane and Wesley loaded the cable that had been picked out earlier, along with some sockets, switches, and connectors, onto a CUEV.

When the cargo bed was full, Vane didn't linger. He drove the CUEV out of the mall, intending to drop off the cable and then have a bed prepared at the underground clinic.

Back at the settlement, Vane parked beside the shelter's canopy.

Noah was already there. When he saw the rolls of cable and assorted parts in the cargo bed, he came over to help.

Vane nodded. "Help me unload. I'll go find Walter."

"Sure."

Noah called over a few people, and they began unloading the cable, sockets, switches, and connectors. Vane went into the shelter, found Walter taking inventory of materials, and told him about the cable at the electronics mall and Jack's plan to connect power to the agricultural supply center.

Walter put down what he was holding and followed Vane to the canopy.

"They didn't know which ones would work, so they sent back the lighter ones," Vane said.

Walter crouched to examine the cable. "I'll sort through these."

Leaving the cable with Walter, Vane headed to the underground clinic.

Warren was there with several others, still leveling the floor. Over on the other side, the ventilation shaft had been dug through, and the air was circulating much better than before.

Vane found Warren and passed on Jack's instructions. Warren looked over the unfinished space and quickly chose a spot near the entrance where a bed wouldn't interfere with the work.

"Let's lay the floor here first."

Several people brought over pallets that had been taken apart and laid the boards across the ground. Others took whole pallets, stacked them to a suitable height, and secured them into a simple bed frame.

Seeing that they had started, Vane left the clinic and went to the convenience store for an inflatable mattress.

He had intended to search the warehouse, but when he walked into the store, he found more than a dozen rolled mattresses already carried out and stacked beside the door. Next to them lay another dozen or so rolled-up bundles, each in a storage sack. Vane couldn't tell what they were.

He didn't think about it. He took a single mattress and returned to the clinic.

By the time he got back, the frame had been secured and a small patch of wooden flooring had been laid nearby. Vane handed the mattress to Warren and went back up the steps.

He returned to the shelter and called Noah over. Each of them took a CUEV and headed back to the electronics mall.

Back in the RCCU storeroom, Megan was still beside the girl. She wrapped ice in cloth and laid it against the sides of the girl's neck and other places where heat tended to build up, cooling her slowly.

Jack, Justin, and the others hadn't been standing around her the whole time. They went back to the cable room and carried the cable and parts they had chosen to the entrance in batches.

Tom and Chen stayed near the entrance and loaded everything the others brought out, along with RCCUs, onto the remaining CUEVs. After several trips, the cargo beds were nearly full.

Jack was about to head back for another load when Megan's voice came from the storeroom.

"She's awake!"