Chapter 22
The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Clean. Sharp. Full of chemicals and laundry soap. It cut through the darkness in my head and pulled me upward. My body felt heavy and distant, like it belonged to someone else. When I tried to move my fingers, pain answered from deep in my muscles. Everything ached.
I opened my eyes.
White ceiling. Soft beeping. The low hum of machines. I was in a bed with metal rails on the sides. A thin blanket covered me. An IV line ran into the back of my hand. For a long moment, I only stared at it, trying to understand how I had gotten here.
The last clear memory was the eastern crossing. The power tearing out of me. The ground cracking. The collector is being thrown back by the force of it. Then the collapse. I remembered crawling into the tre
