Loving the Safari Guide

The After Math

The next thing I know I am being pulled from the car by emergency services. The light is burn my eyes and my head feels like it is splitting in half. My vision is very blurry but I am able to make out a few different vehicles and some flashing lights, but I can't tell color or anything like that due to my headache and blurry vision. The medic looks me over and begins cleaning the blood off of me and patching me up. I'm sure I look like I just lost a cage match to a rhino and I feel like it too. Thankfully, nothing is broken and I just have some cuts and bruises.

Before long I hear Jackson's voice call out. "No, I need to see her. That's my wife." Did he just say his wife? I'm sure it was just to get through faster. When I look up to see him, Agent Shaffer isn't far behind. Jackson looks so worried and almost heartbroken. Shaffer looks a little concerned but I'm sure that's more about the Mother Cell then me. "Hey, hey. Are you okay?" Jackson places his hands on my knees and kneels down in front of me since I'm on the bumper of the ambulance.

I shake my head and begin to cry. "No. I'm not okay. I lost it."

"You lost what?"

"Leo and I were driving back. He had the Mother Cell out in the woods somewhere. It took forever, but he was telling me about the boat he was gonna buy. And, somebody just rammed into us. The last thing I saw was a man reach into the car and grab the Mother Cell."

Tears begin to roll down my cheeks and my voice begins to crack as I continue on. Jackson moves to the bumper with me and pulls me into his chest as I cry. "Hey, that doesn't matter right now. I couldn't give two shits about the Mother Cell right now." He kisses my forehead. "If I lost you, I think I'd look forward to the animal uprising. At least then I'd know I wouldn't be without you for very long."

Shaffer looks around. "Did you see the man's face? Did he look like Evan Lee?"

I clear my throat. "Uh... A little bit, I think it could have been him."

"Are you sure."

"It would make the most sense, wouldn't it?"

"And he took the Mother Cell?"

I nod, as Jackson shakes his head in protest. "We'll deal with it, later. It's gonna be alright."

I scoff. "On what planet is it gonna be alright?"

Shaffer begins to walk away from us. "I'm gonna call this into the Marshal's Office."

Jackson is still trying to console me. "It's not your fault. Alright? You're... You're okay. That's the most important thing."

I shake my head. "No, it's not, Jackson. I had the key to ending this in my hands and now Evan Lee has it. God only knows what he's going to do with it."

It doesn't take long for the medic to clear me to leave the scene and I am all too happy to do so. I never want to come back to Mobile Alabama again. Shaffer, Jackson, and I get into Shaffer's car, the same one he had driven us to the boat dock in the day before. Jackson gets in the back with me and Shaffer drives away from the scene. As soon as the vehicle starts moving I can feel Jackson's eyes on me. When I look over he is scanning my body up and down to make sure that I am really alright and didn't just try to act like I was to get out of there, "Jackson, really I'm fine."

"Yeah, well, I'm just making sure. Do you remember when you fell out of the caravan and broke your ankle? You wouldn't let me or my mother look at it and you ended up being laid up twice as long."

Agent Shaffer laughs. "You broke your ankle getting out of a caravan?"

"She hit the ground pretty hard too. We parked on some rocks and she was the first to get out. But graceful here forgot to look at her feet before she stepped out."