Chapter 18.5

When Caleb woke up the next morning, an IV was attached to his left hand. He looked around the room and spotted his costume made necklace, where there was Magby's PokeBall placed on his bedside table.

His mind was a mess, he massaged his head a few times as he couldn't think clearly by the massive headache that rushed at him as he woke up.

'Aghhh! Damn, it felt not so long ago I smelled the familiar sanitized sheets of a hospital bed. And what's up with this massive headache?'

As he was bitching in his mind, he heared murmurs that he could barely hear, coming from the outside from his hospital room.

He recognized his mother's worried voice as soon as he heared the people outside talking.

He was still a bit groggy by the cocktail of drugs he was given to deal with his hyperthermia.

So as he tried to get his body close to the voices so he could hear what they were talking about, his hand slipped and knocked down a remote that was placed on his bed.

It created a sound that immediately quited down the voices coming from outside. There was a pause, before the door of the room was opened gently, first came a Nurse Joy who had came in with a Matronly smile.

She said. "Good morning Caleb, you've had a rough time recently haven't you?"

"Good morning too, Nurse Joy." He recognized this Nurse Joy to be the same one who had took care of him the last time he was here. "Uhmmm, my head is still very unclear. Can you fill me up to what happened to me? I know at least that there was a terrorist attack that I and my friends were implicated in."

"First off, before I'm going to inform you. Let's have you sit in a comfortable position shall we?" The nurse said.

Caleb nodded, then regarded the people who entered along with her. It was her mother, Noraima and surprisingly his aunt, Christine.

His mother had worry written all over her face.

"Caleb, dear do you feel alright?" His mother asked as she gently brushed her son's head.

Caleb felt weird all of a sudden. Before he could utter a word as he opened his mouth.

The nurse began to speak. And the words that were spoken out from her mouth, made Caleb remember the event that happened yesterday.

His eyes flashed with the scenes that he saw, the scenes that...

"Arghhh!!!" He clutched his head and screamed in pain, he moved to the side and vomitted nothing but stomach fluids.

As if it was already prepared, there was already a bucket placed there that catches all of his unsighty vomit.

The nurse continued to speak, while his mother massaged his arm gently with a worried gaze.

Caleb just sat there, dazed and eyes lost of all color. Sometimes his breathing would quicken, and sometimes it would stop only to resume in a slow manner.

The emotions he is feeling right now was a roller coaster ride.

After the nurse was finished speaking. It took Caleb a few dozen minutes before he spoke again.

"Any words about my friends? Are they okay?"

"All three of your friends had a slight better recovery, body wise. Since you are much more roughed up compared to them." The nurse said.

"So they're okay then?"

"We sent them home after a brief check-up, but they are still very distraught by what you kids..." The nurse paused right there as she didn't want to continue any further.

But, Caleb's questions didn't stop. As he continued on. "How about... The girl, was she taken care of? How was she?"

The three woman in the room looked at each other. Of course they knew who he was referring to, there are headlines everywhere about it and the news even showed sympathy to the child. She was really very pitiful.

She was just four years old, but she had already experienced one of the most cruel things this world has to offer.

"She is fine." The nurse didn't get too much into details. "We know you are worried about her, but she is still recovering from the shock and the damage it had dealt."

"What she had gone through, she didn't deserve it." Caleb whispered, much to himself than to the nurse.

The nurse quietly got out of the room after checking up on Caleb.

Caleb put his face into his hands and let out a breath. "I need to go see her, mom."

The guilt he felt from not being able to protect them formed a hole in Caleb's gut.

His mother looked at him sadly for a moment. Before grabbing a chair and sitting positioned beside his bed. The dark circles underneath her eyes spoke to long hours without sufficient sleep.

"I'm sorry for not being there with you, Caleb. I'm such a unfilial mother, I knew that, if I was there. Everything could have changed, I could have saved you, your friends and the... Mother and daughter from the horrible things that happened to you all. I'm sorry, my son. Please, I beg you. Take care of yourself and think about yourself first before going out of the bed. You're extremely lucky the person who put you into this state didn't lay his hands on you and your friends. Stay and lay there, rest. At least, before you got over the things that had happened yesterday."

Caleb was silent. But he eventually complied to his mother's wishes.

He couldn't be so cruel as to make his mother worried any further. He persuaded his mother to get some rest after he assured her he was fine.

She left the room right after, with aunt Christine assisting her.

He showed her an appreciative smile as he nodded at his aunt.

When the door made a noise that it was closed.

Caleb dazely looked out the window as he stared at the blue sky with numerous thoughts going through his head.

His hand was clenching the bedsheets, his mind was full of furious things that the PokeBall on the bedside began to shake a little from side to side.

"I swear by my name, I will bring justice to what happened to you and your daughter. Along with the organization that terrorist was part of. Justice will be brought upon them" Caleb's words were full hatred. So much that the emotion was beginning to change his mindset.