The Rain: The End, Marietta Standlee [year 7 reading list TXT] 📗

fine and accompany Colin for his hour in his med chamber, where I can hold his hand, and we can just talk about the future, about our pasts, things all people talk about when they are fresh in love. And, of course, we talk about our plans on how to win this war. We have a pretty good plan of action, one where it is important to keep the President out of the loop for now.

I receive a message from Claire. The Gorongiath Council members finally grew a pair of balls and started their accusation process. She promises to keep us in the loop of the proceedings, but I'm not holding my breath that any outcome will listen to our demands. Demands where the Gorongiaths will finally leave Earth and leave us to clean up their mess.

Which even if the aliens would leave, is a lot to tackle. Besides the millions of maniacs roaming our planet, we still have to contend with the countless dinosaurs, which already started to multiply. And in addition, there is that always present, freaking flower spreading like wildfire around the globe. It'll take years, if not decades, to clean up this mess and make Earth inhabitable again, and that is only if the Gorongiath leave and don't dump even more on us.

For now, we bide our time and see what the Gorongiath Council will do—giving them a last chance to follow through. But if they take too long, we will go with Plan B, suiting me just fine. I'm more than ready for the kind of payback we have planned for them.

The next morning, I wake up nauseous; I don't even want to look at my breakfast. Luckily Colin is out from the med chamber; as miraculous as those things are in healing injuries, they take their toll on a body. The healing process is increased tenfold, which is great, but it also wears the body down tremendously.

A week passes with the same routine every day. Right before Doctor Pheng finally decides that Colin is ready to be transported, I throw up in the middle of her examination.

Concerned, she looks at me and my pale face. "How long has that been going on?"

I try to remember, but Colin is faster. "Since she came back."

"You said Ka injected you with something?" She inquires.

A seething hot flame runs through my body as I remember; it feels as if my entire body is on fire like hot lava runs through my veins, and my stomach turns on itself. My mind refuses to go where my brain demands to go. I don't want to remember Ka; I don't want to remember what he did and wanted to do to me.

"I want to examine you if you are okay with it." She says, appraising me shrewdly.

"Of course, she is." Colin states.

I snarl at him; he better not think he's the boss of me because I'm wearing his ring, and I'm actually considering a date to get married to him. But honestly, I'm tired of being sick, and it would probably be better if Doctor Pheng took a look and I end up agreeing to a check-up.

Chapter 2

She takes full advantage of the opportunity and subjects my body to a complete physical workup. That woman does not do anything half-assed. To my relief, she declares me physically fit but reserves final judgment on the pending blood tests. She promises to have the results in a few hours and come by later.

"It's probably only a stomach bug." I try to smile at Colin.

His eyes lock on mine in concern. "I wonder what that bastard injected you with."

I shrug my shoulders; I really don't want to think about it.

"Shame you killed him; I would have loved to do that myself," he adds with a smirk.

"Oh, honey." I'm by his side in two steps. "I'm so sorry; if I had known, I would have tied him up with a ribbon for you, and you could have done the honors."

"Bitch." He smiles and slaps me on the arm lightly. I grin down at him and give him a kiss. I love this man.

Around five in the afternoon, Doctor Pheng arrives together with our dinner, consisting of some rancid smelling meat that makes me run for the bathroom before anybody is even fully in the room yet. When I return, Colin watches me with a severe expression on his face.

"What?" I growl. They better not discussed my medical stuff without me.

Doctor Pheng's face is neutral as she looks from me to Colin. "Do you want to discuss this in private?" She offers.

My heart rate accelerates. This is going to be bad. Funny, it never crossed my mind that I might really be sick. Being stuck in the apocalypse doesn't prevent cancer or whatever other diseases are floating around out there. A cold sweat breaks out over my forehead and I reach for Colin's hand for support. "No, just spit it out."

"Well, congrats, you're pregnant?" She forms the statement as a question as if she isn't sure if this is good news or bad.

And neither do I. I'm stunned. Slowly I sink down on our bed, still holding Colin's hand but afraid to look at his face. I don't want to see his expression, to find out if he's mad or horrified or both. I just don't.

Funny, we're so close, survived so much together, but we never talked about kids. I don't have any idea what he thinks about having a baby together. We briefly mentioned it while talking about Blake and Maggie and how we both thought they were too young. But never about us having a baby. Never.

"Viv?" I hear him calling me, but still, I'm unable to look at him.

He lets go of my hand, and tears form in my eyes. He's mad at me; I just know it.

"Viv, look at me." His hand gently grabs my chin and tilts my head around so that I don't have a choice but to