Between the Lanterns by J.M. Bush Read Free Book Online Page B

barely knew. That flutter was in her stomach again, just like every time she thought about him. It was true that he was unlike all the other people she knew. He cared, just like she did. That had to mean something. Didn’t it? Maybe John was right. Maybe she and August already did love each other.
    “Maybe, John,” she said, running her hands through his gray hair. “Maybe.”
    She continued looking at August while rubbing John’s head when she felt something change.
    “John? JOHN?” she yelled loudly, panic in her voice.
    August shot up like a lightning bolt at the sound, and immediately ran to her side, saying, “What’s goin’ on, Sam?”
    “John’s eyes are rolled back in his head,” she answered through tears, “and I think he’s choking!”  
    Samantha didn’t know what to do. She just grabbed John’s hand, while August hit the emergency nurse button.
    They came strolling in and checked the time. The two on-duty nurses nodded at each other and wrote some stuff down on their LightBoard, using their fingertips.  
    “Time of death, 2:13 AM,” one of them said.
    “He’s not even dead yet, you horrible people!” Samantha screamed at them frantically. “He’s choking! Help him! PLEASE!” Tears poured out of her eyes as she pleaded with the two uncaring nurses.
    “Ma’am, please keep your voice down,” the other nurse said. “Patients are sleeping in other rooms. He may not be dead now, but he will be in a minute. He can’t breathe, and there’s nothing we can do.”
    August grabbed a face mask attached to an automated breathing machine next to the bed, handed it over to the nurses and begged, “Use this. Intubate him or whatever you call it. He’s a real person, damn it all! Don’t let him die without trying to save him! Please!”
    The nurses looked at one another and shrugged, then one said, “It won’t do any good, sir. Patient Hill is a hopeless case.” Then the two heartless nurses walked out of the room and back to their station.  
    As they did, August overheard one of them saying, “He would have been a great candidate for the new Montek.Automaton program. I wonder why they didn’t buy that option, seeing as how they’re so hung up on that old geezer.”
    John stopped struggling and breathing at 2:16 AM, a. A full three minutes after the two terrible nurses said he had died. August and Samantha held each other and wept until the sun came up. That’s when the clinic staff asked them to leave so they could clean up the room.

Chapter 6
    IT’S THE LAW

    The two of them walked down West Main Street in a daze; both felt dizzy and lost after the events inside the clinic.
    “I’ll walk you home, if that’s alright with you,” August said, with his arm still around Sam. His thoughts were not on how pretty she was, or how marvelous it felt to hold her. His mind was on those horrible people in the clinic. How could they have let that happen? Should he and Sam have gone with the Montek.Automaton option after all? It was all too much for him to handle. So instead, he decided to focus his attention on making sure Sam got home ok and wasn’t too upset. He’d do whatever it took to keep her from feeling sad for too long.
    “Thank you, sweets,” she sniffled, adding, “I need that right now. I don’t want to be alone.”
    “I don’t, either,” he admitted shyly. August didn’t mean just for now, either; he meant for the rest of his life. But he couldn’t say that to her, not yet. It was way too soon.
    Samantha looked up at August, correctly guessing what he had meant. She locked eyes with the beautiful stranger who felt so much more than that… so much more than someone she had just met. With what the two of them had just been through, and the losses they had both suffered in their lives due to The Countdown… Samantha felt a connection to August that she couldn’t explain. When he touched her, she tingled all over. When he talked with compassion and understanding, when he