Chapter 14 - The Last Room
Preston reached the ramp.
“Everyone aboard. We leave now.”
Grace looked toward the facility.
“One patient remains.”
“The runway is failing.”
“He cannot walk.”
“We have forty-two survivors aboard.”
Grace stared at him.
“Forty-three were listed.”
Preston’s face tightened.
The same number.
The same decision.
Again.
Ben clipped a second rope to Grace’s harness.
“I’m going with her.”
Preston grabbed the rope.
“No.”
Everett’s weak voice came through the medic bay.
“Charles…”
The admiral looked back.
His father raised one trembling hand.
“Do not leave him.”
Preston closed his eyes.
Then he clipped himself to the line.
Grace stared.
“What are you doing?”
“Correcting an old decision.”
The three of them ran into the flood.
Wind nearly knocked Preston sideways.
Grace pulled him upright.
They entered the nursing facility through a shattered side door.
The hallway was knee-deep in water.
Emergency lights flashed red.
A nurse shouted directions from the ramp.
“Room fourteen!”
They reached the final room.
An eighty-year-old veteran lay attached to an oxygen tank.
The bed wheels were locked.
Ben released them.
The bed would not fit through the flooded hallway debris.
Grace disconnected the portable oxygen.
Preston lifted the man beneath the shoulders.
Ben supported his legs.
Together, they carried him.
The building groaned.
A ceiling panel collapsed behind them.
Preston stumbled.
Grace caught the veteran without dropping the oxygen cylinder.
“Keep moving!”
They emerged into the storm.
The C-130 engines roared.
Floodwater covered half the runway.
Nash and two crew members ran toward them.
They transferred the veteran onto a rescue sled and dragged him aboard.
Grace climbed the ramp last.
The aircraft began moving before the door fully closed.
Preston collapsed beside his father’s cot.
Everett opened his eyes.
“You went back.”
Charles took his hand.
May you like
“Yes.”
👉 But Everett’s relief vanished when he saw the black evidence case was no longer inside the medical cabinet.
