Chapter 3- The Hospital (8.17.07)
“What?”
“It’s not working!”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Aelita, Jeremie, Odd and Yumi could only watch in shock from the sidelines as Ulrich’s heart beat got steadily lower. Doctors swarmed everywhere like bees, trying to revive the unconscious brown-haired boy. Jeremie was looking at Ulrich as if he couldn’t believe he was on the verge of death. Aelita was trying to keep Yumi conscious, for Yumi seemed ready to faint herself. And Odd’s usually grinning face was grimacing in shock.
“Come on, it’ll be okay,” Jeremie said, offering empty comfort in vain. “He’ll be okay.” Aelita absentmindedly nodded, as if she didn’t believe it herself.
Odd leaned over so that his mouth was close to Jeremie’s ear. “Could this be a XANA attack?” he whispered to Jeremie.
“I don’t know. But I’ll run the Super Scan right now,” came the hushed reply. Jeremie removed his laptop from the bag, knelt down and started typing like mad.
Aelita glanced at Yumi. Yumi hadn’t said a word the whole way to the hospital in the ambulance. Watching Ulrich getting lifted onto a stretcher and into the ambulance and convincing the Principal that they should go to the hospital with Ulrich seemed like memories from a different life.
Jeremie shut his laptop. “No activated tower,” Jeremie whispered to the group. “It’s really strange. First Ulrich has all these dreams thirteen nights in a row – okay Odd, fourteen – and then he faints. There’s got to be a connection between the two.”
“Of course there is,” Yumi said, speaking for the first time. “But if it’s not by XANA, then what caused this?”
Suddenly, the doctors in the room started shouting and moving even faster, grabbing supplies from all around the room. Then the screen showing Ulrich’s heart rate emitted a steady beeeeeeeeeeeep.
Yumi gasped. “I can’t watch!” She turned her head away from Ulrich’s bed and covered her eyes. Odd just looked at Ulrich with unseeing eyes.
Then the monitor finally started pulsing. A sigh of relief passed through the room. Ulrich slowly opened his eyes.
~~~
The hospital room had cleared out. Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, and Yumi crowded around Ulrich’s bed.
“Are you okay?” asked Yumi tentatively.
Ulrich shook his head, as if to clear it. “I’m fine. But I have no idea why I fainted.”
Suddenly Jeremie’s computer started to beep. Jeremie rushed over and opened his laptop. “Uh-oh. There’s an activated tower in…wait…Carthage! It’s been a while since a tower has been activated there.”
“You guys go and deactivate it,” said Odd. “I’ll stay here with Ulrich.”
Just as Yumi and Jeremie started to head toward the door, Aelita screamed, pointing upward. A specter was materializing from one of the lights directly above Ulrich’s bed. Before anyone could do anything, the specter attacked Ulrich.
As his eyesight slid out of focus, Ulrich heard faint screams of “Ulrich!” “Let go of him, XANA!” “I’m calling the doctor! Just hang on, Ulrich!” before his eyelids closed, and black smoke overpowered his thoughts.
Meanwhile, on Lyoko, in the Ice, Desert, Forest, and Mountain sectors, a tower formed. The towers then took on a white aura.