Chapter - 212
As Rick and the Old Matriarch entered the ICU room, a wave of sterile, antiseptic smell hit them like a brick wall. The harsh lighting overhead cast a clinical glow over the room, illuminating the rows of machines and monitors that surrounded Emily's bed.
Emily lay unmoving on the sterile hospital bed, her fragile figure barely discernible beneath a web of wires and tubes that snaked across her body like vines. The room was filled with the mechanical hum of life-support machines, their rhythmic sounds providing a haunting backdrop to the scene.
A ventilator whispered softly in the background, its gentle hiss punctuating the stillness of the room. A clear plastic tube extended from Emily's mouth, tethering her to the machine that breathed for her.
Despite the quiet bustle of medical equipment, Emily appeared eerily still, her only movement the faint rise and fall of her chest as the ventilator pumped life-giving air into her lungs.
