CLAIRE'S POV

The private medical van rocked hard as it sped along the wet dirt back roads near the river.

Inside the back part of the van, lit only by the green glow of the screens and the oxygen lights, I sat strapped to a heavy steel bed with wheels. The walls were cold metal, and the whole space smelled of medicine and rubber. Every time a wheel hit a hole in the road, my bed shook and the bottles on the shelves clinked together.

Every breath I took felt strange and different. The terrible, bone-crushing pain that had followed me since the fall was completely gone. In its place...