All Time Low

All Time Low-Life And Death Situation Chapter 6

Flickering lights shone down on me, threatening to suffocate me and push the air out of my lungs. My hands trembled uncontrollably, glued to a hard bed stained with red. The back of my neck was stiff and sore but I could feel the bed underneath me moving. Slowly lifting my neck I looked down at me feet, I was strapped to a gurney. My hand had small burn marks running up the inside of my wrist, twisting round my arm until it hit my elbow were my leather jacket was singed at the cuffs. My nails had blood lining the underneath of them and my hair was carefully scrapped away from my face.

“We need pain killers! This girl is going straight to the operating theatre!” a calm voice shouted as loud, pounding footsteps retreated further down the corridor we were heading along. The gurney passed doors on either side with nametags written in clear, typed text.

“Don’t you know who this is? We might as well leave her for dead, she’ll thank us for it later,” a young nurse in baby blue scrubs walked up to the side of the bed. I closed my eyes, the stinging intensity of the lights in my eyes were burning, making them water.

“I can hear you, you know,” I slurred loud enough for her to hear and stalk off after painkillers. If that’s what she’s going to say about me behind my back then I don’t want to know what she’s going to be putting into my bloodstream. A relentless headache erupted at the front of my head, pounding at my patience.

“You’re awake!” the shocked words almost fell out of the doctor’s mouth, her head snapping in my direction. “You weren’t meant to wake up yet. When we found you, you had been out cold for at least 15 minutes. Oh, honey you were in a car crash on a highway, we’re going to have to operate on you to make sure everything’s okay. You might have internal bleeding but all we know for definite is that you have a broken arm.”

Blinking back the tears spilling onto my reddened cheeks from the blinding lights, I swallowed hard. It felt like I was swallowing coarse sand paper and my mouth and throat were bone dry. My body was aching while my legs had gone numb, my two bare feet just hung lifelessly off the end of the gurney.

“We didn’t think you’d be as tall as you are so we only took a ladies sized bed, not a men’s, like we should have” a nursed explained. She didn’t look old enough to be a nurse but who was I to argue?

The sound of doors opening and people walking filled my ears. A claustrophobic atmosphere entwined with tension throbbed around the tiny room. Anxiety spread over my face as the numbers started counting up.

“Where am I?” I choked out as the pain intensified in my throat.

“Don’t worry, you’re in an elevator at St. Michel’s Hospital. We’re taking you to an operating theatre and then we’ll put you under so you won’t feel anything. You should wake up in a couple of days,” her calm and soothing voice made some of the tension evaporate, as if it didn’t even exist to begin with. The women’s hand clasped the handle bar above my head, leaving steamed fingerprints where her palm and fingers were. What was she worrying about? Was she upset about having to go into surgery with me? Have I done something wrong? Her hands continued to sweat and every two minutes she would rub her hands on the navy blue fabric trousers.  

“We have to ask you a couple of questions about what happened, if you can remember. You don’t have to answer them now though. You can tell us when you come around in a few days. It’s really your choice,” a concerned edge sliced at her words. My eye’s travelled to her nametag, pinned to her scrubs.

Maddy.

I had to answer her questions but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t ask her some before she interrogates me.

“There was… three of us in the car. Jack, Lisa and… Alex. Are they… okay? Whe-where are they?” My voice faltered and my breathing became heavy. I could hear the rasping of my breathing but you could hear a pin drop in this cold elevator.