The Day They Came (working title)

Hospitals REALLY need surge protectors

Jenny’s POV

I could feel the X-rays passing through my body. Not really, the doctor had told me I wouldn't, but it still felt like I could, a sort of tingling in my chest. It was like I could feel the cells dying all around my upper torso.

This was better than chemotherapy, I guess that’s something to count towards my list of good things. It could join having pancakes for breakfast two days ago. I think that about covers the list.

The lights in the hospital suddenly dimmed, spluttered, came back brighter than before. Then burst, showering us all with shattered glass. I bent over, curling in on my essential organs instinctively, and most of the shards bounced off my back and hair. The lights didn’t come back on. The whirring coming from the machine stopped.

Behind the glass separating me and him Dr. Anderson shot a worried look up then began to open the door. I reached the intercom to talk to him, but it was down, so I had to wait until he finally got passed the security checks and opened the door.

“What’s happening?” I asked, brushing some glass from my shoulder.

“Probably nothing” Hah, didn’t look much like nothing from his expression “but since the Linier Accelerator isn’t broken there’s not much point in you lying around” he said cheerfully. I got up and followed him to the viewing area behind several inches of glass

“I’m going to see what’s going on, if you stay here we can continue your treatment in a little while.” He was definitely looking more worried by the second.

“Of course I will” I replied innocently

“I’ll see you in a bit, then” he was fiddling with a pen in his upper left hand pocket.

I gave him two minutes to get out of the way before I left to go home.

In the corridor there were white coats running around all over the place, making me feel like I was in the middle of a flock of swans, all flapping about like mad and honking loudly.

I squeezed my way through the crowd heading for the exit. It was chaos, louder than I'd ever heard the hospital before, but at the same time it seemed quieter without the omnipresent buzzing from various machines or the beeping to say people were alive. I was jostled this way and that by the doctors, and nurses who crowded the corridor, all ignoring my presence except when I got in their way, then they wasted a second to sharply move me to one side or other before continuing.

It was hard work pushing through the crowd to the stairs, and I paused to pant before I headed down. To my left there were several beds filled with elderly people, two of the old women were screaming, an old man was demanding to know what was going on, and a fourth was lying perfectly still in her bed, eyes closed. As I watched a doctor ran up, ignoring the old man and took his pulse.

"Damn" she swore and started CPR.

Down, up, down, up, down, up, she pumped her arms like pistons, but after a minute or so she gave up, and walked off quickly, probably to try and find someone she could save.

Item 3 on list of good things, I'm not that old woman.

I set off again, eager to get out of this mad house. I don't like hospitals anyway, or doctors, they spend too much time around dying people, that's not good for the mind, I'm sure.

I was a long way up, and half way down I had to stop and catch my breath again. The stairs were filled with more white coats pushing me this way and that, and I had to pull off onto another floor and rest there. My lung capacity isn’t what it used to be, and any sort of physical activity makes me pant now.

"You too?" asked a voice over the hubbub.

A middle aged man was holding an inhaler out to me.

"Want a puff?" he asked.

I nodded mutely and took it.

While I started recovering he started chatting.

"I'm Rob by the way, and I'm not asthmatic, but I've got pneumonia, and they gave me this to try and help me," he explained, waving the inhaler "But when the blackout hit I decided I couldn't be bothered anymore, so I'm heading home."

I nodded again, still wheezing. No harm in letting him distract himself from the chaos around us by talking to me. I was kind of glad to have that distraction for myself anyway.

"Funny thing, this black out, hospitals are supposed to have generators." he continued "You know what I thinks happened? I recon there’s been a power surge and that's broken all the equipment, so even though the generators working none of the equipment is, they really ought to install surge protectors so this sort of thing doesn't happen." he added casually, pretending that it didn't really matter.

"So what are you in for?" he added, noticing that I'd finally managed to stop panting.

"Lung cancer, which spread to my brain" I replied with a hard brutality, but still wincing at his reaction. People always do this thing when you mention cancer, they widen their eyes in shock and fear, then they give you this look of absolute pity, it's like cancers become some kind of boogie man, heart disease kills more people, (I know cause I looked up the stats) but if I said I had that nobody would react so strongly. It gets a bit annoying after the fifth or sixth time.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He stammered

"It's fine, I think I'm ready to go, so I guess I'll see you" I replied.

"No, I'll come with you, we might be able to go faster with two to push against the flow"

I was about to say I was fine on my own when something came up the stairs. It was bright red, and scaly and looked like a monster.

My legs moved fast, dragging the rest of me behind them. My lungs heaved fast, trying to compensate, drawing in air and exhaling it again as quickly as I could. Never mind my screaming muscles and panicking mind, I had to run, had to keep moving.

More people were screaming now, and around me I could see more people running. I didn't look back, I didn't dare, I just kept running. But where to? There's nowhere to go, no other stairs, no escape.

Rough hands suddenly grabbed me and pushed me into a side room. I screamed and struggled, imagining to monster behind me.

"It's me, it's me." said Rob panting himself "Now hide in this cupboard."

I curled into a little ball and slide into a tiny space on the bottom shelf next to some text books. Everything went dark as he closed the cupboard behind me, and I gasped.

No space, not even to sit my head up, I was taking up as little space as possible and I was still pushing up painfully against the corners of the books. Hardly any air in here, but my lungs demanded more anyway.

The door opened. I held my breath, terrified that any noise would tell it I was there, but within 5 seconds my lungs started to scream.

It stepped slowly across the room. I couldn't keep my breath held much longer, my chest began to heave, but I wouldn’t open my mouth.

Closer and closer. It moved forward towards my hiding place purposefully. I couldn’t stand it anymore,  loud gasp ripped through my throat.

The cupboard flew open and I shrieked in terror. But before the shriek had time to die away the needle was in my neck and unconsciousness was beaconing.