Scream

Hanzo Duvall

"Can you follow my finger?" There's a nurse with a blinding light in one hand and her wrinkly finger in my face. "Hello? Can you follow my finger?" 

 Slowly, I come to. My body is numb and slick with blood. Still, I follow the woman's finger. Left, right. Up, down. I'm in a room on a hospital bed. Wasn't I next to some elevators just a second ago? 

 "Can you tell me your name? the woman asks.

"Hanzo Duvall," I answer. To spare her the questions, I barrel forward. "I was adopted. I go to Solaris High School. I'm in my senior year." 

 "Good, Hanzo," she nods, writing something on her clipboard. "Very good. Do you remember what happened?".

Closing my eyes, I try to recall the events that led up to this.

"Don't worry, Mrs Copulas," I had said. "We'll be okay. The hour is almost up."

I remember there was a rattling from above the elevator. "What's that?" she asked. The sound was like metal clinging on metal – something hitting against poles and rafters before settling still. 

 Then, there was a fiery explosion contained in the elevator shaft. Was the force of...was it a grenade? Knocked me into the back wall. Some of the elevator shaft shredded and bits of the walls and metal flew from the grenade sight. I was knocked out cold. Judging from how slick I am with red blood, I must've been hit with some of the shrapnel and debris. 

"There was an explosion," I answer the nurse.

Grimly, she smiles. "Yes, Hanzo. That's exactly correct."

"Miss?" I call to attention. "There was a woman inside the elevator. Did she make it out alive?"

The nurse sighs. "If anyone was in there...they're long gone." 

 Deeply, I exhale. Some part of me feels guilty for letting Reyna's mom go in there alone. I should've been with her. If I was with Mrs Copulas, then the killer wouldn't have bombed us because they promised one person dead per hour – not two. It's my fault that Reyna'smom is dead. 

 "I'm so sorry," the nurse apologizes with teary eyes. "I have to tend to others. Try to rest."

"That woman in the elevator was one of my best friend's mom," I spit, sitting up, realizing I have a pounding headache. I hit the wall head-first. "I can't rest. I have to tell her the news." 

 Straining, I try to stand, but end up falling back on my butt. I'm banged up in more places than I realized. I'll need to stay in this hospital after the lockdown. Feeling like a helpless failure, I flop back down, wallowing in pain, blaming myself for a crime I didn't commit