Don't You Dare

Chapter Twenty One:

I felt his body shift and a groan escape his mouth. His voice crackled in the silence, "What about the children...in the yard..." he struggled to speak. I pushed him away so that I could look at his face. "Tanner...?"

A truck roared up the road and halted next to the creek bank. "Oh...my...TANNER!" His mother ran towards her half dead son. I stood up and backed away from the bawling woman. She wrapped him in a hug and he tried to hug her back, but was only able to move one of his arms.

Just then my parents drove up, "April, let me..." my father told Tanner's mother as he bent down to lift him up. "Maylee, help me." he beckoned my mother with a swish of his head. She rushed over to were he was and grabbed Tanner's legs. Before he was placed into his mother's truck, I saw him smile and his head drooped; his smile faded.

****
"What do you mean there aren't any rooms available?! My son can't hardly breath on his own!" April screamed at the nurse who tried to calm her down. "Ma'am, I'm sorry, we just don't have the space. You'll have to visit another hospital."
"Another hospital?!You think I have time for that? We need a room, and a doctor, NOW!" She looked at her son who was coughing into a trash can.
He lifted his head out of the can and wiped a trickle of blood from his lips. The nurse's face and attitude changed immediately while watching him struggle to stand.

She walked over to a doctor and another nurse, "Bring a stretcher immediately." she commanded. The two took off through the double doors and emerged seconds later, rolling a stretcher to Tanner.
I noticed Tanner's knees buckle and I sped to catch him. His arm flopped over my shoulder. He grit his teeth and his face became twisted with pain.

"Thanks..." he forced the words out of throat.

The last I saw of him that night was his face disappearing behind a swarm of nurses that pushed him through the doors.