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“We need to go! It is going to blow up!” I scream. I can hear yelling in the distance, but the flames are not calming. If anything, they are flaming brighter, moving faster. In our direction. The fire department won’t come inside if the place is not secure. I run to the door of her room and look around. The hospital is empty. Smoke covers the ceiling and is filling the entire space.
“Help! Someone! Help!” I scream but hear nothing besides the alarms. I see no one. I told Shelley I was right behind her, so she probably thinks I am on the way out.
“We need to go now!” I say, turning back to the doctor and Mrs. Rothschild.
“Shut up, you stupid girl! Stop acting like a baby,” she says, and I balk. Baby. Oh my God, the babies. Did someone get Buddy?
“Just leave, Nurse Taylor,” Dr. Wilson says to me, and I can see it in his face. He knows what is going to happen.
“I can’t leave you,” I say, my chest pained, my eyes watering. I can’t. I’m not wired that way. They will die. If we can’t move her, then she is stuck. “Can’t you pick her up?” I ask him, although he is a thin wiry man and probably can’t move her dead weight either.
“I am your boss, and I demand you leave. Now!” he screams at me. I jump a little at his anger and look at them both. He is holding her hand, and she is leaning into him. They look like a couple in love. I am so confused. I have no idea what is going on. I stand, looking at them both for a moment. Mrs. Rothschild is so relaxed on her medication, I don’t think she really understands what is happening. Dr. Wilson is looking older and less in control now that he is saturated in water.
“I can’t just leave you both here. I need to help you. I am a nurse, that is what I do.That is my job,” I say, but the doctor cuts me off.
“Go!” Dr. Wilson yells again, and I jump at his angry tone.
“Go. Tell my boys I love them. Tell them I am sorry… for everything. Tell them…” She chokes as the reality of what is happening starts to infiltrate her medicated mind. “Ohhhh, Colin,” she says, looking up at him with her forehead creased in question, her eyes pleading with him. Her hand holds his, and my heart is almost thumping out of my chest.
“I won’t leave you. I love you. I have loved you for over thirty years, darling.Where you go. I go.” he says to her in a tone that doesn’t allow for questions. My eyes, although stinging from the thick smoke, are almost bugging out of my face.They are in love?He is a horrible boss, but the words he just spoke were some of the most romantic I have ever heard.
I feel like I am intruding on their moment, but I can’t leave them. There has to be something I can do. I look around frantically again, trying to find something, anything. Someone. I dive back under the bed, pulling at the IV lines, pushing at the wheel. It is still not budging. By the time I get back on my feet, the smoke is so thick I can barely stand it.
“Go. Just leave. Leave now before it is too late,” Dr. Wilson barks out. Tears run down my cheeks, my heart breaking. I run to the door, taking another look around.
“Shelley!” I scream before I start to cough. “Shelley!” I try again, but my throat is too dry.
“Go. Go to my boys. Tell them I didn’t suffer. Tell them… tell them…” she says as her eyes start to water, and I look at her in slight shock. This woman is the matriarch of their family. The one who has a sharp tongue, one that she lashes at everyone who doesn’t meet her expectations. I have learned from Eddie a little of her history. Yet now she is soft, looks remorseful, and dare I think it, committed to the outcome that is about to take place for her.
“I’ll tell them,” I say, nodding, trying to give her a little peace in these final moments. You would think that I would be used to it. I have had to do it a few times now in my career. Give comfort at the end. The difference in this is I am about to leave, not sitting at her bedside and holding her hand.
I hear a loud bang down the hallway and jump out of my skin, the movement enough to get my feet moving. I give them both a final look as the doctor steps up onto the bed with her, lying by her side and taking her into his arms. I turn and run out, not able to watch anymore.
I sprint for the exit and make it almost halfway when I stop.Buddy.I need to make sure he is evacuated. I need to make sure he is okay.I turn sharply, coughing and spluttering as I feel against the wall and start running down to the neonatal ward. I can’t leave Buddy. What if no one got him? I push through the door, the smoke a little less in here.
“Hello!” I yell out, wanting to ensure that it is empty, and I run down the hall, looking in each room as I stumble. All the doors are open, all curtains open. I know there is only one baby in here at the moment, and that is Buddy, so I run to his room and feel relief as I see it empty.
“I’m here!” I jolt as I hear a female voice, and I run back out to the hallway. The smoke is covering my vision, making it impossible to even see a few inches in front of me.
“Who is it? Where are you?” I scream, the alarms so loud I feel like my eardrums will burst.
“Katie?” the voice says, and I run down the hall to the small lounge at the end.
“Lucy?” I say, surprised, as I round the corner and see her there. I run to her and grab her hand. She is in a state of shock by the look of her. “Is anyone else here?” I yell my question, even though we are standing side by side.
“I don’t know. I went to the bathroom, and then when I came out, the alarms were on and water was everywhere. Then the smoke came, and I got disorientated. I couldn’t remember which way the exits were.”
“Let's go, we need to hurry.” I grab her hand and we run. Together, we sprint down the wet hall and through the sprinklers, back out to the main hallway. Both coughing, we pull each other along. When one of us falters or slips, the other pulls to keep us going. Our steps are slow as the smoke gets to us, but through it, I can see the exit door at the end. I point to it, and we make our final big push, slamming ourselves into the door and falling out, our legs pumping fast and hard.
“Katie!” I hear Eddie and run toward his voice. It is dark outside, nighttime coming while we were evacuating. Bright, beaming lights illuminate the ground, and I push my legs to go faster, pulling Lucy along with me.
“Katie!” I hear Eddie scream again and look up, where I see people gathered and flashing blue and red lights. I see Eddie then, as he jumps over the police barricade and ducks under the police tape, running toward me. His brothers start yelling at him. Tennyson jumps the barricade too, and I hear Willow scream. I run so fast, I can’t even feel my legs as Lucy keeps up with me. We are nearly together, only a few yards apart, when I hear it. Aboomhits my ears just as I am knocked off my feet and thrown into the air, and I hit the ground hard, still holding Lucy’s hand, my eyes firmly on Eddie before everything goes black.
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE - EDDIE
The hospital is in complete lockdown, and I pace the police barricade, wondering how on earth that is possible when we know people are still inside.
“I need to get in there. I know exactly where they are!” I grit out to the fire chief in charge of this shitshow.
