Angry Night

 

Chapter 6:  Losing It

 

“What are we never going to believe?” I shouted.
    

I couldn’t stand his beating around the bush anymore.
    

“They are evacuating Orlando,” Nick stated trying to keep calm.
    

“What?” Kevin cried out.
    

“You have got to be kidding!” Howie echoed the sentiment.
    

“Well no, not exactly,” Nick replied.
    

At that moment I wanted to strangle him.
    

“Then what!?” Elyssa hollered.
    

Apparently we were all starting to lose our cool.
    

“If you guys stopped yelling for a moment maybe I could tell you!” he screamed above us.
    

We instantly fell silent.
    

“Thank you,” he began. “Well they were saying hurricane Craig was the worst hurricane that Florida has ever seen and they weren’t kidding.  The storm is coming inland.  They are saying it’s got the intensity to tear down whole buildings.  Even by the time it hits Orlando.  But the thing is that on its current course it is only going to hit north Orlando, which is a bit removed from the rest of the city.  And the General Hospital happens to lie in North Orlando.”
    

“My God after everything else we get stuck in an elevator when the city is being evacuated.  I feel like I’m starring in the ABC miniseries The Tragic Life of Anita Robinson!  When will it end?” I exclaimed.
    

“We have to stay calm,” Kevin was already assuming the unofficial position as our leader.  “Nick, when was the evacuation order issued?”
    

“Two hours ago,” he replied weakly.
    

“We have to get out of here,” he murmured half to himself.
    

His eyes darted around the compact room.  I suddenly wished that this were a miniseries.  At least then there would be some trap door at the top of the elevator that we could climb out of or something.  On TV they always found a way out.  Suddenly I could hear Elyssa burst out into tears beside me.  She buried her head in her hands and began sobbing.  Everyone just sat there a little shocked.
    

“Lisa,” I murmured.  “It’s all right.”
    

“No it’s not!!” she screamed.  “I’m sick and tired of people telling me it’s going to be all right!!  Nothing that has happened to me in the past month has been all right.  We are going to freaking die in this stupid elevator.  It’ll never get better!”
    

“Oh, quit your whining,” Nick spat at her.  “I’m sick of your bitching.  We are all in the same boat!”
    

Elyssa slowly lifted her head and looked at him.  Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him.  I could see Nick involuntarily recoil.  I had never seen Elyssa look at anyone in quite that way.
    

“Nick, we are not all quite in the same boat!” she began practically growling at him like an animal.  “You may think I am just going on some type of self pity trip,” her voice was rising in intensity with every word.  “Well then you are right.  But if you had been through as much freaking hell as I’ve been through in the past month I think you would be too!!” she was screaming at him now.
    

I put my hand on her arm and tried to calm her down but the rage she had bottled up inside exploded in Nick’s face.  Her screams echoed around us.
    

“First I get kidnapped by two maniacs, one of them tries to rape me!  The other proceeds to shoot my boyfriend right in front to my damn eyes.  Then one of my best friends gets shot and killed, again while I have to watch.  Then when I think I have escaped the hell hold they have on my life, one of them comes back to try and rape me again.  My best friend commits suicide and I find her almost dead.  Then I'm sexually abused and almost killed.  Then they tell me my boyfriend is going to die.  And you want to sit here and tell me that we are all in the same boat?!”
    

Her voice was shrill as she shoved Nick hard against the wall of the elevator.  He winced as he hit the panel.  Elyssa’s mouth opened to finish off her point.  But suddenly the elevator jerked.  The emergency lights blinked out and the normal lighting re-appeared.  The elevator began moving.
    

“You mean all we had to do was shove Nick against the panel to get this stupid thing moving again!?” I yelled.
    

As the elevator stopped Kevin raised his arms for silence.
    

“All right all of you!” he shouted at us. “If we want to get through this then you have to stop fighting like children and start helping each other all right!?”
    

All of us gave a slight nod of the head.  The doors slid open behind him and we slowly filed out onto the ICU floor.  The lights were dim and the floor was eerily silent.  Usually the hum of machines could be heard at all times but even that was missing.  I had a feeling this was what it was like to be on a ghost ship.  There wasn’t a single soul in sight.  We skittered down the hallway, making our way to the most central area of the floor.
    

“Wait!” Elyssa hollered.  ]
    

I spun around.  She looked sick.
    

“They left him here,” she said softly pointing at a room.
    

It took me moments to process that it was Brian’s room she was pointing too.
    

“You’re kidding!” I cried and dashed into Brian’s room.
    

There he lay much as he had every day since he went into his coma.  All the machines around him were still buzzing.  Brian should have been dead.  But you could see the steady rise and fall of his chest.  With the evacuation they musn’t have had time to carry it out.
    

“I can’t believe the bastards left him here!” Elyssa shouted at no one in particular.  “Can they do that?”
    

“I’m afraid they can.  Since he wasn’t supposed to live anyway he would not have been a priority.  So yes they could leave him here,” I explained, trying my best to remember evacuation protocol.  Anyone interning at the hospital had to learn it.
    

“Thank God he’s still alive,” Howie said always looking at the bright side of things.
    

“Well, now what?” Nick asked.
    

“All the doors will be locked,” I realized aloud.
    

“What? Why?” Kevin questioned.
    

“I can’t remember why they do it, but if evacuation went by the book all doors will be locked.”
    

“Great,” Kevin mumbled. “Okay. Howie, Nick and I will check the floor and see if there is a way off.  You and Elyssa stay here and take care of Brian.”
    

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it would have to do.
    

“Be . . .” I started to spout the words be careful.
    

But I stopped myself.  Last time I had uttered those two words A.J. had never made it back.
    

“Just come back in one piece okay,” I said looking at Kevin.
    

“Don’t worry we will,” he said confidently as they exited the room.
    

I only wished I could be as sure.

 

***

 

 

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