Angry Night

 

Chapter 7:  Mother Nature

 

After the guys had left the room I checked and then double-checked all of Brian's equipment.  All of it appeared to be in working order.  It must have been running off of a generator because main power had been shut off.  Elyssa was standing at the other end of the room looking aimlessly out the window.  It was so dark you could barely see anything.  The only thing that gave way to the fact that a hurricane was surrounding us was the awful noises.  You could hear the rain beating mercilessly at the building, the wind roaring around us and thunder cracked louder than anything I’d ever heard.
    

“Lisa, maybe you should get away from the window,” I said.  “I wouldn't want another patient.”
    

“What does it matter?” she mumbled stepping away from the small glass square.
    

“Elyssa, don't talk like that.  You have to keep the faith.”
    

“You're one to talk,” she muttered back at me.
    

I had the urge to yell back at her, but I wasn't about to give her the satisfaction.
    

“I made a mistake.  I've accepted that.  Now please just keep hoping, for Brian's sake at least.”
    

Elyssa sighed and sat down beside him.
    

“Anita, what did we do to deserve all of this crap?” she asked me.
    

I just laughed.  You could mull over that question for years and never come up with an answer you were happy with.
    

“Shit happens,” I said simply.
    

I actually managed to get a smile out of her.
    

“Yeah, I guess,” Elyssa put an elbow down on Brian's bed and rested her head against one of her hands.
    

She looked at the still figure lying before her.
    

“Hold on, baby,” I heard her faintly whisper.
    

I checked Bri’s machines once more and then conceded that we would just have to wait for the guys to get back before doing anything more.  It was about another five minutes before they re-appeared in Brian's doorway.
    

“So?” I asked before they said a word.
    

“Every single door on the entire floor is locked.  There is absolutely no way off,” Howie stated.
    

“And you should see the storm,” Nick began in disbelief, “There are pieces of debris flying everywhere! I saw a whole tree whip by.  It's unreal.”
    

“We are praying that the windows are going to hold,” Kevin paced around the room as if trying to come up with their next move.
    

“The doors in this hospital are electronically locked.  If we could somehow access the computers we might be able to unlock them,” I stated remembering what I could about the hospital.
    

“Are you sure that we want to get off this floor?  I mean there is no chance of us surviving outside,” Elyssa said.
    

“I know, but we'd all be safer off in the basement.”
    

Kevin nodded in agreement.
    

“Elyssa and Nick are the only ones out of us who know anything about computers that will do us any good.  I vote they give it a shot,” Howie suggested.
    

We all agreed and made our way over to the nurse's desk, the nearest computers that we could think of.  Elyssa and Nick sat down and attempted to boot up the system.  Kevin, Howie and I milled around trying not to breathe over their shoulders.
    

“If Brian's machines are running off a generator, the comps should be able to too,” Elyssa was saying to Nick.
    

“Depends how networked they are.  We wouldn't want to overload the generators.”
    

“Nick, I don't think you can cause a power outage here like you did at that hotel through networking.  There has to be more than one generator for the entire hospital…”
    

They went back and forth like that for awhile, before there was a simultaneous cry of victory.
    

“You're in?” Kevin asked.
    

“You bet,” Elyssa replied.  “Anita you better go check on Brian and make sure we aren't running his power supply dry.”
    

I nodded and trotted off.  Everything in Brian's room appeared to be in perfect working order, so I re-joined the group.
    

“I don't know if we will be able to do it from these computers,” Elyssa was telling Kevin.  “These aren't exactly the security PC’s.  And even if we can access them through the network there will be passwords.  I mean the people designing the system weren't stupid.”
    

“Just keep trying,” he replied and began pacing again.
    

“You guys I'm going to the bathroom,” I said, suddenly realizing I hadn't gone in over five hours.
    

“Okay just hurry up,” Kev said as if I needed his permission.
    

But I just shook it off.  Kevin needed to be the leader, otherwise he felt totally out of control.
    

I trotted down an empty hallway, hung a right and went into the little girls room.  After I got out my curiosity got the better of me.  I needed to see this storm.  So instead of heading back to the group I went to the kids' play room on the other end of the floor.  I’d have the best view from there.  It was quite a ways away from the ICU section.  You see this hospital wasn't built high, only 5 floors.  It was built wide.  I peeked into the room.  There was a large window that took up the entire length of one of the walls.  The storm was as bad as they had said and more.  It looked like an earthquake had hit.  I was thankful the hospital had practically been made hurricane proof after it had been rebuilt after the fire in ’94.
    

I looked beyond the glass.  It was as if I was in a totally different world than the one that was being ravaged outside.  I looked at my watch.  It was 3:00 in the afternoon, but you could have sworn night had already arrived it was so dark.  And it was an angry night.  Mother Nature roared with all she had.  I gently touched the glass, you could almost feel the power.
    

As I watched the storm outside I saw a lightning bolt flash down from the clouds just millimetres away from my eyes.  I screamed and jumped back as it zipped by.  The intensity of the light caught my eyes and filled my entire area of vision.  I felt as though I were looking straight into a million light bulbs.  Almost immediately afterwards the thunder cracked.  It was so loud I made a move to cover my ears.  But my vision wasn't clearing.  The light seemed to still burn into my brain.
   

The earth seemed to move and spin under my feet and my perception of the world around me ended.  Suddenly it felt as though I was floating through a glowing tunnel until I hit the ground, hard.  Pain seemed to be everywhere, when the light dimmed and totally went out.

 

***

 

 

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