Angry Night
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
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.
***
