Bullied By The Omaha Boys

Chapter 12: Recovery

LEAH'S P.O.V

I was being wheeled to Emily's room with Sammy's wheel chair following close behind. They said we could visit her for only 10 minutes. Sammy was staying for another night or two and I was being discharged later today. We had to take the elevator up a floor and we entered the critical care unit. We went down a hall and into a room that had a sign that said ICU in big letters. As we entered the loud noise of machines flooded the room. There was a big tube coming from her mouth and a machine was making breathing noises.

I gasped at the scene.

"Emily is on a ventilator to help her breathe." The nurse said.

"She cant breathe on her own?" I asked.

"Im afraid not." The nurse replied. "I'll leave you two alone."

Sammy grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly. Her face was basically smothered In wires making it nearly impossible to make out her face. Her mother suddenly came running in frantically.

"Oh, Thanks for coming Leah." She said out of breath.

"Of course, im so sorry.." I said.

"I am too. How are you feeling?" She asked.

She had purple bags under her eyes and she looked as if she hadn't slept for days. She seemed completely distraught about the whole thing.

"Better." I shrugged.

"Sammy, right?" She asked Sammy.

They carried out a conversation and I just stared at Emily and her machines. It didn't even look like Emily. It looked like a lifeless version of Emily. Her machine beeping and breathing doing everything for her. Will it ever get better?

I hadn't even seen Emily's father came in I was so deep in thought and concentration on Emily.

"Oh, Hi." I said.

The room was almost intolerably sad. Emily was dying and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Her family was already beginning to cope with a loss even though she is technically still alive. But as I have seen on TV and in movies, as soon as you get off the ventilator, your done with. I couldn't seem to grasp that my best friend was dying before my eyes. I didn't want to think about having to go to school without her perky smile every dreadful Monday morning.

I began to tear up. But soon it became sobs and I couldn't stop myself. I felt Emily's mom pull me into a hug and I just cried on her shoulder.

~~~~~~~~

Sammy and I were escorted back to our rooms and my mother was waiting for me with a fresh outfit. I tried to get up but it hurt so bad to extend my abdomen that I started screaming. My mother put me back down gently and called for a nurse. They decided they would let me keep the wheel chair and I would have to practice getting up and down once I felt better. My mother helped me dress slowly and carefully. I said a quick goodbye to Sammy and I was out of there.

Getting into the car was a mess but I just wanted to be as far away from this hospital as possible. When we arrived home mom already bought equipment that she read online would help. She bought an overhead bar that helps me sit up. Its actually pretty helpful but just the fact that my room looks like im disabled makes me angry. 

The harsh reality of this horrible school shooting eventually caught up with me. It was all over social media and TV. Twitter was blowing up with news reports and not much left to say from the student body. Everybody was stunned. But the run down was that Jack was currently in jail being forced with the consequence of shooting his fellow peers.

The kid is absolutely insane if you were to ask me. But as my mother continues to remind me as I shake my head and scream that is I am "not an educated doctor to be making that diagnosis." But I think if you were to ask anybody in my school they would all make the assumption that he was insane.

Many of the students that I talk to everyday that I used to see every single day are now lying under ground. People that were living less than 72 hours ago are now... dead. Not only that but now my best friend was staring death in the eye and nobody can save her. My best friend is dying. I almost died. Sammy could have bled to death. My teacher is dead.

Suddenly I became horrified. It struck me that families currently are mourning over their child's death because of one guy. Jack caused the pain of not only families, faculty and staff and students and friends but also the state of Nebraska.

After many of days of facing the cold truth I was able to get into contact with some of the students that were able to come out of the blood bath alive. Apparently after I was shot and I passed out, Jack then started crying over my body and screaming. Then he got up and ran out of the class room. The students in that room called 911 and tried to warn and save who ever else they could. Somebody pulled the fire alarm to evacuate anybody else who was in the building. They said they continued to hear gun shots until the police arrived. In total 18 students were shot and killed. 21 students were injured and 7 teachers died. Amy, a girl in my Civics class, said that Jack was not only shooting kids and teachers but beating and attacking students in multiple ways, her being one of the students he attacked without shooting.

My mom decided she wasn't even going to bother trying to deal with all of this with Mr. Gilinsky so she simply told him that they were over and done with because of the shooting. But clearly the break up has been hard on her because she keeps crying in her bedroom and I cant tell if its over the shooting or the break up. Im assuming its a mix of both. This whole entire shooting has sent Omaha into a state of depression. Everybody is too sad to do anything.