Oblivion [CURRENTLY EDITING]

Chapter Five

The following day, I was back at work again. I was still shaken up over the events of the previous night, but I knew that life was not going to stop for me just because I was ready to have a breakdown. Besides, I had a job to do. And so, I made my way to the hospital and began my rounds for the day.

My initial rounds of the hospital were routine and went normally. But, it was as I was rounding a corner to head back to the front desk that I collided with another body. Once I had steadied myself, I looked up to see Asher. Typical.
"Why didn't you answer my calls yesterday?" he asked me. I immediately dodged the question by stepping around him and continuing on down the hallway; my fight or flight instincts taking over. Asher grabbed my arm and, rather forcefully, turned me around to face him once again.

"I asked you a question, Rose."

"Asher, stop. Let me go," I demanded in a forceful tone. I locked my gaze with his and gave him the most intense glare that I could muster. His grip tightened around my arm and then he slowly released his hold on me and lowered his hand. He dropped his gaze to the floor and shook his head, as if to shake himself out of whatever had overcome him.

"I'm sorry," he said in a quiet tone. I had never seen him have an outburst like that before, and I hoped I would never have to see it again.

"I'm sure you are," I spat, turning and walking as fast as I could away from him. Something about Asher made me feel incredibly uneasy all of a sudden, and I wasn't sure if it was caused by me simply overcoming my feelings for him or if there was something more. Nothing about his presence ever made me felt that way before, and I hoped that this was the last time I'd ever had to see it. I was beyond over Asher and his destructive ways.

However, boys would have to wait, as I was snapped out of my thoughts by an alarm sounding. It was a familiar and frightening sound, certainly not one that you wanted to hear around a hospital.

Code blue.

It was then that I heard other nurses in the hallway come running towards the same room. I picked up my pace and made my way over to the doorway that was calling for the emergency. Laying down on the bed was an old man that I recognized well.

Mr. Cartwright, a fifty year old resident of Conyers, had been recovering from his heart transplant in our hospital and had been doing extremely well according to his doctors. But, this was not the healthy man we had all seen come out of the operating room just a few days prior. All of his systems were failing and he could no longer breathe.

"Rose, get over here," one of the resident doctors, Doctor Hemmings, called urgently to me. I worked my way through the people gathered around his bedside and looked at the doctor expectantly.
"I need you to do a tracheal intubation as quickly as you can."

I nodded hesitantly without any further questions and grabbed the tools that another nurse was handing me before going to work.
Intubating wasn't the easiest task to complete and it required a lot of practice before any medical professional could safely perform it on someone. I had picked it up fairly quickly when I began working at the hospital and supposed that was why I was being asked to do this out of all of the other quiet nurses around me who seemed too scared to even attempt.

Quickly and efficiently, I tilted the patient's head back and used my tools to try and get a better look down his throat. As I was trying to assess the wind pipe and slide the tube down, I quickly glanced up to make eye contact with Mr. Cartwright. He was eying me hysterically, although he made no real sounds except for a few short gurgles and a mangled cry. He gave me a frightened look as his body shook and went rigid. Before I could get the intubation tube down into the correct position to provide air for him, his monitor flat-lined. I looked up at the machine that indicated total system failure and looked back down at the patient, his eyes still open and staring at me. I immediately dropped my tools and took a step back from the hospital bed.