Breaking The Rules

5

The loud ringing of my alarm startled me awake and I groaned as I firstly shut the phone off before shoving it underneath my pillow. Morning had come all too quickly and I reluctantly dragged my tired self off the bed in order to get ready for the day ahead.

It took me 15 minutes to do so and I slowly walked the long stretch to the hospital. My ears were plugged up, Eminem blasting loudly as I ate the hotdog from last night and drank the tea from the flask.

The streets always seemed to be bustling with people for such a rundown place. Prostitutes were out and about trying to get their early morning bread from the respectable gentlemen that traveled all the way from the other side of the city to do their 'not so saintly' deeds. Young boys either rode bicycles or stood at different parts of the streets to sell weed, pills and other illegal contraband to passer-by's. Children of different ages played at the gates of their apartments or homes, ignoring the harshness of the world around them and, the folks that tried their best to do an honest work all seemed to exist in the small area I started to call home.

I liked the walk to and from the hospital purely because of the observations I had. It was a forgotten place, a place that people struggled to get by on a daily basis while staying away from the criminal activities. I learnt very early on that once you minded your business and don't go looking for trouble, trouble never found you.

Yes, there were 3 gangs that occupied this part of the city, however, they all did a different kind of business and kept out of each others hairs. There was the Mexican gang called 'Portador de la muerte' that specialised in selling cocaine and heroine, amongst others, to different parts of the country. Then there was the White gang called 'Purple' that specialised in hijacking and bootlegging. Lastly, the Black gang called 'Crazy Devils' that specialised in prostitution, marijana and weaponry.

Each territory was separated far enough that there wasn't any gang on gang violence and because they wanted to secure their base of operations, the locals were left alone.

Information like this would have been enough to deter me from ever living here but as intimidating as the gangs sounded, I never had any trouble and they were actually okay people. Once I said my greeting and scurried along my way, they left well enough alone.

"Good morning Mr. Daniels. I do hope you're here to work and not be as distracted as you seem." Dr. Macy states, boredom and tiredness written all over her face.

"Hi, yes! I'm here to work." I respond as I walked in step with her.

"Great. You know Marcus. Marcus you know the new hire, Zach. He's all yours for today."

She immediately abandons me to tend to her patients and I awkwardly smile at the older gentleman as he too gives me a tired look.

"Hey son. Name's Marcus as you heard her say."

I nod in response.

"I'm one of the porters here. You stick by me and I'll show you the ropes. Here, we do what we're asked to, nothing more, nothing less."

"Okay."

"We stay out of their way and they leave us space to do our jobs."

I nod once more and he gives me a look of approval before walking off. Since it was only two of them and now myself on the day shift, there were lots of work to do. Marcus was my supervisor since he's been working here the longest and so he gave me an overall to wear to protect my clothes and gloves.

I spent the morning wheeling patients to and from different spots in the hospital, taking samples to and from the lab, changing bedspreads and dumping waste before I was finally given a break at 2 to get some lunch.

I sighed heavily as I tiredly walked to the locker when a few guys suddenly rushed through the emergency entrance with a guy who's bleeding and unconscious and two others that looked seriously injured.

"Hey, new guy. I need beds 3 through 5 cleared." One of the few trauma doctors shouted as he and 2 other nurses rushed towards the entrance.

The energy I lost a while ago suddenly came with renewed strength and I rushed towards triage in a haste to clear the used bedsheets.

I traversed the halls of the hospital as I carried supplies needed from one location to the next. I moved as though my life depended on it and didn't notice the man rounding the corner from the west visitors wing.

The angry tone of his voice as he shouted commands and the coldness of his eyes were almost enough to cause me to not recognise him but when his firm hand grabbed my waist to prevent me from falling, it became unmistakable who he was.

"Nickoli?" I asked, knowing fully who he was yet finding it hard to believe.

His shirt was covered in splotches of blood and his hands had the remnants of dried blood that weren't completely washed clean. His face was bruised as though he'd been in a fight yet the strength of his grip proved he wasn't badly injured.

"Zach?"

"What happened to you? Why are you here? Are you with the Mexican gang?"

"I-" He puts his finger to his lips in an attempt to silence me and I raise an eyebrow as I folded my arms.

Ignoring him, I continued my mad barrage of questions. "Did you piss them off and they beat you up? Was it an accident? Who's blood is this?"

Giving me a stern look, Nickoli ends his call before pulling me into a corner.

"I brought some people I know here. I'm fine."

"Are you?" I doubted, scanning his features with my hands.

"If you missed me that much then you could have just said so." He joked, grabbing my hands in his, in an attempt to stop me. "Instead you're here, feeling me up and as satisfying as it is, I must ask you to stop."

"I'm not-"

"Tsk, tsk. Now, now, there is no shame in wanting what's already yours."

I yanked my hands from his and rolled my eyes just as a guy approached us.

"Yo, Nick! Tío loco wants to see us. He's waiting in the car outside."

Nodding, Nickoli turns to me and gives a small smile. "Sorry curly fries, duty calls."

He begins to walk away with said guy when I pulled him to a stop by his shirt. "We're not done talking." I state.

His pal pushes me roughly to the wall and I blinked in time to see Nickoli's smile disappear moments before his pal's head is roughly slammed to the same wall I currently occupied.

"Touch him again and you die."

"Nickoli!" I snapped as I'm not only confused and shaken but very much scared of the man I saw before me.

He comes to me and with one hand pulls me by my waist while the other checks the back of my head.

"You okay?" He asks gently, his concerned eyes fixated on my frightened ones.

"Yes." I murmur.

"Good."

Without another word he walks away and his pal avoids eye contact as he follows suit. Trapped air escapes my lips as I slouched forward and at first I think it's due to all the excitement when my stomach growled making me all too aware of my lack of food intake. Heading towards my locker, I groaned as my phone showed a few minutes after 4.

Where did the time go?