TAKEN - Eddie Munson story

chapter thirteen

Hopper's POV

I arrived at Lily's office. She looked up from her computer screen and gave a, concerned smile, may I add. She must have noticed the color that has disappeared from my face.

"Hey Jim, are you okay?", Lily asked.

"Depends, I need the address of Tom Hathaway, owner of Hotwire." I walked towards Lily and stood behind her, leaning towards her computer screen.

I watched her typing in his name, and his address popped out.

1201 Briarcliff.

Got it.

"Call the ambulance to that address and tell them I'm on my way to the scene!" I exclaimed to Lily. I made a run for it before she could respond verbally and exited the police station.

I got into my car, turned the sirens on, and floored the pedal.

I can't remember when I drove this fast on duty. My heart was racing, palms sweaty yet firmly holding my steering wheel.

For the love of God, please be okay, kid.

I arrived at Tom's house and made my way to his front door quickly. Before I was about to kick the door down, I saw the door was already open. For about three inches. I noticed the lock was forged. I pushed the door open with one hand and grabbed my gun with the other hand.

I slowly make my way into his home. His hallway was clean. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I turned the corner with my gun pointing out to whatever is in front of me. I saw a couch on my right, a TV on the wall, and a bookshelf on the left. I walked slowly towards the kitchen and noticed a red pool of liquid.

Shit, that's blood.

A whole lot of blood...

I quickly ran towards the blood and saw Tom laying there. His eyes were wide open, filled with fear as he was gasping for air.

Jesus Christ. Thank God, he's alive.

But if I don't act quickly, he might not be for long.

I kneeled down and try to investigate quickly where he was shot.

I felt a shaking hand on my underarm. I traced the hand back to where it came from. The hand belonged Tom.

Obviously.

He looked at me with big frightful eyes. ''H-he-help m-me pl-please," he choked with blood coming out from his mouth.

"Hang on kid, help is on the way," I grabbed his hand that was laying on top of my underarm and gave it a squeeze.

''Stay with me, okay? Stay with me," he nodded slowly at my words.

A distant sound interrupted my focus on Tom. It was the sound of sirens coming closer and closer.

Louder and louder.

It was the sound of an ambulance.

Finally.

"IN HERE! PLEASE HURRY," I yelled, in the hope they heard me. I heard the sound of many, fast footsteps and two ambulance workers made their way toward us.

"Who we got here and what happened?" one of the ambulance workers asked. He had dirty blonde hair, scruffy beard, his right arm covered in tattoos and looked in his early 30s.

"This is Tom Hathaway, 30 years old, got a shotgun wound to his stomach," I quickly explained.

"Okay, we'll take over from here chief," The female ambulance worker said. She looked about the same age as her colleague. She had dark brown hair, hanging tightly in a ponytail and was about 5'6 in height.

"I'm Nina, and that's Jesse." She said while jerking her head towards her colleague.

She must have noticed the way I was studying both ambulance workers.

Thank you though, Nina. Now I can address you both correctly.

"Good. I'm Jim Hopper, call me Hop," I said. I received a nod from both of them.

Jesse and Nina both kneeled down to Tom and examined him.

"Hello Tom, can you hear us?" Nina asked.

Tom nodded slowly.

"Okay, we are going to turn you to the side to check if there's an exit wound," Jesse said. "On three. One, two. Three!" they turned Tom on this side. Jesse lifted his shirt and inspected his back. When he was done, they turned him on his back.

"No exit wound. That means the bullet is still in him. We need to bring him to the hospital quick," Jesse explained while he stood up. He grabbed the stretcher and walked back towards Tom and Nina. Jesse counted to three again to turn Tom to the side again with Nina's help, so Jesse put the stretcher under Tom. They turn him back on the stretcher.

"On three we lift him again and put him on the bed. One, two, three!" Jesse and Nina lifted Tom up and putted him on the bed.

They rolled Tom in the back of the ambulance and closed the doors.

"I will escort you to the hospital," I told them. They both nodded and got in their ambulance quickly.

I ran back to my car, turned the sirens back on and drove. The ambulance drove right behind me, with also their sirens on.

Within five minutes, we arrived at the ER of Hawkins Hospital.

I got out of the car and Jesse and Nina got Tom out of the back of the ambulance. The sliding doors of the ER opened, and a male doctor ran towards us. I looked at his maroon, red uniform and saw the name: Dr. Halstead.

"Okay Nina and Jesse, talk to me. Who do we got here?" Dr. Halstead asked while putting on his blue medical gloves.

"Tom Hathaway, 30 years old. Found by Chief Hopper in his home. Got a shotgun wound to the stomach with no exit wound. Barely conscious, lost a lot of blood. BP 120/90, heart rate 110, oxygen levels are 87 and dropping," Nina quickly informed dr. Halstead.

I followed behind them as I saw them wheel Tom in a room with a curtain.

"On my count we'll transfer him on the bed. One, two, THREE," dr. Halstead instructed as the rest did as they were told.

They quickly hooked him up on the monitors to check his vitals and the machines were peeping right away. His vitals were dropping fast.

The knot in my stomach grew.

Please don't die on me kid. Please....

"This bullet needs to be removed quickly or else he'll bleed out. Page dr. Marcel and get the OR and OR team ready," dr. Halstead instructed his colleague nurse. She nodded and quickly tapped on her pager.

Dr Halstead, the nurse, Nina, and Jesse quickly wheeled Tom out of the room and made their way towards the OR.

I walked right behind them but was quickly stopped by someone. It was the nurse who paged the colleagues, dr. Halstead ordered her.

"You can't come along. I'm sorry. We'll let you know as soon as the operation is done, okay?" the nurse said. The name on her blue uniformed said nurse Lockwood.

"Okay thank you, miss Lockwood," she gave me an empathic smile as she turned around and walked away.

I was left standing alone.

With blood on my underarm where Tom held me.

I sank on the chair behind me and putted my head on my hands, which were resting on my knees.

Please save him dr. Marcel, dr. Halstead, anybody...