Surviving 93

Chapter 3: The First Night

Riven learned that the nurse assigned to him was named Ruth. Then he began talking to the Sampson family more. They had asked what he remembered before meeting Na'im and Verity, and he explained it wasn't much.

He told them about the crater, the forest, the running, and then seeing the road. There wasn't anything else to remember. That being said, everything that happened with Verity and Na'im was 90% of what he remembered. He kept telling them "I wish I knew more."

When Ruth stopped back in the room after her rounds, she had said Riven would have to stay at the hospital for a bit. His burns and other injuries were pretty severe- but the Sampson family could visit whenever they would like. That brought them all a little bit of comfort- especially Riven.

At the end of that first afternoon, after staying late into the evening, the Sampson family went home from the night. Ruth switched shifts with the night nurse about an hour after that; the night nurse was named Asa, and Riven thought he was nice to talk to.

He just wanted to sleep- the day had exhausted him. He had passed out twice earlier and then a third time on the way to the hospital, so why couldn't he sleep now that it was over?

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At the Sampson home, no one said much. Akeem and Rawiya were in bed by the time they got back, so the immediate family ate dinner together.

"Verity, did he see you without your hijab?" Virgil asked, breaking the silence. Verity shook her head.

"No. I put my hood on," Verity responded, not looking up from her plate. Virgil looked at Na'im.

"She had me cover her," Na'im said. "She was protected."

Virgil nodded. He looked back at his daughter and saw she was deep in thought.

"What's on your mind, Ver?" Virgil asked, his voice a bit softer than before.

"What if Riven doesn't know what happened?" Verity asked bluntly. "In New York, I mean?"

"The hospital has the news playing- if he didn't know before, he likely does now," Na'im responded.

"It's all they're talking about. Nothing like this has happened before..." Lucia added.

"I wonder what happened to him," Na'im said, saying what everyone had been thinking.

"He looked pretty burnt- do you think maybe a car accident?" Verity asked.

"Maybe someone found out a loved one was in the towers while driving," Lucia said.

"It couldn't have been, he mentioned a crater," Na'im pointed out.

"There was a plane that hit the Pentagon, wasn't there?" Lucia asked. "He could've been in a passing zone and got hit by falling debris."

"It could've been, the plane would have had to cut through Pennsylvania to get to DC," Verity agreed.

There was another long silence between the family.

"Unless he remembers what happened, I suppose we'll never really know," Virgil said, almost sounding sad.

Everyone agreed silently and finished eating.

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When he did fall asleep, Riven had a dream.

There were two skyscrapers in the middle of a big city. The two buildings looked practically identical, except one had a rather tall antenna on the roof. He saw a plane, and even though it was very close to the towers, it didn't turn- it didn't even try to change direction.

Then it hit the first tower, and parts of the building broke through the other side.

The scene cut. It showed another plane that was coming from a different direction. Like the first, this second plane didn't try to change direction- it went straight into the second tower.

The scene changed again, and it showed debris falling to the ground faster than anyone could process- you could blink and the rubble would have already hit the ground. Dust and smoke was the main feature of this dream, and Riven saw it everywhere.

Any people he saw in this dream were running away from where these two buildings once were. Their fear rubbed off onto Riven, so much so that it woke him up briefly.

That was the moment he realized his dream was just relaying news footage from the hospital TV. It was very much not a dream. New York was in ruins...

And yet, something familiar was probing his brain. He couldn't tell what it was and he didn't know why. He just wanted to remember...

The next time he fell asleep, he didn't dream at all.

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