Bonds For Time

The Message

I tossed my phone to Natalie and told her to call 911, I ripped the sleeve of my shirt off and tried my best to stop the bleeding. 5 minutes later, the paramedics showed up, Natalie, Amy, and Areen jumped into the ambulance, I told them I'd catch up and jumped into my car. I pressed a button on the back of my steering wheel and the windows darkened up and the navigation screen lit up. "What can I do for you sir?" The British program, Avery, I'd designed was a multifunctional program designed to help me work. Fun little thing to have conversations with, not fully artificial intelligence but enough to be functional on its own. I told Avery I needed his help, I punched in the first three numbers of the unknown number that called me just minutes ago. He ran it through the database and I was shocked to find out it was a Britain area code. I called Natalie and told her who I suspected was behind the shooting, Jess. Natalie sounded like she was pissed, she started yelling profanities, I prayed she was alone yelling those because some of them were really bad. I'm talking bad enough that even the devil would've blushed. I'm half sure he did, i couldn't help but smile because that was so, Natalie if that makes sense. I threw the car in reverse and roared out of the parking lot and down the street to the hospital. I got out of the car and ran through the front doors of the hospital. They started to freak out and tried to get me into a hospital bed. That's when I looked down and noticed I had Rachel's blood all over my shirt. I reassured them I wasn't hurt, even lifting up my shirt to show I had no wounds. They let me be and asked why I was there, I told them I was here for Rachel Stapley and they asked if I had a relation to her. The first thing I said was spoken without thinking "I'm her brother" I told the nurse. Natalie shot me the 'what the fuck are you doing' look. I pulled out my phone as the nurse led me to Rachel's room and texted Natalie saying I was a compulsive liar so I couldn't help it. She replied with two words 'you dick' I almost laughed. The nurse told me Rachel was lucky the bullet missed her vital organs. I thanked her and walked into the room and sat down next to Rachel's bed. I buried my head in my hands, this was all my fault, I should've warned my friends before this happened. The door clicked and slid open, I looked up to greet whoever it was, and standing there was... Jess. "What the hell are you doing here Jess?" I said through gritted teeth. She laughed "I'm just here to finish the job" she said, she had the same accent as Amy, but her voice was disgusting, whereas Amy's was smooth as silk. I was a total idiot, in the rush I had forgotten to grab the pistol I kept in my car, shit, this would've been a hell of a lot easier with a gun. I glared at her, "get out of here before I hurt you" I told her, in reality i'd pressed the distress button for the hospital and about 3 or 4 nurses were on their way to the room, I just needed to keep her away from Rachel long enough so that the nurses could get there. Jess produced a knife from behind her, it was about 7 and a half inches long, "if you don't mind I'll just be ending this" she said, she jumped at Rachel but I lunged forward and knocked her back. She fell flat on her ass and got up, slashing at me, the nurses bursted through the door, horrified at what was happening, one of the bigger male nurses went to grab Jess but she slashed him in the leg and jumped out the window. The nurses looked at me horrified, I looked down and saw I had a gash across my chest, the pain settled in as my adrenaline wore off. They took me to a different room and started to tend to my cut, I wouldn't need stitches for it, but I a butterfly sticker on it so that the cut would be closer together and would heal better and scar less. "What happened to that girl, the one that cut me?" I asked, the nurse looked at me, "when she jumped out the window she twisted her ankle, might have sprained it, but she had her car against the curb so she was able to jump in and get away before we could get her or the license plate digits. "Shit" I said, the last thing I remember is the nurse telling me to get some rest, and she'll call the school and tell them I'll be back after classes end tomorrow evening.