Reflection

Critical Condition

"She's still in a critical condition!" Is the first thing I hear. My mind was still numb and my body wasn't controllable. I lay still, with my eyes closed. The pain I knew I should be experiencing didn't effect me.

"It doesn't matter." A demanding voice replies. "We need to move everyone out now."

"We can't move her!" The first voice says. It was shrill and terrified.

Footsteps approach the side of the bed, and lift me easily from it. I groan in pain, and my head lolls to the side. Trying to open my eyes a new voice speaks up, this one feminine and worried. "We really need to be going."

"Karissa.." The person holding me whispers. "We're gonna get you out of here. It'll be okay, just breathe alright."

My eyes finally blink open. The boy holding me has brown hair, his eyes are dark brown. I turn my head slowly toward the two other people in the doorway. The girl has blonde hair that goes down to her waist in cascading ripples. Her dull green eyes are staring at me and we meet eye contact before she turns away. The other boy with the high pitched voice has orange-red hair and the brightest blue eyes I've ever seen.

I rest my head against the boy's chest and close my eyes again. Pain floods over me and my head throbs.

The girl speaks up, "we need to go, now!"

The boy holding me starts walking carefully, my body jolts with every step and I moan in pain. "I'm sorry." He murmurs. I try to drift back to sleep, my body tensing. "Karissa..." He murmurs, "you need to stay awake for me, okay?"

I nod slowly, but I feel it in every fiber of my body.

"Okay, I'm so sorry. I know it hurts, I'm gonna keep talking. Focus on my voice."

I nod again, my body screams with his every step. "Okay." I say almost inaudibly.

"We got a bomb threat, and we have to evacuate and get you to safety." He starts, his voice no louder than a whisper. "My name is Nathaniel Eric Wilkinson. My sister, the impatient girl ahead of us, is called Mildred. She prefers to go by Millie. Her full name is Mildred Rebecca Wilkinson." His voice drones on and on and I desperately try to focus on it. "And the pansy over there," he continues chuckling. "Is Carl Liam Stevens, he's kinda freaking out about this whole bomb thing. He was one of the people who helped to rebuild the hospital. My sister and I came a few months later." He continues but I don't grasp anything else he says.

We walk outside and the bright sunlight of midday blinds me and I turn and bury my head in his chest, closing my eyes tight.

"Alright come on, the others are just beyond here." I hear Millie say from a few hundred yards away.

Nathaniel holds me tighter and I groan.  "Sorry," he mutters.

We continue on for a few more minutes in silence until we reach a building. The three stop and Nathaniel whispers, "we're almost there."

"Password?" An unfamiliar voice demands from behind the door.

Millie stamps her foot in frustration, "let us in, we have a critical patient."

"I'm messing with you Dred, come on in." The voice replies laughing a deep laugh.

We start moving again as a door squeals open and then closed behind us. "Is this the uh.. Coma girl?" The man asks Millie. I can't hear her response but I know instantly they're talking about me.

"It's okay, ignore them, we're gonna find your friends." Nathaniel murmurs, and starts to walk away from the others. I open my eyes and look at the people as we past. Everyone watches eyes narrowed, murmurs follow us, and Nathaniel starts to talk nonsense again.