The unsettling sound of sirens is what pulled me from my temporary unconsciousness. My face was half-covered in damp sand and my left arm was twisted uncomfortably beside me. I groaned and tried to turn over onto my back, but I was experiencing immense pain everywhere, it seemed. I could hear the rough slap of the ocean against rock just underneath the ambulance and police cars. Ambulance and police cars!?.
Get up, Whitaker. A little voice in the back of my head urged me to push myself from the sand. Get up, now. There was also silence in a sense. All the freshman were gone, probably in fear of being caught with alcohol underage. I opened my eyes and felt grains of sand flick against my eyelids. Red plastic cups were strewn across the sandy beach and remnants of footprints were scattered along the shore. My stomach jumped as the tide fell back and rose slightly, inches from my arm. That was enough to cause me to scatter away from the damp shoreline until I was half a dozen feet or so from the shore; the part of the beach where grass weaved its way through the sand. I could see the last remaining bonfire a little ways from the shore.
"Are you alright, young man?" A concerned woman in black pants and a white lab coat steeped out of the back of the ambulance. "Can you hear me?" From what I could see, it looked like Cassandra had put on a doctor's uniform and was coming towards me. When the woman approached me, I could see that she had higher cheekbones and darker eyes than Cass. She looked back at the ambulance where two men held a stretcher and beckoned them over. With difficulty, the pushed it through the sand until they were closer to me and this lady who strongly resembled Cassandra.
"Can you tell me your name? How many fingers am I holding up?" The woman's voice was drowned in worry as the two men lifted me onto the stretcher. She held up a peace sign and waited for my response.
I just stared up at her. I had no clue who she was and all I wanted to do was get home before Levi woke up and found out. "Ma'am, can I please go home. I live just up that way and I can walk from here, it's no big deal." I tried to push myself from the stretcher the men were pulling back towards the ambulance, but I found that my arms couldn't lift my weight. And even worse, my legs refused to move.
"I need you to lay down. What did you say your name was? And is there anyone I can contact about you?" She pulled her tight curls back into a ponytail without taking her eyes from mine.
"I never told you my name." I muttered, completely confused as to where I was and where I was going. "I need to get home, please." Call me uncooperative, but I was too afraid to listen to much and focus on anything.
She ignored me and started talking to the men pushing the stretcher onto the back of the ambulance. Fear seemed to shock my limbs back to life. I nearly jumped from the small cot and out onto the sandy beach, but the woman caught my arms and forced me back down.
"I really need you to stay calm. My name is nurse Holloway and I really need to contact your family members."
Holloway? As in Cassandra Holloway? I felt a sense of safety surrounding the woman seeing that she was related to Cass. I slowly lied back down and sighed. "My name is Wit Walker and my Uncle Levi is the only living relative I have. Here's his number." I recited the digits I'd had memorized for many years now. "My house is just up there." I repeated. "I can just walk home. There's no need for all of this."
"I highly disagree, Mr. Walker." She smiled slightly and dialed the number if given her. She turned so her back was facing towards me and I realized the ambulance started moving.
A man in a similar outfit as Nurse Holloway sat down beside me, checking his watch. "It's a quarter after midnight and the hospital is just a few minutes away." He looked at me and smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. I found myself intertwining my fingers with one another and rubbing the tips of my thumbs together.
