Midnight Creek Tales

#3. The Midnight Railroad / Chapter 8

Gage's body sprung up instantly as he could feel a cold compress on his head fall off onto his chest.

He was breathing heavily with his hands being clammy and moist as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Gage took many deep breaths and sat there looking around for an explanation to what just happened, 'Was it all a dream or am I going crazy?'

A doctor walked in, presumably to check up on Gage, "How's the warrior feeling?" He said optimistically in a happy tone. Gage looked at his tag; the doctor's last name was Brown.

"Warrior? What are you talking about Doc?" Gage sat up more, and he stretched his toes under the covers now feeling a bit more comfortable.

"Well I don't mean to alarm you Mr. Donovan, but last night you were shot three times in the head."

"Shot in the head?"

"Yup, two firing into the back, and one from the left side."

"How is that possible? I should be dead!"

"Well, as a matter of fact, you did die... but luckily for you, our fantastic medical team and I brought you back to life! It's quite a miracle to be honest, in all my thirty years of being a neurosurgeon I've never seen a fighter beat death like you did." He smiled at Gage, as he sat there bewildered and speechless.

"You hungry Gage?" He said politely.

Gage nodded back, and he smiled.

"The nurse will bring your breakfast in a moment, just make sure to get lots of rest. You were in intensive care for nearly 6 hours, and you're lucky that the third bullet didn't make it a centimeter closer or it would've been game over! So you'll need to take it easy for the next couple of weeks, possibly even months. But from the X-rays conducted after the operation, I think you'll have nothing to worry about in the long-term." Dr. Brown began to walk out of the room, and Gage called for him as his foot was out the door. "Doctor Brown,"

"Yes, Gage?" He said with a concerned look.

"Thanks for everything."

"No problem Mr. Donovan," He said smiling as he closed the door.

Gage now was left there in utter disbelief. "I still don't know how this is all possible? There has to be some correlation between us all?" He marveled at his fingers, "I can't believe I'm alive."

The nurse came into the room with a tray full of food and the daily newspaper, "Here you go, a natural breakfast and the morning paper with your face on the front cover! Enjoy soldier!" She set it down on the desk lap that was inserted into the hospital bed and pushed the tray towards Gage.

"Thank you!" He gratefully replied as she left the room.

Gage grabbed a fork and knife as he started to devour his pancakes and smoked sausage. He shuffled through the newspaper to the front page. As he read the header and article, he stopped chewing and dropped his fork in horror.

Bakersfield News

Yesterday evening a 17-year-old who goes to Bakersfield High School shot and killed ten people while injuring 21. The boy's name was Max Hamilton, and most described him to be a troubled teen dealing with substance abuse, self-harm, and bullying. Police tracked the first death to his unborn baby sister. He had kicked his pregnant stepmother in the stomach while she was nine months into her pregnancy. His father rushed her to the hospital, which later resulted in a stillbirth. But while they were at the hospital, that left Max his father's stash of weapons unguarded and easily accessible.

Civilians reported seeing him walking out of his house with firearms and explosives. He was also seen wearing a black ski mask over his face and a gray t-shirt with sweats on. He proceeded to his next-door neighbor's house, which happens to be the Reynolds'. The older teen who lives there happens to be one of Max's most prominent bullies students say. But Billy Reynolds was not home that horrid evening; he was out with some friends at a basketball game. However, his little sister Sarah was home with her babysitter Helen Fletcher. Helen was reportedly shot three times in the head while Sarah was beaten, brutally raped, and butchered into hundreds of pieces.

The police were contacted at 11:51, but Max Hamilton fled the scene shooting pedestrians including a little boy named Tom Handy and a lady walking her dog named Debbie Stewarts (Her husband being Dudley Stewarts the wealthy and successful entrepreneur). Max then ran up four blocks down the road to a local strip club. He fired nine times investigators say, killing two people there (victims names still unknown).

He quickly ran to a nearby campus with his firearms, but questionably decided not to use them until he had entered an astrophysics classroom, first shooting at the teacher right in the back of the head three times, and then at several students running away. As police were on the scene, he claimed the life of Jack Smith, a sheriff of the local police force. But as his ammo was running low, Max decided to take off his mask and keep firing until his bullets would run out. At 11:59 he was shot down by police, and at exactly midnight, Max Hamilton was pronounced dead.