Safe & Sound

Chapter 16

I wake up. Why am I awake? I thought I was dead.

I'm alone. Alone in my hospital room. I feel hot. I hear muffled screams, and I see a glow from under the door. I try to get up, but I'm strapped down to the bed.

I move up and down, trying to set myself free from the bed, like in Mockingjay Part 1, at the very end of the movie when Peeta's strapped down to the bed. That's how I feel. Trapped.

It gets hotter. And smokier. I hear something crackling. Fire.

The hospital's on fire and there's no way I can get out.

I scream for someone, but no one responds. I jump up from the bed, but am restricted by the straps. The fire sneaks into my room like a robber into a bank. I scream for people to come, but no one does. I can feel my skin burning, and my lungs giving up.

Why couldn't I die in the surgery? I scream in pain as the smoke kills my lungs.
I throw my arms up, and the straps restricting them snap off, leaving my wrists cut up and raw. I untie the straps on my legs, and they eventually slip off.
The fire is consuming the small room. I jump up, and grab the top of my hospital gown to cover my nose and mouth.
I run out of my room, avoiding the burnt beams falling from the roof of the hospital. The whole building is being destroyed by flames. It's slowly falling apart.
The stairs are miraculously still in place, and I scramble down them.
I collapse on the floor when I reach the bottom of the stairs. I'm wrapped in a blanket of fire. I use all my strength left to get up, and run to the doors leading out of the hospital.

I open the heavy glass door, and breath in the fresh air of outside. As soon as I come out of the door, I collapse on the hard cement. I look around to see firetrucks, paramedics, and police surrounding the hospital. Hundreds of people surround the fire.
Doctors rush towards me and lift me on top of a stretcher. I'm not taken inside the ambulance though. I see a familiar face look over me. Doctor Hannah. She checks my pulse, and does some doctor thing.

She looks back to everyone, shocked, then she turns back to me.

"Am I okay?" I croak.

She smiles and nods. "Your fine. Your fine Mack."

I sit up slowly to see Mom come running towards me. "Thank God your okay!" She sobs, hugging me. "I was so worried!"

I just sit there. I look over Mom's shoulder to see Jennifer inside an ambulance, hooked up to several machines. "Will she be okay Mom? Will Jennifer survive?"

Mom smiles sadly. "I don't know, My girl. I don't know."

A panicked nurse calls for everyone to be quiet. "Were still missing several people!" She yells over the sirens.

"Anyone that I know?" I ask Mom, as she pulls away from the hug.

Mom's eyes fill with tears, and she nods.

"Who!" I scream. I feel like how I did months ago when I would get Anxiety. "Who is it Mom!"

"Your friend" She sobs into her hands.

I scan Mom's face. "Which one! Sandy?"

Mom shakes her head. That means Owen's still in there.

I look around. "Are they just letting them stay in their and suffocate!" I scream, jumping up from the stretcher. "They need to get out!"

Mom grabs my arm. "You can't go in there Macbeth! Don't be stupid!"

I look at my Mom outraged. "I'm not being stupid Mom!" I scream back at her.

I run up to the hospital, but I feel someone grab my arm. "We can't let you go back inside their Miss." I look up to see a firefighter calling over a Nurse.

"My friends in their!" I yell. "He needs to get out!"

A Nurse rushes over and tries to calm me down. "Calm down Macbeth. You can't go in their. Especially after the surgery."

She sits me down, and pours water on my face, washing off all the ash and debris. "Calm down." She repeats over and over. "It's going to be okay."

But it's not going to be okay. Owen's in the hospital. The burning building. If someone doesn't go in their and save him and everyone else, that's certain death for all of them. It's not going to be okay.

Firefighters spray water at the burning hospital, attempting to kill the fire. It barely helps.

The nurses rush me off into an ambulance to bring me to another hospital to be checked up.

I don't have to be put in a stretcher. I just sit in the back, staring out of the window at the huge fire as the ambulance slowly pulls away. What started the fire? Why was I alone in my room? Why did they leave me strapped down to the bed. Trapped. Why am I still alive? How am I still alive? All these questions float around in my head. I continue to look out the window, and then I spot something. Someone, rather.