Safe & Sound

Chapter 17

I look out the window to see Owen and a few other people being taken out of the hospital. I don't recognize the other people he's with. All of them are being taken out with stretchers, but Owen is limping on his own. 

"Stop the ambulance!" I scream to the drivers.

"Why?" One calls back, slowing down the vehicle, but I don't answer. I open up the back door and jump out of the car. 

"Owen!" I exclaim. There's so much noise and commotion that he doesn't notice me until I am about 10 meters away from him. "Owen Richards!" 

"Mack!" He yells back, "You okay?" 

I nod. "What happened to you!"

 Turns out Owen was at the hospital because his Dad had a stroke, and Owen was their visiting him. Sandy and Owen weren't able to come to see me because I wasn't in a stable position. Apparently I was almost driven mad before I went into the surgery. I thought I was fine.

I feel a pang of guilt when Owen tells me why he and Sandy couldn't come. When I was in that surgery, I thought they just didn't care about me. 

Everyone is moved to another Hospital. It isn't as big or great as the old one, but it's something. Owen had to get a test done on his arm, to see how bad the burn is. Jennifer isn't doing well. Her leukemia has gotten worse, and the fire didn't help. I haven't been able to see her yet. 

I'm sitting alone on the main floor of the hospital. I feel my phone buzz, and I look at it. It's a text from Sandy.

Sandy: Hey Mack. I heard about the fire, is everyone okay? How did the fire start?

Me:  Hi Sandy, can you come to this hospital? It's a lot easier to explain in person

Sandy: Okay, my Mom said I can come, i'll be their in a bit

Me: Thanks Sandy

Sandy: Np

Some things are to important to just text. It makes the event sound like no big deal. It makes it sound like something unimportant. But what just happened, the fire, the dream, how everyone is doing, is to important to just text.

Sandy comes to the hospital about half an hour later.

"Macbeth!" She screams, happily, and runs up to me. "Happy 15th Birthday!"

What? Then I realize, today's my birthday. "Thank you! I forgot it was my birthday!"

Sandy and I sit on the floor, and she starts to ask me about last night. "First things first, what was that surgery, why were you mental?"

"Okay, that was a surgery to kill the Cancer in my body. Doctor Hannah and some other nurses have spent years trying to perfect this surgery. They haven't yet, but they decided to take a chance and try it on me. There was a small chance that it would work, and if it failed, it would kill me."

"But then why did you let them do the surgery?" Sandy asks.

"Well, the Cancer spread so much, I was going to die either way. The only way I would live is if this surgery worked." I explain.

Sandy's on the verge of tears. "I didn't realize it was that bad."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone did." I say. For a while, it seemed like no one thought that the Cancer was this bad.

"So, what happened with the fire?" She asks me.

I recall what happened last night. "I woke up after the surgery, and I heard people screaming. I didn't know what it was. I tried to get up, but I was strapped down to the bed." I see Sandy shake. "I snapped the hand straps, and then I untied myself from the bed. But the fire was already in the room." I remember back to that night. I start to shake and my voice quivers. I'm in my own world. "I ran out of my room, and I saw the fire. It was killing the hospital. I escaped in time. But some people didn't." 13 people last night were killed. There's still some people in this hospital who are dying. "I don't know what started the fire."

I snap back to reality to see Sandy hugging her knees. She looks like she just saw a ghost. "That's terrible."

I nod. 

"Are you okay?" She asks me. "Did the surgery go well? Did you get burned by the fire?"

"I think i'm okay. I survived the surgery..." Then it hits me. I survived the surgery. I don't have Cancer anymore. "Sandy!" I almost scream.

Sandy turns to me, frightened. "What!?" 

"I don't have Cancer anymore!" I exclaim, jumping up. "I survived the surgery, which means the Cancer has been killed!"

"Mack! Oh my God! Your okay!" She screams, happily. "Your not going to die! Not now!"

I run upstairs. "Come on! I need to tell Jennifer!" 

Sandy and I run upstairs to a operation room, where there doing a test on Jennifer. I see two nurses standing at the door. 

"Excuse me, can I please see Jennifer Collins, I need to tell her something." I say to one of the nurses. I recognize her, I think she was their when we discussed the surgery last night.

"I'm sorry, but Miss. Collins is currently in the middle of a test." She explains in a sad voice. Somethings wrong. "I'll tell her you came to visit Mack."

I nod. "I didn't know she was still in a test." I say to the nurse. 

"She's been doing it for a bit. She's getting worse by the day." The nurse starts to cry a bit. 

"Is she going to survive?" I ask in a panic. I never realized that Jennifer is doing this bad.

"I don't know." She says. Sandy and I turn to leave, but right before we turn down the hall, the nurse calls to me. "She really did love you, you know that Mack. Jennifer thought of you like her sister."

I smile. "Thank you. If you see Jennifer, can you tell her that I survived?"

The nurse nods, then walks away.