The Hyenas {Dreamnotfound AU}

38. What A God Awful Day

Clay's POV

I've never liked hospitals. They reek of sick and death. The air feels denser, and it always seems filled with an unnamed tension. You become painfully aware of the fragility of life inside a building like this, where every second counts, while time seems to stand still. A strange contrast. 

People don't often discuss the experience of waiting in the hospital. I get that. The things that matter are what got you in the hospital, and how you left it. Nobody cares about the one, two, six, eight, twelve hours you spent waiting for news. Who cares what magazines you read, or how many cups of coffee you drank, or how many tiles you counted that were lining the ceiling. 

They didn't let me stay with him. 

Everything went so fast as soon as we crossed the wall. It was hard getting George past it, he didn't move anymore. I know he tried to say something, but it was in no way understandable. His eyes kept rolling back into his head when he opened them, so I knew he couldn't see either. I don't know if he could hear me, he didn't give me any confirmation.

We lifted him up the wall, and all of us helped getting him down. People were watching from across the street, before they came rushing towards us, pulling out their phones to do God knows what. At least one person called an ambulance. I listened for his heart, but it was beating at an unbelievable pace. Time seemed to stop existing as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. I held him in my arms, constantly listening for his heartbeat. As long as it didn't stop, it was going to be fine. The ambulance people would know what to do. A crowd had gathered around all of us, they were as confused as we were. Ambulance people had to push them aside to get to us. 

They took him out of my arms. I insisted on going with them, but they wouldn't let me. They said a few more ambulances were on their way to pick the rest of us up, but they had to treat him now, and they couldn't use any other people inside the vehicle with them. They closed the doors and rode off. 

I stood in shock. 

More people started gathering around us, offering us water bottles and blankets. I didn't answer them. I just looked over the street, waiting for the other ambulances to arrive. When they finally did, I silently entered one of them, and they let Nick be in my ambulance with me. Tommy, Tubbo and Wilbur entered another one, and Fundy and Karl took the last. 

I felt awful for the entire ride to the hospital. At first it was just a sense of shock, but soon all the tension in my body released as the adrenaline subsided. The crying was just silently to myself at first, until Nick noticed. He hugged me as tightly as he could, and that's when I completely broke down. I remember thinking I didn't want George to die. I wouldn't know how to live with it. I think Nick just kept himself strong for me. 

The hospital was no more fun than the ambulance ride. I got separated from Nick to be looked at. They asked me a lot of questions, things like how I had been eating, if I had any pain anywhere, if I had any untreated injuries. They asked me about George as well, how he got his injuries, how we treated them. They kept people away from the building as much as they could. They had questions. Who could blame them? Eight people returned from where they thought everybody died. That's not an every day occurrence. 

They gave me a room to stay in, but I had to give them my weapons. I was promised they'd give them back to me at some point, but they just had to ensure a safe environment for everyone right now. They also took the chips I gave them, immediately verifying our identity, so our families could be informed. 

It took them an hour to get here, but when they did, my parents and I bawled together. They hugged me as I sat in the hospital bed, they didn't ask me any questions. We just hugged and cried. The doctors didn't let them stay very long, since they still wanted to do some tests on me, so we didn't get much of a chance to talk about everything. I'm sure we will later, though.