Rupture - {H.S}

01

Aleena White

Whether you believe in the power of science or not, it's real. Science is unpredictable in a beautiful way; doesn't mean it should be tampered with. I had never seen anything like it and I've seen plenty of things in my years of life—photographic memory and all. I can only compare this to a ruptured vein; it's unnoticeable at first—the vein just starting to leak, darkening the color of your skin. Once that last vessel pops, there isn't much time.

The human population was oblivious to a ruptured outbreak of black smoke.

The hospital was chaotic—you could hear the screams from gunshots being fired. The world has gone into an apocalyptic state. No one is in their right mind. The first instinct people have is to react upon their panicked nerves—understandably so. There isn't a rule book for the card we've just been dealt.

I hid myself between the secured walls of the supply closet. I'm not staying here forever, just until everything dies down and I'm able to get out of here in one solid piece. I flipped the switch to reveal light into the room. I don't think anyone is worried about who's in here right now so I might as well look for stuff I can use later.

I walk towards the third shelf that was attached to the wall, grabbing a clear bag for all the things I'd put in there. Additional things will just add extra weight. "Just grab what you need. Pack light." I mumble to myself as I open the clear bag, searching the rest of the same shelf. I started to focus more on the things I needed rather than the noise on the other side of this room.

Gauze pads or bandaids?

Definitely gauze pads—a lot of gauze pads. I grab a handful from the shelf and drop it into the clear bag. I walk across the clear glass shelves looking for the most essential things that can be viable in a tough situation. I walk across to the other shelf in the middle, seeing first aid kits. "Jackpot." I say, smiling to myself as I grab a medium sized kit and open it, checking what it had inside.

I didn't have a list but the first aid kit had almost everything I could need, injury wise. I close the kit and put it in the bag, grabbing another one and doing the same thing. This clear bag isn't that durable and it's starting to get heavy—just a couple more things and that'll have to do.

I roam the rest of the shelves, depriving myself from grabbing random things. As I made my way to the drug section, I started to hear the door knob fumble from the other side. I got startled for a moment before I realized whoever was trying to get in couldn't unless they worked here and had a card.

The fumbling stopped so I continued to walk to the narcotic section. I never realized how big this closet actually was until just now. I'm never usually in here since we have smaller carts with the same thing besides the drugs but that's just a quick in and out. Now that I'm soaking the room in, it's huge and very luxurious looking; very clean.

My thoughts suddenly stopped when I heard the buzz at the door—someone got in. It could either be the same person from just moments ago, or a worker. I wasn't going to take that chance so I hid behind the shelf, ducking below the glass and getting a small view of the door, just enough to see who comes in.

The door opened revealing a man, his hair was blonde, regular civilian clothes covering his body. I watched as he closed the door and removed his blue bag from his back, opening it and randomly grabbing things from the first shelf he saw, dropping things on the floor in the process. He left the first shelf and walked to the second, his figure being less visible.

"Bloody hell!" He roused, an obvious thick accent filled my ears. I heard more things fall, along with the shuffling of things being put into his bag.