The Accident
Chapter 1
The steel door of the hospital elevator opened silently as it stopped on the floor.
A crowd of people wearing coats and overalls went out and rushed to work, each in their direction. The last to leave the cabin was a threesome of casually dressed guests with the company of an elderly female doctor. As they felt the elevator stop beneath their feet, the three left the elevator and rushed to the end of the corridor. A blond-haired, tall man walked right next to the doctor; arm in arm with him walked his wife, who was a short, petite woman in glasses.
Aelita walked close behind the adults, gaping absentmindedly at the floor. As she was lost in her thoughts, she did not pay much attention to what was going on around her. She even accidentally collided with a stout man, who was walking in opposite direction. Being brutally pushed back into reality, she apologized silently and continued walking and contemplating her footsteps, the only thing she could focus her attention on.
She felt like she woke up when, after taking numerous turns and corridors, they finally arrived at their destination. She saw the petite woman they had been walking with hiding her face with her hands. Hardly restraining from bursting into tears, she turned to her husband. Just as shocked than her, the man put his arm around her and together they stood in front of a large window.
Behind the glass, in a separated room of the intensive care unit and surrounded by several machines which were monitoring the life functions, put to numerous drips supplying unknown substances into the veins, with an oxygen mask on his face, laid their only son.
"Oh, Jeremie...", whispered Aelita to herself.
Not paying much attention to the adults, she moved closer to the window and reached her hand towards the glass, as if she wanted to touch the boy in spite of it. She pulled back as she felt the cold and smooth surface.
Jeremie laid unconscious on the bed; the left arm was immobilized. His face, not hidden behind the glasses, was pale and expressed no emotion. To tell the truth, the only visible signs of life were series of muffled sounds and graphs on the screens, let out by the machinery that stood around his bed.
As Aelita realized in how poor a shape he was in, her eyes filled with tears. Even though he was a fifteen year old young man who was a half head taller than her, among all that medical equipment, he seemed as fragile and vulnerable as a child who would die without care and protection. It was so hard for her to believe that merely twenty-four hours ago he talked to her and her friends, safe and sound. She still had fresh memories of the drama she had been a witness to.
She was walking with Odd, Jeremie and Ulrich, as well as the rest of her class, in an organized column they walked in whenever the teachers took them on a field trip. Supervised by Jim and Mrs. Hertz, they were walking to the nearby woods. It was sunny and warm morning, the weather was perfect for field trips like this one. Everybody was excited to have class in the open air since they did not get that opportunity too often.
Absorbed with the conversation with the boys, Aelita did not pay attention to the traffic. She heard Jim calling some people to order for stepping off the sidewalk, but she shrugged it off.
Then she heard a loud roar of an approaching car, coming from a certain distance.
"Hear that? Someone must've had problems waking up to work," Odd commented, and she smiled.
"He'd better not be caught speeding, 'cause he'd lose not only time, but also money," she said.
But her cheery attitude evaporated the moment she saw the car. It was driving a crazy slalom from one side of the road to the other. The students started screaming in shock and running away; the car was going straight at them. Everything lasted only a few seconds.
Aelita remembered that after few more seconds she was pushed forward and to the left; she instinctively covered her face with her hands, fell to the hard surface of the sidewalk and rolled a few meters away. Then she heard a loud bang as if a bomb exploded, and she heard the noise of bending metal; into the air flew fragments of glass, each hitting the ground with a clang. The air filled with dust and smell of burned gum.
She froze in the fetal position for a good moment. When she finally plucked up the courage to sit down on the sidewalk, she was horrified by what she saw.
Merely a few steps from her was the wreck of the car which hit the brick wall. Its impact formed a gouge in the wall. Its front and right side were destroyed; the front cover folded as if it was made of paper. White material of airbags clattered from broken windows. But even worse was what was going on around the car; here and there lay and sat injured students; the conscious ones cried in pain; some were bleeding.
"Hey, Aelita, are you okay?" she heard Ulrich's voice from the distance, as if it was coming from the other world.
"Can you get up, Princess?" asked Odd.
With the help of the two, Aelita got on her feet. It was when she could see what was actually going on. Jim and Mrs. Hertz tried to gain control over the chaos. Jim was walking to the injured students to check on them and reporting their state to Ms Hertz, who was leaning against the wall with a cell phone glued to her ear. Aelita noticed that few of non-injured students were standing under the wall and looking around in shock.
She glanced at her friends and noticed somebody was missing. She took a desperate look in search of the one she talked to merely few minutes earlier. She turned to the street and noticed him, lying on the asphalt in a considerable distance from her. He laid face down to the ground with limbs turned in awkward positions. Shattered glasses laid next to him.
"JEREMIE!" she shouted at him, but to her horror he did not move; he did not try to stand up. All she could do was stare helplessly at him, thrown to the ground like a doll, his hair being ruffled by the wind. She started to shake and tears began to stream slowly down her face.
Then she heard Jim's shout at Ms Hertz and saw him running towards Jeremie. Jim examined him quickly and checked his pulse.
"Suzanne! Belpois is in a really bad shape! Tell them to hurry up!"
"Jeremie's... in really bad... shape..." she repeated to herself and closed her eyes. Her head started to spin as she heard the approaching sirens of ambulances and police cars.
A few hours later Aelita, together with Odd, Ulrich and Yumi, was sitting on a couch in the recreation room. After the boys explained everything that happened to Yumi, silence fell between them. But, Aelita mused as she looked at her friends, what else should be said? Would Ulrich repeat "What an idiot", like he did numerous times over the course of the day? Because she was not quite sure who he had been referring to. She wanted to push that question for later. But honestly, how big were the chances she was wrong?
Suddenly a crowd of people entered and broke the silence of the room. They ran straight to the TV set. The atmosphere of excitement and tension could be felt.
Someone picked the remote control and turned the TV on. A series of hushes ran across the crowd when the newsreader appeared on the screen.
"A car accident occurred near the Kadic Academy today morning. A Peugeot, for reasons yet unknown, drove into a column of students, who were on their way to a field trip..."
After a short announcement, footage from the scene of the accident, which showed the remains of a car enclosed by police tape, was displayed. Several students let out a scream of shock in response to what they saw.
"Unfortunately, the passenger of the car could not be saved. Nine children were reported injured, five of them together with the driver were taken to the hospital; four are in good condition with one in critical condition. Police began the investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident."
The news of the driver's death could not do without comments among the thrilled audience gathered in the rec room.
The group exchanged meaningful glances. For a moment they considered turning the supercomputer back on and launching a return to the past. Now the painful realization that it would be no use hit them. They could not do anything – neither for the injured classmates, nor Jeremie. The situation was out of their control. Aelita in particular felt even more helpless than before. And she was almost ready to make the sacrifice of going back to the place which reminded her only of loss and pain...
"One... critical condition..." Aelita heard Sissi say with disbelief in her voice.
Her words made another rise of interest among the students. Some voices asked who did she mean, others replied by whispering Jeremie's name.
"B-but who knows what w-would happen if-if Jeremie didn't-" muttered Jeanne. Some people turned to listen to her.
"If he what?" a boy sitting close to her asked.
"If h-he didn't push Aelita out of the way!" she answered. At the same time she fixed her sight on Aelita. "We saw it! Oh my God..." she added, as if she was afraid to say out loud anything else.
But Aelita already knew what Jeanne was thinking. Aelita suddenly felt incredibly guilty, even though that was not Jeanne's intention. It was enough for her that Jeanne almost shouted out what Aelita was so unwilling to admit herself. The person who had pushed her out of the car's way... She immediately stood up from the couch.
"What's going on, Aelita?" asked Yumi with concern.
"I... I need to be by myself", Aelita replied and walked out of the crowd and to the door. Some of the kids called out to her, but she would not listen, nor turn around. All she wanted was to escape the curious sights and questions...
A shiver went down Aelita's spine when she felt a warm hand pressing her arm.
"Aelita, dear," a female voice said softly.
Aelita sighed heavily as she came back to reality from her memories. She quickly wiped the tears off her face with a sleeve and turned to face the woman, whom she knew as Mrs. Belpois, Jeremie's mother.
Mrs. Belpois was reaching for a handkerchief once in a while, as she tried to regain composure; despite the fact that a faint smile lit her face. Her husband was doing all he could to comfort her. Never before did she see Jeremie's father, who appeared to her as usually energetic and optimistic, yet currently so serious and concerned.
But there was something strange in Jeremie's parent's look, which gave Aelita the same anxious feeling as Jeanne's look she memorized a few moments ago. She started wondering; do they know or suspect anything?
"We have to go", said Mrs. Belpois in such a tone that it was obvious she did not want to leave that place.
Already? Some voice inside Aelita's head protested as well. However, she had no chance against stern expression on the doctor's face. She knew they were allowed to stay there not for too long.
"Let's go, then." Jeremie's father sighed and nodded meaningfully to the doctor who guided them again.
Just before they left, all three of them turned to take the last look at Jeremie. But Aelita could not resist turning back all the way to the elevator; with her every step his room would be even further and eventually it would be lost from sight.
Why, Jeremie? Why did you do that? Now, after personal encounter with the state Jeremie was in, that question was attacking her conscience even harder.
Aelita was aware that Jeremie was ready for sacrifices in the name of fighting XANA. The top of it was the time when he wanted to improve his intelligence, which almost killed him. However, the current situation was even worse. It was real, irreversible; there was no XANA to put the blame on and it was impossible to return in time. Jeremie should have known that, she thought, so she could not understand why he put his life to a risk and went completely against his self-preservation instinct? Why didn't he escape? Did he think that the speeding car would not get in his way? Would he have avoided severe injuries and intensive care unit if she did not stand there? All that deliberation led Aelita to a simple conclusion. She led Jeremie to the edge of self-destruction.
Aelita spent the afternoon with her friends at Yumi's house. Taking advantage of a warm weather, they were sitting outside, on the terrace in the garden. There, surrounded by the soothing green of the plants and silence, she could rest after spending time in unfriendly, sterile hospital interior.
Ulrich, Yumi and Odd were curious about Jeremie's state.
"As far as I know, he has this and that broken, some internal issues, a concussion..." Aelita told them all she learned at the hospital. "But I heard that he's stabilized now, so… it's not that bad."
"When we'll be able to see him?" Odd asked.
"Not until he regains consciousness. I was lucky that they let me in. Jeremie's parents convinced the doctors I was family."
Hearing that, they all smiled faintly at her.
"Do the doctors know when he will wake up?" asked Yumi.
"No. They said they did everything they could. Now we can only wait," Aelita answered.
Their smiles faded.
"That can mean anything," said Ulrich, as he leaned on the back of the rattan armchair.
"Yeah. I wonder how his parents handle this," Yumi asked.
"It's hard for them, especially for his mom, but they are incredibly strong. They don't stop being nice to me like they always did, although… I almost killed him!"
She muttered the last sentence, about to burst into tears. Odd tried to comfort her, but she pulled away.
"It's... that..." She began to sob. "He lays there unconscious and so... fragile, you know. It looks so terrible... Just tell me, why did he do that to us, and to his parents? He must've known what would happen to him. Why didn't he run, too, then? I don't want any sacrifices for me anymore! It's enough that my father let himself be killed by XANA to save me!"
As she was finished crying, she almost lay down in her armchair, tired and to appear apathetic. Her friends looked at her, dumbstruck, as if it was not Aelita who sat next to them. They never saw her in such state before.
Yumi came over to her and hugged her.
"You can't blame yourself," she said slowly.
"Yumi's right. The only person responsible for this is that idiot behind the wheel," butted in Ulrich, whose voice rose again when he mentioned the driver.
"Besides, you know Jeremie! He would never forgive himself if anything bad happened to you", said Yumi. "He did what he thought was right."
"I didn't ask him for it!" Aelita answered angrily. "He acts like my dad, but he's not! He has no right to try and be!"
Yumi would never convince her this way. Aelita felt as if guilt was destroying her from the inside. Now she had no doubt that Jeremie was fighting for his life because of her. She could not be grateful for that if it was Yumi's point.
Yumi must have realized that, because it took her a while before she spoke again.
"Whatever you say. But you can't be angry at him like this. Because you may regret it."
Aelita straightened up a bit. What did she mean by that?
"I don't want to lose him," Aelita said quickly. She did not want to think of it even for a second.
"We don't either," Ulrich said.
"Who would ever understand Einstein," Odd concluded. "We have to think positive. You said he had the best treatment in all Ile-de-France. He will get out of it, you'll see. Lyoko Warriors never give up."
Aelita could not resist a smile when she heard that. In an instant she felt a lot better. Her friends seemed relieved to see her cheered up a little bit. She wiped the tears which remained on her face.
"Uh... how did it go? Do not despair about things you can't change?" Aelita recalled. "But... is there anything we can do, then?"
"Let's do what Jeremie would like to do if he was with us," Yumi proposed.
"Sounds like a good idea. But all I can think of is chess or Scrabble", Ulrich said.
"I have both, but considering there's four of us, Scrabble sounds like a better option. You okay with that, Aelita?"
Aelita nodded. "Yeah, but I don't feel like playing."
"Well then, I'll go and get it." Yumi stood up and headed into the house.
"Don't forget to bring the French version," Odd said in her direction. He turned to Aelita.
"Oh come on Aelita, it won't be any fun without you!"
"Give me a break," Aelita said, slightly irritated. "I'd rather watch today. I can be the judge and the dictionary."
"As you wish, Princess."
Aelita was glad Odd understood her. She felt she would not be any good in the game anyway. It was Jeremie who always inspired her to put killer 7-letter words and triple-scoring combos. Jeremie...
She looked up in the clear blue sky and came back to the memory of his room in the hospital. She felt sad again as she realized something. The sky was blue, but Jeremie's blue eyes were closed.
Eventually Yumi came back with the Scrabble set and they would play until it was late enough that Aelita, Ulrich and Odd had to go back to the dorm.
On their way from Yumi's house they stopped opposite to the wall where the accident took place.
"It's all cleaned up. It looks as if nothing really happened", said Odd with a hint of melancholy in his voice.
"Not entirely, someone put a light and a flower under the wall", noticed Ulrich.
Aelita took a quick glance at it from the other side of the road, but immediately looked away. The fresh trauma of seeing the place which brought back memories of pain, fear and eventually death was dangerously similar to the one she had a few months ago when they went to the factory to shut down Lyoko. The awareness of what happened there was too strong for her to tackle. Her imagination immediately added the wrecked car, her classmates' screams of pain, Jim's shouts and Jeremie's motionless body lying face down on the asphalt.
"Shall we go?" She got annoyed that they had to stay there long enough to call it all out of her memory right after few hours spend in relative peace.
"Yeah. Sorry, Princess", muttered Odd and, to Aelita's relief, they moved on quickly towards Kadic's main gate.
