"You don't think anything like that can happen..."
Prologue
The sound of sirens was heard as the blinking lights came into view and the ambulance screeched to a stop. The sound of feet pounding on the lobby's floor echoed as two paramedics took one look at the body surrounded in a pool of blood and dropped to their knees immediately setting to work to stabilize the victim. They tore away the white sweatshirt where the bleeding was taking place and applied a gauze to the wound.
"GSW to the right upper chest, no other injuries present." The first paramedic, a male, rattled off in quick succession placing an oxygen mask securely over the young victim's nose and mouth. "Pupils are fixed and dilated. Heartbeat is slow and has lost a lot of blood and is unconscious."
Within seconds the victim was fastened tightly to the board and they were lifting him out of the lobby to the gurney.
A few minutes later they were putting him in the back of the ambulance before slamming the doors shut and the male EMT patted the side to signal to the driver it was time to leave.
While on their way to the hospital, the male EMT lifted a pale slim arm and tried inserting a needle while another, a female, continued to perform CPR to keep the victim's blood circulating. Realizing the veins had collapsed because of the massive blood loss and low (or no) blood pressure, the young male medic cursed under his breath and said, "Liv I can't get anything! He's flat!"
The female, Liv, who had been doing CPR, quickly barked orders to the driver.
"Call the hospital! Tell them we have a shooting victim, early twenties! There's no line and we'll be there in 10 minutes!"
Suddenly, the machines hooked up to the young man started screaming and Liv's eyes widened before jumping into action.
"He's coding!" The male medic shouted up front while frantically working to help save the patient.
No one noticed a silver cartouche necklace slipped from a clenched fist just as a flat line traveled across the screen.