I realize that I am awake and open my eyes into the peeping world. Slowly it peeps, but it's creepy. Just as creepy is the sound of someone retching only a few feet away from me and I put my hand against my mouth as I turn my head, but there is a white curtain separating me from that other person.

'Don't worry,' says a voice on my other side, 'he'll be all right.'

I turn my head again and the room spins a little, but I regain myself. I realize that I am in a hospital.

'Do you know where you are?' asks the young man in the white robe.

I nod my head, but don't say anything. My mouth and throat don't feel like working right now. I move my hand away from my lips and place it on my left arm, where there is a tube, and, when I take a look, there is a needle at the end of the tube that penetrates my skin.

I gasp and rip it out, all the while trying to sit up, and kick of the white blanket. The world around me spins and my stomach protests and I buckle over. The young doctor (or is he a nurse, maybe?) gasps as well and grabs around my shoulders and takes the needle away from me, shouting 'no! No no no no!'

I am baffled; why not take out a needle that's stuck deep into your skin? I am breathing heavily now, trying not to throw up, and when the young man begins to explain, I realize that I didn't ask him to. I haven't said a word, and I don't want to. Why bother anyway, when he's going to answer all my unspoken questions?

'This tube gives you nutrition and medicine. If you rip it out like that, you'll not only hurt yourself,' he points out the bloody spot where I took the needle out, 'but you will also not get your medication you need.'

I don't really know what he's talking about, but I don't feel like I need anything more than a good rest. I clear my throat. As I am sitting still now, the sick feeling gone, the doctor/nurse seems to feel an obligation to say something under my gaze.

'I'm Doug Dowly, a nurse here at St. Thomas's. Do you remember why you are here?'

That question came as a total surprise. I guess it shouldn't have, but it did. And I can't say anything. Nurse Dowly swallows. I can now hear people outside the room. These sounds have probably been there since I woke up, but it is only now that I notice them. It's a busy hospital, by the sound of it.

'There was a bomb.'

I just stare blankly at Dowly. He is expecting a reaction from me and I feel uncomfortable not giving it.

'There was a bomb,' he continues, 'many people were hurt.' Pause. 'You were found wandering about the area.'

My eyebrows are knitting, I can feel it.

'You fell unconscious soon afterwards. Your clothes were all burned rags. We had to dispose of them by special means because they were… ah… the radiation levels…'

My face is probably distorted in my pains to try to understand him.

'What?' I say, my voice rasping, and I long for some water or something to drink. Something for my dry throat.

'It was… an atomic bomb.'

I can sense that the silence following that statement is deafening on his side. I have simply no idea what he is talking about and give him my blank stare again. He seems to misinterpret it as fear, as he adds hastily 'but we found no radiation in you yourself! You are completely clean.'

I look down at my arms and my white hospital frock.

'You were not hurt either. No signs of burns anywhere.'

And that's when my alarm starts ringing in my head. I have to get out of there.