The bright lights in emergency room two only added to Alex's already pulsing headache. Stay on top of this Alex, she chided herself, as she hung the patient's records in the clipboard at the foot of the bed.
She threw what she hoped was more than a half-hearted smile in the young woman's direction before slipping back out into the hospital hallway. She checked her watch for the third time this hour and frowned at the hands on the small watch face. Could this night be going any slower?
It was already past midnight and that only left another two hours on her rotation before she could crawl into a hot bath and soak away the day she was having. Scratch that, the day that she was still having. A lot could go wrong in a hospital at 12am on a Saturday morning. She stifled a yawn and headed towards the front desk for her next patient file.
She'd already lost one life today, held the man's heart in her hands as it stopped pulsing. She had only been sitting in and observing a standard transplant for a fellow surgeon when it had happened. In the blink of an eye he was gone and there was no getting him back. It was days like this she really wished it was easier to understand why some slipped away so quickly while others lingered on, unwilling to leave no matter the odds stacked against them. If only she had stayed longer, worked on him harder, not given up when she did, not called in his time of death without another moment just to be sure. She rubbed at the grit behind her eyes absentmindedly and tried to shake the feel of his empty gaze on her face. It always come down to how many more seconds could you have stayed with them, never knowing if the next one will bring them back to you or not. A doctors job is a gamble, throwing the dice down on life after life hoping you can win this one this time, hoping this time you won't lose it all.
Shooting a glance down the hallway Alex tried to keep her eyes from rolling as her gaze briefly connected with Hope Zion's third year surgical resident Dr. Maggie Lin. If possible the girl looked as if she may have things under control for once. Alex made a bee line for the ladies room on her right swinging past the doors with relief. Maggie was one last annoyance Alex couldn't afford tonight. The girl couldn't be more than thirty but she acted fifteen years her junior and hounded Alex with mundane questions more often than naught. A brief bathroom excursion was not something she could be blamed for. Not tonight. If Maggie had more questions, there were a slew of other doctors willing to fill her void.
Alex ran the cold water and splashed it in on her face and neck dragging her hands over her neck and clasping them tightly at the back trying to work out the kinks. She pulled her face up to the mirror and tried to will away the dark circles she saw forming there.
"Two more hours Alex. Just two," She urged her reflection. Suddenly the image in front of her swayed, instantly setting off her internal panic sensors but her face reflected none of this. Tremors shook the tiles beneath her feet and cracks in the ceiling pushed plaster down around her in puffs of dust. Just as fast as it had arrived the tremors vanished. Alex paused for a mere second before bolting off into the hallway her mind ablaze. An earthquake? In Toronto?
"Impossible." She breathed. Earthquakes were practically non-existent in Canada, of this magnitude at least. Small quakes rattled parts here, or tremors shot across from other quakes further south but there was no major damage to city infrastructure ever reported. Not like what she saw in front of her now. The hall was littered with debris, most likely from the ceiling. She side stepped a patch of broken tiles and shattered glass and tried to recall the sensation of the quake. How had it done this in such a short amount of time? She rushed along the corridors glancing left and right into rooms hoping no patients were injured. Doctors rushed past her brushing her coats in a flurry, intent on the same path but in the opposite direction. She caught a glimpse of Joel, the hospitals new orthopedic surgeon helping a young woman to her feet from the other side of her chair at the front desk. Smoke pilfered the air as if something somewhere was on fire but the sprinklers had yet to go off. She yanked her dark blue scrubs up over her nose in an attempt to avoid choking on the thick air in the now demolished lobby. This wasn't right, the tremor she felt couldn't have possibly done all- She stopped short of rounding the corner to the ER. The biggest eighteen wheeler she had ever seen lay on its side in the center of the hospital, tearing apart everything in its path to the hallway where she now stood. The site was a horrible one, something you could only imagine. Destruction rained everywhere around her leaving the ER virtually unrecognizable. Bodies lay motionless in all directions with no hope of survival. Alex raced to each one either way, pressing her shaking hands against the skin at their throat, praying for a pulse in any one of them. She tried screaming for help but the air around her throat constricted leaving no room for anything but a strangled gasp for fresh air. The smell hit her then; burning flesh. She knew that smell, and always wished each time she was forced to deal with burn victims that she did not. It clogged the senses and peeled away all reason. She staggered back from the last body in the giant room. She wished now she hadn't been counting. Thirty-four dead. She had lost thirty-five people today. A tear escaped her unblinking gaze and Alex swatted it away.
Get yourself together Ried, you are a doctor damnit. She turned from the wreckage and bolted out the small opening by the side of the trucks back wheels, but she didn't even make it into the street to look for survivors on the road. A hand shot out clasping her around the waist and dragging her backwards against the side wall of the hospital. The stones and mortar gave way like putty under her and her assailant's impact but it didn't seem to faze whoever had grabbed her. In an instant the figure was in front of her drawing back a bow and flinging arrows out into the darkened street.
The scene before her was something out of a nightmare. People ran for their lives down the Main Street. They clawed over each other in desperation to get to safety from an unknown force. She peered over as far as she dared, keeping a good six inches away from the man in front of her and his weapon of choice. He shot arrow after arrow faster than she could blink and none seemed to be hitting anything she could see, they just disappeared into the distance, swallowed up by great clouds of smoke and fire surrounding them. Alex tried not to press further into the wall that was obviously not as stable as it looked. In a flash he was gone, running off into the crowd his bow still at the ready. Alex tried to compose herself but failed, years of every situation possible rushing through the doors of her hospital had hardened her to chaos and devastation, but this…she was out of reach of her own comprehension. What was happening, who to help, should she herself be running off into the fray trying to save her own life? She had no answers and questions flew at her at break neck speeds.
She peeled herself from the wall and raced off into the street in a moment of decision. But just as soon as she reached the mass of fleeing bodies she was snagged by the arm and pulled down behind a car, no sooner did a missile sound over her head landing in a blaze of fire not 200 feet off from where she crouched, hands over head. She pulled herself up as he did and gave a small nod of appreciation. Did her voice box even work right now? He stood a good 5 inches taller than her and was dressed for action. Dark green leather was strapped over his chest in the style of a vest and his bow hung loosely from his left hand. She tried not to stare, but he had seemed to appear out of nowhere, dressed like a superhero and too handsome to be real. She blinked again for good measure trying not to seem uncomfortable with how close he stood over her. He briefly touched a spot on her arm with his leather clad hand and she followed his eyes there, realizing she had a good sized gash in need of at least fifteen stitches. Funny, she hadn't even felt it. When had that happened?
His gaze deepened on her almost as if in question of her thoughts but all he said was, "Take care of yourself out here. It's a war zone." A small cocky grin rubbed off on her and she found her lips twitching at his smile. Yet in another second he was gone, running off into the crowd bow at the ready, flinging arrows into the unseen. She backed away frantically, turning to run back towards the hospital, hoping for any form of reassurance that this was actually unfolding before her. They would need her in there, no matter the outcome, no matter the questions; she had a job to do. She stopped at the entrance and flung one last glance back over her shoulder into the chaos on the street in the direction he had taken off in. She told herself it was the confusion that had her heart thundering for another glimpse of him but she'd be lying. Whoever he was, or whatever he was, she didn't care. She just hoped beyond hope he was actually real. Because she couldn't stop herself from wishing he'd somehow find his way back to this side of the destruction. Just one more time.