"Ellen! Ellen!"
"Get her to an ambulance now!"
"Ellen! Stay with me, please!"
"You said she'd be safe!"
"Clara, please not now!"
"John, if she dies-,"
"She will die if you don't help me! Her skull is broken and there's pressure building up inside it! We, we…"
"We what?"
"We need to drill a hole in her head to relieve the pressure, now. Right now, or she'll die before I can get her onto the operating table."
"John, that'll kill her if the drill touches her brain!"
"I know…"
"You'll make it, Ellen, I know you will."
"Dr Song, Dr Smith said there's nothing more he can do…"
"I know, Amy, but she still needs the encouragement – even if she is unconscious."
Ellen could feel sunlight on her eyelids. Slowly and blearily she opened them, but it felt as if someone had tried to glue them together. The sun blinded her slightly. As her eyes focused, she could see there were rows of iron-framed beds. I'm on a hospital ward, she thought. Slowly a trickle of information started to pour into her head, like a leaking gutter. The soldier. No Man's Land. The Trenches. Dr Smith. The world going black.
A nurse walked past her bed.
"Excuse me!" Ellen meant to call, but it came out as a strangled cry instead.
The nurse whipped around. It was Clara.
"Ellen!" she cried, running back to the bed. "How are you feeling?"
She considered this. Her head was aching, like someone had bashed her against a wall, and there was also a dull pain in her left arm. "Painful," she decided to reply.
Clara looked relieved. "Good, just pain, not a numb feeling anywhere?"
Ellen meant to shake her head, but it felt as if someone was bashing her with a spade. "No."
"Try not to move your head! Your skull's broken and your brain also decided to swell up too."
"What?"
"There was too much pressure in your head because your skull was broken. Dr Smith had to drill through the bone to relieve it."
Ellen sat in a stunned silence. I nearly died, was the only thought that her brain seemed to compute.
"What happened to me?" she managed say after a while. "I mean the last thing I remember was Dr Smith telling me he'd help me get the soldier out of No Man's Land."
Clara nodded. "Well after that an artillery shell went off. Dr Smith thinks that the soldier you were tending to tried to get up but ended up tripping over and falling backwards, anyway, it triggered this shell that had just been lying in the mud. You were thrown forward and buried under a load of earth. He, Captain Williams and a couple of other soldiers had to dig you out."
"And Darrel?"
"Who?"
"The boy I was tending to."
Clara's expression changed, she looked away from Ellen, trying to avoid her eyes. "I'm… I'm afraid… The shell got him… There were only a few bits of him left, Ellen, I'm so sorry."
Ellen felt as if someone had whacked her in the chest. Darrel. Sweet little Darrel – the boy who scraped his knee after falling out of the apple tree on the Green. The boy who had celebrated with Jonas when their cricket team had won the county championship. The boy who had picked her a bunch of flowers from the meadow when it was her birthday. Was he really gone? How could he be when her memories of him were still fresh in her mind? Do people just really vanish when their time is done? Ellen was not even aware of the tears slowly dripping down her face as she thought about him. Is he with Jonas? Or is there some tiny chance that Jonas is still alive?
Clara put her hand on Ellen's shoulder. "I'm sorry. Did you know him?"
Ellen dipped her head. "Yes," she choked.
"At least he's not in any pain anymore…"
"Clara," whispered Ellen.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Could you please leave me alone?"
She looked stunned. "Erm, yes, of course," she babbled, picking up her clipboard. "Dr Smith."
Ellen looked up to see him walking towards her bed. "Clara was supposed to tell me when you woke up. How are you feeling?"
"Physically fine."
He surveyed her. "Physically you're in a pretty bad way, Ellen. What with the broken skull and arm."
"I hadn't even noticed my arm was broken, Dr Smith," Ellen said, inspecting her left arm. "I was more worrying about the death of a young soldier that I was treating."
"Ellen, have I done something to insult you?"
She gave him a scathing look. "No nothing John," she barked.
Dr Smith was taken aback, and if the light had been better, Ellen would have thought hurt too. "If you wanted me to address you as Nurse Stoker, I would have if you had told me."
"That might be better as names don't matter anymore, you might as well call me 'number 20'!"
"I'm sorry?!"
Ellen leaned forward. "I was the twentieth nurse to arrive, was I not?"
John hesitated. "Yes, I believe you were…"
"Then call me 'number twenty' seeing as Darrel's name will only be a number one day! This war will only ever be measured with numbers! No one will remember the people that died to keep Germany at bay!"
Some of the men in the other beds stared to stir and look at her. "Calm down," hushed John.
"No! Even your silly little adventures will be forgotten, so why did you feel the need even to tell me about them? Why didn't you just die in that pyramid?!"
John stumbled backwards as if Ellen had hit him. There was a look of despair on his face as he watched her. "I'm sorry you feel like that," he muttered, huskily, as he turned oh his heel and walked away from her.
Ellen watched him go. There was a line, and she had most definitely crossed it. Oh God, why did I do that? She wanted to call him back but he was already too far away to be called without waking the rest of the ward.
"Well done there, lassie," said a croaky Scottish accent.
Ellen rolled over, wincing slightly. She looked at the soldier. "I didn't mean to upset him, I'm just angry."
"We all are lass, but the man cares about you and if you didn't mean to scare him, why'd you tell him he should die in a pyramid? Why'd you say that?"
"He once got trapped in a pyramid. Do you think I should apologize?"
The soldier nodded. "Obviously."
Mustering up all of her strength, Ellen swung her legs out of the bed and stood up. Her legs shook, and she had to hold the end of the bed frame for support.
"What yeh doing, lassie?"
"Going to see John!"
The soldier was stunned. Ellen let go of the bed and took a few shaky steps forward. Realizing she could walk, Ellen took a few more steps more quickly in the direction John had gone. A few of the men were staring. She realized she still had the Private's Uniform on. Undaunted, she reached the edge of the ward and turned into the corridor that lead to the nurse's quarters. As she walked along the corridor, she did not see Amy coming in the opposite direction and crashed straight into her.
"Ellen!" she shrieked.
"Amy! Where's John?"
"What are you doing out of bed – you're injured!"
"Yeah, I don't care. Where's John?"
"Erm, outside I think…."
"Thank you!" Ellen said, dashing off.
She hurried along the corridor, now clutching her side as a sharp pain began to resonate there. Ellen found the door that opened up to the courtyard and threw it open. She could see John talking to one of the nurses. Ellen limped halfway across it before yelling at him.
"John! John!"
His head whipped up. "Ellen?" he said, aghast and strode over.
John just managed to reach Ellen before she collapsed. "I'm glad I found you!" she puffed, falling into his arms.
"Why?" he exclaimed, laughing slightly as he realized as she was trailing her bed-sheet.
"I needed to say sorry!"
John looked around, realizing how awkward this was as many of the staff were staring. "Why don't we go somewhere else?"
Ellen nodded. John hesitated, then swept her up in his arms and carried her back inside.
"Where are we going?" muttered Ellen, feeling nervous.
"The Staff Room."
She was struck by how strong John was. He looked so gangly, like a weeping-willow but Ellen could feel some hard muscle underneath his army uniform. He did not look different to a regular soldier, apart from the white armband with the medical cross on it. He usually had a white apron on when he was needed in theatre or checking his patients on the ward. John reached the Staff Room and backed the door open with his back. He set Ellen down on a chair and took one himself.
"Right, now what did you want to say?"
She gulped. "I wanted to say I was sorry about earlier, I was upset because of the soldier…"
"Ahhh," he murmured. "Yes, I'm sorry… There was nothing you could do about it…"
"It's just," gulped Ellen. "I knew that boy… His name was Darrel and he lived in my village. He was on Jonas's cricket team…"
John nodded and took her hand. "Now I understand… I am truly sorry. This war… It's the end of the world as we know it, everything will change after this, I'm sure of it."
And to be honest, it did! Bring on the twenties! I'm sorry this is slightly late, I have just started by English Literature coursework… Argh! So I might be a bit slower from now on I would love it if you could favourite, follow and review so I can send you a cookie!