I know, I know… it has been a while since I updated, but I have been so incredibly busy with school that I had no time to write. So I hope that you love this new chapter. Enjoy!
Thomas breathed in much of the air the inside of the ambulance provided. The sirens echoed through the streets, making the people in front of this vehicle move out of the way. His colleague made a final move before hitting the brake hard, making the ambulance stop abruptly.
He hit the brake of the vehicle, which was a signal for Tom to exit the still moving ambulance. "Thomas!", his colleague yelled after him, before putting the vehicle in park mode. "Tom, wait!"
He ignored his colleague's pleads for attention. Before him chaos was displayed, being played out like a scene from a disaster movie with some dramatic music in the background and in slow motion. Hundreds, it appeared to him to be more than thousands of casualties, sitting or standing near the station. Some were covered in blood, the red fluid spread across their face like it was plastered on there, never leaving them.
In the background he heard his colleague rapport: "This is 3006. We need immediate backup to King Cross station. It appears we have more than a hundred casualties."
"3006, understood. More ambulances on the way", the dispatcher said.
Tom absorbed the misery that was displayed before him. He never saw this level of misery, if he could describe it like that, apart from seeing it safely on a television screen. He never was in the middle of it, being exposed like this. He once was exposed to the consequences of violence inflicted on human beings, when he was younger. When he grew up in a very rough neighbourhood in Glasgow, he saw what kind of damage a fist could do to a human face. He could never forget the beat-up face of his older brother, when he first went to high school.
He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think about the past, it was time to focus on the present. These people needed his help, relied on the knowledge he gained during his training to become a paramedic. He walked to the back of the ambulance and started to unload the bag containing the medical items he needed for an effective treatment.
While he was unloading the bag, his colleague had walked towards him, positioning next to the already open backdoor of the ambulance. "Thomas, we have to wait until the ambulance officer arrives. We can't go in."
"We're not going to wait ten minutes", Thomas said, his Scottish brogue supporting the intention of his words. "People could die. You can live with that?"
His colleague was silent, not daring to say a word to him. "Yeah, I didn't so either." He shut the door with incredible force, his anger displayed into this one action. He put his helmet on his head, while carrying the medical bag into his right hand, determination written all over his face.
"No resuscitation, Thomas", his colleague yelled.
"I know", he yelled back.
"Kitty, can I ask you something?" It was Flora who spoke up after a moment of silence from her side. Flora had been so focused on Sylvie, making sure she was comfortable that she didn't dare herself so say a word. Kitty looked at the person who had been taking care of her beautiful little monkey, a person who she owed so much to now. She would be ever grateful for people like Flora.
Not a few moments later, after she had started to help the other passengers, the driver of the train appeared inside the carriage. He had found an opening and started to assist people for getting out. He had said she should come as well, but she didn't want to. The heavily wounded would have to stay behind and as a nurse she could never leave them, knowing they might need her help.
"Yes, of course", Kitty said, trying her hardest to put a smile on her face. She never had any problem with keeping up appearances, but in a time like this… A time when the tragedy stroke her hardest, she couldn't. The smile took all her willpower, but even that wasn't enough. Sadness had pushed its way through, taking over the control of her facial expressions.
"If I don't make it…" Flora said, the emotions interlaced in her voice.
"Don't be silly. You are going to be fine", she said, trying to encourage her new friend to stay positive, even though she had a hard time herself to think positive.
"No, please. Listen." Flora put her hand on hers, before continuing: "If I don't make it, can you tell Charlie that I love him?"
"Flora, don't-" she tried again.
"No, don't say anything. Just promise me you'll tell him?"
She looked into the brown eyes of her friend, finding them to be filled with tears. Tears that looked like water flowing down a waterfall. "Flora, please don't think like that", she tried one last time.
"Promise me, please."
She nodded. "I promise."
Flora squeezed her hand. "Thank you", she said while whipping the extensive tears from her face. "It means a lot to me."
After she had spoken these words she retreated her hand from Kitty's and put it back on Sylvie's. Like Kitty would do so many times when Sylvie couldn't sleep, Flora started to stroke her daughters cheek.
Suddenly she spotted a bright light coming towards them. "Look, Flora. Help is on the way", she said, hoping her optimism would get Flora through this. "You can tell Charlie yourself."
"Oh", Flora said, sighing in relief. "Thank heavens."
When the person that carried the bright entered she never would have expected it to be him. A person she only met once. A person she was captivated with. He, who slowly crept up into her thoughts, taking over her vivid dreams. "Hello", he said, his Scottish accent visibly present in his voice. "My name is Thomas. I am a paramedic and I'll be looking after you."
His light blue eyes were even more blue than the last time she saw them. He scanned the room, before she met his gaze. "Kitty", he said, surprise not only taking over his facial expression but the tone of his voice as well.
He walked towards her, his medical bag safely resting on his back. Not in a million years did she expect him to waltz in here, in her life and be the one helping her. She wasn't someone who believed in fate, her mother made sure that was tucked away, never to be found again. But this, this wasn't a coincidence anymore. Was it?
With a soft bang the Tom's medical bag made contact with the ground. "Are you ok?", he asked when he knelt down next to her, concern written all over his face.
As an answer to his question she simply nodded. "I'm fine."
He grabbed a pair of light blue gloves out of his pocket and started to put them on. He wanted to start his examination on her when she said: "Help Sylvie, please. She's far worse than me."
"You have a wound to your head. Let me clean that up for you." The level of concern that was written all over his face seem to increase by the minute.
"Please", she begged him, while she swallowed hard, making sure that she kept her emotions under control.
He simply nodded and made his way towards her daughter, who was still unconscious. Kitty started to look around, trying to spot more paramedics coming in to assist their colleague. "You came alone?", she asked.
Thomas looked away from her daughter, interrupting his examination of her. "Yes", he said. "I didn't exactly follow protocol when I went in her alone."
"So why did you?"
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to overthink his answer one more time. "Because I could never live with myself knowing that there was something I could have done to save more lives."
She swallowed. She was taken aback by this answer. This wasn't an answer she would expected from someone, by a person of all things. The only people that surrounded her in her life, her family, her friends or family friends always wanted something in return if they did something nice for them. They never acted upon the saying: "Being a good Samaritan." That was something she grew up with. Always expecting a favour in return. That was why she always expect the worst of people, so she could never be disappointed or disappoint someone.
Maybe, just maybe the world was changing around her. Since she left that world she met the nicest people, including her friend of just a couple of hours: Flora. Maybe her world was finally changing. She was coming out of the bubble she had lived in ever since she was born. There was a change coming, she could feel it.
"Alright, put her over there", Grace instructed the paramedics who just brought someone in from the scene of Aldgate station. She disinfected her hands with the appropriate alcohol before the put on her gloves.
"My name is Grace Carter. I am a nurse and will be helping you today." The woman simply nodded, not having the strength and energy to answer in words. She was holding a red coloured bandage, completely soaked by blood. "I am going to clean your wound, making sure it doesn't get infected. Then I'll put a bandage on and you can rest in the cafeteria." She said, while she tried to smile. "Is that ok?"
She was about to start cleaning the wound when Helen Jesmond called: "Grace? We need you in resus immediately. A patient has gone critical. I have already paged Dr. Perry."
"Good", Grace said, nodding in her colleague's direction.
Helen walked away, while Grace tried to find someone who could help her current patient. When she saw familiar red hair, she said: "Rosalie?" When the red-haired woman turned around, she continued: "Can you help this patient? I have to be in resus now."
"Yes, of course", she said, her posh background audible in her voice and in her manner of walking. "Absolutely."
Grace moved away from the bed, making place for Rosalie to take over her duties before she made her way to resus. When she opened the doors, who separated the busy cubicles meant for the mildly injured people from the critical ones, she wished she hadn't.
"He is losing a lot of blood. Get me some more O-neg", Graville Perry said to the nurse who was standing the closest to him.
Grace rushed to the bed. "What happened?", she asked.
"I have no idea. All of a sudden he started bleeding from the wound I just closed." He looked through his round, silver frame of his glasses, worried scattered across his face. In the background Helen was giving resuscitation to the patient, even though by the looks of it, it wouldn't make a difference.
"How long?", she asked.
"About fifteen minutes."
She looked at him. There was no point in trying to save this man. He knew it. She knew it. "I think it's time to stop", she said softly, almost a whisper.
He simply nodded and walked back to the bed. He made eye contact with every one present in the room, when he looked at her. She gave him a nod of approval before he asked a simple question, containing just two words. Two words that changed everything. Just two simple words. "All agreed?"
They all nodded, saying with that one gestured that they stood behind him. One of the nurses turned off the equipment that the patient was currently attached to. "Time of death 7th of July, 9:45 A.M."
Silence reigned the room after the doctor uttered those words, leaving behind the scars in her heart. It was always hard to lose a patient in the emergency department, since the people coming in expected them to save their lives. But sometimes even the most modern equipment couldn't prevent the worst case scenario: death.
Graville Perry walked out of the resuscitation room, leaving behind the nurses who helped in. "I know it's hard when we lose someone", Grace started, trying to stimulate her nurses to continue their good work. "But there are hundreds of people back there –she pointed at the door which separate this room with the busy room filled with cubicles- who need our help, who need us performing at our best. We can do that."
The nurses looked at her, the sadness clearly visible in their eyes. "Let's continue with our job. See who you can assist." She smiled, hoping that would stimulate them even more. "Let's go." The nurses started to slowly leaving the room, leaving her alone with the lifeless body of the patient.
Slowly, she walked to the bed, squeezing her hands tightly together. "I'm sorry", she simply said to the man lying there. She closed the eyes with her left hand, finally letting him rest. She looked one more time, while she swallowed in attempt to control her emotions before she put the white sheet over his head.
This was a day that would go down in British history as a day no-one would ever forget. And neither would she.
So, what do you think? I hope you liked it! And expressing how much like it, a review would come a long way haha! I can't make any promises about when I'll be updating another chapter. So be patient, please :)