ZED's P.O.V.
The fresh, cold air was blowing in my face as I was snowboarding down the hardest ski trail. This was one of the main reasons why I loved it so much. It was my own little piece of freedom. Whenever I was angry I would come here and let out all the frustrations. Zoe hated it, because she thought it was dangerous, however in the seventeen years of my life I have not managed to kill myself. Lucky for me. She would have killed me all over again if I did.
My legs didn't feel tired at all even though I was almost half way down the trail. Almost everyone who ever attempted to go down this trail ended up in the snow on either side of it. But not me. I was unsto-
"Zed!" Zoe? What was she doing here? I turned to see where she was calling me from. My heart dropped. She was standing in the middle of the trail about 10 meters above me. "Zed, help me!"
A guy was skiing towarrds her. Fast. He was going to hit her in a matter of seconds. I needed to save her, but- I couldn't. I couldn't snowboard up the hill and there was not enoug time to run either. She was going to get hit and there was no way of stopping it. I darted towards her, but I slipped. And then I was falling backwards. Everything was in slow motion. Zoe screaming, me falling. Strange. The sky above me was cloudless and bright blue. I braced myself for impact, but the fall never came. The blue sky turned darker and darker until it was completely black, and then all that was left was excruciating pain.
What on Earth was going on? Was I dead? It sure felt like I was in hell.
Zed? I felt somethig soft and sweet. Zoe? Was she okay? Did the guy ever hit her? I had to check on her, but it was too dark for me to see anything.
"His heart rate's coming up." It was a very distant, barely audiable voice. I knew this voice, but I couldn't remember who it belonged to. "He might be waking up. Keep talking to him." Was it Xav? Maybe.
Zed, can you hear me? That was Zoe again. She sounded scared. Why was my munchkin scared? Was she hurt? In danger?
Squeeze my hand if you can hear me. Why wouldn't I hear her? She was using telepathy, it was impossible for me not to hear her. Whatever, I can squeeze her hand if that's what she wants. I moved my finger slowly and regreted it immediately after.
If I thought the pain was bad before, there were no words to describe what I was feeling now. There was a stabbing pain in the left side of my chest. Actually, my whole chest felt like it was being crushed by a truck. How was I still breathing with all this pain? Wait. I wasn't. Something was pushing way too much air into my loungs making it hurt even more. And then all of a sudden the air was completely gone. And soon after it appeared again, forcing its way into my sore chest. I felt like crying, but no sound came out. There was something blocking my throat. It went all the way up to my mouth. That wasn't right. It needed to leave my mouth and let me breathe.
Zed? Open your eyes, honey. Zoe interrupted my misery. Oh, was that why I couldn't see? Alright, eyes, open! They didn't budge. How was I supposed to open them if they refused to do what I said? Maybe Zoe could tell me. Let's see... How does this telepathy thing work?
Zoe? Oh, there it was. Would you look at that? Success.
"Oh my god. Zed?!" She was now screaming with her happy voice. The one she uses whenever one of us buys her tickets for a concert she's dying to go see. "He answered me, Xav!" I was right. The person speaking before was Xav. Suddenly a hand was rubbing my chest and something was squeezing my right biceps.
"Zed? Zed, can you hear me?" Obviously I could, was he stupid? "Try to open your eyes for me, Zed." Right. The eyes. I almost forgot about that. Easier said than done, bro. I tried again anyway and this time it worked. My eyelids fluttered. Bingo.
Suddenly everything was white and a jolt of pain pierced my head. I closed my eyes again hoping to make the headache go away, it didn't work though.
"That's it. Look at me, Zed." Believe me Xav, I'm trying. I forced the eyelids up again and this time they blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. My vision was blurry, but I could make out two faces. Xav and Zoe. She was crying. Where were we? Everything was so annoyingly white.
"Zed? It's okay. You're at the hospital" Xav told me. Well that explained it. Wait, why was I in a hospital? Was Zoe hit afterall? Was she okay? I tried to ask, but then I remembered the horrible thing shoved down my throat. I gagged. I needed to caugh really badly, but I couldn't. I felt like I was going to throw up, so I gagged some more and looked at Xav with watery eyes, hoping he could help me.
"Xav, what's going on?" Aparently Zoe noticed how much pain I was in. There was a very fast beeping sound above my head, which reminded me of a heart monitor.
"Zed, listen to me. I need you to try and calm down. There is a tube down your throat, helping you breathe. I'm gonna get it out in a second, okay?" This thing was doing everything but helping me. I tried to answer, but it made me gag even more. "Don't try to talk, just let it breathe for you while I go get the doctor" Xav explained, but I wasn't listening anymore. That tube needed to go right now. As soon as he was out of my sight, I lifted both of my hands and grabbed it yanking hard. That made everything even worse. All of my brothers, who I hadn't noticed before, jumped towards me and pinned me down on the bed. They were saying something, but I couldn't hear them over the buzzing in my ears. I was also too busy trying not to suffocate to fight them.
What felt like an eternity later Xav appeared with the doctor.
"Glad to see you're back with us" the doctor said. "I see that tube is bothering you, so how about I take it out?" That sounded brilliant. I just wished he would hurry before I died. "Alright, I need you to blink twice if you can hear me." I blinked. Once. Twice. "Great. Now try to stop fighting the ventilator, because it's only making you sick. Do you understand?" Go figure. If I could talk, I would say something rude. Instead, I blinked twice again. "Great. Now here's how this is gonna work. I'm going to count to three, and I need you to caugh as hard as you can on three, okay?" Two blinks. Vic was holding one of my hands pinned down, while Xav held the other. Yves was holding Zoe, trying to soothe her as best as he could. I should be the one doing that.
"Ready?" Two blinks. "One, two, three." I caughed. He pulled. And it hurt as hell. I could feel the tube sliding up, irritating my throat even more. I could feel tears running down my cheeks. Finally it was over and an oxygen mask was placed over my nose and mouth.
"It's okay. It's all over" Xav was rubbing his hand on my chest to make it feel better. I wish it were true. Everything hurt, but at least the invasive air wasn't hurting my chest anymore. The doctor was saying something, but I couldn't hear him. Zoe reappeared by my side. She looked happier than before and I finay understood what was bothering her. She was afraid for me. She needed to hear me say that I was okay. I pulled the mask away from my face so that Zoe could hear me better.
"Zed?" Xav asked. I realised the doctor was asking me something, but I couldn't understand a thing. Why could I only hear Xav? This was strange. "Zed, are you okay?" Black spots appeared in my vision. I tried to blink them away, but failed. Everything was getting blurry again, when the heart monitor started blasting.
"His stats are dropping!" the doctor said looking at the noisy monitor. Hey, I could hear him now!
"Zed" Xav got my attention "Stay with me." What was he talking about? I wasn't going anywhere.
"He's turning blue" Zoe whispered. It felt good hearing her voice again. She's so unusually quiet it almost scares me.
"He stopped breathing." Wait, what? I was breathing just fine. I think. Was I not? The doctor lowered my bed so I was lying flat on my back. An ambu bag appeared on my face pushing air inside my chest. Again. Was it really that hard to understand this whole breathing thing was hurting me? "His oxygen levels are too low. Xav, give him some sedative. I need to reintubate."
In a matter of seconds Xav held a syringe in his hand. "Don't worry, you're going to be okay. Just hang in there." He sounded worried, which was very unusual. He pushed the white fluid into a tube connected to my arm. The doctor lifted my chin up and I noticed the horrible tube in his hand. Damn it. He was going to put that thing down my throat again, wasn't he? He pushed my mouth open and inserted a metal thing which would help him guide the breathing tube. It was almost inside my mouth now. Wait! I wasn't knocked out yet! I was pretty sure I should be sleeping for the next part. I tried to stop him by lifting my hand, but I couldn't move. And then the tube was scratching the back of my throat. I could feel it slide down all the way into my lungs. A larger tube was attached to it and the air was being shoved into my chest all over again. It hurt. I could feel my body slowly giving up and by now I didn't even care. I closed my eyes and sank into unconsciousness.
MY P.O.V aka Author's note
Sooo... Zed's back. Well, sort of.
Thank you for reading.
I hope you enjoyed. Don't worry, it's not the end (obviously). I'm not that mean. I just wanted to say that I have two extremely important exams coming up this week, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post. I will try my best, but I would rather not post at all than just throw something crappy together...
Thanks for understanding.
Love, N
