"C'mon Alex, we have a call" said Kim Zambrano as she bolted to the bus parked in the ambulance bay of Mercy Hospital.
Alex Taylor jumped in the driver's seat and hit the siren button as she sped away from the hospital.
"Was there an accident at the high school?" Alex inquired as she heard her partner repeat the location back to the central dispatcher.
"There was a shooting, PD and FDNY are on the way" she replied softly.
When the paramedics pulled up to the school, they were met with a scene of mass chaos. People spilled out onto the streets, crying and hugging each other for comfort. As Kim and Alex leapt out of the bus, sobs and cries of "Why would he do this?" assaulted their ears. PD and FDNY had not yet arrived, but Kim could hear the sirens approaching.
"Where are the kids who have been hurt?" she asked a trembling young girl who was standing closer to the front entrance than the rest of the students.
"In-inside," she replied, her voice shaky, "in the principal's office."
"Where is that?" asked Kim hurriedly
"He killed himself" the girl blurted.
"What?" exclaimed Kim.
"Jesse, he just started shooting at us in the principal's office. We were in a prom committee meeting. Then he shot himself. I laid on the floor pretending I was dead, there was blood everywhere, then I jumped out the window, but my friends are still in there, I couldn't get them out." The girl explained as she began to sob.
"Ok sweetie," Kim attempted to comfort the girl, "I'm going to find your friends and try to get the to the hospital ok?"
"Please help them" the girl cried.
Kim raced around the corner and into the building and didn't hear the police and firemen shouting at her to stop. She looked down the hall and saw a sign directing her to the principal's office. When she stepped inside, she saw four teenagers lying in a pool of blood. Trying not to choke, she checked their pulses and discovered that one was still alive. Just then her radio crackled to life and she was warned to get out of the building until the police could track down the killer and secure the building.
"The killer shot himself, he's dead. I have a kid who is still alive in here and I'm not giving up on him. Someone get a gurney in here fast!" she yelled into the radio. She heard the clicking of footsteps down the hallway.
'Finally' thought Kim, "they've let Alex in with the gurney."
A look of surprised registered on her face when the person standing in the doorway wasn't her partner.