Dan swallowed as he gradually woke, flickering his eyes open to see what was around him.
The last thing he remembered was lying down and seeing lights and sirens all around. He felt no pain, just confusion.
He could hear a steady beep and the ticking of a clock as the time drawled by, accompanied by the distant sound of chattering voices.
His vision was still blurry as he forced his eyelids open and tried to make out where he was.
The walls around him were magnolia, yellowed over time, scraped in numerous places from things bumping into them, and hanging on those walls were cheap, supposedly uplifting, photos and paintings of happy scenes – people laughing and smiling.
The air was stuffy and smelled of bleach, latex, packaged gauze and cresol, a bit like bad cologne.
Dan licked his dry lips and heaved a sigh as he turned his head to stare upwards to the polystyrene ceiling above him.
"Mr Howell?" A gentle voice came from beside him, "Are you awake?"
"Uh… yes…" Dan mumbled, adjusting his vision and sitting up on his shoulders.
"Can you remember your name?" The voice came again. It was a woman, Dan guessed about 30 years old, speaking calmly and comfortingly.
"Daniel James Howell…" Dan told her.
"And your age?"
"25. Turning 26."
"Very good…" the woman said, peacefully.
Dan looked to the side to see that she was a nurse. His eyes widened and he suddenly felt a lot more awake.
"What happened?" He asked, worriedly, his heartbeat speeding up.
"You've been in a car accident, sir," the nurse replied, "A drunk criminal hi-jacked an ambulance and unfortunately crashed into your taxi."
"What time is it?"
"It's 8AM, sir. You haven't been asleep too long. We've been monitoring your heart rate and we've checked you over and nothing seems out of place. You're lucky you don't have any injuries. Some people aren't that fortunate."
"Phil…" Dan breathed, swallowing.
"What was that, Daniel?"
"Phil Lester. My friend – my best friend – is he alright?"
The nurse's face turned solemn and she cleared her throat.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news…" she said, sadly.
"No…" Dan wheezed, sharply taking in a breath.
"Phil hasn't been so… timely…"
"Is he hurt?"
"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but…" the nurse sighed, "The doctors say he has only a few hours left."