Isabella heard a series of loud cracks over the sound of the music on the bus. She turned towards Phineas, who was looking out the window. "Phin, what's going on?"
He replied, fear in his voice. "They're getting shot at; we should duck and protect ourselves."
She felt his hand on the back of her head, pushing her down into her lap. She had to get out of view of the window. The metal sides of the bus offered a little more protection than the glass window. Phineas ducked down an instant later.
What happened next seemed surreal to Isabella. Phineas was halfway down, when Isabella heard the tiny sound of glass being pierced. She felt him bump into her. At first she thought nothing of it, until she turned her head and saw blood dripping onto his shorts. He started to groan and cough in pain, which only caused more blood to drip.
The firefight between the soldiers and the gunmen suddenly got intense. Isabella heard several bullets rip through the body of the bus. The other passengers started screaming. But she didn't care about the danger of the moment. She didn't care about the risk of being shot. All she cared about, in that instant, was Phineas.
His look was one of pure pain. Isabella sat up and pulled him away from the window, where she finally got a chance to see his injury. The bullet had pierced into the front of his neck, right above the Adam's apple, creating a gash that was bleeding profusely. She gasped in horror, and continued to pull on him out of range. She finally managed to sit him down in the center aisle, where she tried to analyze the injury as best as she could.
Rosa and Manuel looked over and gasped in horror at the poor guy. Isabella's aunt almost fainted. The bus driver had taken notice, and found new determination to get out of the traffic jam. Fortunately the traffic had cleared. It was a mystery whether it was due to natural causes or the desire of the other drivers to get out of the danger zone. At any rate, the bus sped out of the range of fire, and went into a small street.
On the way, Isabella was trying to attend Phineas. He groaned, and raspily said, "Isabella…"
She replied, sadness, stress, and worry all in her voice. 'What, Phin?"
He quoted something he had heard in an old western movie he had seen once. "The devil like to got me." Then, he went unconscious.
Isabella slapped his cheeks repeatedly to try to wake him up. When this failed, she hugged his body and started to cry uncontrollably. She didn't care about his blood staining her pink dress. She just wanted him to live. The bus drove fast as it turned into another major avenue, cruising past cars until it pulled right in front of a hospital.
Manuel and the bus driver carried the wounded Phineas into the emergency room, with Rosa and Isabella following, the latter crying her eyes out. When the nurses had taken notice of Phineas, Rosa went to the bus driver and thanked him.
Rosa knew that there was only so much that they could do at a Mexican general hospital. She ordered the doctors to do their best to stop the bleeding, and transfer Phineas to El Paso. They were planning on doing the same thing. They bandaged the wound tightly, and called a helicopter from a hospital in El Paso. Within ten minutes, the helicopter was there. They rushed Phineas to the roof level, and loaded him into the aircraft. It soon took off and headed back across the border.
Rosa, Manuel and Isabella remained at the general hospital. They took a taxi back to Isabella's grandparents' house, overpaying the driver. Rosa rushed into the house to grab the keys to her car. Isabella's grandmother walked into the room.
The elderly woman asked "Where's the boy?" in Spanish. She already knew about the news. Rosa told her the whole nine yards in a quick manner. She said that they went to the general hospital and he was flown to El Paso. With that, she said a hurried goodbye and rushed outside to get in the car. Everybody got seated in a flash. Rosa turned the car on, and sped away, her mind fixed on getting to the hospital.
It was easier said than done. Rush hour had already started, and the line to cross into the United States was miles long. An hour later, they crossed the bridge that went over the border, and were within feet of the customs checkpoint. Rosa instructed Manuel and Isabella to act calm. True, they were nerve-wracked on the inside. But if the Homeland Security customs saw any hint of nervousness, they were sure to be held up for further inspection and questioning. That was what the three least wanted. Nonetheless, they held their anxiety on the inside. It was the best acting that Isabella had ever put on; inside she just felt like bawling. They passed inspection without a hitch.
The nurses at the general hospital in Juarez had given Rosa the directions of the hospital to which Phineas was transferred. It was directly off the interstate, near downtown El Paso. They got there in a jiffy. Once parked, they raced into the hospital, and crashed at the front desk. The clerk, seeing their distraught faces, calmly directed them to where the surgery was being performed. She also informed them that they couldn't enter the room, but would be given information by the doctors.
They got on the elevator, and went up to the third floor, following the clerk's directions. The song "Gitchi Gitchi Goo" was playing as they ascended. This only brought memories to Isabella, and she started crying again. Soon, they arrived at the surgery floor, and they sat down in the waiting room. They alerted the nurses at the desk that they wanted to know information about Phineas.
After about fifteen minutes, a doctor came out of a door, and walked to the desk. He talked to a nurse and pointed at the clipboard he was carrying. The nurse pointed at Rosa. The doctor turned around and walked to her. "Are you the guardian of Phineas Flynn?"
She nodded. He started, "When Phineas got here, he had already lost a lot of blood. The bullet managed to nick his jugular vein. But he was really lucky that it was just a nick; he would have bled to death in a short period of time had the bullet entered several millimeters to the side. His vocal cords, nervous system, and windpipe are unaffected."
He paused, then continued. "Right now, he's more or less in stable condition. We patched him up pretty well, with a few stitches, and bandaged him up. We also removed the bullet and gave him some blood, since he lost a lot. Although it is not all of the blood he needs, he should produce the rest in no time. You guys can rest now. He will be moved into a room shortly for recovery. He will stay here for two days or so, in order for us to monitor him. When he's in his room, we'll let you know promptly."
Manuel gave out a big breath of relief. Rosa smiled meekly and thanked the doctor. Isabella shed a few tears of joy. The doctor left, and went on to talk to some other guests waiting.
The group waited for an hour or so until the doctor appeared again. He walked towards them, and gave them the number of the room in which Phineas was now located. He even got in the elevator with them to walk them over. They went up two floors and arrived at the fifth floor. After a brisk walk, the doctor opened the door and let everybody in before leaving.
Phineas was either sleeping or unconscious as he lay in the bed. Isabella just wanted to walk up to the bed and give him a big hug, but Rosa sensed this. She put her hand on Isabella's shoulder. The young girl turned towards her aunt, which shook her head. Nonverbally, Isabella was told that hugging him now would not be a good idea.
The group of three sat down, and talked to each other about their vantage points of what had happened on the bus. Rosa reassured her niece that they were just very unlucky. One usually does not see anything violent, much less experience it up close. It was purely bad luck that on their first day in Juarez, they had managed to be stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Manuel then opened up about how he had seen a guy with a thing that looked like an AK-47 run off the pedestrian bridge shortly after the dead soldier fell off the truck. The girls inquired him about this down to the smallest detail, and he responded what he remembered from the fuzzy memory. Isabella talked about how she had seen Phineas moments after he was hit. The memory was still too fresh for comfort, and she had to stop talking in order to not cry again.
After several hours in the room, Phineas was still asleep. It was already night, and Rosa said that she had to get back home, because she had to work the next day. Manuel was feeling sleepy and wanted to give the drama a rest. Isabella, however, refused to leave the room. Rosa agreed to letting her stay the night with Phineas. She was compelled by how much the young girl cared for her friend.
When her aunt and cousin left, Isabella sat in the room, and turned on the television. She checked to see what they had done with Phineas. Not much of the surgery was visible, because his neck was bandaged. She killed time watching the tube, sitting next to his bed in a recliner. She took his hand, and caressed it, tracing circles on the back of his palm. When she grew sleepy, she planted a goodnight kiss on his forehead. She got back on the recliner and leaned back, falling asleep with the television still on.
I'm not the most knowledgeable guy when it comes to medical stuff and bullet wounds. So forgive me if the injuries Phineas sustained were not credible. I tried my best to keep it real.