Jonny woke up staring at a murky ceiling. He groggily rubbed his eyes as he could hear a familiar sound. It was like Darwin, only louder and darker. There were only a few small LED lanterns lighting the ward, mainly around the nurses station, not the patients.
He looked down at his chest to see he was under god knows how many blankets on a hospital bed wearing a patient gown. Why was he there? That ward wasn't Darwin so why... Jac. Where's Jac and his baby. Jonny immediately thought he tried to sit up though his still numb body wouldn't allow it. Jonny accidentally elbowed his button which meant that a nurse came over to his bed.
"Oh you're awake, how're you feeling?" The young girl asked as she took his temperature, again.
"Cold." Jonny whispered.
"Well your temperature's still only 33.9° so you're still hypothermic. I would get you more blankets but we barely have any left for new patients. What's your name?" She asked as she held up a clip board with a pen at the ready.
"Jonathon Maconie." He croaked. "Where am I?"
"St Marks, hospital Harrow. We've had a power cut and the back up generator's been flooded so sorry about the lighting." She said sweetly as she wrote his name down on the clipboard.
"Where's Jac Naylor, and Mo Effanga?... And Elliot Hope?" He added.
"Um, I don't think we have anyone here admitted under those names but some of out patients are still unconscious so if you give a description of them, anything distinctive that would make me recognise them? We could start one at a time." She said softly.
"Jac Naylor, 5 months pregnant and red long hair."
"Well if she's pregnant, I'm afraid she's probably being treated down in maternity or obs and gynae because we're full to the brim here, we're trying to send as many as we can to other wards."
"Well I need to go and see her. " he began as he tried to sit up but she pushed him back down gently.
"I'm sorry but you're too cold at the moment to go anywhere. If you go down and see her, I'll have to give this bed to someone else. I sorry but it's what we've been told."
"Well you do that. I need to find my girl friend." Jonny stated as he pulled the blankets off of him and slipped onto his feet. He looked around the ward briefly and saw what he thought was a glimpse of his best friend. Surprisingly compared to the many crammed beds in the ward, it was quiet because most people were asleep or unconscious. He looked at the clock to see that it was nearly midday in the very dark ward. Jonny made his way over and saw that it was indeed Mo.
This ward was obviously receiving non emergency patients affected by the flood because it wasn't loud and it obviously had a lack of staff; what appeared to be two nurses and three doctors treating maybe thirty patients in a ward designed for 10 or 12.
Her eyes fluttered a little as Jonny put his cold hand around hers. "How're you feeling?" He asked quietly, trying not to wake the patient next to Mo whose bed was only two feet to the left of hers.
"Bit chilly and numb. How's Elliot?" Mo asked as she nodded to the large bearded man in the bed to her right in a gown under a foil blanket.
"I didn't even realise that was him." Jonny said as he swapped sides of Mo's bed, still wearing a hospital gown as he squinted through the darkness.
Jonny felt Elliot's forehead, he was warmer than he was so he left him to rest.
"Listen, I need to go and find maternity to find Jac so-"
"It's fine, me and the prof ain't going anywhere soon." Mo whispered.
Jonny was about to leave when he saw a carrier bag on a shelf next to Elliot. Jonny picked it up and opened it. It still had the four iPhones in it wrapped in Jac's panty liners, 9 credit/bank/debit cards and nearly £200 in notes inside zip lock bags.
He ripped open the pads and got the identical phones out. He had to turn them on and look at he backgrounds to see whose was whose. Once they came on, he put the one with a black background and the earth on in his pocket; it was Jac's. He placed the one with him and Mo pulling a face on Mo's bedside table, the one with Jac's 12 week scan as a background in his other pocket, and the final one next to Elliot.
"Good luck." Mo whispered as Jonny quickly walked away to find his pregnant girlfriend.
This may be my last update for a while (or forever) because tomorrow, I am going in for an operation for my sarcoidosis (I have a mass on my lung which needs to be removed.) My survival chances are fairly good, so hopefully I'll make it. But if I do, I might not be updating for a while (it may be hours, days or weeks) because I shouldn't be under any stress after the op (or I could cause myself more problems) and I have anxiety issues. Sorry about blabbing on but I just thought I'd let you know that I'm not updating for a while x
Thanks for reading, please review and let me know what you think :)