Waiting in ER

“I’m sorry sir, but we cannot attend to you at this moment, there are others here who have much more grave injuries than you, and you look absolutely fine to me.” the nurse responded coldly. “You don’t understand, I am suffering from a tremendous pain in my head!” responded the man. “Sir, it could just be a headache, why don’t you go home and lie down, or if you insist, I can not help you, and you must wait like everybody else.” responded the nurse coldly again. The man, frustrated took a seat and began to wait. He took a look around and saw that the ER waiting room was almost full.

He noticed a man, slumped over in his seat, clutching his arm, and upon a closer look. the man was bleeding profusely from the arm. Then a loud shriek overpowered all the noise, it was a woman who was clutching a boy, perhaps her son. The boy had his eyes closed and had a peaceful look on his face. Immediately, a band of nurses came rushing in carrying the boy on a stretcher, with the sobbing mother in tow.

The man began to reinspect his own injury, the man was not bleeding from the head, as far as he knew. He began to think of the incident that had only happened the day before, a beating that he had received countless times before by the same old bully. Of course, all the other beatings had never left him feeling like this. The bruises and black eyes, he had begun to get accustom to, but not the dizziness he was feeling now. Ever since the beating, the man could not get a grip on himself, having trouble even with the simple process of going for a walk. He was getting up much later than he had been used to, and when he did, only with a tremendous amount of effort was he able to make his way out of bed.

The man took another long look around the waiting room, almost nothing had changed, the wait it seemed, would take a great amount of time. What he did notice was the clock, in what felt like no time, he had kept himself thinking for thirty minutes. A sharp jolt of pain hit him, and it only seemed that the pain was getting worse and worse.

He felt tired, sleepy in fact. The sights around him only seemed to slow down even more and more as the pain grew and grew. This, though, he did not pay attention to, just to the blurs all around what seemed to be the waiting room. A particularly light blue blur made its way around an even larger brown blur and started to make its way towards him.

“Sir,” the blur said, “the doctor will see you now.” He was having trouble making out what she was saying after that, and he just continued to stare at the blur, the blur continued, “Sir? Are you feeling okay?” The man continued to stare, he looked down to what he believed to be the floor, and slowly closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

Short Story 2

“Today is the most important day, today decides whether all the work was worth it or not.” Connor said to himself, only inaudible by the fact that the noise of the train and of those commuters around him was much more louder. The day, had been the final exam, Connor had been studying to become a doctor. Connor enjoyed helping people, and doctor would be the perfect job for him. It was early in the morning, around six-ish perhaps. Connor was extremely tired, not only had he gotten up extremely early for the test, but had spent the entire night studying.

In short, it wasn’t particularly a great day, but things could get much worse. Over the loud noise, came an even louder rumble, and then after that, came an even louder crash in the car in front of his. The train had come to an immediate stop, sending everyone crashing forward. Connor fell and hit his head on a seat, Connor fell to the ground and continued to lie there. He raised his hand up to his head and touched the spot where the pain was coming from. His hand came into his view and noticed his blood. All he could hear were moans of pain, the lights began to flicker, on and off, until finally, Connor lost consciousness.

Connor awoke to what seemed almost exactly to the scene he had passed out to, the horrifying moaning was still audible throughout the car, with the only difference being the lights had completely gone out, giving the car a much more eerie feeling. Connor struggled to get up, he heard a voice behind him. He looked in the direction and saw a man standing, struggling to keep himself up. Connor quickly made his way towards him and carried him out of the train.

“Hey are you okay?” asked Connor. “Yeah, I’ll be fine, just a bit dizzy.” answered the man. “What’s your name son?” asked the man. “Connor, and you must be?” “Jake.” “Well, there are still people in there, we should help them.” said Connor.

They went inside of the train car, and immediately, the moaning began again, the pair began to pull people out. Many of the passenger had been injured, and a grown man was bleeding profusely from the head. Connor quickly began to look for medical supplies. He found a Medical Kit, and started to work on the man. “What are you, some doctor?” asked the man. “No, just studying to be one.” answered Connor with a smile.

Connor began to look around, and that was when he truly realized the situation they were in. At both ends of the tunnel, rubble had fallen and blocked off the paths, blocking any sort of escape. The scene hit Connor deep inside of him. How could they possibly get out of there? Connor pushed the thought aside and began to work on the other passengers. When all was done, Connor, with the help of Jake began to sort through what supplies they had. They had four bottles of water and a couple of snacks. The supplies would not last them a very long time. When he announced the state of their situation to those around him, the looks on their face only worsened. Connor tried to lighten the situation by stating that they were already being searched for and in a couple of days they would find themselves rescued.

*           *           *

Days passed, slowly, one by one, and the time was becoming even more and more agonizing. Connor woke up to a panic. The passenger had all huddled themselves around something. Connor made his way over to the commotion and his heart stopped by what he saw. It was the man he had taken care of first, he was lying on the tunnel wall, and he didn’t seem to be breathing. Connor ran to him and began to check the pulse, only, there was none. Connor began to try CPR, no matter, for the man would not breathe. Connor’s vision began to blur, he put his hand up to his eye, he was crying, and he could not control himself, Connor started to sob.

*           *           *

“End of the line huh?” said Jake. “Was that a pun?” asked Connor. “Huh? What? No, of course not, just slipped out was all.” “I can’t believe we still haven’t been found… Are we even being searched for?” asked Connor. “I have no idea, but don’t get your hopes up.” replied Jake. “Hey, just in case we don’t make it, thanks for taking care of all of us alright?” Continued Jake. “Don’t say things like that...help will arrive. I’m sure of it.” answered Connor. “Are you okay, you don’t sound fine.” “Yeah, I’m okay.” “Are you sure, you’ve been so busy taking care of us, you haven’t really been taking care of yourself, you even gave up some of your portions…” ‘I’m fi-” Connor felt pain in his head. Not only that, but he swore he could hear machinery in the distance. “Hey, do you hear that?” asked Jake. “Yeah, I do.” “We’re being rescued!” The pain was getting worse. He was tired, so incredibly tired. “They’re almost through Connor! They’re almost here!” He was struggling to hear what Jake was saying. All he could hear was Jake screaming his name, “Connor, are you listening? Connor. Connor!” Then Connor saw it, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, he was attracted to it, he wanted to go to it, what he saw, was a bright, white light.

Short Story 1

“Well what do you propose we do with it?” asked Eric. “I suppose the most reasonable thing would be to get the cops.” answered Leon. “That may be true, but you can't tell me you're not interested in it at all?” said Eric. “In that? Why would I find something so disgusting so fascinating?” Leon took another glance at the soaked lump bobbing in the water, slowly rising and sinking, it would eventually find itself lying on the shore.

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, the few bits of light cast a shadow on the lump, making it much more difficult to make out what said lump was. Just barely, one could make out what looked to be a face, if one were to look even closer and a tad bit to the top, you would find yourself staring into the hole in the man’s forehead. Leon found himself shaking himself with disgust.

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’re so worked up over just a dead body?” teased Eric. “The more important question is, why are you  not so worked up over the body. It’s a dead body for Pete’s sake, it’s not something you find on a regular basis, and not something pleasant at that.” said Leon.

By this time, the body had beached itself and lied on the sand. Eric began to make his way towards it. Leon, against his better judgement, began to follow reluctantly. The body was only a few yards away, a smartly dressed man, probably no more than 30. The blood from his body had drained and paled.

“Do you think he has anything on him?” asked Eric. “What?” asked Leon. “I asked, do you think he has anything on him?” repeated Eric. “I know what you asked you fool, but I’m shocked by what you asked. Do you plan to steal from him?” asked Leon. “Well, is it really stealing if he has passed on? I mean, it’s not like he’ll put up a fight.” joked Eric. “You are a sick man. A disrespectful one as well. If you’re going to do this, then I have no intention of staying here anymore.” said Leon. “Then go on, and don’t expect me to share any loot that I find either.” stated Eric. “That is completely fine by me.” retorted Leon.

Leon began to climb the beach, heading back to the car. Eric watched him trudge his way along until he went over the hill and was no longer visible.

“Well, what do you have for me my friend.” said Eric to the body. The body, as expected, continue to lay there, and did not answer back. Eric began to slowly slide off the drenched suit jacket. It looked very expensive, which only excited Eric more, as a man with great taste would have some very worth-while items on him. Unless they were taken from him before he was killed, but Eric tried to ignore the latter and put it out of his head. He checked the left pocket, nothing. He began to search the right pocket and felt something, paper and and a little bag. The paper, which was disappointingly, not money, was instead rolling papers. And in the bag, a pile of wet, useless tobacco. “Garbage” Eric thought to himself.

Eric began to slip off the man’s dress pants. He checked the pockets and once again, found himself disappointed. The pockets were empty, and there was nothing else to check through. The man had not a single penny on him, nor a wrist watch of sorts on him. Other than the useless tobacco and soaked papers, there was nothing. For a moment he pondered about taking the dress suit and pants with him, and ultimately deciding it was for the best to leave them. He dropped the clothes and began to make his way up the hill back home.