Jamie Brodie 01 - Cited to Death

dragged myself to the aisle and got on my hands and knees, then started crawling to the front door of the lab. There was pounding on the door and more shouting. I collapsed face down on the ground. I heard a crash, a gunshot, and a scream. And then I was gone.

Saturday June 9
    It was dark.
    I was alone.
    It wasn't completely dark.
    There was light leaking around the curtains in front of me.
    There were curtains.
    I was in a room.
    A very small room.
    I was sitting up, partially.
    There was a rhythmic hissing sound coming from just behind me.
    My eyes began to adjust.
    I tried to look to my right, but I couldn't move my head very far.
    There was something pinching my finger.
    I tried to raise my hand to look at it, and I couldn't.
    There was something in my mouth.
    I tried to swallow and couldn't.
    I tried to breathe, and heard the hissing sound again.
    Huh.
    I went back to sleep.
    The next time I opened my eyes, there was more light. There was also someone in my room.
    A young woman in mint green scrubs was to my right, making notations on a clipboard. She looked down at me, and smiled. "Well, hi there."
    I tried to say something but couldn't. There was something in my mouth. And there was that hissing sound again.
    "Don't try to talk. You've got a tube down your throat." The young woman leaned on the rail on my bed. "My name's Melissa. I'm your nurse today. You're in the intensive care unit at UCLA hospital. You've been here since last night." She patted my arm. "I want you to blink once for yes, twice for no. Can you do that?"
    I blinked once.
    "Great. Do you remember what happened to you?"
    Did I? Oh, yeah. Alana Wray in the lab with a bottle of cologne. I blinked once.
    "Excellent." She smiled down at me. "You're doing great. You're breathing on your own, and your oxygen levels are getting better. The ventilator is just helping you out to rest your breathing muscles. Are you having any discomfort anywhere?"
    Actually, no. I blinked twice.
    "Great." She patted me again. "Your family is all out in the waiting room. Would you like to see one of them?"
    I blinked once.
    "Okay. I'll go get them." She pushed aside the curtain at the foot of my bed and left. It turned out there wasn't a wall there, just a curtain. I could see a piece of counter with someone sitting behind it at a computer, and a clock. 10:30. Was that AM or PM? No way to tell in here. But she said I'd been here since last night - maybe it was AM now.
    Melissa reappeared, with Pete in tow, his arm in a sling.
    Oh wow. I'd felt curiously calm until now, but the sight of Pete ended that. I tried to reach out to him and realized my hands were tied down.
    Melissa untied me quickly. "Sorry about that. We didn't want you to wake up confused and try to pull your tube out." She patted Pete on the shoulder. Lots of patting going on. "I can give you ten minutes. Oh, and he blinks once for yes, twice for no." She left, pulling the curtain closed again.
    I reached out again. Pete took the hand without the IV in and held it against his chest while he kissed me on the forehead. He looked awful - rumpled, scruffy, red-eyed. I'd never seen a more beautiful sight.
    His voice was rough. "You scared the shit out of me."
    I blinked once.
    "How do you feel? Oh, that's not yes or no. Are you feeling bad?"
    Not too bad, considering. I blinked twice.
    He let go of the hand that had the oxygen meter on it and brushed my hair off my forehead. "You're doing fine, they say. Your doctor will be in later, and they'll probably take you off the machine."
    I blinked once.
    "You probably want to know what happened, huh?"
    I sure did. I blinked once, and nodded as much as I could.
    "Kevin and Tim broke through the door as you were going down. Kevin tackled Wray as she turned to shoot me and knocked off her aim.”
    Oh my God . Pete had almost died. I couldn’t make a sound, but I thrashed around a little bit. He got my meaning and shook his head. “It’s okay. It went through my deltoid muscle, near the skin, didn’t even hit any bone.”
    It most definitely wasn’t okay, but we’d have to discuss it later. I blinked once.
    “They've arrested Wray for the murder of Dan and the attempted murder of you, me, and Ben."
    Ben was okay ? I needed to communicate. I made a writing motion.
    "Uh - okay, hang on." Pete stuck his head out of the curtain and asked for a pen and paper. He came back with it and handed it to me. I was at a weird angle to write, but I managed to spell out