Alive

Chapter 21: How Quickly Things Change

Everything was black and sounds were muffled, suffocating me, coming from every direction. For a second I thought I might be dead, but then the loud mess of noises began to separate, and I could make out a woman's voice.

"Female patient, approximate age; 21, long range shotgun wound to the abdomen. Lost a lot of blood and still has shrapnel stuck in the abdomen and lower chest. We need to get her to ICU now; remove the shrapnel and stop the bleeding."

I couldn't feel anything. I'd been shot but the only reason I was aware of that was because the hospital nurse jogging alongside my stretcher had said so. I tried to move but another female voice protested and placed a hand on my chest, restricting me.

"Miss, we need you to stay still. You're at Trust Valley Hospital, you've been shot and there's some shrapnel left inside your wound; if you try to sit up it could move and possibly puncture an organ. Please lie down, you're being taken to our Intensive Care Unit. Can you tell me your name, miss?"

"Rosie." I groaned, the pain was starting to make itself known and my voice cracked as I spoke.

"Sorry?" She didn't hear me, I cleared my throat and tried again.

"Rosie Hikins."

"Rosie Hikins?" She checked. I nodded, being careful only to move my head and not my whole body.

"Okay Rosie, I'm Alison, can you stay still for me?"

"Yeah." It came out as a whisper. I blacked out again as she was asking me something else.

I woke up in a bed with tubes coming out of me and a big cotton pad covering the area where the pellets had entered my body. Despite knowing it would hurt, I pressed two fingers down on the cotton pad out of curiosity. Big mistake. I yelled out profanities and a nurse rushed to see what all the commotion was. I told her I was trying to sit up and she ordered me to remain as I was, lying down flat on my back.

From my position I could see the hospital car park out of a window. It was pouring with rain outside, hard to believe given the scorching weather I'd basked in earlier that day. Just goes to show how quickly things can change. One minute you're lying in the sun, day dreaming of the starting a new life, the next, you're in a hospital bed, with a chunk of your stomach missing. I'd guess it was about midnight by how dark it was outside.

There was one TV in this room, all fourteen patients were watching it attentively. I was still in a trance like state staring out of the window but I suddenly snapped my eyes towards the screen. Oh fuck. Oh mother of shit fucking fuck. This really wasn't my night.

"Police say that they now have a lead in the ongoing missing persons investigation. New evidence has surfaced, supporting the theory that they are, in fact, the work of a serial killer. Detective Marshall Wayne stated, "We now have a possible lead, and our men are working on locating this person." at a press conference today and was met with a very angry response from the victims' families. The earliest disappearance thought to be linked to this case is the disappearance of Caleb Priest, who was reported missing in March of 2012, when he never returned home after a night out. Marie and John Priest say that they are outraged that the police failed to see the bigger picture, that their son was one of the many victims of a serial killer. The couple say that the tragedy has been truly heartbreaking, as they lost their only child, and could not say goodbye as a body was never recovered."

My head was spinning, I couldn't listen to anymore. My only hope was that the police were wrong about their lead suspect. They had to be wrong. They had to be. This wasn't how things were supposed to work out. I was supposed to get out and go live in the countryside. It wasn't supposed to end this way.