For Every Missing Shade

Entry 37

"Israel!" I heard as I felt a smack against my body. The voice sounded raspy and foreign. "Israel, please wake up."

I opened my eyes to see Emma on her side, clutching her chest. "Emma, what's wrong - what's going on?" I asked, already getting out of my sleeping bag.

Tears were pouring down her cheeks as she struggled through her breaths.

"There's a hospital saved in my phone," she struggled out. "We need to go... now."

I flew out of my sleeping bag and started packing things up.

"There's... no time, just leave it," she said through a coughing fit. "Help me up, I can't breathe."

I carried her to the passenger seat and slammed the door. My hands weren't working right. They felt like they weren't mine.

I raced into the driver's side and struggled with the keys in the ignition. They fumbled in my hands as tears fell to my lap.

This is it, I thought.

My shaking hands found the ignition and I started the car. Emma looked pale and lifeless in her seat. Her lips were turning blue and her breathing sounded thick and forced.

I slammed my foot on the gas and skidded out of our camp site. I blasted through turns and blew through stop signs on my way out. I was going over 50 mph by the time I got to the front gate. There was a park ranger sitting with a coffee by his side and a newspaper in his hand. When he saw my lights approaching he slammed the newspaper down and opened the window to the exit gate.

He started yelling, "now what in the hell are you-"

"Sir, we need through right now, my girlfriend is going to die if she doesn't get to a hospital soon."

I can't remember if I was whispering or screaming at him. There was a ringing in my ears and chaos everywhere else. I didn't know where to look, speak, drive, anything.

He looked at Emma. She was barely opening her eyes anymore.

"You two need an escort. I'll open the gate!" he said quickly. He jolted out of his seat and opened the gate as he hopped in his car and flipped on the emergency lights.

"Israel, tell me everything is going to be okay. Please, Israel," Emma whispered to me. Her hand reached towards mine as I threw the car into drive.

"We're going to get you home," I said. "You're going to be fine, we just need to go to the hospital. He's going to escort us and I will make sure nothing bad happens to you."

She started crying as she struggled to get more breaths into her chest. "Israel, we never should have gone to that park. I knew it was too far away. I knew it would be too late."

"Emma calm down, nothing bad is going to happen, not yet," I said, the tears in my eyes making the road blurry. "We're going to get you to where you need to be and they're going to take care of you."

We were already on the interstate racing towards the closest city. After fifteen minutes the ranger took an exit towards a small town. They had a small emergency room there. We raced up to the lobby and he helped me carry Emma in through the doors.

She was slipping in and out of consciousness as her breaths got more violent. A medical team rushed through the operating room doors and wheeled Emma away on a gurney.

I tried to go with them, but they stopped me. They said only immediate family was allowed back until they decided otherwise. I fell a thousand feet into a hospital waiting room chair as she was taken away. A vacuum of silence filled the void that chaos left behind. The park ranger sat down beside me.