Chapter 3: The Hope

*

At about an hour later I arrived at the general hospital at Area S, it was really busy because of the aftermath from the clash. I rushed over to the reception as I tried to ignore the lifeless bodies in front of me.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Mr and Mrs Alexander, they were in a car..... accident about a few hours ago. I got a call from an officer to come to his hospital." I said to the nurse who was really busy answering calls and arranging files.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, it's really hectic here you know, so I'll need you to speak up dear." I was surprised that she was this calm and nice under all this stress.

"I need an answer miss." she said distracting me from my train of thoughts.

"S-sorry, M-mr and Mrs Alexander please." I said as she typed at the hospital computer.

She paused as she looked up at me before giving me a sad smile, I guess she found them.

"Officer Donald is waiting for you in the waiting lounge, do you need anything dear, coffee, water, maybe something to eat?" The nurse asked me.

I was taken aback by the question but I just shook my head, I just needed to see my parents and brother.

"You sure dear, you look tired and obviously drenched by the rain. You know what, I'll inform officer Donald about your arrival and get you a warm cup of tea, how does that sound?" I just nodded giving in to the nurse's kindness.

She dialed a number on the phone as she spoke, she turned to me and nodded in a direction as she disappear and another nurse coming to take her station.

I walked into the lounge area and there were alot of people, I guess I was not the only one affected by the clash. There were also a number of police officers there taking notes from the people around.

"Adira Alexander?" I turned at the mention of my name and there was a huge officer standing behind me.

"Officer Donald Mayers at your service, I believe we had a conversation over the phone earlier." he said as he stood there watching me but all I did was nod, I wasn't ready to talk just yet.

"You parents were victims of  circumstance, at the right place at the wrong time. These people here also feel the same way you do, some of the lost people close to them, some in critical condition like your brother and some with injuries that could destabilize their entire lives." I just stood there not particularly listening to the cop.

I saw the people around me who were crying, and morning their loss, it was almost too much to bare as I stumbled a little but was caught by the sturdy hands of the officer, who also set me down on a vacant seat.

Immediately I sat down I felt something warm over me and a paper cup held to my face. I looked up and saw the nurse from earlier, she motioned me towards the cup, which I took taking a sip, the warmth of the tea made me feel a lot better.

"I'm sorry dear, but you have to fill some files concerning your parent death." the nurse said slowly as if trying not to trigger me.

"C-can I see them after this?" I asked.

"Yes, sure definitely, you just need to fill in this little pice of paper so that all the proper documentation can be taken care of." I nodded as I also asked for a pen.

I carefully filled out the form, still I'm a state of shock. I still couldn't believe my parents were dead, I mean, I hadn't seen their bodies so there was still a little hope left for me. 

I filled the form and passed it to officer Donald as he inspected the pages before nodding slightly to me. He started walking and I followed closely behind, careful not to trip on anyone crying.

We got to an empty white passage hall with doors on each, I could hear the voices of people screaming, then I had a faint idea of what this place was.

I bumped into something hard as I almost fell on the floor and saw that officer Donald had stopped in front of a door. He looked down at me as he moved away from the door, as if to give me space.

I took a deep breath as I slowly walked towards the door, my head was pounding, my heart was beating so fast I could hear it through my ears.

As I opened the silent room, I found two bodies side by side on the stretcher, I could feel the rhythm of my heart slow down as I proceeded to move closer to the bodies.

With every step I took, I could hear the echo in the empty room with two dead bodies. I turned to the table on my left, the shape under the white cloth looked like a woman's body, I reached out my hands shaky and sweaty all of a sudden as I proceeded to pull the white cloth off the face of the body.

"Nooooooo!!!!!" For the first five minutes everything was in a blue as what I feared the most was right in front of me. The body of my Mom.

Still screaming, I turned around and tossed the white on the other body aside, and sure enough it was my day, I screamed again as I tried to wake both of them up but no response.

Their once warm bodies were so cold, I almost couldn't recognize them. I kept moving from one stretcher to the other trying to wake them up even though I knew it was of no use. 

As I screamed my head off, I felt dizzy as I began to wobble round the room and finally collapse on the floor... I could hear my name but I couldn't make out who was calling me, I was probably going to die like my parents, I actually wanted to join them since there was nothing left for me in this life, and with that everything went blank.

I woke up again that evening to the sound of a beeping machine, and the smell of antibiotics, I guess I was still at the hospital. I sat up as I took in my surroundings trying to find out where the beeping sound was coming from. 

I looked towards the bed and saw a person sleeping peacefully but with wires on almost every part of the person's body. I stood up still feeling my head throbbing from screaming so much, I walked over to the sleeping person and was shocked to see that he was actually my brother...

"Charlie, Charlie, it's me, Adi, you need to wake up now, I'm all alone and I need you, I need you to wake up, please Charlie." I said as I began to cry again.

"Please wake up Charlie, I need you right now... WAKE UP!!!" I screamed at the lifeless body as I cried harder.

"You're gonna fall sick if you keep this up you know," I heard officer Donald by the door.

I gave him a deadly glare as I looked back to my brother.

"I understand you're in a lot of pain, you lost both your parents in a day and your brother's in a coma, I mean, that shits messed up." I heard him take a sit behind me.

He could never understand how I felt, I thought to myself, I just got denied and disgraced by my boyfriend and then almost immediately after both my parents were declared dead and there's a possibility my little brother would never wake up. What could he possibly know about how I'm feeling right now.

"This could all have been avoided if the government would take the punishment of these gangs more seriously, I mean, it a crime feast everyday on these streets."

That's right, it's not entirely my fault that my family is in this condition, right. It was those stupid gang member that can't keep their fists to theirself and because of that I lost my family....

"Who were they?" I asked in a low voice.

"What kid?!?" The officer asked.

"Who were the gangs fighting?" I screamed again.

"That information wouldn't do you any good girl, you'd be barking on the wrong tree?" The officer tried to warn.

I stood in and walked over to his front to get my answers "I don't care, I want to know who did this to my family" I said through my teeth.

Officer Donald looked into my eyes for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and standing up.

"The Black Arrows had a falling out with with a minor gang called The Anvil around this parts. Look, I didn't tell you this so you could go kill yourself but so if you can, do something about when your older. I need you to put your brother and his safety first. There's only so much the police can handle." After that day I never saw Officer Donald, the next I was assigned another officer to check up on me and the state of my brother.