- Wake-up calls -
“Thank you for your co-operation Mr. Yap, I’d hope that you would get a good sleep anytime soon. After all, you just woke up from your unconscious state- we wouldn’t want you to strain your body any further as it is now,” the man said as he pointed his index finger towards my right leg; which is immobile for the time being. The man now, shifted his finger into pointing towards the tubes connected all around my body and he continued, “Especially that you just escaped from a live-or-death situation a few hours ago miraculously,” emphasizing on the words “just” and “miraculously.” I gulped and slowly nodded my head in response. Seeing that he is happy with the response I made, he walked out of the ward.
Apparently, the one who just walked out of the room was a doctor; an extremely unpleasant one to be exact. I sigh as boredom soon overwhelmed me. I began looking around my surroundings- hoping to find something entertaining. I wouldn’t even mind if it’s something childish; as long as it releases me from the boredom I am experiencing now, I am absolutely fine with it. After scanning around the four white-painted walls a few times, I sigh for the second time for the day as there’s nothing that catches any of my attention.
“Nothing in particular,” I mumbled as I cast a glance towards my right leg, then to my bandaged arms. I almost immediately regretted looking at them as memories of the accident started to flow through my mind….
Everything started when I met in a minor accident, where I was knocked down by a car and my leg was being ran over by it- causing some bone fractures. I was soon sent to the hospital to get my leg fixed. The driver, who knocked me down, drove away without doing anything- causing this to be a “hit-and-run” case. At this point, you might think that I am really unlucky, but wait till you see the next part.
I was at the hospital, on the stretcher, being push by nurses who were accompanied by a doctor at a corridor. Out of the blue, explosions were heard, screams and alarm sirens came soon afterwards. The people around me started to panic and ran for their own lives- leaving me alone to fend off for myself. “Despicable people” was what I thought at that time. I actually wanted to lie on the stretcher and wait for help to come. But I immediately shook that thought away when ceilings of the hospital started to crumble.
I struggled down the stretcher and headed towards a nearby chair where there was a crutched lying on it. On my way towards the chair, another explosion occurred near me and pieces of the walls flew towards my direction. I placed my hands up in front of my face in a defensive manner acting solely on my instincts. I winced in pain as pieces of the broken wall started to collide against my hands. But my determination to reach the spot didn’t waver at all- I continued to crawl towards the chair.
“Finally,” I thought as I reached it. But due to the fractured bone on my leg, and the bruises on my hands, I couldn’t reach the crutched at all; as it was placed on top. All hope seems to have lost until a hand appeared with a crutched in front of me. I look up to see a familiar and concerned face looking at me.
“Let’s get out of here together,” He said while reaching his hand out to me. I was about to let myself drown into tears but I stopped myself from doing so pride was in the way. “Can you stand up?” he asked. I actually wanted to say no, but pride got into my way once again and I didn’t particularly like to burden others with myself, so, I weakly nodded. Determination filled my eyes yet again as I place the crutched under my arm and placed my other hand on the wall for support. After I had successfully stood up, my breathing had become irregular as forcing myself to stand up with two injured arms and one fractured leg had taken the toil out of me.
I was about to congratulate myself but my knees gave in before I could do it. “Oh no!” I thought as I embraced myself for the impact. Yet nothing came, no pain, no nothing. “Am I dead yet?” I thought, “Maybe I am…” I silently answered. And I began to relax myself thinking that I am dead. But my theory was proven otherwise when I was roughly shook awake.
“Wake up! It’s not the time to be sleeping here!” He exclaimed. It was then I realized that, he caught me before I fall; I ought to thank him for it. But he hushed me before I could even pronounce the first syllable He placed my arm over his shoulders to support me. As we walked through the hospital together, bloods, dead bodies could be seen everywhere. I crinkled my nose in disgust, to the gruesome sight as well as the strong metallic smell of the blood. Even though my partner’s face wasn’t in sight at that time, I could feel that, he too, was doing the same thing.
As we reached the last corner of a corridor, we found main entrance of the hospital, in other words, an exit. The frowns on our face turned upside down as we limped towards our destination together. But lady luck wasn’t smiling at us at that time, another explosion occurred and a big boulder came running down at our direction. My partner pushed me out of the way and was squashed by the boulder. I gasped in horror and I hurried my way to him, wanting to help him. But all he did was to yell at me, “GET OUT OF HERE, DON’T BOTHER ABOUT ME! I PROMISED THAT I WOULD BE FINE! THE EXIT IS RIGHT OVER THERE!”
I hesitated at first, but seeing that he risked his life for my safety, I turned my head towards the exit. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I began limping. My sight soon became blurred which cause me to trip over something hard. I tried to get up, but my limbs were already at their limit. I slammed my fist on the floor; sobbing, thinking that he wasted his life for nothing. I heard footsteps running towards my direction and a hoarse voice came shouting afterwards, “save him first!” I knew what exactly happened then- he sacrificed his life for me. I wanted to protest but I was too weak to do so. “no…” was what I mouthed out before falling into oblivion.
I was bombarded with questions by reporters as soon as I woke up. I thought I was going to faint yet again due to dizziness. Luckily, the nurses shooed them away in the nick of time, saving me from “sleeping” again. After awhile, police came in, and interrogated me. It was then; I realized that my partner didn’t survive the accident. Feelings of guiltiness and sadness soon came over me, and I started to whimper. The police comforted me by gently tapping my back, saying that it’s okay to cry. And I did as he said, I cried. He left the room and said that he would be back by tomorrow morning as soon as he was sure that I am all right by myself.
After awhile, I slapped myself, thinking that I shouldn’t be mourning over his death. Instead, I should be thinking about how I am going to treasure my life from now onwards- so that his life won’t be wasted. Talk about mood swings. Then the doctor came in and did physical check-ups on me and left soon after it. After that, here I was, recalling about the situation that happened today.
I look up at the ceiling and felt stupid all of the sudden. “Why didn’t I think of this in the first place?!” I hit myself in the head whilst looking at the television hanging in the air. I quickly reach my hand out to a drawer beside me, and took a controller from it. I switched the television on, only to see news on the bombing accidents earlier on.
It’s about the government taking preventive measures, so that there won’t be such cases happening again. “They are finally taking actions! I guess the bombings are the wake up call for our nation.” “Although it’s a bit too late for that,” I sadly added.
Anyway, guess how is the savior related to me? He is my half-blood brother, whom I always bullied when he was alive. Yet he still intended to visit and saved me in exchange for his life when I was in the hospital. I sigh. I silently decided to treasure my kinship with the other family members while they are alive. I chuckled at myself at that thought.
I guess it’s not only the nation who received the wake-up call…..
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