The End

Others Stories | May 15, 2012 | 4 min read
32 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
It's one of those exceptionally beautiful days. It was the kind of day a boyfriend proposes to his girlfriend in the park. Or the kind of day you adopt a puppy from the shelter. Or get shot.

Ezekiel is the name. It's a few weeks after my nineteenth birthday. Like I mentioned, it's an incredible day. The slashes from the razorblades on my forearms and thighs are healing and so am I.

I'm a paramedic student. Today, my class is scheduled for "stations", where the instructors set up a few different pretend emergency scenes around the paramedic section of campus and we have to handle it accordingly for a quiz grade.

I'm running about twenty minutes late. After I park in what must have been the furthest spot from my building I start to quickly shuffle my way through the parking lot and up the steep grassy hill (while trying to tuck in my shirt) to where my class is meeting for stations this morning.

I hear a commotion coming from the other side of campus as I reach the top of the hill. I can see my class starting to get to work on the mannequin victims just a few hundred yards ahead. Next thing I know, a woman is walking towards me. Something is wrong.

To my horror she pulls out a large handgun, cocks it, and shoots my way. There is a deafening blast from the gun and I find myself rolling down the hill.

I open my eyes. I'm lying on my left side facing the hill. I look up without moving my head to see my attacker but no one is there. Then I feel it. I instinctively clutch my chest and feel the warm liquid flowing against my hand and the excruciating pain in my chest that seems to be radiating out to my whole torso. I try to focus on my breathing. Making any sound is both necessary and impossible. The bullet knocked every last bit of wind out of my body. I am at the bottom of the hill in front of the deserted parking lot. No one knows I'm here.

I am faintly aware of a bigger commotion going on somewhere above me, but it's still very distant. At least it seems that way. I'm becoming lightheaded from the blood loss and it's getting harder to breathe. I think I can hear a sucking noise coming from my chest…

I drift off into a light sleep…or almost faint…and am snapped out of it when I hear a piercing scream coming from right above me on top of the hill. It jolts me back to reality. I don't know who screamed, but next thing I know my teachers, Mr. Nick and Ms. Sasha are on their knees next to me, neurotically checking pulses and snapping fingers in my face. There's a huge group of people watching from atop the hill, gasping and murmuring among themselves.

They tell me that I've been shot, that the ambulance is on its way and that they have to turn me on my back. The abrupt movement is agonizing on my body and leaves me gasping in pain. They waste no time cutting off my shirt and tossing it aside. Nick wipes the blood off my skin and Sasha duct tapes a large, bulky dressing to the wound on three sides. They slap my face as I start to lose consciousness again as the pain flares up with a vengeance.

I open my eyes once again to find myself lying on a flat table, naked except for my boxers, under a cluster of intensely bright lights. I'm surrounded by people in caps and masks working around me feverishly. I hear a rapid high pitched beeping coming from somewhere nearby. My arms are full of IV's, a pulse ox grips my finger and a blood pressure cuff squeezes my arm tightly. There's a mask on my face, stickers on my chest, and that persistent, blunt pain radiating from my chest…

A cry of pain escapes from my lips and the people look at me, alarmed that I've come to. I hear what I determine to be a man's voice say, "Ezekiel, the bullet has moved around in your chest and is lodged in your heart now. We need to open you up to fix it. We're taking you up to surgery in a few minutes. You with me?"

I look up towards him. I can't breathe.

Next the man is saying that he needs to put in a chest tube but I'm allergic to the anesthesia, so it's going to hurt.

I was thinking that it couldn't be worse than the hurricane going on in my chest, until I feel the scalpel rip the side of my chest. The pain is searing and makes my eyes water. I squirm awkwardly as the other people pin me down. Then he shoves the tube in with such force that it squeezes out a hair-raising scream from me. He yells at me to shut up and breathe because I'm not getting enough oxygen and if I don't, he's going to shove a tube down my throat and it's not going to be gentle. I try to do what he says but the pain prevents me from taking a deep breath. I'm still being firmly pressed down flat on the table while he makes some adjustments to the tube. I'm moaning and panting shallowly at the same time, trying to calm myself. Then it's all black.

I now lay on the operating table, hooked up to a new host of machines, feeling incredibly weak and defeated. I surrender. I don't care about the pain anymore, which still persists. I surrender.

The doctor who put the chest tube in my side is now scrubbed in and stroking my scarred arm. He says that I have to have heart surgery, to take it easy, I won't feel a thing and that it's just a blink and then it's over. I'm exhausted and without a care. I say silent prayers to myself. I surrender.

I hear him say, "alright, let's open him up nice and wide," as I start to go under general anesthesia.

2 hours later…

"More suction! He's bleeding into the chest…I can't find the source of the bleed…get me more suction! He's going into V-tach. Get the crash cart, we're losing him. Charging to 60…clear. Blood pressure's still dropping. Damn, I can't see anything, there's too much blood. His heart's failing. It's too weak from the damage. No, no, no, no, no, no, no…come on kid, you're so young..."

30 minutes later…

"Time of death, 3:19p.m."

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Reviews

Seven L. Cooper May 18, 2012

very impressive!

Rimzhim Dang May 18, 2012

its a good one...

Chanchal May 16, 2012

Nice Writing "Alexi Blutbad".....

Andreea May 15, 2012

It's just fabulous! Really great story!

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