Come Alive

It was over faster than Alex expected it to be. Before he realized what was really going on, a stranger was lying unconscious at his feet and sirens were blaring from every direction. Most of the frantic mob had fled as soon as the shooter had taken off and Alex was left with a few straggling paparazzi, a (dead?) body and, oh, now they come: MTV security. “You need to get inside.” A burly man pulled Alex by the arm toward the doors.
“No, wait.” Alex shook his arm free of the other’s tight grasp and jogged back to the dark haired man on the ground.
“Sir, you can’t be here right now,” A blonde middle aged EMT stopped Alex before he could get any closer to the scene, “It’d be best if you went inside.”
“Mr. Gaskarth, please come with me.” The security guard from before had caught up to him.
“No, sir, we need him to describe the shooting,” A police officer who couldn’t be more than a year or so older than Alex himself stepped into the small circle of people. Alex nodded and followed the man to a quieter section of the now taped off sidewalk. The police had cleared all paparazzi and other unauthorized people from the scene and were now questioning a few eyewitnesses of what had just happened.
Alex quickly recounted the past forty-five minutes of his life, keeping an eye on the still unconscious stranger all the while. As he watched the ambulance crew load the man into the vehicle Alex interrupted himself, “Is it alright if I go with them to the hospital?”
The cop crinkled his eyebrows a little, “Uh, I guess so. Just… no, I supposed I have enough information,” he glanced down at the pad in his hands he’d been taking notes on, “Would… no, never mind. You’re free to go.” Alex thanked him and rushed after the EMT workers before they could leave without him.
“What do you mean you can’t take me with you?” Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest as the blonde woman from earlier told him that because Alex and (the still nameless) man did not know each other, Alex was not permitted to sit in the ambulance with them. “You do realize I’m Alex Gaskarth and this man just saved my life, don’t you?”
The woman nodded, “Yes, I can understand why you would want to stay with him, but look, he’s losing a lot of blood and we need to get him to the hospital now. I don’t have time to argue with you right now. If you want to come find him tomorrow, I’m sure that’d be okay.”
“He might be dead by tomorrow.” Alex grumbled and pulled himself into the back of the ambulance, “If you don’t have time to argue with me, then you don’t have time kick me off.”
“Sir, really, you need to leave.” The woman looked about ready to punch Alex in the face but he was stubborn, he hadn’t gotten this far in life without being a little headstrong.
“Amanda, close the doors we need to go.” Another EMT worker called to the blonde woman from the front as he turned on the sirens. She sighed and glared at Alex as she slammed the two backdoors shut.
“So Amand—“
“Don’t talk to me.” Amanda interrupted Alex’s attempts at conversation as she went to work on rewrapping bandages. Alex watched as she removed the bloody bandages from the other guy’s chest.
“Wh-what’s his name?” Alex was sitting now on the bench beside the stretcher, his eyes never leaving surprisingly small bullet wound.
Amanda sighed, “According to the ID in his wallet, his name is Jack Barakat.”
Alex bit the inside of his cheek, “Jack.” He whispered it, he wasn’t even sure if Amanda had heard it. So his name was Jack. A little bland for a man that had jumped in front of a bullet for a stranger, but Alex could accept it. Tearing his eyes back to Amanda, Alex spoke up, “Do you think he’s going to be okay?”
Her hands stopped moving as she pressed her lips together and ran her eyes along Jack’s lifeless body, “Well, the bullet hit in what I’d like to call a ‘safe’ zone. I mean it wasn’t a fatal shot or anything.”
Alex breathed a sigh of unexpected relief, “So that’s good, right?”
“Well, yes and no. I mean, like, I have no idea why he’s unconscious. I’m not a doctor, but he was passed out long before he lost all this blood…he should’ve at least been awake when we came to the scene.” At the mention of blood she suddenly remembered she had been in the process of changing Jack’s bandages and she quickly went back to work.
***
It seemed like hours before someone told Alex what was going on. People in the waiting room had been staring at him all day and he’d had enough of the not-so-sly iPhone pictures being taken of him. After who knows how many cups of hospital flavored coffee and stale crackers, a small squeaky nurse came into the waiting room, “Mr. Gaskarth?” Why was everyone calling him that today? He was Alex. He was waiting for her to tell him to go home. All day he’d been getting nurses and doctors telling him to go home and that they’d notify him if there were any changes in Jack’s condition. Alex wasn’t even completely sure why he was so adamant about not leaving; he really just wanted to talk to this Jack guy. “He’s awake.” It was rare when Alex didn’t get what he wanted.