Fallen

"Knock knock!" I spoke before entering the small examining room. Upon getting the okay, I walked in and smiled at the older man that lay on the bed before me. "Hi, I'm Amelia. I'll be your nurse during your time here. What brings you to the ER tonight?" I logged on to the computer that was attached to the wall, and went to the patient's file. Dean Amherst was his name; 62 years old. His primary complaint was chest pain. "Well, I've been having this pain in my chest for the past week or so. I thought maybe it'd go away, but it's not getting any better." his voice was deep, raspy. I nodded my head, as I began the triage process. "What would you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten with ten being the most severe?" I asked. "Oh, about a five." I clicked the appropriate box, and then continued to ramble off his medications and medical history. Minutes later, I was leaving the room to the bustling nurse station.

"Hey, Steph, I'm going to need an EKG in 'room 16'. He's a chest pain." I asked the short nurse assistant. She smiled, and nodded. I sat down in the computer chair and charted a little more on my new patient. I sighed, running my fingers through my red hair, looking up at the clock. Two hours left, and I was free to go home. I had been an LPN in the ER for a little over three years. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the excitement that it was. But I had my days where working full time, and going to school full time would get to be too much. Right now was one of those days. It was a now Tuesday morning, 5:00AM, and I had a paper that was due to be turned in on Thursday and I was nowhere near being done with it. I rubbed my eyes, willing the dark circles to go away, but it was of no use.

I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed the squad box had rang. It wasn't until my charge nurse, Amanda, tapped me on my shoulder that I had realized what was going on. "You okay?" she asked, smiling. "Yeah, sorry. Just pitying myself." I chuckled. "Well, no time for that now, you're getting a gun shot wound, and burn victim in 'Trauma 1'" she spoke, writing down what the paramedics had told her. "Wait what? Two patients?" I must have misunderstood. "No, he was shot in the chest, and then burned after. 2nd and 3rd degree over 70 percent of his body" she sighed, shaking her head. What in the world would cause someone to do such a thing to a person? I nodded, taking in the rest of the info she had received, and jotted it down.

I had about five minutes before the squad would arrive so myself, and three other registered nurses followed me into the room to prep it for his arrival. He would no doubt be in respiratory distress. As if on cue, the paramedics rushed through the squad doors, pushing the gurney which held a very burned man while one paramedic stood on the side doing chest compressions. We quickly transferred the patient onto our own bed and began working on him. While briskly cutting what clothes were left on him, I couldn't help but notice just how badly burned he was. Both arms were charred to no return, his abdomen having blisters on every inch of it. Careful not to pop any, I moved on to cutting off his pants.

20 minutes had passed, and despite all of our efforts the patient was still unresponsive. I stepped around the dead charred skin which had flaked from his body while administering more medication. I continuously looked up at the monitor hoping to see a rhythm that wasn't the chest compressions. Hoping to see his vitals improve but that was wishful thinking. "Discontinue compressions." Dr Walters spoke. She looked warn out, tired. "There's nothing more we can do for him. We've run out of time. I'm going to call it. 5:32AM" she shook her head, and stepped out. The room was quiet except for the dull beeping machines.

It happened quick, I had no time to think. I reached over his charred, black face to turn the machine off, and before I knew what was happening, the man that was pronounced dead not a minute ago was grabbing my arm in his vice-like grip and had it in his mouth in seconds. I screamed out in pain as his razor sharp teeth sank into the soft flesh that was my forearm. Everyone turned, and was to my side in seconds. I quickly yanked my blood soaked arm from his mouth, tearing chunks of flesh as I did so. "What the hell?" one of the male nurses said from somewhere in the room. A deep gurgling roar erupted from the center of the room causing everyone to flinch and before we knew it, the man was out of the bed and running through the doors of the Trauma room and out into the cool night air.

My head was swimming with pain, and worry. This stranger had taken a chunk out of my arm with his mouth; God only knew what kind of diseases he carried. I stumbled backwards, into the arms of my coworker, Brendan. "Woah, come on, we're going to another room." he said before guiding me out by my elbow, with Jessi, another nurse, in tow. I quickly took a seat, feeling nausea over come me. Forcing the bitter vomit back down, I let out a shaky breath. "What the hell happened?" I asked, in shock at how fast things had escalated. "He came back. We don't know how, but he did." Jess spoke, examining my arm. I looked down at the wound. Chunks of flesh hung from the laceration, while blood freely dripped onto the blue sheet of the bed, causing a deep crimson puddle to form.

The bite felt cold, almost like "Icy Hot", though it still hurt like a motherfucker. "Definitely gonna need stitches." she spoke after covering it with gauze. "I'll send the doctor in." Brendan said before leaving the room. "This cannot be happening." I said, running my good hand down my face. " It'll be alright, you'll be alright" Jess spoke, already knowing what was racing through my mind. I forced away the tears as the thoughts ran rampant. It'd be weeks before I would know whether or not the mystery man had given me any disease. "Were the cops called? They need to find him." I said to her. It was astonishing to me how the man that was just legally dead on the cot, went to rage mode in a matter of seconds. And now he was running the streets. How he survived, is beyond me.