Thursday, June 24, 2010

Hospital Evacuation

I’m in a hospital bed for some procedure, and there are tubes linked to various parts of my body and along my limbs. I want to get down from the bed and walk around a little, but the nurse tells me I can’t because my tubes link me to another patient. Soon I realize that the patient I am linked to is dead, and I am terrified. Afraid to look in that direction, I lie very still to avoid accidentally pulling the dead body close to me.

An alarm goes off in the hospital, and a voice says through the loudspeaker, “Everybody must evacuate right now. Please leave the hospital!” I’m worried about dragging the dead body behind me so I finally decide to rip the tubes off my body. No blood spurts out, thankfully, so I gather up my laptop and bag and leave with all the other people who are escaping from the hospital. I feel guilty about the patient I was linked to and never look at the dead body for fear of what I might see.