2 The Day We Met

Michael's POV

What's the simplest life you can imagine for a twenty one year old man, who just moved to a city from a small town in the pursuit of higher education? That was my life. Waking up everyday at the same time, following the same old schedule, avoiding the people who were known for being "Bad influence", or avoiding everyone in general. Seems a bit sad and boring, huh? But that is exactly how I preferred my life to be.

I have had my fair share of drama to know how much I hated them. Which is why I chose to ignore any students who approached me for 'tutoring' or 'fun' or anything in general. Which is exactly what I was doing right now while I stared at the pamphlet in my hand. It was a notice of a health Camp that was supposed to be organised by the nearby hospitals that seeked volunteers.

Taking the necessary courses while I prepared for MCAT, I pondered if attending it would be a great opportunity for me to learn. Having not much to do this Friday I decided to sign up for the event. I checked out the website and registered myself as a volunteer while I was on my way back to my dormitory. 

"What are you doing this friday"? Jacob, my annoying and childish roommate, asked me as soon as I stepped inside the room. He was a sophomore at the cultural arts department and had a lot of free time, which is why it was not a wonder to find him here almost everyday when I returned home. "I have stuff to do" I replied to him in a flat voice.

"Can't you reschedule"? He insisted. "You know Alex is throwing a party at his dorm that day. All the cool kids will be there, we should really go there". He begged with his infamous puppy eyes.

"I can't" I replied to him while I held the screen of my phone right in front of his face. His head backed away to see what was on that properly before his expression changed to a disgruntled frown. "How are you so boring with that face I will never know". He rolled his eyes before he left. I stared at the screen where they had generated an ID card with a bar code and everything for the event.

~~~~~~~~~~

On the day of the event once everyone gathered they were segregated into various groups. Most of them were given basic guidelines on what to do or not to do before the Carnival began. Turns out they were doing their camp in the Carnival and only two of the actual doctors were present there along with a few nurses.

At the beginning it was pretty peaceful since hardly anyone came there, but as the time went by, especially during the afternoon their workload increased. It was getting harder and harder for me to work in the busy environment and the band playing right next to our campus did not help my cause.

"Will you shut up already! This noise is already too much without your nagging"!  One of the volunteers shouted at the nurse who, I am guessing, asked him to do something. He was so furious that he pulled out his ||Volunteer|| batch and threw it at the ground and left. He was the third one to leave and thus the workload on us increased further.

Even if it was tiring for me, I was still glad to be here. After taking care of people, the 'Thank you' they said or the content smile that appeared on their faces was enough to melt away my fatigue. When one of the nurses saw me sweating she called for me and gave me something to drink, "You look like you are about to pass out, take this". It was a juice, but I had no idea of what, however drinking it did make me feel better

During all the chaos I noticed someone walking all by herself while she carefully avoided everyone else. While it won't be much noticeable, the way she was actively avoiding them, not even bothering to look back when people actually needed help, it was hard not to notice her at all. I have never seen her in my life before so I had no idea who she was, but somehow something about her seemed familiar. Her shockingly red hairs were so long that they almost touched the ground, and her eyes...there was something about them that he couldn't place, a feeling of forlorn maybe...those eyes seemed to be watching everything without really taking in any of it. Maybe it was just her rude attitude that irked me, so I chose to ignore her and focus on my job.

After I was done with my mini break I got back to my work. Around evening when I was tying a proper bandage over an open wound on the arm of a little boy I heard a loud noise, "BANG"!! This noise sounded like an explosion and came from the concert that was taking place right next to us. After I took a moment to recover from the shock I realised my heart was pounding loudly against my chest.

I took a proper notice of my surroundings when I noticed that everyone was hurrying at the site of the explosion. Being in charge of health it was our responsibility to manage the situation. Ambulances were notified immediately as we tried to scour the entire area in the search of injured people. Many of them who were heavily injured are still conscious, so we tried to attend to them so that they don't pass out as well. 

On my way to someone, I noticed a girl whose face was severely ruined due to the explosion. From my vantage point it seemed that she was dead, until I noticed the subtle movements of chest. Judging from her injuries it seemed to me that she was the one who was closest to the explosion. Hoping that I would still be able to save her I ran towards her and checked her vitals. She seemed in a pretty rough condition, with her pulse so feeble that I could barely feel it. She was murmuring something but it was barely audible. I held her tightly as she seemed to lose her grip on consciousness.

When the ambulance arrived I tried to get her in. They were reluctant until I told them she was still alive and needed much better facilities to make it. On our way the EMTs tended to her wounds in the best way possible while I looked around for anything that would help me connect with her relatives. Finally when I found a phone with a broken screen I used her finger to unlock it and called the first person I saw in the recent contacts.

A man with a groggy voice picked up from the other end. I imagined it was her father, but the way he was so calm even after I told him what happened made me think otherwise. At the hospital I rushed everyone to get the doctor's first. One of the nurses assisted me in checking her condition before she called in for the surgeon. She was taken up to the burn unit while I waited patiently for the doctor to come.

The doctor took longer than expected to show up which annoyed me a little bit. After he went inside and checked her thoroughly he seemed really annoyed. "What the hell Michael"! He shouted at me. That is when I realised he was none other than Doctor Thomas whom I failed to recognize due to his mask. "What do you mean, sir? Is she alright"? I asked him in anticipation.

"Not only she is alright, she is absolutely fine! There is no burn on her, there is barely even a scratch! Are you blind? I was about to go for the surgery when I was called for this! I am very disappointed in you Michael". Doctor Thomas blamed me and left. I stook there puzzled, wondering if he confused the patient I brought with someone else.

After a few minutes they took her out of the room. Her face was clear and she appeared as if she was sleeping peacefully. I recognized her as the rude woman from earlier, so there is a chance that it was her. Still, there is no way she could recover so fast right? 

I was in a dilemma when I recalled that I had her phone in my pocket. I used it once more to open her phone and when it worked I froze in my spot. Just who was this woman? How can she recover so fast? Was she even a human? Just whom did I end up saving?