Chapter 1: 'I am alive'

A drop of cold sweat dripped down his forehead as Kyle looked carefully at his surroundings.

He was sitting on a hospital bed, everything around was white, making the small room seem bigger than it was.

The sound made by all kinds of medical devices was the only one in the room, proving that they were still working to monitor the patient's condition.

Inhaling the strong disinfecting smell specific to a hospital, Kyle tries to calm his heart, which is beating so fast it seems like it wants to jump out of his chest.

He put his right hand over his heart to feel his heartbeat, he stayed like that for some time, while he had only one thing on his mind.

'I am alive.'

It was hard for him to believe that he could still be saved. But it seems that luck was on his side and he was saved in time.

Flashbacks about the horror of what he went through begin to pass before his eyes. He never thought that a seat belt failure could cost him his life.

Cold shivers passed through him when he thought of the helplessness and despair he felt. When, no matter how hard he struggled, he could not free himself from the car seat while it sank under the cold water of the river. No matter how hard he tried, the seat belt did not want to loosen, and the cold water continued to seep into the car. At first, he tried to remain calm, knowing that panicking would only reduce his chances of survival, but when the water level reached below his neck all rationality flew out the window, and he began to cry for help and struggle harder, pulling and biting the belt like a mad dog.

The horrible feeling of swallowing water against your will when you can no longer hold your breath. The fear that invades every corner of your mind as you realize that soon you will die, and how every second seems like an eternity as you slowly lose consciousness in the cold embrace of death. Kyle remembers it all.

Everything is still vivid in his memory as if it just happened.

The last thing he remembers is how the headlights stopped working and without them the darkness enveloped him as the car slowly sinks and everything was drawing more and more blurry.

Little by little, Kyle started to calm down. He stopped shaking, and his breathing began to return to a normal rhythm.

'I'm fine.'

Kyle repeated in his mind several times.

After he calmed down, he began to observe his situation better.

Many wires that were connected to all kinds of medical devices were attached to his chest, and in his left hand he had a tube that was connected to an IV infusion.

Seeing that the infusion was almost finished, he thought that he should call a nurse.

"Nurse..."

Kyle tried to shout, but his mouth was so dry that only a grunt came out.

His voice was hoarse and sounded like the rustling of rusty chains.

He was very thirsty, he really needed some water.

He looked around and saw a bottle of water on the bedside table.

Furthermore, he gets up a little and tries to reach for the water bottle, but loses his balance and falls out of bed.

Kyle tries to get up, leaning on the table, but it seems a much more difficult task than he thought it would be.

His whole body was numb, and it hardly responded to the commands given by his brain.

'For how long I was unconscious?'

He was still stubbornly trying to get up on his own despite his uncooperative body.

'Where is the nurse?'

It is strange that despite the noise made by the fall and his attempts to get up, no one has yet come to see what is happening.

There is no clock in the room, but he thinks that more than a quarter of an hour has passed since he woke up.

Seeing that he has no chance to get up, he leans on the table and waits to recover a little before trying again.

What kind of hospital is this too. Who knows where the nurse is since it is not here yet. He really needs to make a complaint about the treatment of patients before he leaves here.

𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑑!

Lost in his thoughts, he is brought back by something that popped into his head. After all the shaking, the bottle overturned and rolled until it fell.

'Sh*t! That hurt,'

He rubs his head with one hand and picks up the bottle with the other.

At least he has something to drink, even if it didn't go as it should have.

He quickly uncorks the bottle with trembling hands and brings it to his mouth. With big gulps, he finishes the bottle and quenches his thirst.

After drinking the water, he started to feel a little better.

After resting enough, he tries to get up again, but this time it seems that his limbs are no longer as numb. He manages to get up with the help of the table and the bed. He sits on the edge of the bed and breathes with difficulty, feeling as if he has finished running a marathon.

'Since when do I have such a poor physical condition?'

It's true that he hasn't exercised for some time because he was too busy with work.

But he doubted that it would be this bad.

Maybe after he is discharged, he should take the time to start going to the gym again.

He sat like that and listened to the surrounding sounds. Apart from the beeping of the devices and the dripping of the infusion, nothing could be heard.

'It's too quiet.'

Even for a hospital it is still too quiet. It's a little strange to be so quiet in the middle of the day.

And from the looks of this place, it doesn't seem to have very good insulation after how thin the door looks. The window is also open, but why is it so quiet? This is strange, no matter how you look at it. We are in the middle of a city, after all.

Being aware of the strangeness of the situation makes him have all kinds of bizarre hypotheses, especially when he just escaped from the arms of death.

'Maybe I should stop imagining things and look around a bit.'

Kyle gets up slowly and when he is sure he can stand on his feet he tries to take a step forward, but he feels a pain in his left hand. He forgot about the IV infusion and all the machines he is connected to. Is it okay to take them down?

I'm already fine, I don't think I need them anymore. And if I don't take them down, I have no way to leave here. So, he grabs the IV tube and pulls it.

'Sh*t! It hurts so bad!'

He looked at the rest of the wires attached to him and prayed that it wouldn't hurt too much.

Take a deep breath and pull them all at once to get rid of those bad things faster.

The expected pain didn't come, but once he took the devices off, they all started beeping loudly.

Kyle didn't know why, but all that noise made him panic. His mind kept telling him that he had to get rid of the noise. Otherwise, something bad would happen. His heart was beating like crazy and his eyes were staring intently at the devices. But the cruel truth is that no matter how long he stares at them, he has no idea how to stop them, so he switches to the simplest method his panicked mind could think of.

He rushes to the socket and pulls out all the cables of the devices outside. Seeing himself with the pile of cables in his hand, he stupidly looked at them, not understanding why he reacted like that.

'Why the hell did I do this?'

It's as if suddenly his brain sent alarm signals and his body acted before he could even process what he was doing. He felt like something inside told him that he would be in danger if he made noise in this grave-like silence.

Even after getting rid of the noise, the feeling of unease did not disappear completely.

'What is wrong with me?'

Maybe I'm still in a state of shock after the accident. Or maybe not? Perhaps there really is something wrong with this place…

With small steps, he headed for the door.

He grabs the doorknob and after taking a deep breath he works up the courage to open a crack large enough to take a peek out.

The lobby was quite dark, only one poor neon flickered occasionally. Everything looked quite messy with all sorts of things thrown everywhere. The scene looked like something out of a horror movie.

Kyle didn't know exactly why he had this uneasy feeling, but if he still opened the door, he might as well go out and look around for a bit.