These Questions
Chapter 23 - Freezing Waters, Part Three
Carter jumped from his seat immediately and helped Abby out of the car. They started to rush to the ambulance bay, to see nearly the entire ER staff stationed there, tending to each of the many parked ambulances. Gurneys were rushing back and forth between them and the hospital.
"Oh, no," Abby said.
"What's going on?" Carter shouted above all the noise to Chuny nearby.
"Oh, my God, Dr. Carter," she said, taking his hand. "Thank God you're here."
"What's going on, Chuny?" Abby asked. She had taken Carter's other hand, but she hadn't noticed. Carter had, but didn't focus on it. He couldn't.
"Weaver's out," she interrupted her.
"What?"
"Seizure," she cried, over the noise. The noise was horrible. Shouting, sirens, crying. "She's stable, but upstairs for now. Unconscious."
"Oh, my God," Abby said.
Chuny began to cry out above the sound. "They came in here so fast. No one knew anything, really, until they called the desk. But that was after they all arrived. It's terrible."
"What?" Abby asked again. "What happened? There's ambulances all over the damn street, and there's almost as many in the bay here."
"Nine," Carter said, finishing his count.
"With one more on the way," Haleh joined.
"What happened?" Carter asked again.
An ambulance found itself directly in there path. They gasped, and ran backward as it whizzed past. The back doors were hanging open with a paramedic shouting out the back to someone. Carter cursed and ordered to shut the doors. The man inside continued to yell out, but a woman quickly leapt to shut them herself.
As the vehicle passed, he sighed at losing Chuny again. He searched quickly, tracing everyone in the crowd.
"Help me!"
Carter and Abby both turned around to see a man on the gurney, struggling to get up. He was fumbling with the IV. He looked about sixty-years-old.
"Sir," Carter said. "You have to keep that in there - "
"I have to find my daughter!"
"Did they bring her here?"
"I screamed," the man stuttered, "but they didn't hear me."
Abby looked at him, then back to Carter.
"And I couldn't hear my daughter," he said, starting to cry. He was so fragile, with cuts all over his skin. "They couldn't find her. Did they find her? Did they find my Mira?"
"Uh," Carter said, "let me find out, okay?"
"Please find her," he said. "Her name is Mira, but she calls herself Michelle. She told her mother and I that she always hated that name."
"What happened, Sir?" Carter asked, coming closer to appear more gentle than the situation had turned him. "Do you know why all of these people are hurt?"
He shook his head and began to cry harder. He was almost out of breath, from the tears. "I-I don't know."
"How old is she? What does she look like?" Abby inquired, desperate to gather clues as she looked around the crowd for this mystery girl.
"She has brown hair and brown eyes," he stuttered, "and she's eight."
Abby raised her eyebrows, as Carter did the same. "You have an eight-year-old daughter?" He realized the tone in his question and immediately went to recover.
Abby was one step ahead of him. "We're going to try our best to find Mira. I mean, Michelle."
"Thank you," the man said, placing a hand on her face. "You're an angel."
Abby smiled. "What's your name, sir?"
"Daniel," he said. "Danny Schmidt to most."
She smiled again and put his hand between her own. She patted it gently and told him to lie back down. He unwillingly did as he was told.
Once they felt their business was finished with Daniel, they whipped around and began to rush through the enormous, swarming marsh of people. There had to be at least a hundred, one big bash in the ambulance bay. It certainly wasn't celebrating anything though.
"We have to find Chuny," he said.
"Isn't that her, right there?"
Carter felt a slight, sudden headrush come over him as Abby grabbed his arm and turned him around to a figure already beginning toward them.
There she was.
"Chuny!"
"Carter," she said, out of breath. "There was a guy over, there. Sorry, I had to -"
"Chuny, what's going on?"
Chuny swallowed, but was interrupted by Haleh called Abby over to her. Abby raced over to her aid, leaving Carter with Chuny.
[Part 24]