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 Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:14 pm
Marcella moved near enough to the front doors of the hospital to make them open automatically, but did not pass through them. Instead, she leaned back against the wall and sighed, putting both hands to her face and enjoying the mingling of warm air from outside with the glacial air conditioned drafts swirling about the hospital lobby. She would still be there for another two hours, but the doctor who was directing all of the volunteers today had told her that she could take a break.
Not that she had wanted to, initially, but now that she was stopped and leaning back against the wall, her body was rebelling against any and all desire to move. She wanted to get a candy bar, too, from the vending machine in the opposite corner. She tilted her head to one side and peered at it, then sighed.
One more minute. Then she would go grab a Snickers. Unless the vending machine felt like walking closer.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:01 pm
Nathan had been spending a lot of his time in the hospital. Mostly because he had no where else to go. He stayed in his father's apartment, took care of the hamster he had found there, and wandered the town. But things were all out of whack because of this epidemic, and since his father was one of the victims he had to put off his actual meeting with the man until the time he woke up.
If he woke up.
There was panic. People were losing vitals, and things were getting out of hand. Apparently these comas could get worse, but none of them were getting any better. He had to watch and wait, it seemed, to see if Tony was going to snap out of it any time soon.
At the moment, he was wandering outside to grab a smoke. He had taken up smoking a while ago, but he couldn't remember why. To look cool with the kids on the 'block' he had grown up on, probably. They all did it, and they didn't say anything but it seemed they expected him too, as well. They'd just offer him the pack, and a lighter, until he finally got his own. And then it was just one of those things, Nathan acting as one of the gang. Simple.
Cigarette resting on his lips, he moved to the door, and noticed a girl stalled nearby. He eyed her, arching an eyebrow.
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:45 pm
Marcella sighed and tilted her head back, looking straight up the wall to the ceiling for a moment, then turned to one side, leaning a shoulder against the wall, and peered out the glass doors.
Usually, there were cars passing with relative frequency in front of the hospital, but with so many of the citizens now asleep in the hospital beds, and many more staying inside for fear of what was going on, traffic overall had been considerably lighter. Or, well, the traffic passing by was not as dense - plenty of people came though the hospital itself to visit their loved ones.
The girl was, deep inside, infinitely glad that her parents (and even her sister) were safe, but with all the other people who had not been so lucky, she felt all but obligated to help. She already volunteered here at the hospital, and now that schools had been shut down, well, that just meant she had more time to offer.
A face appeared at the window outside, bringing Marcella abruptly back to reality. A cigarette dangled from the young man's lips and she sighed a little before pushing herself away from the wall to go outside to speak to him.
"Thank you for smoking outside, but please keep a little further back from the doors," she told him, pointing past the smoker to the ash tray set up about fifteen feet down the sidewalk, away from the entrance. The admonition came somewhat automatically, as though she had told people on many occasions to keep back when smoking, but Marcella did not sound angry or scolding. More tired than anything, really.
She waited outside for him to move, holding still once the automatic doors had shut so that they would not open again and risk letting his cancer fumes into the hospital.
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