Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. Sorry that I didn’t post last week. God has really been moving in my life. He has been leading me in a different direction that I feel I need to be. I feel very good about how everything is working out so far.
I’ve been receiving some good feedback about my Surviving Red snippet. So this week I am going to give you all another snippet. I hope you all really enjoy it.
Jade stood a few blocks away from the hospital—the emergency entrance in sight. She was scoping the place out to see what their security was like. How often did the police make a patrol? Did they run your name before or after they took care of you? These were just some of the things she needed to know before she did what she had to do. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how the staff operated inside. It was a huge risk to take. She had to take it or die.
She made her way to the emergency entrance. Each step was getting harder and harder for her to take. Her breaths were getting shorter. The stress of entering the hospital was making it harder. It was now or never. She would figure something out once inside. She always did.
The hospital was quite like they always are. Back when everything was normal, there were people in and out of the hospital. Busy for those who worked there. Now hospitals were a dead zone for the living. Hardly anyone went in for medical emergencies anymore.
As things deteriorated, medical care and equipment became rare and expensive. The government still had little control over people and implemented a law regarding treatment compensation: no payment, no treatment. People thought the law was a joke until the government released the DC’s, an aggressive task force that captures and imprisons those in medical debt. Horror stories began to float around—DC officers abusing their power, torturing people, doing unspeakable things. The government didn’t seem to care. At this point the only major crime to commit was to abuse the medical system—a cruel world.
Jade pressed on. She walked up to the registration desk. Two women sat behind the desk flipping through old magazines. Their bored expressions made them seem like twins. It was a struggle to catch her next breath.
“May I help you?” one of the women asked. By her tone she seemed very uninterested.
“I’m-having-a-asthma-attack.”
“Name?”
“Sarah-Blane,” Jade saw that it was the name of the woman who owned the abandoned house. She had a number of aliases and was glad to add this to her roster.
One of the women typed her name on the computer while the other put a wrist band around Jade’s wrist.
“Come around back,” one of them said.
The door that was next to the desk opened and a male nurse greeted Jade.
“What brings you in today?” he asked as he took her blood pressure.
“Asthma-attack,” Jade relaxed a little. She was still in the bad part of town so the security wasn’t that tight.
“Ok, let’s get you that breathing treatment,” he put Jade into an exam room. “Be right back.”
Jade sat on the exam table with her head hanging low and her eyes closed. She focused on breathing. She just needed to make it. She just needed to get through this treatment and sneak out before they figured out who she really was. Hopefully she could score something along the way. There was a small knock at the door.
“Ms. Blane?” a younger man came into the room. “How are you feeling today?”
“Been-better.”
“I hear you’re having an asthma attack.”
Jade nodded.
“Ok well the doctor should be with you shortly. I just need to get some information from you first. Where are you currently staying?”
“In-between-houses. My-aunt-stays-on-the-North-side.”
“Address?”
“It’s-it’s-it’s,” Jade swayed a little as if she was about to pass out.
“Ok, ok, I’ll get that from you later. I just need a drop of your blood,” he pricked Jade’s finger and added her drops of blood on a slide. “The doctor will be with you shortly.”
Jade figured she had about 45 minutes. Hospitals used people’s blood samples to determine who they were and if they owed any medical expenses.
“Ms. Blane,” the doctor said. “I have your breathing treatment.”
Jade smiled.
He set up the machine and handed her the mouthpiece, “I’ll be back to check on you.”
Jade closed her eyes and inhaled. She was relieved to be receiving treatment. Her lungs welcomed them. For a moment she didn’t think about anything. Not the state of the world. Not the consequences she would face if she got caught. She let her mind roam free. She thought about the place she used to visit when things were good. It was a field and it had this beautiful oak tree. She would lay under it when she wanted to escape from everyone. It was her safe haven—her home. Oh how she wished she could go back there.
That’s it for this week you all! I hope you enjoyed the read. Until next time!
Stay uplifted and inspired,
Jana` Chantel
