Arcadian

Life and death

"Clear!" The paramedic shouts, delivering another shock from the defibrillator to Harper's chest.  Her body jolts from off the ground before returning to being completely lifeless. "Clear!" He repeats, pressing it to Harpers chest once again.

Her body jolts again before going back to completely limp. "Clear!" He desperately tries again but before he can place it to her chest the sound of coughing and spluttering rings through the cold night air.

Harper's eyes rip open, forcibly tearing through the frost that was sealing them shut. "Harper?" I go to rush towards her but Emilio pulls me back. 

"Load her in!" One of the paramedics shout to their colleague, causing them to put her in the back of the ambulance and slam the door shut.

"I want- I need to go with her she shouldn't be alone," I stutter out, the shock of the situation leaving me in a disoriented state.

"We'll meet her at the hospital," Emilio says, still holding me back. I watch helplessly as the ambulance drives her away, the images of her frozen lifeless body flashing in my mind.

"Now. We need to go now," I say frantically, heading towards Mrs Green. "We need to go to the hospital," I demand, not caring that she's currently on the phone.

"One second," She tells whoever's on the other end. "Nobody is going anywhere," She says calmly. 

"What! She almost just died we need to be with her!" Miles yells, displaying the most anger I've ever seen come out of him.

"We can't transport all these students until the coach comes and this weather dies down," She explains. The boys start ranting and raving at her but I've already stormed off, heading towards the park ranger.

"Keys." I state bluntly. "What?" He says, confused.

"Give me your keys," I clarify. "What no-" He blurts out but I interrupt him by throwing him to the ground, currently having no patience. 

I loom over him, staring down at his scared face as I unclip his keys from the waist band, palming them in my hand and marching over to his jeep. I make eye contact with Dex as I do so, who taps the rest's shoulders and points in my direction, causing them to all come running over to me.

"Lucian Cruz what do you think you're doing!" Mrs Green screams, clearly in distress as her and the park ranger come rushing over. 

I put the keys in the ignition, starting the car as the boy's climb in and pile on top of each other. I speed off, leaving an hysterical Mrs Green and a crowd of student onlookers behind me.

Lucian speeds down the icy roads like a madman, causing us to go flying at every sharp turn. 

"Lucian calm down man," Dex calls from the backseat, probably sensing that we're going to crash if he doesn't slow down. 

"Need to get to the hospital," Lucian mumbles. "Yeah we'll all be getting there in an ambulance if you don't slow the fuck down," Tyler says, gripping the seat in front of him when we start to slightly skid.

I've never seen Lucian so panicked, it's almost as if his brain is with Harper right now and we've just got his autopilot body. 

"Pull over," I command, taking charge of the situation. Lucian refuses at first but after five minutes of pestering from all of us he finally relents.

He sits in the passengers seat, his hands shaking violently as he pulls out a cig. "Shit man, you should have seen her," He sighs.

"We did see her," I remind him, he was probably so focused on Harper he didn't even notice the people surrounding him.

"She's going to die and the last thing she heard was that I didn't care about her," He whispers, the shame evident in his voice.

"She's not going to die," Miles states uncertainly, nervously bouncing his leg up and down. "Shit I should call mum and dad, they could at least get her a private room," Lucian says, patting his pockets. 

"Fuck!" He shouts in frustration when he realises his phone is back in the 'no phones' box in Mrs Green's tent with the rest of them.

"Here," Miles holds his phone out over the console, must of having snuck another in. 

He shakily dials mum's number and presses the phone to his ear, trying his best to explain the situation to her without breaking down.

I pull into the hospital and we all climb out, spotting our other teacher Mr Jameson who was the one to go with Harper in the ambulance leaning against the reception counter.

"Boys what are you doing here?" He asks, clearly confused. "Where's Harper," Carter asks, completely ignoring his question.

"She's with the doctors, now answer my question," He says sternly. "We drove." Lucian replies vaguely, not mentioning the fact that he stole a car. "Whatever I could use your help anyway," He sighs.

"The hospital is having trouble reaching Harper's mum and the school can't get ahold of her either, do you guys know of any reason that she wouldn't answer the phone?"He asks.

"She probably too busy being a raging bitch," Lucian mumbles, leaning over the receptionist's counter and looking at Harper's file.

"Room one hundred and three," He reads out loud before swiftly heading down the hall. We follow him, watching as he rampages through the hospital trying to find Harper's room, knocking over anyone that came too close to him.

We spend ages trying to find it until we realised that her room was hidden in the ICU. We slow down as we approach her room, all stopping in front of the large window that allows us to see inside.

Harper is drowning in numerous thick blankets and there's an extortionate amount of wires sticking out from all over her body. 

She barely looks alive.