Keith didn’t look, he didn’t care. With screeching tires, he peeled backwards. The rear end of his car plowed into the child. She sailed backwards, slamming into the garage wall and dropping lifelessly to the ground.
Keith sped from the garage.
“No!” Terrence yelled. His bellowing voice cutting through the cries and screams of everyone there.
Macy screamed hysterically and ran over to Kira at the same time as Terrence.
“My baby, my baby, my baby.” Macy dropped to her knees and cried out.
Terrence’s mother wrapped her arms around Mylena shielding her from the horror.
Little Kira lay like a tossed rag doll and Terrence was afraid to check.
Macy scooped the child into her arms, rolling Kira to her chest as she rocked back and forth. Weakly, Terrence lowered. He didn’t know what to do, or what to say, his heart broke in a million pieces. He reached out his hand and Macy stopped rocking.
“She’s… she’s alive. She’s still alive!” Macy tilted her head. “I can hear her breathing.” She placed her hand on Kira’s chest. “She’s still breathing.”
Terrence placed his trembling hand by Kira’s mouth and felt her breathe, at least he believed he did. Her forehead bled, and a tiny bit of blood seeped from her mouth.
Immediately, he stood. “I need a blanket,” he called out. “Macy, I’m gonna take the baby.”
“What? Where?”
“The hospital. It’s only eight blocks away.”
“I’ll take her,” Murph said. “You’re not in any shape. I’ll take her for you.”
“No, she’s my child, I will carry my child.” Someone handed Terrence a blanket, he didn’t know who, and he reached down lifting his daughter into his arms. “She weighs all of fifty pounds, I can do this.”
“I’ll go with you,” Macy stood.
“No, stay here. It’ll be crazy. Stay here where it’s safe. I’ll be back.” Hurriedly, he threw a blanket over Kira and took off from the garage.
It was as if he weren’t sick, he was fueled by adrenaline and fear for his child. With Kira close to his chest, he ran across the garage, up the ramp and outside.
Even though it was overcast, it was still hard to see and it took his eyes a few moments to adjust.
“I’ll get you there,” he said with each step. “I’ll get you there.”
Terrence didn’t get to see much of his surroundings, whether they were burnt, crumbled or destroyed, he was focused on getting to the hospital. He knew exactly where it was, having worked in that section of town before.
He ran at a good speed the first block, and slowed down just a little for the next. By the time he hit the third block his pace had decreased to a fast walk and his arms ached and hurt. Block four, he struggled to hold his child, but pushed forward. On the fifth block he staggered, knees giving out, his chest was heavy and his head spun. Just when he was so close, two blocks, Terrence dropped to his knees.
His fifty pound daughter in his arms felt like five hundred pounds. He tried and tried to stand. His heart broke again and he sobbed with each vain attempt.
“Please, please don’t let me fail my child.” He pulled her close. “I’m sorry, baby, Daddy will get you…”
Then his eyes saw it.
Keith’s car. It had been abandoned at a pile of rubble, unable to pass, and the doors were open. Could it be, that was where he was headed?
That thought gave him strength because this time he was motivated not just with worry, but anger for the man that did this to his daughter. His car was in the area, that meant he was too, and after Terrence got Kira to the hospital, he would find Keith.
First he had to stand.
It was enough to get him to his feet. It was tough, it took everything he had, but he did it. Terrence didn’t move as fast as he did when he left the garage, but he stayed balanced and focused and made it to the hospital grounds.
A sour and rotten smell filled the air from the dead bodies that surrounded the hospital grounds. Bodies lay on blankets, sleeping bags, they all huddled together. At one point they were alive and while waiting outside they died.
There were people alive, so many, they moved in groups, staggering. Some badly burned, some barely able to stand. They weren’t moving toward the hospital, they were moving away from it.
Terrence moved against the grain of human traffic. Why were they leaving the hospital? They bumped into him, didn’t they see he was carrying a child. It was almost as if he were invisible.
“Watch where you’re going,” someone said.
“They aren’t taking anyone,” another said. “Don’t bother.”
What? It couldn’t be happening. How could a hospital not take people? Surely that person had to be mistaken, Terrence thought. Then he saw the front door, it was boarded up from the inside. That alone told him there were people in there. Doctors, or nurses.
They didn’t have every entrance secure, they couldn’t and Terrence would find a way in.
His chest ached and his breathing was strained, he was on his last bit of strength and he knew it. If he didn’t get Kira into the hospital and to help, they would both die.
He didn’t even know if she was still alive. He hadn’t heard her moan or make any noise, he didn’t even know if his daughter was still breathing. Yet, he had to try to get her help.
On the far side was the ramp to the underground garage. No one seemed to be going there, and to Terrence that was a possible way in.
When he arrived at the parking garage entrance, he saw why. The ramp was a morgue, all bodies. They weren’t discarded like trash, they were neatly placed in rows. It was obvious they had been carried out.
The garage wasn’t blocked off. He had a clear shot, he just had to make it through the bodies. His legs were like rubber and his arms weak as he inched his way there, trying not to step on anyone, Terrence saw two workers. They wore blue paper hazmat suits, and their faces were covered with masks. They carried a body out from the hospital.
One worker had the legs, the other the shoulders.
“I need help,” Terrence called out.
“We aren’t taking anyone, yet,” the one worker said.
Terrence kept walking their way. “Please, please. Just help.” He was so desperate, he had never felt such desperation in his life.
“Sir, please step back.”
“If you can just…”
“One hour,” the other worker said, it was a woman. “We need to clear people to make some room. We’ll open the doors in an hour or two.”
“I don’t think my daughter has an hour.”
The worker carrying the feet, lowered the body and turned around. “We are trying…” She paused. “Terrence?” She pulled down her mask and rushed his way.
Terrence felt his heart sink and he lost his breath when he saw her. He had known her for years, shared many holidays with her, and became part of her extended family when her father put him through school. “Deana. We were… we were in a garage, she was hit by a car.”
“Which girl?” she pulled the blanket down. “Oh my God, Kira.” Her hand reached inside. “She’s still breathing.” Then her eyes locked on Terrence. “I have her. Give her to me.” She looked over to the other worker. “David! Help.”
Terrence relinquished his daughter into Deana’s arms, and when he did, he just dropped to his knees, both in weakness and relief.
Deana handed Kira over to David. “Take her in. I’ll be right there.” Then she reached down and grabbed Terrence by the arm. “Come on. Let me help you.”
“You already have.” Terrence said. Emotionally exasperated, with Deana’s help, he struggled to a stand and walked into that hospital a lot more hopeful than he was a few minutes earlier.