The intensive care unit at Northwest hospital alarms buzzed loudly, "Code One, please follow Code one procedures." The alarm echoed throughout the entire hospital and several patients started to worry. A Code One, the one alarm no one ever wanted to hear. The alarm that someone under the age of 18 needed immediate attention due to lack of pulse.
Nurses and surgeons rushed to the first floor. The ambulance arrived and the paramedic team rolled a young man strapped into a gurney out of the ambulance, quickly pushing him to the nurses and doctors. There was no panic in the team at this hospital, it was the best one in the Midwest.
As the team got the gurney into the intensive care surgery room, the surgeon and team quickly got to work.
"We have a pulse. Nice job team, now let's get to work on the blood transfusion and skin grafts as quickly as we can," the head surgeon….
****
"Someone should stop Sora from going after more of the children! The fire department arrived, they can do their jobs," an older gentleman screamed.
"He's already burned to bits! How many kids has he saved now? 12?! He's going to end up killed. That's the last thing we need," an older woman yelled with tear filled eyes.
The young man ran out with two more children, handed them to a firefighter and collapsed. His hair completely burned off. His clothes were burned into his flesh. The hero everyone needed…
****
"Be careful when we lift, ready? 1, 2 3, lift," shouted one of the two paramedics loading the tattered, burnt corpse onto the gurney. The stench of his burnt flesh overpowered the smell of the fire and the smoke of the burning Orphanage.
The paramedics rushed to safely put an oxygen mask over the unrecognizable face. After they struggled to properly and safely fit it on, they finally loaded him into the ambulance and the ambulance sped away.
"Do you think he'll live—" a voice drifted into the distance.
****
The nurse sprinted into the room when she heard the cries and screams coming from room 17. Worried for his safety, she came in and noticed he was asleep.
"He must be having nightmares again. This poor kid. I cannot believe someone so selfless exists. I should wake him, so he doesn't have to suffer through them," the nurse thought.
She pushed a button on his hospital bed, which slowly elevated the young man, and she changed his morphine drip. The sudden movement caused the young man to wake up.
"Hey Sora, is everything ok? What's wrong?" Jackie, the overnight resident nurse asked. "Sounded like you were having another nightmare. Was it about that day?"
The young man finally realized it was just a dream and turned to the nurse to give a slight nod.
The nurse imagined how difficult speaking for Sora was. He'd suffered so many burns that bandages and gauze covered his entire body, head to toe. Fortunately, they were able to do several successful skin graft surgeries on his face. He could see, speak faintly and breathe with oxygen assistance, but his entire body still needed time to heal.
"You're not staying late again, are you?" Sora asked in a faint, kind tone.
She turned to him and said, "Sora, you know I'd stay here all day and night if you asked."
Sora loved nurse Jackie. She was always kind to him, always kept his room quiet and always played his favorite webnovels for him to listen to fall asleep. He couldn't count the number of nurses, doctors, or surgeries he experienced over the past three weeks. He didn't even care that the President visited him and presented him with the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive.
Of the 30 children at St. Marks Orphanage, Sora saved 14 of them alone. He grew up there from the time he was born until the age of thirteen. Foster parents finally picked him as an adoption candidate and after meeting them, he agreed to move in. He told them he wanted to sleep and they should go home and rest. He didn't want company. He didn't want people seeing him like this.
"I'm a mummy or a piece of burnt toast. UGH. Why couldn't I just die? I wanted to save them because… that place saved me. Had Linda and John not found me in the alleyway as a baby…" Sora thought, but his thoughts trailed off as pain overwhelmed him.
"When will this pain end? Will I ever even be able to move again? Why can't the gods just let me die?" Sora thought.
"Sora, if you need anything, please just buzz me. Try to get some rest. What webnovel do you want to listen to tonight?"
"Suprise me, please." Sora answered politely. He couldn't believe how well Jackie could understand him. The other nurses tried but struggled to hear what his mangled lips uttered.
"You got it. See you soon for your bandage change. I know they're painful. I wish I could make you feel better," Jackie said, smiling, her eyes clearly filled with sadness.
"Thanks Jackie. I don't know what I'd do if it weren't for you," Sora managed to say, although each word caused more pain than the last.
"Thanks sweetheart. You're one of a kind, and you don't deserve this pain! But meeting the President was amazing, wasn't it?! Thank you for inviting me to that, you really didn't have too…" Jackie said, with an extra pep in her step, like someone injected a happiness IV into her.
I looked up the Medal of Freedom and the pictures from that day, all neatly hanging on the blue hospital walls. It was against hospital policy to have anything permanently added to the walls, but in my case, they made an exception.
After all, the hospital reaped the benefits of one of their patients receiving the highest honor a civilian can be awarded. Donations flooded the hospital in the ensuing weeks. Someone created a "RaiseMoney" fund online for me.
I donated most of the original 25 million USD to a foundation called, "Feed the Children," an organization that helped low-income families who could not afford proper care and nutrition for their children. I also set aside one million for my adopted parents, five million for the orphanage, and I left the remaining $5,000,000 USD sitting in my bank account, just in case.
"Had I never made it to the Orphanage, who knows what could have happened to me–" Sora thought, as he finally drifted back to sleep.
"Ah, good. He's sleeping again. I wish there was some way I could help him," Jackie thought. She kneeled next to Sora's bed and said a prayer. She did this every time Sora fell asleep.
"Dear gods, if any of you are out there watching, please, please help this young man. We live in a world full of hate, yet this young man, out of the sheer kindness and love in his heart, finds himself unable to do anything but lay in pain. Please, I beg of you, please help Sora."
As Jackie rose to her feet, she gently placed a hand on Sora's arm and smiled. She turned and walked out, closing the door quietly behind her.
As soon as the door closed, the window in Sora's room opened and a cool breeze blew in silently.