I is for Ian

I almost did.

But the sound that had stopped had been soothing, and now without it, it was annoying me that it wasn’t there. It had been a low drone, something that you don’t notice until it’s gone. Like a fan or a furnace.

A furnace. That was it. The heat had shut off.

It was going to get really cold in the hospital. But why? Why had the furnace shut off? Unless the storm had knocked out the main electrical line, leaving only the emergency generator going. It would be enough to give power to the lobby, and to the surgery room, and if I flipped the breaker, I had a good idea that Dr. Sutton’s office was hooked up too. Other than that, it was going to be pretty dark in the building unless someone walked through the room and tripped the motion lights.

If the lights were out, then it was possible that the doctors and nurses would need help moving everyone into the lobby to make a triage out of it. Everything would likely be centered there.

Deciding that sleeping in when it was possible other people might need me was selfish, I groaned and sat up. Damn my desire to be a good person. If it was going to get cold in this place, staying in that bed with the blankets pile high would be the most comfortable place to be. And having only had an hour and a half or so in it, I was sure Dr. Sutton was going to change his mind on where he wanted to nap if the couch got as cold as I was figuring it would.

As soon as the blanket was tossed off me, I regretted the decision and wished like hell I had remembered to bring my slippers. Instead, I slipped my feet into my sneakers and yawned.

I shuffled to the door and opened it up. Carl wasn’t there. Neither was Dr. Sutton for that matter. Shrugging, I turned around and went to the nightstand to find my phone, but it wasn’t there.

“What the hell?” I muttered as I tossed the pillow aside and moved the sheets around, looking for the phone. It had to be somewhere around here.

Then I remembered the shower. The fantasy about Mina. In my guilt and exhaustion, I had forgotten that I left my phone on the sink. It had been there all night.

I went into the bathroom and picked it up, noticing that there were several missed text messages and calls. All of them were from Carl.

Buddy, where are you?

Hey buddy, they are saying the bus is on its way. You should get down to the lobby.

Did you go up to the fourth floor to do one last double-check?

Hey buddy, I hope you got on one of the busses. I’m back at the hotel. Let me know when you get in.

A couple of calls were listed from him as well as those texts, but I didn’t understand. What was he talking about? We had helped load the ambulances and busses the night before, then locked down for a night with the bare-bones crew.

Confused, I tried to figure it out. Had they sent the bus again and Carl had left? Had he not been able to find Dr. Sutton’s office again to come get me? Or did he forget?

I scratched my head. I didn’t have enough sleep for this. And not having a cup of coffee wasn’t helping. I needed to go out there and find out what was going on.

Leaving the door standing open to the bedroom in case it locked behind me, I walked out to the main office and cracked that door too as I left. The hallway was dark when I opened the door, and the lights flickered on when I walked out, meaning the emergency lights were on.

Great. Alone and with what I assumed was one working generator.

I took a few steps down the hall, finding myself in front of the door to the doctors’ lounge. A memory of last night flashed across my mind of Mina, her skin glowing in the blue light, just her underwear on. In spite of everything, I felt my cock twitch. I opened the door, not knowing if I was hoping to see her lying in the bed in there or not.

She wasn’t there.

I left the door cracked open and continued down the hall. There was a door at the end of the hall that led to the triage unit. Once I was through there, it was down to the nurses’ station and the lobby. If no one was in triage, then the lobby would be the only other place people would be. It would be the place where the generators would be centered on keeping electricity and heat running to, so all the ventilators and other machines would be hooked up in there.