All characters in this story are 18 years of age or older unless otherwise denoted. All characters are fictitious and this is a fictitious story, any resemblance to any characters, living or dead, in this story is purely coincidental. I appreciate the comments and appreciate your input. This is a continuous story and you should read the first two chapters so you understand the dynamics of the story.
Thank you PapaKilo14 for the editing.
Chapter 3 -- Round-Trip through the Void
The 2nd major change in my life began on a regular early winter day at school. Frank Dressler, a junior and a devout loner, came into school that day, with one purpose, to kill or injure as many of his classmates and teachers as possible. I found out later, Frank had been suspended the day before after fighting a bully who had started in on him. The guy had it coming, but due to the zero tolerance policy in place at school, both were suspended. When Frank went home that night and told his parents, his father beat him badly and grounded him for two weeks. This included no video games, which were Frank's only outlet for his stress suffered at the hands of his schoolmates. Frank had had enough. At lunch time he entered the school with two of his father's 9 mm pistols and 500 rounds of ammunition in a backpack, as well as 2 hunting knives. He walked directly into the school administrative offices and promptly shot the principal three times in the assistant principal, who had suspended him, two times in the head. They both died instantly. Being in the cafeteria, talking to Mike and Candi, I thought I heard what sounded like some pops, but had no idea what they were.
Frank entered the cafeteria with a bang, pardon the pun, firing several shots through the door as he came in. I felt a searing pain along with a burning sensation on my left ear. I saw him standing there with a gun, preparing to fire again at a group of stunned students sitting at a table, Kaylee Diechart being one of them. It had nothing to do with who was at the table, but I leapt forward and performed chop to his right wrist causing him to drop the gun. I'd learned in aikido that there is a very painful bundle of nerves that runs across the top of the radial bone at the wrist. I apparently hit this area so hard that it temporarily stunned his ability to grasp the gun with any dexterity, lucky for me.
His attempt to grab the gun was thwarted when I reached down and picked it up first. He drew his second pistol, walked toward me, but I managed to reach up and center my foot with all the spring my leg had to offer and force it into Frank's right knee cap. This made a terrible crunching noise and he went down with a screen. While lying there, he pulled up the gun, pointed it at me, and fired off two rounds. I immediately felt a major burning sensation in my right chest and was knocked off my feet, landing on the floor.
I looked over at him and saw him raise the gun to fire at me again. I raised the gun in my hand quicker and fired off three rounds, striking him. All I saw all was a cloud of red debris fly above his head. I felt like I was suffocating and was in excruciating pain, spitting up blood. As things started to slip away, I looked up at the snack machine directly above me, and thought that $1 for peanuts wasn't peanuts. It's remarkable, what a person thinks about at times like these; not a very rational thought.
As consciousness left my being, I thought about my sisters, and whether they would even move in my loss. I knew Holly would definitely be devastated. I wasn't, however, so sure about Noell and Molly.
I was floating in a place devoid of all sound and sight with no idea where I was. It's like you hear so much noise around you, that you can't isolate anything intelligible from it. I thought I heard crying, but could feel no pain or anything else for that matter. I had no sense of time, I just seemed to float. I looked up and saw my father. As I was walking towards him, he seemed to smile. As I almost reached him, something grabbed me and pulled me back harshly. My blood boiled and ice ran through my veins.
Suddenly an immense pain struck throughout my body. I saw a bright light and tried to open my eyes. When I finally able to get them open, my head hurt so badly I cannot describe the pain. I close my eyes again and tried to keep them shut, but couldn't. I thought I heard crying again and someone or something grabbed my hand. I tried to squeeze back, but really couldn't feel that I moved.
All the sudden, I could make out a scream yelling, "Nurse, Nurse. He squeezed my hand." The voice was hoarse and I could barely make it out, it was Noell. I could then hear her saying, "Thank you God, I'll keep my promise." I thought this was strange, because Noell had never been the least bit religious. Even through mom and dad's death. All of a sudden, all hell broke loose. All kinds of people were fussing over me, must've been the nurses. They were saying, "someone call Dr. March." They were taking blood pressures, pulses, and temperatures. I was being pawed at from every angle and through it all, I heard Noell crying. I heard her over the phone saying, "get over here quickly, yes he's awake. Yes, yes, why would I joke about that?" I heard her crying her eyes out saying, "Oh Greggy, you came back to me."
This was another strange thing, Noell never called me Greggy, she had many other names for me, but not Greggy. In what seemed like almost immediately, I heard Molly's and Holly's voices in the mix of machines and other people talking. Someone said with an authoritative voice, "I want him down to radiology for an MRI stat." A female voice said, "Yes Dr. March, immediately Dr. March."
I felt myself being wheeled down hallways and through doors. I heard someone say rather sharply, "You need to stay in the room." This must've been to Noell because she said, "I'm not leaving him, I promise I'll stay out of the way. I promise Mrs. Cronson, I'll stay out of the way. Can't I just stay with him?" Another voice said, "Honey, I'll see if you can watch from the booth, but it's not safe for you to stay in the room with him." The next thing I remember was being wheeled back through the halls and the doors. When I could finally open my eyes, the first thing I saw was bright lights and a picture of a mill on a stream. It must've been a picture, on the ceiling tiles.
I couldn't breathe or talk because of something in my mouth. Holly said, "Don't resist, Greggy, that tube in your throat is to help you breathe, just relax. We're all here with you, honey." I must've fallen asleep because the next thing I remember is waking up to somebody touching my wrist. I felt like I had to pee, but it burned a little. Then I heard Noell say, "I think he's awake girls." I felt all kinds of hugging going on at my expense.
Then I heard someone say, "Good morning Dr. March." I heard a masculine voice say, "How are we this morning young man?" I thought to myself, We're fine FUCKER, my dick burns, I feel like I need to take a piss, and I can't talk because of a plastic tube in my mouth. But other than that I'm just ducky."
He must've read my mind because he said, "Let's dispense with this tube now, I think you'll do fine on your own. Nurse, a 12 mL syringe please." He put the syringe in a tube drew some air out and said, "Now son tried to cough hard... now." I did what he said and the two came out of my mouth. I took a couple of good deep breaths and coughed rather hardly. I think I realized then how sore my throat was.
Noell said, "Greggy can you say something?" I tried with all my might but could barely whisper, "Where am I at? What happened?."
Noell answered, "Don't you remember anything? Greggy, you were hurt; you've been in a coma for two weeks. Please try and rest, we'll explain everything to you later."
*******
When I woke up again it must've been the afternoon because the Sun was shining through the Venetian blinds on the windows. My muscles ached and it hurt to move my legs. I turned my head, saw Noell and Holly sitting in chairs. There was a pillow, well used, a blanket and an MP3 player sitting beside Noell's chair. She was deeply asleep, as was Holly.
I managed to scratch out, "Holly!" She awakened with a start, stood up, walked over, and said, "Welcome back to the land of the living, brother. We're glad you're back, we thought we had lost you." I said, "Where am I? What happened?"
Holly said, "Greg, don't you remember anything?"
I just said, "No, not a thing. Was I in a wreck or something?" Holly said, "Greg, you were shot, you're a hero, they're saying you saved a lot of kids in the school cafeteria. Brother you made national news.
That Dressler boy had already killed Mr. Comas in Mr. Weems in the office and apparently had planned to kill a lot of kids, but you took care of that." Noell came over and said, "Greggy, what in the world were you thinking? You could've been killed. Don't you ever do anything like that to us again.
I said, "It looks like it's me laying here not you. I did what I had to do, I remember now, he'd already shot me once. How bad is my ear? Does it make me look bad? Was anybody else hurt?"
Holly said, "Now no arguing you two, we just got him back Noell, you would think with what you put yourself through, you'd go easier on him."
