56 Recovery and Reunion

"Easy there." said Mr. Kenan and came towards me to help me get up. He held me from my back as I lifted myself off of the table. The pain on my chest intensified as I got up, and I let out a short scream.

"Hey, hey, hey; slowly now..." Mr. Kenan said and pulled my legs off the table, to the side.

"Is it supposed to hurt that much?" I asked him.

"I told you, truth hurts. It may hurt for a while." he answered me.

"I'm serious..." I told him. "Please cut the playful-"

"Don't give me that look. I am not a doctor, you know..." he said. "But still, I think it can last for a week or so. I mean, that's how long it lasted with the previous victim I saw. If you add my incompetence on top of that... Maybe two weeks, up to a month at worst."

"What if I get infected because of the wounds? Did you ever think about that?" I asked him as I started dragging my feet on the ground to get out of the room.

"You are infected enough already." he told me. "And don't forget that operating on victims was not my personal idea. We decided to continue with the operations as a council of teachers."

"A council of teachers is not a compensation for an actual surgeon, though. Besides, that was in the past, and the decision applied for that particular victim." I told him as I left the room.

"Do you need help?" he yelled behind me as I was making my way to the restroom.

"I will yell at you if I ever do." I shouted back.

"Well, I hope you can." he said.

I entered the restroom and closed the door behind me. I could feel something strange coming up my throat. It was kind of feeling like sputum, but this one was even more turbid. As the substance made it's way up my throat, it blocked the way to my lungs. My muscles started contracting rapidly to push the substance out, forcing me to vomit. Being unable to breathe for the moment, I leaned forwards in an attempt to get the substance out as soon as possible. Some blood started dripping out of my mouth. After that, a dense greenish fluid started flowing down. It was smelling like a rotten orange.

After a short moment, my body reflexively tried to continue breathing, but the way to my lungs were still blocked. My whole body started contracting in order to force the air into my lungs. The substance was pushed back into my body, but it was no use. I couldn't breathe. In agony, I started punching the door. I was suffocating. I did not know what I could do since I have never guessed that I could die from something so simple. I wanted to shout, but I could only make strange sounds. Eventually, I stopped punching the door and dropped on the dirty floor in the restroom. My arms were paralysed, and I had a tunnel vision.

Despite being partially paralised, I felt a great pain on my body when the door hit me. Mr. Kenan had broken into the restroom by breaking the door I was standing in front of. Before I could even react, he held me strongly and changed my position. He hit my back a few times. The substance piled up in my throat came out. Although some of it was glued to the sides of my mouth and throat, I could breathe again. First, my vision started clearing up, and then, the state of paralysis on my body has ended.

Mr. Kenan lifted me off of the ground. I coughed a few times trying to clear up the leftover material in my throat, but unfortunately, it didn't work.

"The door wasn't even locked." I told Mr. Kenan. "Why did you have to make such a dramatic entry?"

"You are welcome." he replied. "I didn't save your life just so you could die only a minute later."

"The so-called operation wasn't a life sa-"

"Just shut up already." Mr. Kenan didn't even let me talk. "Do you even know how to breathe?"

I swallowed up all the words I wanted to say, and we walked out of the restroom.

"Go and wait for me in the chemistry lab. I will be back in a moment." said Mr. Kenan and left me on my own.

"Where are you going?" I shouted behind him.

"I will be back in a moment." he repeated. Hardly a fitting answer to my question... Even though I was now remembering every part of the school building, I didn't follow him. I entered the chemistry lab, closed the door and started looking out of the window waiting for Mr. Kenan to come back. Staring into the empty, lifeless front yard... The view itself was actually quite peaceful, but I couldn't feel that way.

Suddenly, my phone started ringing.

"I thought there was no connection here..." I murmured and looked at my phone. There was no name or phone number on the screen. I hesitated to answer the call. I had no idea who it could be, and I wasn't in a good condition to talk, so I simply waited for the call to timeout. Yet, no matter how long I've waited for, the phone didn't stop ringing. I sighed and finally pushed the green button to answer it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Welcome back." the girl on the phone said. I immediately recognised her by her voice. It was the same girl I heard at the time of the 'earthquake'.

"I... Y-you are..." I couldn't form a full sentence.

"I know that we didn't have a pleasant first encounter, so I figured that I would try to greet you again, on the phone. Well, it was hardly a first encounter to be honest, but anyway... Welcome back." she said.

"Do I know you?" I asked her.

"Oh, right..." she said, and got silent for a while. "You probably didn't recognise me with my new voice." she spoke softly. Her voice was so deep, pleasant and... magical.

"Who are you?" I asked her.

"I am the voice of The Community."