Laura had told Nick where he could find the Sengstaken-Blakemore tubes that were located in the flooded basement. No sense in rolling up my pants legs, he thought. Taking off his shoes and socks, he stood up. Might as well get it over with, he decided.
Sticking his big toe into the water to test whether it was cold or not, he soon found out. It was icy cold. Taking a deep breath, he ventured into the water and felt it slowly rise up to his waist. I must be crazy, he determined.
The overhead lights were dimmer than usual since they were on generator power, but he could still see the white tile floors under his feet. Being able to see the floor gave him a comforting feeling because he had never liked to venture into any type of water where he could not see the bottom. You never know what you might step on, he thought.
Dodging a garbage can, which was being propelled rapidly down the hall, he continued to walk toward the Central Supply department. Once inside the huge room, he tried to get his bearings. There were hundred of racks lined up in neat rows throughout the room. The lower portions of the racks were empty but the upper portions were piled high with supplies. When he reached the back of the room, he finally found the rack he was looking for and proceeded to make his way to the center of the back wall. Looking up, he thought he saw something that resembled the tubes.
Since the shelf was about twelve feet from the floor, he wondered how he was going to reach the top. Glancing around the room, he saw a ladder that was obviously used to get up on the top shelves. He pulled it over toward the center of the back wall and positioned it directly under what he assumed to be the location of the tubes located on the top shelf.
Climbing up to the top of the ladder, he began to rummage around through all of the supplies on the top shelf, in search of the tubes. Finding what he was looking for, he took three packages of the tubes and started to back down off of the ladder. I had rather have too many than not enough tubes, he thought.
Suddenly, without warning, a snake popped his head up out of the supplies and lunged toward Nick, his fangs shining in the dim light. Involuntarily, Nick threw himself backward and away from the snake, winding up in the water. Although his head went underwater, he managed to hold the packages of tubes up out of the water so that they would not get wet. He was not about to climb that ladder again.
Coming up for air quickly, he scrambled to get up and out of Central Supply. Although it only took a minute to reach the door leading out into the hallway, it seemed like an eternity to Nick. He kept looking back over his shoulder to see if the snake was following him and was not looking where he was walking. At that moment, he stepped on something on the floor. Crying out, with his heart pumping rapidly in his throat, he rushed toward the stairs.
At the far end of the hallway, he saw Laura standing on the landing of the stairwell, watching him make his way toward her. She was holding the green scrubs that she had promised to get for him. He saw a look of concern on her face and wondered if the snake was right behind him. Too scared to look, he ran as fast as the water would let him. As he drew closer to her, the look on her face changed into one of terror. She appeared to be looking over his head and behind him. It was the snake, he was sure.
“Watch out!” she screamed, with her face twisted in horror.
His fear increased. He couldn’t resist turning to see for himself what was frightening Laura. When he turned to look, he saw not one but three snakes in hot pursuit of him. Simple fear turned to terror and he knew he had to think quickly in order to avoid being bitten by one of them, or maybe all three of them.
Just at that instant, a trash can floated next to him. Grabbing it, he threw it at the snakes. All three of them went underwater to avoid being hit and this created further anxiety in him, because he could no longer see them. Just as he reached the stairs, he threw the tubes up on the landing because he was not taking any chances of them getting wet. There was no way he would go back into the water again.
Laura reached out to grab Nick by the arm to assist him up on to the stairwell landing. Just as he started up the steps, one of the snakes snapped its head backwards then lunged forward to bite Nick on the leg. The snake missed by inches but scared Nick so badly that he involuntarily recoiled backward and he lost his footing on the stairs. As he fell backward, Laura still had a hold on him and he inadvertently pulled her in with him.
After hitting the water, she immediately went underwater and the three snakes swam right over her. Coming up within a few seconds, she screamed, yelled and became hysterical. In making so much noise, she scared the snakes off momentarily to a safe distance from both of them.
Quickly, Nick scrambled out of the water to safety and pulled Laura up on the steps. Grabbing up the tubes, he grabbed her by the arm and quickly ran up the stairs toward the first floor of the hospital. When they finally reached the first floor, they stopped momentarily to catch their breaths.
Nick shuddered. “I hate snakes!”
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