You’re sitting in the library skimming through one of the reference books available on Gender Studies when your attention is suddenly pulled elsewhere as three other students scramble up the nearby staircase to the information desk barely ten feet from you. Confused, you rest your hand over the page you left off and watch them, brows furrowed and lips pressed in a thin line.
“Did you hear?? It just came up on the news, they’re making a broadcast right now--” one of the students started with, in a hurried voice.
“Hear what?” A tall blond guy, a work study student more than likely, turned his attention to the three students with a confused expression, just as lost as you were.
“Dude,” another of the three piped in, hand on the first student’s shoulder, gripping tightly. “O’Connor Hospital just went up.”
“Totally fucking lit,” the third said. All three seemed tense, hands clenched as they restlessly fidgeted, eyes wandering over their surroundings. It was unsettling just how anxious the trio seemed. “You said your sister was there, right?”
The blond’s demeanor completely changed at the mention of the hospital, concern taking over the look of confusion over his face. “Y-yeah, she was involved in that big car accident last night--”
“Dude, Ryan, you need to call your mom. Check your phone.”
At this point, you tune them out and quickly close the reference book. You can get back to this later, it didn’t feel right eavesdropping on them like this, not when things suddenly became so personal.
But, O’Connor... that was in San Jose, wasn’t it? About, what, forty-five minutes to an hour from here?? Probably nothing pertinent to you, you think, just a personal issue for that guy over there, whatever his name was. You’ve already forgotten. But you couldn’t help feeling unsettled as your feet carry you a few rows down, into the science fiction section of the library. Curious, you pull out your iPhone from your pocket and unlock it, pulling up the news broadcasts.
Sure enough, right at the top of your feed, there was an article-- big, bold capitalized letters reading, “MAJOR FIRE IN VASCULAR CENTER OF O’CONNOR HOSPITAL, TERRORIST AT LARGE,” and you couldn’t help but cringe. There was a video available of the whole incident, the frozen clip a picture of billowing flames and smoke pooling out of the side of the hospital. You think you see the silhouette of someone standing in the middle of the flames, but it’s hard to see and you’re not about to watch the video.
Instead, you skim the article.
