Norman's Last Days

Episode 2: Tragedy Unfolds

"It's strange how time flies" Mrs Karps said to her neighbor about Nineteen years after they met. "It's feels like yesterday when we both put to bed for the very last time, giving birth to those kids, we surely had our share of happiness while it lasted" her neighbor added. " "Now look at us, no husbands, no kids, we're all alone in these big house of ours" Mrs Karps sounded down. " You say it like they're all gone", "They are" Mrs Karps replied with a little bit of anger. No one could blame her though.

A little before the two became neighbors, Mrs Karps was pregnant with her last child, she had sworn that if she couldn't give birth to a baby boy this time then she would stop trying. Her and her husband always wanted a boy, they absolutely wouldn't have minded if all their kids were boys but they were tested with two amazing daughters before a boy came along. Their perfect number of kids, three had been reached. It was thought to have been a blessing but a great tragedy had begun to unfold.

A few weeks before Mrs Karps put to bed, a couple moved in next door to them. The wife was also expecting, her doctor said it was likely she was expecting twins. Who could be more compatible than two pregnant women expected to give birth with little time interval between them, they became close friends, always chatting and whiling away time. Then finally, the day for the neighbor to give birth came. The mother and triplets, not twins died on that day. A few complications occurred and none of them made it.

The husband vacated the house the week after that and a new couple came renting. Coincidentally, the wife was also pregnant and the day after getting the house she delivered twins. Mrs Karps was relieved to hear the good news but the incident with the neighbor that lost her life had left something like a phobia in Mrs Karps. Her new neighbor understood what was going on and tried to help Mrs Karps overcome her fear. A word of inspiration suddenly bursted out of the neighbor's mouth while trying to convince Mrs Karps it was alright to be a little afraid. "Even when we fall in pits, hope still remains as long as the heart still beats" she said and would later be where the names of her twins would be extracted from.

Coming back to present times, bodies were still dropping out of Shadow Linear Multi-national Teaching Hospital, the effects of the Sound Quake were still very visible, Mr and Mrs Wood were still missing, Beets condition was still the same, Till had long buried his father, Peets was still on his hospital bed, the Karps were fending for both families, their son was still in a comma even after two months, more Sound Quakes have almost succeeded in destroying earth, lives are being lost like child's play, the Sound Quakes were still as mysterious as they were when the first one happened and amidst all this, more bad news were on their way for the Karps.

"Mom! Mom!! Mom!!!" a little girl kept calling out to a body on a stretcher, a lifeless body. Mr Wood came to the girl and picked her up "mommy is sleeping, don't disturb her" he said to the little girl. "The girls father died over a month ago and I'm afraid all contacts to her extended family has been lost. She has no where to go right now"  a nurse explained to Mr Wood. Surprisingly, the news didn't shock him at all. "Kids like this are everywhere these days" he said to himself. "How about I adopt her and raise her as my daughter" he said to the nurse. "That would make us happy, to take some of these kids off our hands" she replied.

He, Mr Wood looked around the hospital, he was negligent of his environment until after tending to the little girl. Stretchers like the one the girl's mother was lying  on were everywhere, all had lifeless bodies on them. Nurses were taking them one after the other to the morgue but something was different, "the morgue is towards the Southeast of the hospital" he said to himself. He went to check and finally something was able to shock him that day. Turns out the morgue he knew was no longer a morgue, it was more like a burial ground now. Lots of unclaimed corpses.

The hospital had to build two new morgues just to keep up with how fast lives were being lost. A Sound Quake had happened few days before in one of the regions between North and South Conda, it was not as destructive as the first one but it also packed a punch. Being amongst the best in the whole country, this hospital had to deal with some of the affected. "It's truly sad what's going on in the world right now" the TV from across the hospital's reception was broadcasting the News, "Humanity in great peril" the headlines stated.

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