Her arm was covered in scratch marks, long and thin from her short nails. Not deep enough to draw blood but deep enough to leave marks behind.
The sun was high leaving the wreckage to be shown in full glory.
Azalea walked in a daze through the wreckage, her gown caked with dirt on the bottom hem kept snaking causing her to trip. After a couple of steps into the rubble, the hem was so tattered it no longer became stuck and tore, floating freely behind Azalea.
The metal structures from cars and buildings were sticking up in places and she had to navigate safely around them to avoid injury. Azalea still had to find her family at all costs.
She wandered around to every car, attempting to find her family. Lifting broken parts of cars and buildings remains to no avail. Walking along the broken sidewalk, she shaded her eyes from the time to scan for her family when her arms failed to move and lift the grainy pieces.
The day flew by and she was taken to a station, to file a missing report. The patrol officer had taken pity on the new graduate to help her paperwork along. He had found her with her hands bleeding out from grabbing rough edges, lifting and looking endlessly.
The other officers in the station attended to her hands bandaging them up, while the one who found her looked after her. After she signed the paperwork, the police officer drove her home. The drive was filled with silence. He looked in his mirror but the girl's gaze was forever glued to the aftermath, searching.
Azalea thanked the police officer after he dropped her off and went to her room. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, but she wasn't hungry. The silence around fed her empty stomach, she was alone.
A day later she received a call from a hospital. Reaching to grab her phone to answer the call made her flinch due to her hand injuries.
"Hello, is this a relative of Thaen Bergen, he was taken to the Emergency room yesterday afternoon following the completion of the Dungeon Outbreak recovery."
She just stood there shocked in silence, her brother was still with her.
"Hello...is anyone there?"
"Y-yes, I am here," she responded, stumbling over her words.
"Due to his injuries, we ran his dental records through the system to contact his family. Both the primary and secondary contacts could not be reached, and you were listed as his last contact."
Azalea sat down staring at the wall in her room, this news causing a soft smile.
"We require a family member's consent for surgery, and request for you to come in."
"I'll be over shortly, please wait for me. I am leaving my house now."
She ran to the front door, kicking off her slippers and shoving on her shoes not bothering to tie them as her hands still hurt.
She flinched when her hand made contact with the door, but she forced herself to throw the door open.
She made a mad dash to the sidewalk, and came to the realization that she doesn't have a car and calling a cab would take even longer.
So, she ran to the hospital, the rigorous journey lasted half an hour. She passed by multiple buildings and as she glanced over she could briefly make out her messy hair running amok and her appearance was horrendous as she looked like a zombie in her pajamas.
As the hospital came into the distance, Azalea forced herself to keep going. She wanted...no...she had to see her brother.
As she went through the hospital doors on her will legs, barely able to walk straight, she trudged in the direction of the emergency room room. Grabbing a wall for support she wheezed trying to get more oxygen before she went further.
Azalea went a couple more steps towards the emergency room before a nurse walked over to her, and reached towards her to grab her shoulder. "Ma'am," the nurse spoke harshly.
"Visitors are not allowed over here."
Bzzz
Bzzz
Bzzz
A loud buzzing sound kept going off causing her to wake up.
Azalea covered her eyes with the back of her left hand taking a deep breath, turning off the alarm on her phone with her right, and fell back asleep.
A couple minutes later another alarm went off, Azalea picked up her phone and aggressively turned off the second alarm.
"I'll get up, okay!"
She got up and dug through her clothes to put something decent on. It was her first day of class, and leaving a good first impression was never her strong suit. Better to fix that habit now, she didn't have anyone to give her reminders for being forgetful.
She grabbed a toothbrush and scrubbed her teeth while looking at the orientation plan that was scheduled for her first day. She glanced at her face in the mirror after spitting out the toothpaste.
Her static brown wavy hair was everywhere. It was like her hair lost a fight to a balloon, stocking up everywhere. She grabbed a brush and battled to take her hair, eventually pulling it up in a pony tail. This is not my day.
She put on the clothes she had set aside the day before, just a plain lavender colored T-skirt with a tan skirt. The clothes looked nice together and the shirt was flowy falling down to her knees. The pleats make her seem elegant. She looked at herself again. First impressions matter and decided to just braid her hair.
Hopefully nothing too terrible will happen today.