"Chris watched the gurney rolling through the hall with a dark interest. This man was clearly dead and the white sheet which covered him glowed in the fluorescent lights of the emergency room; an area where things never seemed to slow even in the middle of the night. The lights were always on. The mundane affairs of life and death played out in slow, painful motion.
His foot ached and pounded as if his heart had left his chest and taken up residence under his toes. He ached for sleep but refused to let his guard down.
Every fifteen minutes, like clockwork, the vomiting child would let loose a groan, a wretch and a splash followed by a tired, overwhelmed whimper. A slow trickle of patients filed in and out of the sliding glass doors. Every so often an ambulance would scream to a halt and a flurry of wild motion would run out and bring in gurneys followed by worried and tired looking families. Hours passed that felt like decades. Chris was acutely aware of his facial hair prickling and the seconds ticking by."
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