The Truth Behind Jackson Memorial Hospital
Title
The Truth Behind Jackson Memorial Hospital
Creator
Pablo Fernandez
Date
04/17/2023
Text
Suddenly, a vivid blood-red light started aggressively penetrating the cornea of Peter, complimented by a blaring alarm that triggered a frightened response from the teenager. He bolted. He ran and ran down the corridor with no purpose whatsoever but to evade the duo of the red light and the ever so deafening alarm, which was evidently impossible. He felt as if each step he took resulted in an increment in volume and intensity of them, which made his soul shrink as if he was a minute lab rat in a room full of scientists. As he was running out of breath, his attempt to escape the unescapable came to an end due to a wall closing off the corridor. He did not know what to do, and to make matters worse, as he leaned his back against the wall to try regaining some stamina, a profound and raspy voice echoed from a distance. “Stop right there!”. Peter froze. He stood there witnessing how his hope to escape was on the brink of expiration, but as he was ready to give up, he felt a small, sweaty hand grasp onto his veiny, lanky forearm…
The rise in sea level had altered what Miami once was in a drastic manner, and the full effects were only being shown now, in the year 2057. These effects, however, would have been easily prevented if it wasn’t for the complacent and ignorant attitude of South Floridians, who weren’t motivated to even do the bare minimum to their houses to at least lessen the impacts of the rise. The excess in water had completely submerged and thus destroyed most flora, but palm trees seemed to have relished with this abundance, causing them to have grown exponentially in number and size. They had become prominent in the landscape of South Florida, even towering over housing and obstructing many paths. However, they weren’t completely harmful, with them providing plenty of shade to help citizens hide from the scorching Miami sun. The Miami heat, which has always been infamous for its searing rays, had now increased about 5.1 degrees Fahrenheit on average, clearly becoming a day-to-day problem for many citizens. Due to acting late, South Floridians had only started acting upon these dramatic changes this year, leading to only a few accommodations to the rise in sea level, namely cars, houses and food. Cars were now propelled by two sets of motors replacing where back wheels used to be, and houses now had an additional story made by the government from wooden planks and inflatable plastic in order to be fully above water. The story contained 2 rooms, a small kitchen area and an indoor garden all packed in an area of 350 square feet. In terms of food, the government were now providing its citizens 4 bags of ingredients and 2 bags of indoor gardening supplies so people could sustain themselves whilst long term solutions were being found, and as a form to prevent high levels of traffic in the water. To further address the latter, a government mandated curfew was imposed at 6pm, which was heavily penalized with a month without supplies to whoever broke it. The government intended to keep everyone locked up in their homes as much as possible, causing public outrage and confusion as most people didn’t see how the rise in sea level would limit their ability to move around. Nevertheless, the government kept enforcing the curfew, every time in a stricter and more rigorous manner, up to the point where people just stayed in their house all day waiting for the next time they had to go to Jackson Memorial Hospital to pick up their supplies. Jackson Memorial Hospital was now the center of operations for the government as it was completely above sea level. It was a heavily guarded and restricted area, leading to all sorts of rumors about the place; were they running tests there? Were they behind the increase in sea level? Was this all a plan for who knows what? These sorts of ideas lingered in the minds of Miami citizens, even creating a sense of hostility between them and the government, who although were responsible for providing food and better housing, were also responsible for unnecessarily violent behavior towards people who don’t completely abide by their rules.
It was just another mundane summer Sunday for Peter, who was polishing up the new wooden base he had spent his whole morning constructing as he waited for Makayla’s visit. He had spent his whole week doing his self-given Calculus homework (as schools has been closed since 2055), so to keep his mind occupied to prevent his self-consuming anxiety from taking over him, he decided to erect a wooden base to reinforce the floor of his house. Ding Dong! The bell of the government-built story rang. It was Makayla, which meant that Peter could have some fun as his only friend (his next-door neighbor) had arrived at his house. As he opened the door, to his surprise, Makayla seemed even more energetic and reckless than her usual self, with her bursting into the house and rushing to Peter’s room. “She’s going to ask me out” Peter fantasized as he has had a profound crush on her since elementary school, so he followed her and closed the door to his room. Makayla sat on his bed as Peter waited for his dream to unfold and began to utter her first word, which Peter hoped to be her confession of love for him, but she stated something so insane he was left with no answer for the first time ever. “Let’s get inside of Jackson Memorial Hospital.” Peter was left flabbergasted. Not only were his dreams crushed, but the idea was so intangible that it seemed too delusional to even mention it, even by Makayla’s standards. After some awkward seconds of silence, Peter tried to ease the ambience with some clearly forced laughter, but Makayla’s face was dead serious, as serious as Peter had ever seen her. Makayla then stood up and told Peter to sit on his bed to listen to her “TED Talk”. She commenced her speech by emphasizing how boring and limited their daily life was. The sea level rise had completely destroyed their chance of a normal childhood like the one their parents had experienced as they had to spend their days locked up at home figuring out what to do or working on improving their house, which many didn’t do out of sheer indolence. This was all without mentioning the despised curfew they had to follow – they had to be home at 6pm or else they’d not be given food by the government. Her main point however, laid in all the rumors that came from the hospital and the government. She accentuated how all these rumors and secrecy led to a city who wasn’t secure or safe in their own home, and her activist nature demanded change. She went on talking for at least a solid hour, with Peter eventually chipping in on how incredibly monotonous their lives were, but that was probably a flirting tactic. After a while of conversing, Peter eventually had to burst her bubble and tell her that it was practically impossible to pull off such a stunt, followed by him letting her know that it was already 5:43pm and that she had to get going before the curfew was imposed. So, she left, and Peter was left bored again in his room waiting for the next day.
Peter lay in his bed throwing his dad’s tennis ball, who used to play back when playing tennis was physically possible, onto the wall and grabbing the rebound using his hand, repeating the words that Makayla had stated before in mere disbelief. However, after about 45 minutes, Peter’s overthinking aura started storming over his mind like an ashen cloud would – the thought of devising a plan to infiltrate into Jackson Memorial Hospital started haunting him. He tried to refuse the silly idea of taking Makayla’s plan into consideration, but he just couldn’t, it was too tempting. He stared at his roof and contemplated the idea and figured that making a plan that he wouldn’t actually act upon wouldn’t hurt anybody, after all, he’d get his mind busy and could actually find some fun in it. And so, he began. Before anything, he went to his mom for some intel on the structure of the hospital, as she used to work as a janitor there. He intensely interrogated her on entrances; if there were any hidden ones, and on corridors; which ones were the main ones and where do they lead. He would have asked more but her knowledge on the facility was limited, as she only worked there on the summer of ’34 to earn some money for her honeymoon with Peter’s father, without mentioning that as a janitor she wasn’t given privy to any of the secret rooms or content inside the rooms – understandably. However, having a rough idea of where they could enter from and was pretty valuable, so Peter was visibly content, as opposed to his mother’s nonchalant attitude as she just thought that Peter was doing one of his architectural calculations on a building as he so often did. With his newly obtained information, he ran to his room and shut his door. He grabbed one of his A1 papers that he had stored and began lightly plotting how they could do it. As time went by, Peter became more and more obsessed with the idea of getting inside the hospital and exposing the government for what was really going on, as if he had a personal vendetta against them for stripping away his childhood, as if they were to blame for the rise in sea level. He continued jotting down notes aggressively on his paper, with him having quick intervals of pacing down his room whilst flickering his pencil like it was a gas pump to fuel his brain. He kept on doing that for several hours with the intention of finishing the perfect plan that same night. Who would have thought that an idea that he at first laughed off had now consumed him so much that he was willing to do it. He laughed hysterically, “Even if I go to jail, I will have more freedom than what I have now! Even if I die, I will have more freedom than what I have now!” He went at it for at least 3 more hours, and at last, his plan was fully prepared.
They would get into action in 3 days, as that was when they would have to make the long lines outside of the main entrance to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be provided with their supplies. Those lines are enormous as they contain the entire population of Kendall (87,000) in just 6 divisions, making it big enough so that they wouldn’t be as noticed. Yet of course, it is a highly invigilated area, therefore, any anomaly would raise the concern of the numerous guards. So, they needed a distraction. Something that would cause immense amount of turbulence to the point where two scrawny teenagers would be able to evade the public and sneak into the hospital through a small door in the eastern side of the building. Peter had the perfect idea. In 2054, regular smartphones (Pear, Tomsung, etc.) had been banned as they were impossible to track and be monitored by the government, so they were replaced by a WakiSpeaky – an extensively monitored triangle-like device which had no screen, just a speaker to talk to people within a 1.2km radius. It was enough to talk to Makayla, but obviously smartphones were better. Much against his innocent behavior, Peter managed to tamper with his and his mother’s smartphones as he predicted that they’d be banned, and was able to remove their GPS, their speaker, their satellite and microchip, completely wiping them off the government’s radar. Despite his strenuous attempt to be able to continue using it, he really didn’t, as it was practically useless, but it was a nice ornament to remind him that he had some at least some aspect of a regular childhood – an ornament he had to give up for his meticulously planned scheme. He decided to use his old smartphone, completely reset, as the distraction. Given that the lines were extremely packed, he would be claustrophobically in between people, even touching them most of the time, so he would carefully place his phone in the pocket of the person in front of him and would exclaim that they had a smartphone. He just hoped that they had back pockets. Seeing that the banning of smartphones was what started the hostility between the government and the public, the fact that someone still had one would lead to tremendous amounts of turmoil and could even lead to a violent reaction from both parties. Although it would be pretty sad if that happened, it would be perfect for Peter and Makayla to sneak in, and it would ultimately be for the greater good as he would see if the rumors about the government were true. As for what they would do once inside, he didn’t really know since there was no information of what he could find in there, so for that reason he decided to adopt Makayla’s careless attitude and “go with the flow” as she often says. The plan was perfect.
The day arrived. Makayla and Peter were beside each other in the extremely elongated line as they waited for Peter’s mom to park their motored car some blocks away from the hospital. As the line progressed, Peter’s mom finally joined them, oblivious to what they were plotting. Time passed, and it seemed like an eternity since they made any progress in the line, and the duo were becoming more and more anxious by the second. They both realized they were panicked, but also mutually understood that they had to commence the plan soon as they were already three quarters down the line. Trembling, Peter slowly slipped his old smartphone into the pocket of the man in front of him. “This man has a smartphone!” Peter shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone turned around and stared at the old man in front of Peter. “Yes! It’s in his pocket! I saw it!” Peter continued. The old man reached his hand into his pocket and took out the phone. At this point Peter was devastated seeing that the old man had quite possibly the most innocent and heart-warming face he had ever come across. Everyone gasped. “It’s true!” “He has a smartphone!” “That’s so unfair!” were all tossed around in a tone of disbelief and anger as people realized someone had more privilege than them. Two guards came over and confiscated the phone and started beating up the poor old man. Peter was heartbroken, he couldn’t believe his childish ambition was the cause of all of this. Suddenly, people started insulting the guards, infuriated by the unnecessary violence inflicted on the clearly defenseless old man. This commotion startled even more people, which then startled even more people and led to a huge wave approaching the guards in an aggressive manner. The guards, clearly outnumbered by the hundreds of people creating a human barrier around them, called for more reinforcements. These rapidly arrived and began pushing people out of the way, enraging the mass of people and causing them to push back. All of a sudden, people were seen being beaten, guards were seen flying around and a brawl let loose. This was it. The perfect distraction. With even Peter’s mother being distracted, Peter ignored his heartbreak derived from what he had caused and slowly made his way to the hidden door on the eastern side. They dodged people left right and center until they were about 10 meters from the door, at an angle enough to escape the peripheral vision of the only guard posted on it. Peter and Makayla had no idea of what they could do, the guard was taller and stronger than them, and on top of that, was heavily armed. As they panicked, they received a gift that could have only been sent from the heavens. Apparently, the brawl had gotten so out of control, that every guard was called to aid the initial two guards that were being attacked, so the man on the eastern door left his position. Following this breakthrough, the teenagers sprinted towards the door, which surprisingly enough, had only to be lightly pushed to grant entry to the hospital. They were in.
The door behind them shut closed abruptly. There they stood, completely frozen as a ferocious stream of adrenaline rushed throughout their bloodstream, and for that fleeting moment, Peter did not feel anxious or stressed for the first time. The duo looked at each other deeply, contemplating whether this was the right choice or if it was the stupidest thing one could do, or both. As their gaze became more intense, to Peter's surprise, Makayla burst into a childish and playful laughter, as if infiltrating in the most off-limits building in South Florida was something she regularly did. Peter had no choice but to chip in with her, both boasting in a confident, almost arrogant laughter like they had completed life. Was this a nervous laughter? A laughter of regret? At that moment, none of them knew, but they did know that they had to start moving before their laughter turned into a stream of tears of repentance, or worse.
They got their act together and began to explore the bottom floor which they were in. Pristine white floor, metal chairs, modern glass furniture, a sphere hanging from the pearly white roof exuding blinding beams of light that illuminated the area which seemed to be a lobby. Peter and Makayla were slightly underwhelmed by what they saw as they expected to have something to be able to expose the government with. However, what did catch their eye was the sheer modernity of the place. The whole of Miami was living in an inflatable, unstable extension to their house to avoid getting soaked, whilst these people had access to what seemed like an impenetrable fortress from the outside, and a sophisticated lounge from the inside. After some time analyzing what they had in front of them, they started to get more and more disinterested and began to think that they were just feeding into a myth. After all, the door they entered from was right there and they lost nothing in leaving. However, as they began to lean towards the idea of leaving, Makayla spotted a stainless-steel elevator about 12 meters diagonally from where they were. They decided to get in it, telling each other that if they didn’t find anything interesting in the floor above, they’d leave immediately to prevent getting caught.
They were now in a completely new floor which completely juxtaposed the scenery of the first one. They were now met with a vast, dark corridor that had small light bulbs on the roof in intervals of about 7 meters that barely illuminated anything below them, providing an eerie and endless aura to the elongated hallway. Along the walls of the never-ending corridor were two rooms that appeared to be shut closed by sturdy metal doors, both of them containing a powerful yellow sign that stated “Top Secret” in black letters. What was it that was behind these doors? What could be such a secret that could not be revealed to the public? Their curiosity grew exponentially as they wondered what they could do now. But there wasn’t any more time to think, as out of the blue, one of the doors opened steadily, and three men completely covered by a white hazmat suit that engulfed their head in a rectangular helmet that only revealed their eyes, came out. Peter and Makayla crouched with their back against the elevator door as the corridor was just an empty straight hallway, making hiding impossible. Luckily, the masked men walked contrary to the direction that the friends were in, and their stroke of luck didn’t even end there, as the men had left a small opening in the door. It was time to act. Both cautiously made their way to the room and closed behind them – could this be the breakthrough they were looking for? As they entered the room, they took a moment to fully assimilate their surroundings. Peter still didn’t feel anxious as he normally would, which was a good sign. Makayla on the other hand, seemed to have lost her usual reckless character and replaced it with a pale face which contrasted her usual tanned self. Peter went over to comfort her, but she was completely inconsolable. It was as if they had transferred minds, and now Peter’s anxiety and stressed had left its host and gone to conquer Makayla’s mind, making her incapable of processing the important scenario they were facing. Despite the vital moment this was occurring in, Peter told her to sit over in a corner as he explored the room, but also reminded her to be attentive in case anyone decided to enter. The room was almost as small as that of Peter’s government-erected house and was heavily illuminated, intensifying the gleaming white of the walls, roof and floor that enclosed it. The room was practically empty, only containing two large shelves full of files - so what were the exaggerated suits for? Without any type of lead, Peter decided to scan through the files in order to find anything, just anything that could be worthy to record or take a picture of with his mother’s smartphone. He flicked and flicked through papers for half an hour, but nothing. He kept on going but to no avail. All he could see that the papers contained were information on citizens from all across Miami; Kendall, Coral Gables, Brickell etc. He was livid. All this planning, tension, risk, for nothing? He let out a timid punch out of anger against one of the boxes in the shelf, but, it was accurate enough to knock it down. It was his day of luck. The box fell off the shelf, revealing a sideways binder that had a replica of the same sign on the door that intimidated them earlier – “Top Secret”. Quickly, Peter’s frustration turned into hope. He examined each paper on the binder, he could not believe his eyes. Each file had a different natural disaster or disease that took over the United States: Covid-19, Covid-27, The Great Flood, you name it. Each file had a check mark at the bottom of the paper with the word “Success” below it. He kept on reading the papers till one caught his attention – Sea Level Rise. He read through it extensively and it utterly shocked him, blowing out his winds as if he had been punched by a world heavyweight boxing champion right in the stomach. The paper said, “increase sea level rise to 6ft by 2057, 12ft by 2064”, and below in red it boldly said: “work in progress”. Peter was flabbergasted, the government were really behind this all! He took pictures of that file and many more as evidence to expose the malicious government. By the time he had punched the box Makayla had semi-recovered and went to check what was up, she was also completely speechless. They both decided that this was the end to their expedition, and they wanted to leave as the lines for Kendall were surely about to dissipate. They cautiously opened the door and made their way to the elevator as quietly as possible. As they approached the elevator, Makayla noticed something that brought her heart to her throat – cameras. The cameras had been precisely placed in a way that they were only visible on the way back to the elevator to most probably not raise the concern of an infiltrator who had just entered the corridor. “Have they seen us all this time?” She asked Peter franticly as if to find some reassurance. But there was no time. “Intruders!” a grave voice shouted from the side closer to the elevator. The kids looked at each other and ran in the direction of the room they entered earlier as fast as they could. They sprinted past the door and continued aimlessly running for their lives. The stress and anxiety had finally returned to its home – Peter’s mind. He felt sheer terror consume his body as if it were eating away on a fragile little prey, and that is how he truly felt – a fragile little prey. He looked to his left where Makayla was when they started running, but she wasn’t there. “Makayla!” Peter screeched in desperation. Where was she? He was so consumed by his own stress that he was not even aware that she wasn’t there anymore. He stopped to catch his breath and try to catch a glimpse of Makayla who he hoped was just behind for being slower than him. However, suddenly, a vivid blood-red light started aggressively penetrating the cornea of the, complimented by a blaring alarm that triggered a frightened response from the teenager. He bolted again. He ran and ran down the corridor with no purpose whatsoever but to evade the duo of the red light and the ever so deafening alarm, which was evidently impossible. He felt as if each step he took resulted in an increment in volume and intensity of them, which made his soul shrink as if he was a minute lab rat in a room full of scientists. As he was running out of breath, his attempt to escape the unescapable came to an end due to a wall closing off the corridor. He did not know what to do, and to make matters worse, as he leaned his back against the wall to try regaining some stamina, another distinguishably different voice, this time raspy, echoed from a distance. “Stop right there!”. Peter froze. He stood there witnessing how his hope to escape was on the brink of expiration, but as he was ready to give up, he felt a small, sweaty hand grasp onto his veiny, lanky forearm…
The rise in sea level had altered what Miami once was in a drastic manner, and the full effects were only being shown now, in the year 2057. These effects, however, would have been easily prevented if it wasn’t for the complacent and ignorant attitude of South Floridians, who weren’t motivated to even do the bare minimum to their houses to at least lessen the impacts of the rise. The excess in water had completely submerged and thus destroyed most flora, but palm trees seemed to have relished with this abundance, causing them to have grown exponentially in number and size. They had become prominent in the landscape of South Florida, even towering over housing and obstructing many paths. However, they weren’t completely harmful, with them providing plenty of shade to help citizens hide from the scorching Miami sun. The Miami heat, which has always been infamous for its searing rays, had now increased about 5.1 degrees Fahrenheit on average, clearly becoming a day-to-day problem for many citizens. Due to acting late, South Floridians had only started acting upon these dramatic changes this year, leading to only a few accommodations to the rise in sea level, namely cars, houses and food. Cars were now propelled by two sets of motors replacing where back wheels used to be, and houses now had an additional story made by the government from wooden planks and inflatable plastic in order to be fully above water. The story contained 2 rooms, a small kitchen area and an indoor garden all packed in an area of 350 square feet. In terms of food, the government were now providing its citizens 4 bags of ingredients and 2 bags of indoor gardening supplies so people could sustain themselves whilst long term solutions were being found, and as a form to prevent high levels of traffic in the water. To further address the latter, a government mandated curfew was imposed at 6pm, which was heavily penalized with a month without supplies to whoever broke it. The government intended to keep everyone locked up in their homes as much as possible, causing public outrage and confusion as most people didn’t see how the rise in sea level would limit their ability to move around. Nevertheless, the government kept enforcing the curfew, every time in a stricter and more rigorous manner, up to the point where people just stayed in their house all day waiting for the next time they had to go to Jackson Memorial Hospital to pick up their supplies. Jackson Memorial Hospital was now the center of operations for the government as it was completely above sea level. It was a heavily guarded and restricted area, leading to all sorts of rumors about the place; were they running tests there? Were they behind the increase in sea level? Was this all a plan for who knows what? These sorts of ideas lingered in the minds of Miami citizens, even creating a sense of hostility between them and the government, who although were responsible for providing food and better housing, were also responsible for unnecessarily violent behavior towards people who don’t completely abide by their rules.
It was just another mundane summer Sunday for Peter, who was polishing up the new wooden base he had spent his whole morning constructing as he waited for Makayla’s visit. He had spent his whole week doing his self-given Calculus homework (as schools has been closed since 2055), so to keep his mind occupied to prevent his self-consuming anxiety from taking over him, he decided to erect a wooden base to reinforce the floor of his house. Ding Dong! The bell of the government-built story rang. It was Makayla, which meant that Peter could have some fun as his only friend (his next-door neighbor) had arrived at his house. As he opened the door, to his surprise, Makayla seemed even more energetic and reckless than her usual self, with her bursting into the house and rushing to Peter’s room. “She’s going to ask me out” Peter fantasized as he has had a profound crush on her since elementary school, so he followed her and closed the door to his room. Makayla sat on his bed as Peter waited for his dream to unfold and began to utter her first word, which Peter hoped to be her confession of love for him, but she stated something so insane he was left with no answer for the first time ever. “Let’s get inside of Jackson Memorial Hospital.” Peter was left flabbergasted. Not only were his dreams crushed, but the idea was so intangible that it seemed too delusional to even mention it, even by Makayla’s standards. After some awkward seconds of silence, Peter tried to ease the ambience with some clearly forced laughter, but Makayla’s face was dead serious, as serious as Peter had ever seen her. Makayla then stood up and told Peter to sit on his bed to listen to her “TED Talk”. She commenced her speech by emphasizing how boring and limited their daily life was. The sea level rise had completely destroyed their chance of a normal childhood like the one their parents had experienced as they had to spend their days locked up at home figuring out what to do or working on improving their house, which many didn’t do out of sheer indolence. This was all without mentioning the despised curfew they had to follow – they had to be home at 6pm or else they’d not be given food by the government. Her main point however, laid in all the rumors that came from the hospital and the government. She accentuated how all these rumors and secrecy led to a city who wasn’t secure or safe in their own home, and her activist nature demanded change. She went on talking for at least a solid hour, with Peter eventually chipping in on how incredibly monotonous their lives were, but that was probably a flirting tactic. After a while of conversing, Peter eventually had to burst her bubble and tell her that it was practically impossible to pull off such a stunt, followed by him letting her know that it was already 5:43pm and that she had to get going before the curfew was imposed. So, she left, and Peter was left bored again in his room waiting for the next day.
Peter lay in his bed throwing his dad’s tennis ball, who used to play back when playing tennis was physically possible, onto the wall and grabbing the rebound using his hand, repeating the words that Makayla had stated before in mere disbelief. However, after about 45 minutes, Peter’s overthinking aura started storming over his mind like an ashen cloud would – the thought of devising a plan to infiltrate into Jackson Memorial Hospital started haunting him. He tried to refuse the silly idea of taking Makayla’s plan into consideration, but he just couldn’t, it was too tempting. He stared at his roof and contemplated the idea and figured that making a plan that he wouldn’t actually act upon wouldn’t hurt anybody, after all, he’d get his mind busy and could actually find some fun in it. And so, he began. Before anything, he went to his mom for some intel on the structure of the hospital, as she used to work as a janitor there. He intensely interrogated her on entrances; if there were any hidden ones, and on corridors; which ones were the main ones and where do they lead. He would have asked more but her knowledge on the facility was limited, as she only worked there on the summer of ’34 to earn some money for her honeymoon with Peter’s father, without mentioning that as a janitor she wasn’t given privy to any of the secret rooms or content inside the rooms – understandably. However, having a rough idea of where they could enter from and was pretty valuable, so Peter was visibly content, as opposed to his mother’s nonchalant attitude as she just thought that Peter was doing one of his architectural calculations on a building as he so often did. With his newly obtained information, he ran to his room and shut his door. He grabbed one of his A1 papers that he had stored and began lightly plotting how they could do it. As time went by, Peter became more and more obsessed with the idea of getting inside the hospital and exposing the government for what was really going on, as if he had a personal vendetta against them for stripping away his childhood, as if they were to blame for the rise in sea level. He continued jotting down notes aggressively on his paper, with him having quick intervals of pacing down his room whilst flickering his pencil like it was a gas pump to fuel his brain. He kept on doing that for several hours with the intention of finishing the perfect plan that same night. Who would have thought that an idea that he at first laughed off had now consumed him so much that he was willing to do it. He laughed hysterically, “Even if I go to jail, I will have more freedom than what I have now! Even if I die, I will have more freedom than what I have now!” He went at it for at least 3 more hours, and at last, his plan was fully prepared.
They would get into action in 3 days, as that was when they would have to make the long lines outside of the main entrance to Jackson Memorial Hospital to be provided with their supplies. Those lines are enormous as they contain the entire population of Kendall (87,000) in just 6 divisions, making it big enough so that they wouldn’t be as noticed. Yet of course, it is a highly invigilated area, therefore, any anomaly would raise the concern of the numerous guards. So, they needed a distraction. Something that would cause immense amount of turbulence to the point where two scrawny teenagers would be able to evade the public and sneak into the hospital through a small door in the eastern side of the building. Peter had the perfect idea. In 2054, regular smartphones (Pear, Tomsung, etc.) had been banned as they were impossible to track and be monitored by the government, so they were replaced by a WakiSpeaky – an extensively monitored triangle-like device which had no screen, just a speaker to talk to people within a 1.2km radius. It was enough to talk to Makayla, but obviously smartphones were better. Much against his innocent behavior, Peter managed to tamper with his and his mother’s smartphones as he predicted that they’d be banned, and was able to remove their GPS, their speaker, their satellite and microchip, completely wiping them off the government’s radar. Despite his strenuous attempt to be able to continue using it, he really didn’t, as it was practically useless, but it was a nice ornament to remind him that he had some at least some aspect of a regular childhood – an ornament he had to give up for his meticulously planned scheme. He decided to use his old smartphone, completely reset, as the distraction. Given that the lines were extremely packed, he would be claustrophobically in between people, even touching them most of the time, so he would carefully place his phone in the pocket of the person in front of him and would exclaim that they had a smartphone. He just hoped that they had back pockets. Seeing that the banning of smartphones was what started the hostility between the government and the public, the fact that someone still had one would lead to tremendous amounts of turmoil and could even lead to a violent reaction from both parties. Although it would be pretty sad if that happened, it would be perfect for Peter and Makayla to sneak in, and it would ultimately be for the greater good as he would see if the rumors about the government were true. As for what they would do once inside, he didn’t really know since there was no information of what he could find in there, so for that reason he decided to adopt Makayla’s careless attitude and “go with the flow” as she often says. The plan was perfect.
The day arrived. Makayla and Peter were beside each other in the extremely elongated line as they waited for Peter’s mom to park their motored car some blocks away from the hospital. As the line progressed, Peter’s mom finally joined them, oblivious to what they were plotting. Time passed, and it seemed like an eternity since they made any progress in the line, and the duo were becoming more and more anxious by the second. They both realized they were panicked, but also mutually understood that they had to commence the plan soon as they were already three quarters down the line. Trembling, Peter slowly slipped his old smartphone into the pocket of the man in front of him. “This man has a smartphone!” Peter shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone turned around and stared at the old man in front of Peter. “Yes! It’s in his pocket! I saw it!” Peter continued. The old man reached his hand into his pocket and took out the phone. At this point Peter was devastated seeing that the old man had quite possibly the most innocent and heart-warming face he had ever come across. Everyone gasped. “It’s true!” “He has a smartphone!” “That’s so unfair!” were all tossed around in a tone of disbelief and anger as people realized someone had more privilege than them. Two guards came over and confiscated the phone and started beating up the poor old man. Peter was heartbroken, he couldn’t believe his childish ambition was the cause of all of this. Suddenly, people started insulting the guards, infuriated by the unnecessary violence inflicted on the clearly defenseless old man. This commotion startled even more people, which then startled even more people and led to a huge wave approaching the guards in an aggressive manner. The guards, clearly outnumbered by the hundreds of people creating a human barrier around them, called for more reinforcements. These rapidly arrived and began pushing people out of the way, enraging the mass of people and causing them to push back. All of a sudden, people were seen being beaten, guards were seen flying around and a brawl let loose. This was it. The perfect distraction. With even Peter’s mother being distracted, Peter ignored his heartbreak derived from what he had caused and slowly made his way to the hidden door on the eastern side. They dodged people left right and center until they were about 10 meters from the door, at an angle enough to escape the peripheral vision of the only guard posted on it. Peter and Makayla had no idea of what they could do, the guard was taller and stronger than them, and on top of that, was heavily armed. As they panicked, they received a gift that could have only been sent from the heavens. Apparently, the brawl had gotten so out of control, that every guard was called to aid the initial two guards that were being attacked, so the man on the eastern door left his position. Following this breakthrough, the teenagers sprinted towards the door, which surprisingly enough, had only to be lightly pushed to grant entry to the hospital. They were in.
The door behind them shut closed abruptly. There they stood, completely frozen as a ferocious stream of adrenaline rushed throughout their bloodstream, and for that fleeting moment, Peter did not feel anxious or stressed for the first time. The duo looked at each other deeply, contemplating whether this was the right choice or if it was the stupidest thing one could do, or both. As their gaze became more intense, to Peter's surprise, Makayla burst into a childish and playful laughter, as if infiltrating in the most off-limits building in South Florida was something she regularly did. Peter had no choice but to chip in with her, both boasting in a confident, almost arrogant laughter like they had completed life. Was this a nervous laughter? A laughter of regret? At that moment, none of them knew, but they did know that they had to start moving before their laughter turned into a stream of tears of repentance, or worse.
They got their act together and began to explore the bottom floor which they were in. Pristine white floor, metal chairs, modern glass furniture, a sphere hanging from the pearly white roof exuding blinding beams of light that illuminated the area which seemed to be a lobby. Peter and Makayla were slightly underwhelmed by what they saw as they expected to have something to be able to expose the government with. However, what did catch their eye was the sheer modernity of the place. The whole of Miami was living in an inflatable, unstable extension to their house to avoid getting soaked, whilst these people had access to what seemed like an impenetrable fortress from the outside, and a sophisticated lounge from the inside. After some time analyzing what they had in front of them, they started to get more and more disinterested and began to think that they were just feeding into a myth. After all, the door they entered from was right there and they lost nothing in leaving. However, as they began to lean towards the idea of leaving, Makayla spotted a stainless-steel elevator about 12 meters diagonally from where they were. They decided to get in it, telling each other that if they didn’t find anything interesting in the floor above, they’d leave immediately to prevent getting caught.
They were now in a completely new floor which completely juxtaposed the scenery of the first one. They were now met with a vast, dark corridor that had small light bulbs on the roof in intervals of about 7 meters that barely illuminated anything below them, providing an eerie and endless aura to the elongated hallway. Along the walls of the never-ending corridor were two rooms that appeared to be shut closed by sturdy metal doors, both of them containing a powerful yellow sign that stated “Top Secret” in black letters. What was it that was behind these doors? What could be such a secret that could not be revealed to the public? Their curiosity grew exponentially as they wondered what they could do now. But there wasn’t any more time to think, as out of the blue, one of the doors opened steadily, and three men completely covered by a white hazmat suit that engulfed their head in a rectangular helmet that only revealed their eyes, came out. Peter and Makayla crouched with their back against the elevator door as the corridor was just an empty straight hallway, making hiding impossible. Luckily, the masked men walked contrary to the direction that the friends were in, and their stroke of luck didn’t even end there, as the men had left a small opening in the door. It was time to act. Both cautiously made their way to the room and closed behind them – could this be the breakthrough they were looking for? As they entered the room, they took a moment to fully assimilate their surroundings. Peter still didn’t feel anxious as he normally would, which was a good sign. Makayla on the other hand, seemed to have lost her usual reckless character and replaced it with a pale face which contrasted her usual tanned self. Peter went over to comfort her, but she was completely inconsolable. It was as if they had transferred minds, and now Peter’s anxiety and stressed had left its host and gone to conquer Makayla’s mind, making her incapable of processing the important scenario they were facing. Despite the vital moment this was occurring in, Peter told her to sit over in a corner as he explored the room, but also reminded her to be attentive in case anyone decided to enter. The room was almost as small as that of Peter’s government-erected house and was heavily illuminated, intensifying the gleaming white of the walls, roof and floor that enclosed it. The room was practically empty, only containing two large shelves full of files - so what were the exaggerated suits for? Without any type of lead, Peter decided to scan through the files in order to find anything, just anything that could be worthy to record or take a picture of with his mother’s smartphone. He flicked and flicked through papers for half an hour, but nothing. He kept on going but to no avail. All he could see that the papers contained were information on citizens from all across Miami; Kendall, Coral Gables, Brickell etc. He was livid. All this planning, tension, risk, for nothing? He let out a timid punch out of anger against one of the boxes in the shelf, but, it was accurate enough to knock it down. It was his day of luck. The box fell off the shelf, revealing a sideways binder that had a replica of the same sign on the door that intimidated them earlier – “Top Secret”. Quickly, Peter’s frustration turned into hope. He examined each paper on the binder, he could not believe his eyes. Each file had a different natural disaster or disease that took over the United States: Covid-19, Covid-27, The Great Flood, you name it. Each file had a check mark at the bottom of the paper with the word “Success” below it. He kept on reading the papers till one caught his attention – Sea Level Rise. He read through it extensively and it utterly shocked him, blowing out his winds as if he had been punched by a world heavyweight boxing champion right in the stomach. The paper said, “increase sea level rise to 6ft by 2057, 12ft by 2064”, and below in red it boldly said: “work in progress”. Peter was flabbergasted, the government were really behind this all! He took pictures of that file and many more as evidence to expose the malicious government. By the time he had punched the box Makayla had semi-recovered and went to check what was up, she was also completely speechless. They both decided that this was the end to their expedition, and they wanted to leave as the lines for Kendall were surely about to dissipate. They cautiously opened the door and made their way to the elevator as quietly as possible. As they approached the elevator, Makayla noticed something that brought her heart to her throat – cameras. The cameras had been precisely placed in a way that they were only visible on the way back to the elevator to most probably not raise the concern of an infiltrator who had just entered the corridor. “Have they seen us all this time?” She asked Peter franticly as if to find some reassurance. But there was no time. “Intruders!” a grave voice shouted from the side closer to the elevator. The kids looked at each other and ran in the direction of the room they entered earlier as fast as they could. They sprinted past the door and continued aimlessly running for their lives. The stress and anxiety had finally returned to its home – Peter’s mind. He felt sheer terror consume his body as if it were eating away on a fragile little prey, and that is how he truly felt – a fragile little prey. He looked to his left where Makayla was when they started running, but she wasn’t there. “Makayla!” Peter screeched in desperation. Where was she? He was so consumed by his own stress that he was not even aware that she wasn’t there anymore. He stopped to catch his breath and try to catch a glimpse of Makayla who he hoped was just behind for being slower than him. However, suddenly, a vivid blood-red light started aggressively penetrating the cornea of the, complimented by a blaring alarm that triggered a frightened response from the teenager. He bolted again. He ran and ran down the corridor with no purpose whatsoever but to evade the duo of the red light and the ever so deafening alarm, which was evidently impossible. He felt as if each step he took resulted in an increment in volume and intensity of them, which made his soul shrink as if he was a minute lab rat in a room full of scientists. As he was running out of breath, his attempt to escape the unescapable came to an end due to a wall closing off the corridor. He did not know what to do, and to make matters worse, as he leaned his back against the wall to try regaining some stamina, another distinguishably different voice, this time raspy, echoed from a distance. “Stop right there!”. Peter froze. He stood there witnessing how his hope to escape was on the brink of expiration, but as he was ready to give up, he felt a small, sweaty hand grasp onto his veiny, lanky forearm…
Collection
Citation
Pablo Fernandez, “The Truth Behind Jackson Memorial Hospital,” Everything Speaks To Me , accessed September 18, 2026, https://everythingspeakstome.com/items/show/248.