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MedCon this is Medic 6, en route.

There weren't any other cars out. Not that early in the morning. There was only one other person on the bus. I shivered under my jacket and stared out the window. 5:09 AM. Things are so different when you're on the inside of the glass looking out. Damn buses always blocking the way and driving slowly. It's just people going places.

"Don't worry about breaking shit in here," Chris the paramedic said. "If you break it that means it's been broken 15 times before you." We got the tone and loaded up. My first call. It all went by so quickly. The first call blended into the next which blended into the next. It seemed like it wouldn't ever stop. Blurs of faces and papers. Names and questions. Tubes and patches. Beeps and sirens. Blood and wailing.

"People just need to fucking chill out," Chris told me. "Things would be a lot better that way." I smiled. It sounded familiar. We stopped for lunch 5 or 6 hours in. We grabbed our food and got back into the ambulance. I unwrapped my burger and took a bite. A red light flashed on the panel next to me and an alarm sounded. I realized that I hadn't put my headset on. "Fuck!" I said. It was all I could think to say. "Just wanted you to know that we're on call again." He said. "We'll eat later." And we did, a couple of hours later. It was cold, but it was food.

From my chair I could look out the back window of the ambulance and hear the conversations from the front. "Oh shit!" "What the fuck are you doing?" "Get the fuck out of the way, asshole!" They would say. Ambulances are such an inconvenience when you're outside of them. They hold up traffic and get in your way. The cars honked at us and tried to pull in front of us so they could keep going. Did any of them realize I was holding up his IV bag and taking his vitals?

It's so strange to get that perspective. It was fun, though. I'm so tired. There are a lot of terrible things out there. That's okay.

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