The best day of Emily's life suddenly turned into the worst. Taking a trip to Cancun Mexico with her best friends, Morgan and Alyssa, was all she ever wanted, considering the fact that she lived in cold Minnesota. Emily, Morgan and eventually Alyssa convinced their parents to let them drive to Cancun by themselves for winter break. Unfortunately the trip turned into a horrible news headline.
         The drive there started amazing, with great weather, outstanding food, awesome music and laughs from everyone. Morgan, who was driving, pulled over to a gas station to fill up the gas tank. While Morgan was getting gas, Emily and Alyssa went inside to get snacks and water. After Morgan was finished they continued on with the journey.
                     “Can you hand me a bottle of water?” Morgan asked.
                     Alyssa grabbed a bottle and tried handing it to Morgan but when Morgan reached back to get it she lost control of the wheel and slid on the slippery ice on the road. When Emily woke up all she could hear were sirens and someone screaming. Observing her surroundings, Emily quickly realized she was upside down and saw that Morgan was screaming because her leg was caught in the window. Emily could feel a sharp pain in her knee but was afraid to look. After a few seconds she began feeling dizzy so she closed her eyes and woke up in the Minnesota Hospital. All she could see when she opened her eyes was a white bright light. Then her vision focused and she could see her mom in a chair in the corner.
“Where am I?” she asked.
Her mom jumped out of her seat and yelled, “You’re awake!”
“Where am I?” Emily asked once more.
“You're in the hospital sweetie, there was an accident,” her mom explained in a loving voice.
Right before Emily was going to ask about Morgan and Alyssa she heard the news broadcast from outside her door.
“There was an unfortunate accident today right outside Duluth involving three young high schoolers and a man. We don't know any of the identities yet but we will get more information after the break.”
Emily was worried; did Morgan or Alyssa get seriously hurt?
“How is Morgan's leg?” Emily asked her mom, remembering what she saw.
Her mom told her that Alyssa had a broken arm and that Morgan was in surgery for her leg, and then reassured her that everything was going to be okay.                                        
“I will be right back, I have to go get your father, he would want to see you now that you’re awake.”
Her mom left and shut the door on her way out. About five minutes after she had left Alyssa came into Emily’s room with a huge, white cast all the way up her arm. Alyssa walked into the room and sat down in the orange leather chair her mom was sitting in.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she said in a soft voice. “Apparently Morgan’s leg is hurt pretty badly, I overheard some doctors talking about it earlier.”
“Have you heard anything about the guy we hit?” Emily asked.
“All I know is that when we hit him he tried leaving the scene before the ambulance got there, but didn’t make it very far because he was hurt too bad.”
Right before Emily could speak one syllable Alyssa’s mom barged in.
“Alyssa honey, you can’t be in here. You need to rest your arm. Come with me back to your room,” she said pulling Alyssa out of the room.
Emily sat there wondering why someone would try to leave a crash site before they could get help, it just didn’t make sense. Emily turned on her room TV to see if there was any more information on the news. At first there was a story about a forest fire, then a cat that could juggle and then finally it came on.
“At 12:27 pm today three teenage girls crashed into a man in a small car. We got information saying they are all in the Duluth hospital now. One of the girls is in serious condition but the others are expected to make a full recovery,” reported the news reporter.
Emily wanted to go find Alyssa so she got out of bed and saw that she had a tight wrap around her knee that she didn’t even feel. She went into the bathroom and saw a thick bandage on her forehead and thought she must have gotten stitches. Right before she was about to leave her room, two policemen came in. “Excuse me ma’am, you can’t leave your room. The whole hospital is on lockdown,” explained the officer. “And you should definitely turn your TV off.”
“What about my parents? They’re out there! My mom when to get my dad from the lobby,” Emily asked.
“We’re getting everyone to safe places, I’m sure they are in a room secure,” said the other policeman.
         They closed the curtain on the door and shut the door to her room behind them. Emily wondered why the hospital was on lockdown. Not wanting to think about it too much, she got back into her bed and tried to fall asleep. Right as she started dozing off she heard her handle to the door start to jiggle and saw the door begin to open. Expecting it to be her parents, she wasn’t concerned. The door busted open and it wasn’t her parents, but a man. The man had a shaggy brown beard covering his pale face and was dripping blood all over his tore up, black pants and blue sweatshirt. In his left hand he was holding a gun. When Emily noticed the gun she started screaming. The man ran over to her and covered her mouth with his bloody hands.
“SHHHHHHH, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.
“You-you have a gun,” Emily said with a shaky voice.
         The man tossed the gun on the floor.
“I’m a good person. I couldn’t hurt a fly. The gun is just for protection, I’ve never actually used it,” he said.
         The mysterious man told Emily the story about how he was a normal guy with a beautiful family he loved one day, and the next he was accused of murder.
“I had to run. I wouldn’t be able to provide my family from a jail cell,” he said. “I have to fight for my innocence but now I’m stuck here because this place is on lockdown.”
         Emily looked at the man, whose eyes were watering. For some odd reason hat Emily didn’t know, she believed him and wanted to help him.
“Please, please help me. I can’t go to prison for something I didn’t do. Please. I need your help,” he pleaded.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth? And even if you are how could I even help you?” she asked.
“I have evidence that proves my innocence. All you have to do is help me get out of here and help me get the pictures to the police.”
       The man reached out to her and gave her some pictures. Emily looked at the pictures. They we Polaroid’s of the man and a baby girl. Emily saw at the bottom of the Polaroid there was a date printed, 1/12/16.
“Is that your daughter?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I would do anything for her, which is why I can’t go to jail.
         In that moment Emily felt compelled to help him.
“I’ll do anything I can to help,” She said.
         They sat down and tried to think of a plan. After they thought of something that they thought could work, they put it to action. Emily pulled back the curtain on the door just so that she could see out with her left eye. She could see two police officers, the same from earlier, right outside.
“You’ll have to go through the window,” she said.
         The man looked out the window.
“There’s police out there too,” he said. “We have to figure out a way to distract them.”
They thought and talked, and thought and eventually figured out a way. Emily took out her cellphone, while the man slightly opened the window. Emily turned her phone on and pulled up the phone app. 9-1-1, she typed, and then pressed call.
“Nine one one, what's your emergency?”
“Yes, um, my name is Emily Kent. I’m calling because I just saw the fugitive in the hospital. He ran past my room, with a gun, on floor, uh, six and I knew it was him because I remember seeing him on the news.”
Emily looked, with the man, out the window and saw all of the policemen outside, run into the hospital. When Emily saw them run in, she knew this was his only chance.
“Go, hurry. Just run and i'll show them the pictures, this will all be over soon,” Emily said, hoping she was right.
The man opened the window even more then jumped out. As he got out he yelled thank you, then he bolted, running as fast as lighting, and in no time he vanished. Emily could hear the police yelling, “MOVE, MOVE, MOVE” out in the hallway. Here’s my chance, she thought to herself. She opened the door and yelled at the officers.
“Hey! Over here!”
The big group of officers turned to see who it was.
“Were doing official police business. If you need help, get it from someone else,” one of them said.
“I have evidence that goes with the murder case, you know the reason the whole hospitals on lockdown,” Emily said.
“Frank go over there and talk to her, see what she’s talking about,” the same man said.
A police officer got out of the group and started walking towards Emily until all of their radios started to go off. There was a woman’s voice on the radio and all she said was that there was a code 196.
“Frank, stay here, the rest of you, let's move out!”the officer said.
Frank continued toward Emily.
“So, um, what do you have?” the man asked.
Emily started talking about the murder and how they had the wrong guy and then she showed him the pictures. The officer had a shocked expression. He called it it on the radio.
“Yeah, i have some pretty big evidence that goes into the Kalleg case, it appears we have the wrong guy,” he said.
“Jeff Kalleg was shot a couple of minutes ago trying to escape the building,” the woman on the radio said.
All Emily could think of is if he was alive, then before she said anything Frank asked for himself. The woman responded that he was indeed alive and was being transferred to the hospital as they spoke.
“ We have to get the evidence to the county so they can drop the case against him!” Emily said nervously.
“I'll take them but you stay here, the hospital is still on lockdown,” he said before he rushed out the door.
Approximately 12 minutes later a man came on the intercom,
“ Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the scare, but the hospital is now off lockdown, I repeat the hospital is now off lockdown. Have a nice day!”
Emily opened her door and ran to find her parents.She ran around the whole floor and then around each floor until she found them on the fourth floor. Once she found them she ran up and hugged them. Her mom hugged her so tight she could barely breathe. Emily told them everything that went on and he parents were shocked.
“Let's go back to your room and we’ll all process this,” her mom said.
Once they got back all Emily wanted to do was talk to alyssa. She asked her parents and they both said yes. Right when Emily left the room she saw at the desk a woman holding a baby, asking for jeff  Kalleg. That must have been the man's wife and daughter, Emily thought.
“He just got out of surgery in room 290 right down the hall,” the woman at the desk explained.
Right as the woman started speed walking down the hall, breaking news appeared on the television.
“We have reports that the alleged murderer Jeff Kalleg was wrongfully accused and is now off the suspect list,” the news reporter reported.
Emily grew a great big smile on her face. Her wife turned around and started crying tears of joy. Then started running down the hall. Emily was happy. She turned around and started walking to Alyssa's room. She could see through the glass door that alyssa was lying in bed, she walked up and knocked on the door.
“Come in!” Morgan yelled.
Emily walked in and asked, “have you heard anything about Morgan?”
“ Well i'm pretty sure she's out of surgery, we can go look for her,” Alyssa responded.
Emily and Alyssa walked out and found Morgan. She explained that her leg was gonna make a full recovery.
After, Emily always saw people differently. Labels don't define people. People can be wrong, and Emily always remembered that.