Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 67: Incoming!

Chapter 67: Incoming!

"Jesus fucking Christ, did someone say the ’Q’ word or something?" I muttered under my breath. I was hunched over a body on a stretcher; two paramedics were pushing the bed through the ER as I tried to perform CPR on the person under me.

"Tell me about it," said one paramedic as he steered the stretcher into our last available bay. "It is crazy out there. We haven’t stopped since I started my shift an hour ago."

"You know what time it is?" I smirked even as my arms started to burn from the strain.

"It’s 4:30 pm, thank you very much," laughed his partner as more doctors rushed into the bay. "Twenty-year-old male managed to wrap his car around a light post. He was still conscious when we arrived but then seemed to go into cardiac arrest on the bus. He was moaning something, but we couldn’t make it out."

"Sounds good. On my count, 1, 2, 3." We quickly moved the man to the bed waiting in the bay and let the paramedics remove their stretcher.

I motioned to Doctor Fei to take over as the sound of yet another ambulance cut through the noise of the ER.

"His skin seems to be turning blue," I muttered to the other doctor, one of the few I actually got along with to grab a cup of coffee outside of work. Then again, she wasn’t a regular in my department. She was on loan from another hospital since we were getting completely overwhelmed.

"I’ll check oxygen levels. His breathing seems to be slow; maybe he was injured more than believed in the accident."

I nodded my head, but we both knew that wasn’t it. There was no way a paramedic wouldn’t have checked his airway and breathing before they transported him.

"Doctor Wang!" came a loud shout just as the doors to the ER were once again flung open to reveal another stretcher with two paramedics pushing it. "Where do you want her?"

I looked around, trying to find a place, but we were booked.

"There’s no room at the inn; you are going to have to put her in the hallway," I responded, knowing that they wouldn’t get my reference. There was no Christmas here either, let alone a baby in a manger. But I really could use a Christmas miracle right now, even if it was only November 1st. "What happened?"

"There was a ten-car pileup on the highway. It looked like the first car just lost control, taking out all of the cars around it. A lot of cars couldn’t stop in time," explained the paramedic. "But there is something weird going on," he continued as he spoke to me in a lowered voice, almost as if he was scared about anyone overhearing.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I approached the woman. There was a piece of glass sticking out of her stomach, and the paramedics had to strap her down to the stretcher because she was thrashing around so much.

Like a fish on a hook.

"My name is Doctor Wang. I need you to calm down so we can look after you. Can you do that for me?" I knew it was hopeless; most people didn’t calm down simply because you asked them to. And in this case, with the amount of pain and adrenaline going through her, it would be a miracle if she even heard me.

"This," said the paramedic coming up beside me. He lifted the woman’s eyelid and shone his light into her eye. As soon as the light hit her pupil, it shrunk to something the size of a pin, and there was no color in her iris at all.

"What the fuck?" I hissed, turning to the man beside me. "Did she tell you what type of drugs she is on?"

"That’s the thing, I don’t think she is on anything," replied the paramedic as he flipped over both arms to show me a lack of needle marks.

"That means nothing. Those trying to hide it would shoot up in between their toes," I replied as I went to where her ankles were strapped down. Removing her socks and shoes, I inspected every inch of her feet. No track marks.

Going back to her eyes, I lifted the lid and flashed my own light into her eye, watching it contract to something so small it couldn’t possibly be human and as soon as the light was out of her eye, her pupil expanded until there was almost no white part left.

"I’ll request some blood work first to confirm that she isn’t on anything, and then we will get her into the operating room to deal with the glass. Doctor Guo!" I shouted as I nodded my thanks to the paramedic. "I need blood done and then an OR!"

"On it, Doctor Wang!" shouted back Doctor Guo as he pulled one of the nurses closest to him and told her what needed to be done.

We might not get along on a daily basis, but there was no better team than mine when shit hit the fan, and clearly, shit had hit the fan.

"Incoming!" shouted Doctor Wei as the doors once again burst open.

"What now?" I replied as I raced over to the stretcher. "You are going to have to put him in the hallway until we can get some rooms emptied."

The paramedic nodded her head as she brought the patient where I indicated. "Don’t know what happened to him. He was walking home after school and just dropped to the ground. Non-responsive on arrival, but is breathing and has a steady heart rate."

I looked down at the patient, only to see that he couldn’t have been more than eight years old.

"What the fuck is going on?" I demanded. Thinking about the last patient, I quickly lifted his eyelid and flashed my light in it.

I bit back a scream as his pupil shrunk, and he seemed to look straight at me. He lunged off the stretcher, trying to get to me. His mouth was open, and there was blood pouring out of it as he held his arms out like he wanted a hug or something.

"Fuck!" shouted the paramedic as she stepped between us, only to have her throat ripped out by the kid in her arms.

"Help!" I screamed as security poured into the ER and pulled the child off of the paramedic. Unfortunately, it was too late to save her.