Christmas at the ER

By Zane Hampton

In a small town Emergency Room on Christmas Night people begin flooding in with strange symptoms. Some are growing scales, others changing color, even floating. Its all the ER staff can do to help patients, while agents swarm the building.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716876790

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WALL, DAVID

27 years of age

Published Journalist working for NEWS 10

1:10:am – 4:40am 12/25/16

JUICE

The first day on the job, they teach you three things to live by. The first thing, being what Juice is. Juice, in the biz, is not a liquid beverage. It’s the simple lingo code which lines every fabric of the industrial beast that is show biz. Juice is the goods, the quick relief and fast pleasure. It hits hard, gets the audience excited, but fades fast. That’s why its juice. That’s why you always start... with the juice.

The phone goes off at a little past midnight, the work phone.

God dammit. Million dollars, please be a million dollars. Is all I’m thinking as I roll over and squint at the little bright screen. It’s my boss Wendy, of course its Wendy why would it ever be anyone else, with a text message. I open the message and it reads...

ST. WALLACE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM go now!

I don’t even attempt to argue; all I’m hoping is that she lets me go home at ten today because of this. I get dressed, wash my hair in the sink, fasten an old worn out tie, and kiss Rebecca goodbye. Then I’m out the door in my freezing Chrysler Lebaron, hoping the defroster works fast.

St. Wallace was far, at least a twenty-minute drive from my home, but with the billowing snow you can easily chalk the drive up to forty-five minutes long. There is no traffic and no cops on the main roads. I’m texting Scott, my photographer, and of course he’s not answering. Unlike me, he’s smart and turned his phone off. So, I drop my phone in the passenger seat and turn up the radio. My station, the pop station, is having some crappy talk show about women’s hair products as they try to pitch their movement for awareness to absolutely nobody. My second preferred station is the same thing, only this one is some guy whose making false attempts at backing up the women’s statements with poor facts. My mood goes downhill quickly; soon I’m cursing under my breath, and even sooner I’m snapping at the McDonald’s drive thru teenager that it’s a McCafe Large Hot not McCafe Large Iced.

I’m back on the road within a few minutes, sipping my scoffing hot beverage, when the hospital comes into view. The thick, billowing waves of snow and ice blocked off the upper sections of the building, the lower being illuminated by bright lights. I turn through the roundabout after the main road intersection and pull down the winding path towards the ER.

I start to pique interest only when I find myself having to drive in the center of the road to avoid the parked cars on either side. The place is completely packed, people walking around but most were waiting in their cars. I see a mother on her cell phone walking out in the blizzard wearing her FALL RISK bracelet, her other hand holding herself up on each vehicle. Then, as I get to the express  lane and force the car to stop in the blockage, I see the plethora of bodies packed into the entrance room. Yet still there are at least five people stuck outside in the cold.

All I can think is, alright, Wendy, looks like you got me; before I turn off my car and jump out with my notebook.

I’m forced to take a STAFF ONLY door off to the side, moving my way as quickly and quietly as I can muster before breaking through into the inner portions of the ER. The circular rooms reminded almost anyone of the interior space ship in the movie ALIEN only assisted a raise in heartbeats as people screamed from the patient rooms. I have my pad out and I’m writing, writing so fast it hurts my frozen fingers, but then I start to slow when I notice it. Absolutely no one is paying attention to the strange man in a tan coat writing everything he sees on a brown pad. In fact, I am eventually shoved and pressured off to the side by frantic nurses and ER staff. They all try to stay calm, speaking quietly, but their bodies scream and panic. It’s a hustling bustling room of organized terror as whatever happened to all these people frightens every doctor in the room. I watch them, gray hair and old eyes floating in front of computers within two inches separating faces from monitor screens. The nurses trying to communicate with them being completely and totally ignored as they type violently to whomever they think can save the day.

Suddenly, I start to hear the patients more clearly. Most scream in pain, crying out that they are burning, or their bones are breaking, or they can’t feel certain limbs. While others vomiting, gurgling, even coughing out wet splatters of presumably blood beckon from the other side as if the two compete with each other. A few have seizures in their beds, shaking the plastic hard and fast as their bodies fight the restraints holding them in.

They pull in a girl on a stretcher, two fire fighters with wide eyes and pale faces. Moving directly in front of me, one man looks dead in my eyes.

Are you a doctor! He yells.

I shake my head, and he starts calling for a doctor. No one is listening. One of the loudest voices in the room is not any more noticeable than the quietest mouse at this moment. He then grabs a male nurse and the man snaps on him.

DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME! DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH ME! He screams into his face throwing him back. His large pack then hits the young girl in the face. Her hand comes up to her cheek as he pushes himself off her, and she screams.

WAAAAHHAAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

The lights go wild with everything tuning in and out, the monitors shutting off and even frying. As everyone, including myself, grabs their ears, the other firefighter lunges forward, grabbing hers. She stops as his hands touch, and like an off button, she passes out. The man looks then to an older gentleman across the room.

We need a god damn doctor.... Now, he says softly.

The monitors come back on as alarms explode all over the room. Now it becomes a frenzy as everyone yells at each other and rushes to fix the problem. Doctors en bulk move over to the little girl, helping to guide her over