Windsor Park: A City in Crisis Chapter 5

“…'cause you asked for it… 'cause you need one, you see… I'm not gonna write you a love song… 'cause you tell me its make or break in this if you're on your way… I'm not gonna write you to stay, if all you have is leaving, I'm gonna need a...”

“LACEY!” Michal screamed at the top of his lungs, waving his hands in the air, trying to get the attention of his old sister.



“What?” she snapped back, “Can’t you see I’m busy?” She began to remove her ear buds and set her small pink iPod down on the desk next to the thin silver laptop in front of her.

“Yeah, well, you need to come watch the news. It’s important.” Michal retorted, ignoring the annoyed tone in her voice.

Dragging her to the living room, he pressed the play button on the remote control.

“..ive on scene here at South General Hospital in Riverside where a literal mob scene is taking place. Many patients are being transferred to other hospitals for treatment as police are striving to keep the situation under control.

Many on scene say that the person instigating the incident, one Carl Webber, jumped on and began biting at one of the security guards on duty. When people tried to take the individual off the guard, he shoved them into other people and a large brawl ensued.

The guard is...”



Lacey reached over for the remote and pressed pause.

“This is what you called me in here for?” she asked, rolling her eyes at her brother, “I do have better things to do…”

“No… it hasn’t gotten to the best part!” he argued, pulling the remote out of her hands, “You have to keep watching. It gets wicked in a minute...”

He pressed play again, pointing at the TV…

“… in stable condition, and police have apprehended the individual for questioning.

We’ll continue to bring you live coverage of the sit…. Aaaah!!! Get off me!”

The scene on the TV showed to young looking woman on the camera being suddenly mauled by a man in a set of maroon scrubs as he bit a large chunk of flesh off of her upraised arm.

The scene suddenly switched to the news desk as the anchors, green-faced and shocked at the scene unfolding.

“Oh my god… uh… we’re going to take a short commercial break as we find out what’s going on down in Riverside. We’ll keep you informed as we received word on how our people are doing down there...

You’re watching WPRK Channel 3…”

Pressing the stop button on the slender black remote, he turned to his sister, obviously shocked.

“See? That’s why I pulled you in here. Crazy stuff, huh?” he retorted to her, fascination clear in his voice, “Do you think we should call up Julie or anything?”

“No… she’s going to be busy if it’s that bad down there and they’re transferring,” she told Michal, getting up and walking over to the security system on the opposite wall.

“I am going to set the security system. No need to have the crazy’s storming the house…” she called back to her brother sitting on the couch.

“Why? And what’s got you spooked?” concern in his voice evident.

“Um… it’s nothing Michal,” she quickly replied to him, “Uh… you hungry? I’m hungry. Let’s… make something to eat. K?”

As he followed his sister into the kitchen, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his sister was very disturbed about something about the news program he had just showed her. But what it was he just couldn’t pinpoint.

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“What the hell is going on here?” Dr. Franklin yelled out to the two cops with their guns drawn and pointed at the young girl on the stretcher.

“Sir, this is none of your concern…” one of the cops told him flatly, ignoring the doctor.

“Like hell it isn’t. I’m the head ER physician here, and I want answers now!” he yelled, shoving one of the cops aside, as he began trying to remove the young girl from the ambulance and grabbed for her charts.

“What’s her condition?” he asked, turning his attention towards the medic in the corner.

“Uh… well, before they forced me aside, her heart rate was 40 and her BP was 80/60. And… a fever of 103. We started a direct line for her and have been trying to lower her body temperature,” the clearly scared medic replied, shaking visibly, “and she has a really nasty bite on her leg, they said some guy took a large chunk out of her leg.”

“Hey Gary, I’m going to need some help with this stretcher.” Justin called out, and began tugging on the metal frame of the bed, “Julie set her up for trauma room 2.”

“You two are going to help him with this stretch. NOW!” Gary yelled at the top of his lungs, causing the two officers to jump slightly. “And expect a meeting with your commander. MOVE IT!”

The two officers moved quickly out of the older doctor’s way, helping Justin move the stretcher and the followed him as he wheeled the stretcher into the doors of the ER.
“How bad is it over at South Gen?” Gary replied, turning his attention to the medic, still trembling in the corner.

“It’s… it’s horrible. Every available EMS team is over there right now. Apparently that Webber guy, the one on the news that started the riot, got away from the cops and began attacking people in the Pediatrics ward,” he began, his voice quivering, “and apparently another riot has started over at Mercy West. Something really screwed up is going on. Do you think its terrorists?”

“I don’t know. Look… just do what you can and hang in there. Get back there and get more people and bring them here. We need to save as many people as we can…” Gary told the medic, and got out of the ambulance, closing the doors and banging on the back of the truck, alerting the driver that they were good to go.

He turned away and began to walk towards the trauma room.



Walking in, he began to turn his attention to the patient before him. Turning to Justin, he began speaking.

“What’s her condition?” he asked, looking at the monitor beside the small girl’s bed.

“Well, the weird thing is I can’t seem to find a good pulse anywhere on her,” Julie replied, “Maybe you’ll have…”

“Julie? Are you ok?” Justin asked, looking at her face and then turning his attention to where she was looking. It only took him and everyone else in the room to see what had stopped Julie in her tracks.

The little girl was away, and staring at everyone with a blank, dead, glazed-over stare, pupils dilated into two small pinpoints.