Bobby and Otto were almost drooling as they watched the monitor
intently. "Just turn around," Otto said softly, extremely glad that his
vision had been restored if for not other reason than to fully appreciate
this moment.
Just then there was the sound of sirens outside. While they were used to this noise, they definitely weren't used to the sight of a trio of fire trucks pulling up right outside of the hospital entrance.
"Are we having a fire drill and no one thought to tell us?" Bobby asked curiously as the pair stood and headed for the door, missing completely Nurse Nancy turning to face the camera as she pulled her clean top on.
"I have no idea." Otto muttered as they headed for the door to find out what in the world was going on. He just hoped that the hospital wasn't on fire and someone forgot to tell them about that. As he thought of a possible fire, he glanced around nervously trying to see where in the world Blondi had gotten himself to. He couldn't just leave his dog there if the building was possibly burning down!
"Hey, what's going on?" Bobby called as the firemen came through the door. He was glad that whatever was going on had picked a night that Dr. James wasn't here to happen, that was for sure. He was pretty sure that having three trucks full of firemen pouring into the building wouldn't look very good.
"We got a call that there was a cave-in down in the basement and some of the doctors were trapped." the fireman in the lead said as he approached Bobby and Otto. He shook his head slightly as he thought about the current situation. He had been one of the firemen called in to rescue the trapped employees during the last little earthquake and cave-in. You would think that they would have done something to try to make the building more secure after the first time but apparently they hadn't bothered. When they got back to the fire hall, he was definitely going to have a long talk with his men, make sure they knew never to bring him to this place if he was in need of medical attention.
"What?" Otto said as he looked at Bobby in confusion. They had both felt a tremor earlier, of course, but they didn't think that it had been strong enough to do any damage. It had barely rattled things at his station. How could it have triggered a cave-in?
"We don't know anything about a cave-in. Someone called and said there was one?" Bobby asked curiously as Otto headed back to his monitors to check the basement cameras.
"Yes, a woman called from the hospital about twenty minutes ago to report an earthquake and a cave-in in your basement." The fireman pulled out a notebook that he consulted before continuing to speak. "She said that there were five doctors trapped down there: a Dr. Hook, a Dr. Chris Draper, a Dr. Louis Traff, a Dr. Elmer Traff and a Dr. Lona Massingale."
That last name sounded a bit familiar to him and he thought for a moment before realizing that she had been one of the doctors caught in the last quakes. "Would have thought that would have cured her of any urges to visit the basement, wouldn't you?" he muttered under his breath.
"Who? Lona? She works down in the sleep lab." Bobby said. Okay,
this was a bit odd. He didn't see how there could have been a cave-in without their knowing about it but as he thought back, it had been at least three hours or longer since he could recall seeing any of the doctors the fireman had mentioned as being trapped by the earthquake. "Hey, Otto, have you see Chris or Hook anywhere?" He figured Lona and Elmer were down in the lab for the night and wouldn't be seen until morning under normal circumstances.
"No." Otto said as he looked up from checking the monitors. This wasn't good. "All of the basement cameras are out." Maybe the latest quake had been worse down there? Why hadn't someone noticed a cave-in,
though?
"What's going on here?" Dr. Stegman said as he stepped out of the elevator followed by Brenda. He frowned when he saw the crowd but quickly relaxed when he realized they were firemen, not policemen.
"We received a report that there had been a cave-in down in your basement due to the last earthquake and there were five doctors trapped."
the lead firefighter said is he looked at Stegman critically. If this was the sort of doctors that the hospital had to offer, he was definitely never coming here.
Stegman frowned as he heard this. Now how in the world had they found out about the quake and the cave-in? Everyone was such idiots here that he was sure they hadn't thought to become curious about where their missing co-workers A moment later he had regained his composure, though.
These were just a batch of idiot firemen, just like the morons that he was forced to work with. He could handle them easily.
"I'm afraid, gentlemen, that you've been the victims of a bit of a prank, here, Stegman said, laughing slightly as he spoke to try to downplay the situation. "I'm afraid that some of the younger doctors are practical jokesters and well.... You can see for yourself that the hospital is fine,
right? No sign of damage or anything. I'm very sorry that you had to come out here for nothing. You can be sure that if I find whoever played this joke, though, they will be properly punished for it. Did I introduce myself? I'm Dr. Stegman and...."
"And I'm the fire chief and the report we received sounded pretty credible to me." the fireman said as he looked at Stegman like he was a bug now. Stegman, he had heard that name. He thought that was the doctor his wife had mentioned who had injured a girl at their daughter's school.
What was her name now? It was kind of odd, he remembered.
"And who gave you this report?" A bit of annoyance was slipping into Stegman's voice now. Why didn't these people take the hint and go away? He had better things to do with his time like figuring out where that pest Mona had vanished to.
"She didn't want to give a name." And seeing Stegman, he could probably guess why.
"There, the obvious sign of a practical jokester." Stegman said with another laugh. "If it had been a serious report, wouldn't they have given their name? As I said, I'm very sorry that you were drug out here unnecessarily but this is a busy hospital and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave now."
"Wait! Don't go!" Carrie called as she came rushing down the hall with Blondi following right behind her. She stopped in front of the fire chief, only pausing for a moment to catch her breath before speaking. "Are you here about the cave-in?"
"Yes, we received a report that five doctors had been trapped, with injuries." He said as he pulled out his pad once more.
"And I was just telling you that it was all a joke and that you really need to..." Stegman started to speak but Carrie interrupted.
"It's not a joke. I was just down in the basement and the ceiling's caved in. It looks worse than what happened the last time too."
Suddenly something the fire chief said sunk in. "Injuries? Did you say injuries? Who's hurt?"
"A Dr. Lona Massingale according to the woman who placed the call.
She said she believed there were internal injuries."
"What's going on here?" Dr. Havens called as he came down the hallway, drawn by the commotion, with Dr. Gupta right behind him.
"There's been another cave-in." Carrie said as she hurried over to the older doctor. "Lona's hurt." Internal injuries. That was definitely bad. A wave of dizziness washed over Carrie as she thought about it. If Lona had been hurt internally for all this time, was she even still alive?
"Now, really, there's no need to get excited." Stegman said in what he hoped was a soothing tone and he frantically sought a way to take control of the situation. "Nurse Van Trier, you know you...."
"Check yourself if you don't believe me," Carrie said with an angry look at Stegman before motioning for the firemen to follow her.
"This way. Please hurry. It looks really bad."
Before Stegman could say anything else and imply Carrie was crazy,
Dr. Gupta broke in. "Carrie's not an idiot. If she says there was a cave-in, I believe her."
"I do too." Henry said as he waved Otto over, glaring at Stegman as he did so. Something wasn't right here. Stegman wasn't like Dr. James and obsessed with the hospital's reputation. Why was he trying to deny so hard the possibility of a cave-in then? "Otto, call Dr. James and get him back here as soon as possible. I'm going down to the basement to see if I can help." If things were as bad as Carrie had said, they would likely need all of the help they could get. He started after the nurse with Dr.
Gupta right behind him.
"I'm going to find my mother and then I'm going to see if I can help too." Bobby said with a suspicious look at Stegman as he headed for the elevators. Usually his mom would have called him at least once to ask for help in her quest to contact the spirits but she had been unusually quiet tonight. He hadn't thought much about it at the time but now it definitely seemed suspicious. If Stegman had done something to his mother...
Stegman stood still for a moment before heading after the group to try to work out some sort of damage control. "How was I to know there had really been a cave-in?" he called. "We barely felt the quake up here, you know. So, who did you say was injured now?" Maybe he would get lucky and Hook would die before they could dig them out.
Just then there was the sound of sirens outside. While they were used to this noise, they definitely weren't used to the sight of a trio of fire trucks pulling up right outside of the hospital entrance.
"Are we having a fire drill and no one thought to tell us?" Bobby asked curiously as the pair stood and headed for the door, missing completely Nurse Nancy turning to face the camera as she pulled her clean top on.
"I have no idea." Otto muttered as they headed for the door to find out what in the world was going on. He just hoped that the hospital wasn't on fire and someone forgot to tell them about that. As he thought of a possible fire, he glanced around nervously trying to see where in the world Blondi had gotten himself to. He couldn't just leave his dog there if the building was possibly burning down!
"Hey, what's going on?" Bobby called as the firemen came through the door. He was glad that whatever was going on had picked a night that Dr. James wasn't here to happen, that was for sure. He was pretty sure that having three trucks full of firemen pouring into the building wouldn't look very good.
"We got a call that there was a cave-in down in the basement and some of the doctors were trapped." the fireman in the lead said as he approached Bobby and Otto. He shook his head slightly as he thought about the current situation. He had been one of the firemen called in to rescue the trapped employees during the last little earthquake and cave-in. You would think that they would have done something to try to make the building more secure after the first time but apparently they hadn't bothered. When they got back to the fire hall, he was definitely going to have a long talk with his men, make sure they knew never to bring him to this place if he was in need of medical attention.
"What?" Otto said as he looked at Bobby in confusion. They had both felt a tremor earlier, of course, but they didn't think that it had been strong enough to do any damage. It had barely rattled things at his station. How could it have triggered a cave-in?
"We don't know anything about a cave-in. Someone called and said there was one?" Bobby asked curiously as Otto headed back to his monitors to check the basement cameras.
"Yes, a woman called from the hospital about twenty minutes ago to report an earthquake and a cave-in in your basement." The fireman pulled out a notebook that he consulted before continuing to speak. "She said that there were five doctors trapped down there: a Dr. Hook, a Dr. Chris Draper, a Dr. Louis Traff, a Dr. Elmer Traff and a Dr. Lona Massingale."
That last name sounded a bit familiar to him and he thought for a moment before realizing that she had been one of the doctors caught in the last quakes. "Would have thought that would have cured her of any urges to visit the basement, wouldn't you?" he muttered under his breath.
"Who? Lona? She works down in the sleep lab." Bobby said. Okay,
this was a bit odd. He didn't see how there could have been a cave-in without their knowing about it but as he thought back, it had been at least three hours or longer since he could recall seeing any of the doctors the fireman had mentioned as being trapped by the earthquake. "Hey, Otto, have you see Chris or Hook anywhere?" He figured Lona and Elmer were down in the lab for the night and wouldn't be seen until morning under normal circumstances.
"No." Otto said as he looked up from checking the monitors. This wasn't good. "All of the basement cameras are out." Maybe the latest quake had been worse down there? Why hadn't someone noticed a cave-in,
though?
"What's going on here?" Dr. Stegman said as he stepped out of the elevator followed by Brenda. He frowned when he saw the crowd but quickly relaxed when he realized they were firemen, not policemen.
"We received a report that there had been a cave-in down in your basement due to the last earthquake and there were five doctors trapped."
the lead firefighter said is he looked at Stegman critically. If this was the sort of doctors that the hospital had to offer, he was definitely never coming here.
Stegman frowned as he heard this. Now how in the world had they found out about the quake and the cave-in? Everyone was such idiots here that he was sure they hadn't thought to become curious about where their missing co-workers A moment later he had regained his composure, though.
These were just a batch of idiot firemen, just like the morons that he was forced to work with. He could handle them easily.
"I'm afraid, gentlemen, that you've been the victims of a bit of a prank, here, Stegman said, laughing slightly as he spoke to try to downplay the situation. "I'm afraid that some of the younger doctors are practical jokesters and well.... You can see for yourself that the hospital is fine,
right? No sign of damage or anything. I'm very sorry that you had to come out here for nothing. You can be sure that if I find whoever played this joke, though, they will be properly punished for it. Did I introduce myself? I'm Dr. Stegman and...."
"And I'm the fire chief and the report we received sounded pretty credible to me." the fireman said as he looked at Stegman like he was a bug now. Stegman, he had heard that name. He thought that was the doctor his wife had mentioned who had injured a girl at their daughter's school.
What was her name now? It was kind of odd, he remembered.
"And who gave you this report?" A bit of annoyance was slipping into Stegman's voice now. Why didn't these people take the hint and go away? He had better things to do with his time like figuring out where that pest Mona had vanished to.
"She didn't want to give a name." And seeing Stegman, he could probably guess why.
"There, the obvious sign of a practical jokester." Stegman said with another laugh. "If it had been a serious report, wouldn't they have given their name? As I said, I'm very sorry that you were drug out here unnecessarily but this is a busy hospital and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave now."
"Wait! Don't go!" Carrie called as she came rushing down the hall with Blondi following right behind her. She stopped in front of the fire chief, only pausing for a moment to catch her breath before speaking. "Are you here about the cave-in?"
"Yes, we received a report that five doctors had been trapped, with injuries." He said as he pulled out his pad once more.
"And I was just telling you that it was all a joke and that you really need to..." Stegman started to speak but Carrie interrupted.
"It's not a joke. I was just down in the basement and the ceiling's caved in. It looks worse than what happened the last time too."
Suddenly something the fire chief said sunk in. "Injuries? Did you say injuries? Who's hurt?"
"A Dr. Lona Massingale according to the woman who placed the call.
She said she believed there were internal injuries."
"What's going on here?" Dr. Havens called as he came down the hallway, drawn by the commotion, with Dr. Gupta right behind him.
"There's been another cave-in." Carrie said as she hurried over to the older doctor. "Lona's hurt." Internal injuries. That was definitely bad. A wave of dizziness washed over Carrie as she thought about it. If Lona had been hurt internally for all this time, was she even still alive?
"Now, really, there's no need to get excited." Stegman said in what he hoped was a soothing tone and he frantically sought a way to take control of the situation. "Nurse Van Trier, you know you...."
"Check yourself if you don't believe me," Carrie said with an angry look at Stegman before motioning for the firemen to follow her.
"This way. Please hurry. It looks really bad."
Before Stegman could say anything else and imply Carrie was crazy,
Dr. Gupta broke in. "Carrie's not an idiot. If she says there was a cave-in, I believe her."
"I do too." Henry said as he waved Otto over, glaring at Stegman as he did so. Something wasn't right here. Stegman wasn't like Dr. James and obsessed with the hospital's reputation. Why was he trying to deny so hard the possibility of a cave-in then? "Otto, call Dr. James and get him back here as soon as possible. I'm going down to the basement to see if I can help." If things were as bad as Carrie had said, they would likely need all of the help they could get. He started after the nurse with Dr.
Gupta right behind him.
"I'm going to find my mother and then I'm going to see if I can help too." Bobby said with a suspicious look at Stegman as he headed for the elevators. Usually his mom would have called him at least once to ask for help in her quest to contact the spirits but she had been unusually quiet tonight. He hadn't thought much about it at the time but now it definitely seemed suspicious. If Stegman had done something to his mother...
Stegman stood still for a moment before heading after the group to try to work out some sort of damage control. "How was I to know there had really been a cave-in?" he called. "We barely felt the quake up here, you know. So, who did you say was injured now?" Maybe he would get lucky and Hook would die before they could dig them out.