128 (Operation Armageddon: Book 1)

Chapter Three: The Precinct Lockdown | Part 1

"Yes, my friend has a concussion. He got hit on the head twice earlier on, and there's a bit of blood leaking from his head," Megan informed one of the doctors at the hospital.

"He has a terrible headache too. Please get him some treatment," Emma added, concerned.

The doctor took down the essential notes on a clipboard. "Please help him fill up his particulars and symptoms on this sheet. We'll get back to you soon," he said before rushing off to assist a patient on a stretcher, who was entering the hospital with a group of paramedics.

"Seems really bad..." Matthew heard one of the doctors mutter as they walked past.

"The fifth one today..." another doctor murmured.

Matthew turned his head to the side painfully, just to see what was happening. He stared at the groups of what seemed to be victims of wild animal attacks.

Finally, a doctor approached the detectives. "Hi, I'm Dr Carlton Orth. I'll be treating your friend... Matthew, is it?" he introduced himself before clarifying Matthew's name.

"Yes..." Matthew muttered.

"Here's a patient health declaration sheet your colleague gave to me earlier on to fill up," Daniel said as he gave the sheet to the doctor.

The doctor skimmed through the form before nodding and folding it to fit it in his pocket.

"Unfortunately, the hospital is overflowing with patients at the moment. LVH is the main hospital in Allentown, which means more inflow of patients than any other hospital around here. There was also an... accident recently," he sighed, shaking his head in dismay.

"What happened?" Daniel inquired curiously.

The doctor grimaced uneasily. "Well, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share this piece of information with the public just yet. I was told to refrain from publicising this to any—"

"We're actually NYPD officers. We were allocated temporarily to the Allentown PD for this week due to the recent police admissions scandal," Megan grabbed out her badge before signalling to the rest to bring out theirs too. Matthew was eager to do the same, but the doctor stopped him from doing so and got him to rest instead.

"Alright then, I'll tell y'all," the doctor huffed. "Basically, there was apparently a wild boar attack at Central Union Tower downtown. Witnesses reported that the boar was abnormally huge and went on its twos. There have been six casualties so far, and more are still being brought over. The Allentown PD managed to take down the boar. It's quite worrying that they weren't even able to euthanise the animal and had to shoot it down instead to kill it," the doctor revealed quietly.

Matthew took a while to process the information, which only worsened his migraine. "A boar attack?" he screamed out of nowhere, sitting up so abruptly that he lost consciousness and fainted.

* * *

Matthew's eyes fluttered open tiredly. He turned to the left to see someone accompanying him. "You're awake," Daniel spoke as soon as he saw his friend come round.

Matthew looked around the ward. There were three other beds, all occupied. The patients all seemed to be relatively calm, which contrasted with the aching cries coming from patients in other wards or rooms of the hospital.

"Where are the rest?" Matthew asked.

"Oh," Daniel stood up. "The hospital only allowed one accompanying person. So we decided that I'll go first. We'll take shifts."

Matthew gave a thumbs-up gesture instead of nodding his head to prevent himself from aggravating his own condition even more. He soon felt lethargy overtaking him. Two hits in the head and one sudden movement that worsened his concussion were enough to make his brain feel as fragile as glass and his mind as delicate as jelly.