Part 24 - May 21 - Elmwood Hospital
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Carl brought the bus to the front entrance of the athletic center and picked up the young adults to transport them to the hospital. As he drove back up the side road to the dorm, he stopped to pick up Frank. Nancy and Helen had decided that more supplies were needed, so Helen created another list to take to the store, and Frank insisted on going along to help collect the supplies.
A couple of hours later, Carl and Frank returned to campus on the refueled bus. Carl pulled the bus up in front of the dorm. While Helen and Nancy put the children to work unloading the supplies, Frank gave them a brief report of the events that had taken place at the hospital.
“Sam, Amy, and Geoff managed to replace the burned-out links in Janet’s neural system, and she is now able to follow multiple simple commands, but she still wasn’t a fully functional person when we left.”
Nancy looked shocked. “You left those kids there, alone?”
Frank held up his hand. “Wait, let me finish, momma hen.” He smiled warmly at Nancy. “They managed to get Janet to eat half a sandwich and drink without repeating the command to take each bite and each drink, so she will now survive—with help. Then the kids attempted the same procedure on one of the medical staff with much better results. There was a doctor lying on the floor outside the waiting room who turned out to be a surgeon, Dr. Ramsey. Once they had disconnected her, she was able to communicate with Sam, Geoff, and Amy, and talked them through how to perform the process on another doctor. With her instructions, our young medical team was able to remove the links in the proper order and reactivate another doctor. By the time we left, they were in the process of reactivating more of the medical staff and were planning to work through the night, nonstop, to revive as many people as they could.
“Carl and I will go back to check on the situation in the morning.” Frank smiled at Nancy. “But! Mrs. Jackson, I have saved the best for last. I’d like to introduce Janet Morgan and Dr. James Henson. Nancy, you have two more adults to help you with the children.”
Nancy’s eyes sparkled with tears. “And we’ll have more adults to help with the children by morning?” she exclaimed with obvious relief. “And medical staff too? Are you telling me that I might be able to stop worrying 24/7 and relax a little?” She looked closer at the young woman, Janet. “Are you the young athlete from the sports center?” she asked.
Janet smiled. “Yes, that’s me. The doctors were able to reconnect the burnt-out links that kept me from full recovery. If it had not been for Geoff, Amy, and Sam, I’d still be a vegetable. They told me what you’re doing here, and I wanted to come back and help. Education was my major.” She smiled at Nancy, who was wiping tears from her eyes.
“And this is Dr. James Henderson, who will stay here on campus to help with the children and any scrapes or bruises they get.”
James stepped up and shook Nancy’s hand. “I was amazed to hear what you folks have done here with the children, so I wanted to do what I can to help. I’ll start by helping with the rest of the athletes. Then we three”—he indicated himself, Geoff, and Amy—“will get set up in the medical center, and you’ll have medical support for the children.”
