CH24: WAKING UP

This is a passion work. So, I would really appreciate it if you leave behind a review when you're done reading.

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CH24: WAKING UP

Nigerian Military Hospital, Dodan Military Base

As part of the welfare package for Nigerian soldiers, the Ministry of Defence built and ran three large hospitals located in the western, eastern, and northern parts of the country, primarily to cater for servicemen harmed in the line of duty. These were the Nigerian Military Hospital Dodan Military Base, Lagos(Western); Nigerian Military Hospital Eastern Naval Command Base, Calabar(Eastern); and Nigerian Military Hospital Jaji Military Base, Zaria(Northern). Each of these three was one of the top ten largest, both in terms of size as well as the number of medical disciplines available, and the most equipped hospitals in the country. They also served as the teaching hospitals for the Nigerian Military University's Medical College.

The Nigerian Military Hospital, Dodan Military Base covered a large land area in the base. The main hospital building was a nine-storey building in the form of an 'H' with the vertical sides being shorter but wider and the horizontal side being thicker. Different disciplines took up each floor. For example, the entire ground floor was for emergency care only. Other floors may be assigned more than one discipline.

On the sixth floor was the inpatient ward. In a particular ward, six patients were lying on hospital beds seemingly asleep. A nurse walked in and performed a routine check-up of each patient.

The patients in the ward were brought in six months ago. They were said to have been involved in an explosion and building collapse but strangely, none of them had any bone trauma or internal injury, just the occasional scratches.

Except for one, none of them had any burn marks at all. Even the one that did, his injury was anything but serious. None of the injuries you would expect to see from a close-range explosion and collapse was visible on them. Even more strange, with no serious trauma or signs of concussion observed, the patients had been in a coma for about six months with no signs of awakening. This could only be described as baffling. However, the staff at the hospital knew better than to ask questions above their paygrade. That was their superiors' headache. They just had to do their job.

Done with the check-up, the nurse was about to leave when she noticed the finger of one of the comatose patients twitching. She hurried to his side. She noticed his eyelids also moving and after a second or two, they opened.

After six months, one of the patients finally woke up. She quickly walked to the intercom on the wall to call for the Doctor responsible for the patients.

'This is already past 2 am. The Doctor should be done with his patients and will be in his office.' She thought.

After a few seconds, the call went through and a light deep voice answered.

"Hello."

"Hello, Dr. Makinde. Please, come to ward C2 quickly! One of the comatose patients just woke up."

"What?!! Are you sure?! I'm on my way!!" The Doctor replied, surprised. Sounds of cloth rustling were heard. Clearly, the doctor stood up in a hurry and was rushing over as he said.

The nurse also dropped the call and turned back to the awoken patient and saw that he had already sat up. She walked over to him to check his condition.

"Are you Ok? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" She asked, concerned. She, however, got no response as the patient just looked at his hands blankly.

She continued to ask him questions to get his attention but to no avail. She was starting to get worried when Dr. Makinde walked into the ward.

"How is he?" The Doctor asked

"He has been looking at his hands blankly since he sat up and has not said a word." The nurse replied.

Dr. Makinde gestured for her to make way for him. He approached the patient and place a hand on his shoulder as he asked, "Private Balogun, can you hear me?"

Yes, the patient was exactly Korede Balogun. The other five still in a coma were the other members of Bravo Team.

**

After not getting any feedback past the rendezvous time. Colonel Kola Balogun got worried and decided to risk using a satellite to look over the last coordinates Korede sent him before they went dark(1), even after Korede's warning of a possible hack of their network to monitor their activities. What he saw shook him to the core. He saw a collapsed building. The same building his brother entered. The same building a possible improvised nuclear bomb was in.

He, however, quickly recomposed himself. Years of experience being in tense situations kicked in and prevented him from panicking and allowed him to make the necessary decisions. He quickly called for emergency services to move to the scene. He also used his authority to dispatch a military clean-up and HAZMAT unit in case of radiation exposure.

When the HAZMAT unit confirmed that there was no harmful radiation emission, emergency services quickly moved in to clear the rubble. Several bodies were brought out, all confirmed dead due to gunshot wounds(GSW).

Finally, a male, in a military outfit, was found with his right arm still on fire. Only his right arm. Even when in contact with other parts of his body, the fire did not spread. Multiple attempts were made to put out the flame, all proved for naught.

Fortunately, after about ten minutes, the flames went off. By then, five other bodies in military outfits were found in the same area. All six soldiers were found to be alive and were quickly transported to the nearest medical center for emergency care.

As more rubble was cleared, three heavy-duty briefcases were recovered which were quickly swept up by the Military clean-up and HAZMAT unit.

By the time most of the rubble had been cleared to the underground level, two more bodies of soldiers were found but they were, however, dead. In total, more than twenty bodies were brought out from the building but only the six soldiers were found alive.

After the Bravo team was brought to the nearest medical center, they were found to be stable and were transferred on the 'request' of Colonel Kola Balogun to the Military hospital in the Dodan Barracks Base. (2)

Glory Izamoje and Bamidele Oguntoyinbo were later found and the fate of the Alpha team was also made known.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the mission was a success and that neither the nuclear material nor the bomb-making knowledge made its way into the hands of the Haram Boyz. Also, a high-ranking member of the group was killed. Unfortunately, the cost was high as far as the Eagles squad was concerned. Almost an entire team of veterans was wiped out and the team of its top recruits was comatose or seriously injured. (3)

For their bravery and success in the mission, the recruits were officially accepted into the Eagle Squad as Privates of the Nigerian Army. Further promotion was likely pending a debrief when they woke up from their coma and their merit calculated.

Hence, Korede was now Private Korede Balogun.

It was only when Dr. Makinde called his name, did Korede recover from his daze. He looked at the Doctor calling to him. Seeing that he had gained the patient's attention, the doctor nodded.

"Can you hear me audibly?" He asked. To which Korede nodded his head. (4)

The doctor brought out a small flashlight from his pocket, switched it on, and pointed it towards Korede's eye, "Can you follow the light please?" Korede's response was a little slow at first but began to pick up. The doctor nodded.

He switched off the light and returned it into his pocket. He then raised his finger and asked Korede to do the same as last time. Similar to the previous time, Korede's response was initially slow but picked up thereafter. Dr. Makinde nodded once again and wrote down something in the patient file he took from the nurse. (5)

"Try and rest for now. In the morning, you will be transferred to another wardroom and your physiotherapy will begin." Dr. Makinde said.

Korede nodded and reclined back into the bed. Dr. Makinde and the nurse walked out of the ward.

"He has been in a coma for six months so his response to stimuli is expectedly slow. His response picked up faster than I expected. Make arrangements to move him. Being in the same ward with his team while they are still comatose may have a psychological impact on him. We should avoid that as much as we can. Also, arrange for his physiotherapy. Most importantly, get the front desk to inform Colonel Balogun that one of his people is awake. The military will handle the rest with the family." Dr. Makinde said to the nurse who nodded and walked away to make the needed arrangements.

Being a hospital on a military base, it was not easy for the family to freely visit patients in the hospital. Rather, visitation arrangements were made by the military and must be strictly adhered to. Hence, it was up to the military to arrange the time when the family of the awoken patient would be informed and allowed to visit him. It was not up to the hospital.

Back in the ward, Korede Balogun was still staring at his hand. Contrary to what Dr. Makinde thought, Korede was not in a daze due to being in a coma for some time as the doctor inferred from his slow response to stimuli but rather he was examining a change in his body.

In truth, he had no problems following the doctor's examination. However, being a medical graduate himself, he knew a slow or stunted response to external stimuli was, predominately, expected from a patient just waking up from a coma after an extended period.

How did he know he was in a coma you ask? Simple, his intuition.

His instincts/intuition told him that he has been asleep for a while. Well that, and the fact that he had examined the room immediately he woke up and noticed the machinery connected to his body. Most of them were typically used for patients in coma thereby confirming his suspicion. Hence, how he knew to fake the response expected of a coma patient.

The reason for his daze was due to a feeling he got from his body. After all the years of training he had gone through, he knew his body far too well. Even though nothing seemed to have changed much physically, the feeling his body gave him had changed. He felt as if his body had lost something… or gained… something. In short, his body was different somehow…

(A)

[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion really matters to me.]

AUTHOR'S NOTE/ RAMBLINGS

1 meaning before they stopped communicating with HQ

2 Imagine someone 'requesting' when they're actually ordering you for it

3 Apparently, Glory and Bamidele suffered serious injuries from the car crash. I'll see how I will make that work. Or I might just ignore it.

4 This is to check if there's any auditory/hearing problem as a result of the explosion

5 This is to check the brain's response to external stimuli. Due to being inactive for some time, some brain functions are impaired or even lost. These functions may recover over time but in severe cases, they have to be re-learnt. The functions include response to stimuli, speech, or even motor movement of limbs eg walking, holding, etc.

A the beginning of a new arc. Trying to make the chapters longer without adding too many fillers nor reducing the quality of the work. Going to change some things in my writing style going forward.

B Going forward, as per my usual practise, the first few chapters might be slow as I will be trying to put some things in perspective before the real story continues. So, I ask that you understand and bear with me.

[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion really matters to me.]