A doctor working in a hospital

Today it was supposed to be Andrew Hill's day off after a long and brutal shift in the ER, but he had just arrived at his apartment and slept a couple of hours before the Chief of Medicine called him and asked him to go back to the hospital. Apparently a large number of interns, nurses and residents didn't show up today to work and they couldn't be reached. He should have said no but as a last year resident, he was working his ass to become an attending and having the Chief of Medicine owing him a favor would be a great advantage.

"I'm on my way Doctor Nielsen." He hung up the phone and changed into a fresh pair of scrubs before stepping out of his apartment and locking the door. His place was small but it was near the hospital; it just took 10 minutes by car to arrive there but this morning he arrived even faster, for some reason there was less traffic than usual.

Once he arrived to the hospital, he went straight to the ER and he was surprised to see things were a lot calmer than he expected. Looked like there hadn't been much movement since he left. He saw the attending physician in charge of the ER today, Dr. Vanessa Chen. She was a short, petite woman in her late forties who, despite her low stature, was able to instill fear and respect in the interns and residents. She would normally be in charge of two residents and four interns, however before Andrew arrived there was only one other resident, Alex Booker, a cocky, last year resident just like Andrew and one lonely intern, Abigail Hopkins who looked extremely nervous and Andrew couldn't blame her, being the only intern in the ER is probably not a pleasant experience.

"Ah, Doctor Hill, glad you were able to join us" said Vanessa as she watched vigilantly at the few nurses present, who were making sure the ER rooms were ready.

"C'mon doctor! Why did you ask for HIM? You don't think I am good enough to handle the ER by myself?" Alex asked, upset.

"In case you haven't noticed, Doctor Booker, the ER is severely understaffed right now, we only have a few nurses and three of our interns are missing. We will probably have to send patients to other hospitals if we are overwhelmed, so no I don't think you can handle this on your own," responded Vanessa while giving him one of her famous icy glares that was enough to make him shut up.

"Do you know anything about the missing interns Abi?" Andrew asked the young woman who was standing quietly in a corner.

"N-n-no, I have been trying to call them but none of them answer their phones, I am starting to get a little worried about them," answered Abigail. She pulled out her cellphone and tried to call the other interns once again but none of them answered.

"Idiots, they probably partied too hard the night before their shift and now they are going to get kicked out of the program because of that," Alex said as he butted in between Abigail and Andrew.

"The-they wouldn't do that!" Abigail managed to respond to Alex.

"It's not only the interns Alex, many nurses are missing too. Do you think old Ms. Beth partied too hard with a bunch of interns?" Andrew told Alex.

Alex was about to say something when Vanessa interrupted their conversation. "Look alive people! A couple of ambulances are on their way!"