Chapter 20: The Media Circus at the Gates
The high noon sun beat down on the wide concrete apron outside the Oakhaven Municipal Medical Center, baking the pavement into a shimmering sea of heat.
Where quiet ambulances normally turned off Medical Center Drive, three satellite broadcast vans from Channel 7 News sat angled against the curbs with their hydraulic microwave masts extended forty feet into the cloudless sky. Bright yellow municipal barricades lined the sidewalks, holding back a swelling crowd of over two hundred civilian onlookers, off-shift hospital orderlies, and anxious neighborhood residents from Maple Street.
At the center of the media circle stood Gavin Hayes, holding a wireless microphone while his cameraman adjusted a heavy shoulder-mounted broadcast rig.
"We are live
