Beastars: A Steep Fall From Light

Chapter 15: The Old Beastar Receives an Early Visitation

Yahya came too in a hospital bed. He had a mask attached to his face that was pumping fresh, clean air into his lungs. There was an IV drip in his arm and the window shade was open. A low, orange light came in from a streetlamp below the window outside. He was probably on the third floor. The lights in the room were off and he couldn't see in the dark, which caused his heart rate to quicken. He heard the heart monitor start to increase and he tried to sit up, which caused it to quicken even more. He felt so, unbelievably weak. Not just from his age, but something else.

An alpaca nurse came in and turned on the lights, burning his eyes. He threw a sheet over his eyes to ease the pain, and suppress his three-fifty degrees of vision.

"Sorry," she said, turning down the lumosity so the light was dimmer. She made her way over to the equipment to check the vitals and make sure it was functioning properly.

"Where am I?" Yahya asked.

"You're at Cherryton General Hospital," the nurse said, taking down numbers. "You were brought here yesterday evening. You'd suffered severe carbon monoxide poisoning. We're waiting for a few tests to come back and then we also have an MRI scan scheduled to see if there's any lingering damage to the brain."

"All for breathing in some carbon monoxide? I've been breathing fresh air since then so I should be fine."

"Well for someone your age, it can be very serious. Possible lasting brain and organ damage. You may not have noticed, but you were out for some time. Almost ten hours."

"Ten hour...so it's...?"

"Early morning, yes. Approximately five thirty-two. I would rest, let your body recover."

He heard the nurse leave the room and took the covers off his eyes. He threw the cover back on when his three hundred and fifty degrees of vision gave him a headache. He could handle it when he had sunglasses on, given they were specially made for equus species to suppress their vision. He hated being called old. The nurse hadn't outright said that, but it was along the same lines. He sat there breathing in through the mask. The pure oxygen mix made him feel awake and alive. The door opened and he heard someone walk in.

"If you want I have a blind fold," they said. "I figured you'd have nothing from home so I brought one."

"They allow visitors this early?" Yahya asked.

"No. But I had to see if you were okay."

Yahya flipped the sheet off his face and squinted Gosha in the eye.

"Clearly I am fine," he said, sticking his hand out for the blind fold. Gosha handed the strip of cloth to his friend and the horse tied it around his eyes. The cloth felt off, as it wasn't one of his own blindfolds. But it did the job.

"Where did you get this?" he asked the komodo dragon.

"Full honesty," Gosha admitted. "I hastily made it myself."

"Why?" he asked. "Why not get one from my apartment? You know you're welcome there."

"Because your apartment is currently locked down as a crime scene," the lizard said. "Police are all over it. They're not saying anything yet, but it seems obvious it's part of this Razor incident that has the whole city on edge."

"It is," Yahya said.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" Gosha asked, taking a seat next to the bed. "Again?"

"I was assisting the police in the investigation," Yahya confessed.

"But you're retired."

"Still my city," the Beastar snapped back. "I can't sit idly by when a carnivore is going berserk and killing hundreds of herbivores."