“Andreas Grace Bello, forty-one years old, African American, no family on record, found in the destruction of the Northern Hospital. Bite marks on back of neck, left thigh, and right shin,” I listed, walking towards the examination room with my assistant of the day. We dressed in our protective uniforms, covering our faces with medical masks and eyes with goggles. I braided my hair back away from my face and wrapped it up to tuck it into my medical cap to conceal it from whatever may happen. “She must be afraid of all this.”

“I don’t think she’s even considered a ‘she’ anymore, Dr. Genesis. Dr. Medina went out on a limb for this one. I think he’s just wishing on dandelions at this point,” the assistant stated, securing her medical cap.

“Well, it’s our job to figure that out and not ask questions.”

“I guess so.”

Andreas’ condition was a bit alarming to say in the least. There were large gashes in her body and the bite marks that were present were almost rips in her paper skin.

Jacob (Dr. Medina) was standing next to her, wiping off the streaks of blood from her exposed flesh with a damp rag. She was covered by two slips of white cloth: one over her breasts and one over her privates.

She appeared to be just another corpse.

But, her chest rose up, and I could hear her weak heartbeat struggle to make its noticeable rattle deep inside her ribcage.

I approached her, picked up a few cotton swabs, and began to blot the blood from her open wounds to send in for testing.

“Took you long enough to get in here,” Jacob mocked lightly. “Did you fall asleep on the job again?”

“I was up all night with Danny; that girl he’s working with was throwing us around like we were sacks of potatoes,” I replied, giving a laugh under my breath.

“That Melanie girl? Didn’t you two have to sedate her?”

“No, Danny thought it would be better not to because it could’ve hurt her brain or whatever, so we just let her throw us around until she got bored. It was a very long night…”

“At least this one's asleep, right?” I moved Andreas’ hair away from the bite mark on the back of her neck and noticed it was swollen where the teeth marks were.

“So, why did you bring her in? Is it because her heart is beating?” I pulled out a scalpel and touched it to the festering mass. “Because it could just be a parasite in her chest that could be causing it to move like it is.”

“Well, it's not like she's hurting anything right now, is she?”

Suddenly, the mass burst and sprayed rotten blood all over Jacob and me. White, slimy maggots squirmed on my scrubs, making me tremble in disgust and horror.

Men in hazmat suits rushed in to help get Jacob and me into a cleansing center, where we were sprayed with water, then soap, more water, and finally antiseptic. It was a very violent and stressful situation when it came to being cleaned up like this. You were lucky if you made it out without being bruised or beet red. Unlucky enough for me, it was normally the former opposed to the latter.

“All that for a bit of blood? Imagine if she threw up on us,” Jacob chuckled, even though I was on the verge of vomiting myself. He bumped me as we were getting dressed to help ease the stress I was under from it all.

“I'm sure it would've been less harsh if it was just the contents of her stomach.”