***
The paramedics pushed a gurney through the doors and into the emergency room, the motionless body of a city utility worker lying on top, his entire body splashed with blood. Nurses pulled the gurney to a hospital bed and quickly moved the body. The man’s shirt was ripped open to show several long gashes across his torso and on his arms as well. One of the nurses placed an air pump over his mouth and began squeezing it, taking his pulse.
“Hey, can you hear me?” the nurse asked, touching the side of his face. “Anyone know this guy’s name?”
“Benjamin. That’s what the medics called him.”
“Ben? Ben, can you hear me? What happened to him?”
“No idea. They said he was attacked by some kind of animal.”
“What kind of animal did this? A mountain lion?”
Dr. Gary Winslow came into the room, pulling on his rubber gloves. A white face mask dangled from around his neck. “What do we have here? Tell me what’s going on.”
“We have blood loss and tissue damage, maybe internal injuries as well,” one of the nurses said. “Pulse is weak and breathing is shallow. They said it was an animal attack.”
“Get him an IV drip, stat. Get him hooked up.”
Winslow ran a finger across Benny’s bloody chest and did a quick visual examination of his external injuries. “No head trauma, just the cuts here. They don’t look very deep, but he may have broken ribs though. Once we get him stabilized, we can –”
Just as they attached him to the life support equipment, the heart monitor beeped loudly and then blared its alarm for cardiac arrest. The nurse with the air pump put her hand to Benny’s throat and cried out, “No pulse!”
The nurses scrambled as Winslow rushed over and began emergency CPR, putting his hands together and pressing hard on Benny’s chest. The blood made it slippery and Winslow’s hands slid unsteadily across the gashes.
“We got nothing!” a nurse shouted. “No pulse, no breathing!”
“Get the defibrillator ready!”
They pushed the tray next to him and he grabbed the two paddles in bloody hands. Winslow shouted, “Clear!” before pressing the paddles to Benny’s chest and hitting the trigger, blasting a shock of electricity into the body. Benny jerked up off the bed and landed flat, the heart monitor still blaring its high-pitched alarm. There was no response, so Winslow hit him again with the paddles, but the result was the same. Someone finally hit the silence button on the alarm.
Winslow leaned against the edge of the bed as the nurses looked on in dismay. He shook his head and set the defibrillator paddles back on the cart.
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I’m calling time of death at exactly two-forty-nine in the morning.”
“What do you think happened?” a nurse asked.
“I have no idea. Cardiac arrest caused by severe bodily trauma. I wish we had some idea what caused these injuries.”
“There are some police here,” a nurse said. “I think they might know more.”
The doctor glanced at the body. “Too late for him.” He shook his head again and walked out of the room, pulling his gloves off and tossing them into the wastebasket.
One of the nurses pulled the sheet up from the bed and covered Benny’s body. The other two nurses disconnected the life support monitors and tried to start cleaning up. One of Benny’s arms slid off the bed and dangled over the edge.
“Poor guy,” the nurse said, gently taking the arm to put it back on the bed. As soon as she touched it, Benny’s arm twitched and he grabbed onto her hand.
She screamed and tried to pull away as Benny’s jerked upright, the white sheet fluttering to the side. He stared at her with insane eyes and pulled her arm toward him, groaning with his teeth bared. The other nurses shouted in surprise and ran to the bed to push him back down.
“Doctor! Get back here!”
Benny shoved the nurses aside and bit down hard on the other nurse’s arm. She screamed and tried to pull away, but he grasped the front of her white uniform and tumbled off the bed, pulling her to the floor with him. He groaned and bit down on her arm again as she tried to scramble away.
Dr. Winslow ran back into the room, followed by the two police officers. They grabbed Benny and tried to pull him away, but he jumped to his feet and turned on the doctor, grabbing his neck and lunging toward him. They skidded across the floor and smashed into the tables of medical equipment, knocking the tray with the defibrillator over. The nurse with the bitten arm shrieked in pain and crawled away as blood dribbled across the front of her clothes.
Benny pushed against Winslow and bared his teeth, trying to bite him. The police officers pulled him back, but he shook them off and roared furiously, blood spitting from his mouth. Winslow managed to lift one foot and kick his attacker in the chest, knocking him back. Benny staggered backward but didn’t fall over, and soon rushed to the side to attack one of the police officers.
“Stop! Freeze!” the other cop screamed.
Ignoring the warning, Benny rushed the cop, and suddenly a loud gunshot rang out. Benny spun sideways, blood erupting from his chest, and crashed into the wall, sliding to the floor with a streak of blood leaving its mark across the wall. He got his feet back under him and lunged for the cop again. The next bullet hit him right in the temple and he fell straight to the ground, landing in a heap on the white tile floor.
“Jesus ...” the cop whispered, lowering his pistol.
Winslow tried to catch his breath, staring in disbelief at the body lying on the floor. Five minutes earlier, the man at his feet was unconscious and unresponsive. Two minutes earlier, he was legally dead. And then ...
“What the hell is going on here?” Winslow asked to no one in particular.