by Kim Falconer
‘No microchip?’
‘Like I said, no ID.’
‘Could she be a feral?’
He shook his head. ‘Too tall, and too clean.’
‘Where was she found?’
‘Back lots.’
‘Be specific, please,’ Everett said.
‘The back edge of the North Sector.’
‘She was in the prohibited ring? How can that be?’
The med tech glanced at Everett’s name tag. The letters were small, as they were for all the medical students. It was one of Admin’s subtle ways of reinforcing hierarchy.
‘Mr Kelly, is it?’
Everett nodded.
‘You’re fifth-year, aren’t you? The attending is on the way?’
‘What’s your point?’
‘You’re asking the wrong questions. We aren’t here to solve a mystery. We’re here to save her life. She’s down and unresponsive. If I were you, I’d be focusing on that.’
Everett grabbed the gurney, shoving the other man aside. ‘I need a history,’ Everett said, his voice cool. ‘And her point of origin is imperative to that history. Are you going to give it to me?’
The med tech raised his brows. When they turned the next corner, Everett veered to avoid a collision with an oncoming group of nurses.
The tech caught up. ‘All I know is she was called in by a security detail,’ he said in a rush.
‘Conscious at the time?’
‘When they first spotted her, yes. Conscious and fighting in the most arcane way. Two of the wounded guards are right behind us.’
Everett looked over his shoulder. ‘Really? Wounded guards?’
‘One’s lost a few fingers; the other has cracked ribs and facial paralysis.’
‘How?’
‘She carried a weapon—a sword. Knew how to use it too. Like in the old cinematics.’
‘You’re kidding. A sword?’
‘Saw it myself. She also had a mammal with her.’
‘A what?’ Everett’s mouth hung open.
‘Yeah, shocked us all. I think it was canine, but I’d have to look that up.’
Everett turned his focus towards the patient. Her long black hair was tangled with twigs and bits of grass. Her face was pale yet clear. Not a pockmark on her. Couldn’t be feral. It didn’t add up. ‘Heart rate?’
‘She was tacky at 190 when I got her on the monitor, then flat line, decreased breath sounds bilaterally and pupils dilated, unresponsive to light—no accommodation.’
‘Treatment?’
‘We started a saline drip, and administered oxygen en route.’
‘Been doing external cardio for twenty-five minutes,’ the woman astride the gurney said between compressions of the patient’s chest.
‘That’s it?’
The emergency team came towards them from the opposite end of the hallway. Everett motioned them into the trauma room and they assembled, ready to run the procedure, looking to him for instruction. This was his final year of medical school. He had only a few months to go in the trauma ward and he’d be a doctor, fully fledged. He was confident he knew what to do, but was still meeting with resistance from the tech. How hard was it to give a quick and concise history? Just because traumas of any kind were rare didn’t mean they should be this difficult.
‘You didn’t shock her?’ he asked as they came to a halt alongside the stainless steel table in the centre of the room. ‘Didn’t give E-lites? Retropulse?’
The medic grabbed his wrist. ‘Unknown origin, Kelly. No chip. You heard me, didn’t you?’
Everett snapped his arm back. ‘I did, but…’
‘You know the rules?’
‘Of course. No ID: DNR, donor status only.’
‘That’s right, and when I last checked DNR meant do not revive. I follow the rules.’
‘I see that.’ Everett motioned to the med tech to stop compressions as they transferred her to the table. The nurses hooked his patient up to the monitors and he saw for himself—flat line, no cardiac activity. Respiration nil. Brain activity, nil. ‘Tube her.’
‘DNR?’ the med tech said.
‘DNR, unless there is a crime involved. Judging from that guard’s missing fingers,’ he said, nodding towards another gurney wheeling by, ‘there is.’ He leaned forward. ‘Positive oxygen, six litres.’
‘Your call, Kelly.’ The tech shook his head.
‘Thank you,’ Everett said. ‘They’ll want her awake for questioning. Stand back.’ He listened to her chest, eyes widening as he noticed an image embedded in the skin of her upper arm. An elegant creature, mammalian, possibly feline, with the tail circling her bicep. His hands trembled. Where was this woman from? ‘Let’s wake her up, people. Ten ccs E-lites, IV,’ he said, keeping his voice steady. ‘Get dialysis going. I want her blood cleansed and filtered in the next five minutes.’ He checked the wall clock. ‘And I want her heart back online, stat! She’s no good even to Donor like this.’
‘Like what?’ A nurse frowned at the flat line.
‘Dead.’
‘Is that possible?’
‘Apparently.’
‘Paddles?’ a fellow med student asked, charging the crash cart.
‘Do you know how to use them?’
‘I’ve seen tutorials.’
‘Then shock her!’
The nurse hooking up the intravenous drip set let out a squeal. She leaned towards the patient’s body.
‘Look at that.’
There was another image on the woman’s leg, going from the back of her knee to the top of her hip—a snake?
‘How real does that look?’ the med tech said.
‘I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen one, and neither have you.’
‘Well, she has. She had an animal with her.’
Everett studied her arm. ‘She’s been outside the borders,’ he said, keeping his voice calm.
‘How can you be sure?’
‘No injection scars.’ He turned to the woman entering the room. ‘Lena, get a message to Isolation Unit. Level Ten precautions.’ Goosebumps covered his arms. He continued to treat her, alternating cardiac stimulants with electric shocks, but there was no response. A half-hour passed.
‘Are you going to pronounce her dead?’ the medic asked.
‘Of course not.’
‘She looks dead to me.’
Everett turned to the man. ‘How would you know what death looks like?’
Everyone around him paused for an instant, the heart monitor alarm cutting through the silence. The tech backed away, gathering his gear and signalling to his partner to follow.
‘Clear,’ Everett shouted. ‘Where’s the attending?’ He shocked her again. ‘Get her and Richards! I need help, stat!’
Rosette felt a sense of relief, warm and comforting. As the fractured images in her mind merged into coherent scenes, the confusion she had experienced earlier gave way to a clear sense of self. She had no idea where she was, but she knew her name. She was Rosette de Santo, a witch of Treeon Temple, daughter to the High Priestess Kreshkali and Sword Master Rowan An’ Lawrence. She also knew the sound of her familiar’s voice, purring in her mind. Drayco?
Here, Maudi. I’m right here.
Her whole body sighed. It felt light, as if she was floating—a curious sensation. She checked her senses, trying to follow the line of her arms and legs as they extended out from her torso. Nothing. Her body was like mist, and she hovered over a deep valley. She couldn’t feel anything, yet she was definitely alive. Her inner sense of self confirmed it, but, like a dreamscape, her physical self felt nonexistent, or perhaps wrapped in layers of cotton wool.
She reached out, but there was no feeling of fingers, nothing to wiggle and no sense of touch. She couldn’t stretch her back or flex her muscles. Her hair didn’t fall over her shoulders and down her arms. There was no contact of air or cloth against her skin, no tightness as she tried to clench and relax her jaw. No feeling of teeth. She tried to blink, to open her
eyes wide. Her lids wouldn’t budge. There weren’t any.
Can you still hear me, Maudi? Are you awake? Drayco’s voice felt nervous, like a cat scampering across the kitchen table when the light’s flipped on. Something had gone wrong. She slowed her stream of thought for a moment, wanting to laugh at herself. Wrong was an understatement. Drayco! I’m fine, more or less. Where are you?
Oh, Maudi. You didn’t know me. You didn’t answer me. I thought you couldn’t hear me.
It’s all right. I’m here now, lovely. Where are you?
Still stuck behind the wall.
What wall?
The corridor wall. Remember? I couldn’t follow you into this world.
She wanted to widen her eyes and leap. My sword! Where is it? She glanced around. There was nothing to see. I remember drawing my blade. Fighting. Then everything went dark. Where in the demon’s pit am I?
You’re still in that world. I’ve been trying to get to you.
But I did fight, didn’t I?
You did.
How did I go?
It actually went rather well, considering the weapons they had.
What weapons?
They shot you with a lightning bolt. I think it disrupted your neuro-pathways.
My what?
You know, the pathways of electrical impulses transmitted through the central nervous system.
Drayco, where did you get such words?
I’ve been listening to the doctors and med students.
The what?
The healers. Maudi, you’re not breathing. You need to do that now.
Funny. I feel like I am breathing. I feel fine.
Your body’s not breathing. Your heart’s not beating either. I’m concerned.
My heart’s not beating? Oh, that’s no good. She focused on her lungs, trying to fill them with air, wondering why she wasn’t desperately hungry for the stuff. It didn’t seem to matter. Breath or no, she felt fine—light and easy.
I don’t know what we can do for your body, Maudi, but I think you can get out.
I have a feeling I already am out, Drayco. She could sense the temple cat pacing.
Maudi, I’d like it if you would try breathing again for a bit and see what happens. You can always go back to not breathing if that doesn’t work.
All right. She returned her focus to her lungs, doing everything she could to expand her ribcage and draw in a breath. It’s not working, Dray. Nothing’s working.
Plan B then.
Which is?
Get you back into the corridors and we go for help.
How do I do that? Do you see a way? A door? A crack or crevice? I think I could squeeze through just about anything right now.
Her familiar didn’t answer immediately. I don’t see any opening.
She tried again to breathe, to move, to shout. Kick her legs. There’s nothing here. I can’t feel my body, or see anything in this fog. Can you tell me what’s going on?
It’s hectic. The healers are working on you.
Not doing much of a job, are they?
We need help, Maudi. I’m going for Kreshkali, he answered back.
You can’t. The corridors won’t run true without my key-codes. I have to come too.
Maudi, you may not remember this, but the corridors haven’t been running true for quite some time, with or without your key-codes. By the way, if you’re not in your body, you don’t have the key-codes anyway. I’m going to risk it.
I’m coming with you. She heard purring in her mind and felt something like a spontaneous smile. You can’t pretend that thought doesn’t please you.
I don’t pretend. But someone needs to guard your body, the key-codes in your DNA. You’d be leaving them behind. That isn’t wise. Jarrod could be lost. We need help.
Wait a moment. She tried to turn inside her skin—to move, to breathe, to speak. It felt like pushing against a void. She gave up. I want to see for myself what’s happening, Dray. If I can only open my eyes.
Rosette turned her attention to the dense film that obscured her vision. She pushed past it, focusing her inner sight, letting go of her notion of physical perceptions and activating something else—a different mode. The haze began to dissipate, slowly replaced by a bustle of energy below. She was elevated, looking down on a stainless steel table.
It was surrounded by people working on a body, though she didn’t actually see it. The perception felt more like watching a dream while it was still happening. The treatment was violent. She wanted to stop the healers, but made no move. Extending her energy closer, she recognised her own face looking blankly towards the ceiling—staring through eyes that saw nothing at all. That explains a few things…
They were shocking her heart with jolts of electrical currents, firing fluids directly into her veins and blowing air into her lungs. There were tubes coming out every which way—from her arms, her throat, her belly. Dark blood flowed from her abdomen into a spinning vat. It whirled around in circles and went, as far as she could tell, back through a vein in her leg. You call yourself healers? You’ve nicked my serpent tattoo!
They seem to have other priorities, Maudi.
I don’t! What are they thinking, defacing my totem?
The tube down her throat was attached to a bag, like a blacksmith’s bellows, and someone was using it to force air in and out of her lungs. The mechanical rise and fall of her chest was the only movement, save for when they discharged the electrical shocker through her heart. When that happened, her whole body arched, convulsing for an instant before falling back to the table.
A man was in charge. He was young, stressed and surrounded in an aura of purple edged with muddy brown. No wonder he was not able to help her. He needed healing himself. She moved her energy closer to him, offering a whisper of curiosity and concern. His aura jumped, turning a brilliant violet that expelled the murky undertones. She reached out to him, like a child to a flower. You are going about this the wrong way, she whispered.
His head turned towards her, eyes seeing past. What was that?
So you can talk to me. Good news.
He looked around; no one noticed his confusion.
What’s your name? Rosette asked.
The word Everett came to her before he formed the thought. Everett? That’s nice. She said his name slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.
I’m hearing voices now? Lack of sleep, no doubt. I’m going mad.
Not madness. I’m real, and, Everett, I don’t know where you learned your healing arts, but this is all very cart before the horse.
Cart? Horse? Who are you?
Rosette de Santo, a witch from the Dumarkian Woods.
I’m hallucinating.
If so, it’s a shared experience.
I don’t understand.
For now, just pretend you aren’t hallucinating. I’m real and you need to listen to me.
What?
You need to take a different approach. Your emergency measures are making my body uninhabitable.
He looked up at the clock, sweat trickling down his temple. He shouted ‘clear’ again and everyone stepped back from the table. Her body jolted as the paddles shocked her.
That’s not working. You’re trying to revive my body when you really need to give me more energy.
Energy?
Mine’s badly depleted. Can’t you see that?
What I see is a cardiac failure on the table and a minor schizoid episode in my head.
Great. So now I’m some kind of minor episode? Everett, jump-starting my heart and cleaning my blood won’t help. I need more energy. Don’t you know anything about healing? We are energy beings. You’re treating me like I was blood and bone.
‘Last heparin?’ Everett asked aloud.
‘Fifteen minutes ago.’
‘Give one more. Resume compressions.’
Rosette watched as one of them rammed her chest like it was a tyre pump. This isn’t the way. Look, he’s cracked my ribs. That’s going to
hurt like demons when I get back in, you know.
Who are you?
I explained all that. Please. Just stop this nonsense and boost my energy field with your magic. That will fix it.
Even if I could give you energy, I wouldn’t know how.
Sure you would. You do it all the time.
Explain.
You’re flooding me with stress and anxiety right now. Everyone is. You could start with giving me a boost of something a little lighter—more nourishing. The fear in here is making me close off. Actually, I’m totally disconnected from my body now, so if you can come up with a different methodology quickly, that would be grand.
Like what?
Joy, for example. Bliss. Are you familiar with those terms?
Joy?
Can you think of something that makes you happy?
I never think like that when I’m working.
And you can see how effective it is. Zilch. Everett, give it a go. Just think of one good feeling. Otherwise, I’m dead.
He didn’t respond but shouted ‘clear’ yet again, ordering more injections—using words she didn’t know.
Bother him, Dray. He’s not listening.
She floated away, a balloon slipping out of a toddler’s hand. Rosette watched the scene from a mountain-top perspective. They were like ants below, busy with tasks, industrious but ineffectual. When they stopped, only a drone sounded. It came from a monitor displaying a single flat line.
No one moved. They were transfixed, staring at her body.
What’s the problem now, Dray?
I think they’ve given up.
Everett cleared his throat, his voice a scalpel slicing the air. ‘Time of death…’ He paused to look at the clock. ‘11.07.’
That’s it, Dray. Let’s go.
Maudi?
My body’s dead. I can’t get back in.
Come to me, Maudi.
She focused her energy on her familiar and instantly was by his side. I’m here, Drayco. Can you see me?
I can’t see you, but I do feel you. He purred. Let’s go get Kali. This is salvageable yet.
But my body? The DNA. What will happen to it?
They put them on ice. It’ll be all right. We’ll get help and come back for it.
You know an awful lot about this place, Dray.
I’ve had nothing to do but watch and listen. This way, Maudi. We can find Jarrod too. If nothing else, he can teach you how to make a tulpa.