CHAPTER 1

 Day 5

Natalie woke up with her head pounding, the light making her cringe.  The clock read 8:30am; it was time to get moving. She called Heike and woke her up, she sounded worse. She got ready, fixed her hair - down. It took a very hot flat iron, and a ton of hairspray. She wore a nice pair of dark jeans, and a purple low cut top. 

She picked up Heike from her apartment, on the other side of town. Heike was wearing a nice plaid button up green and white top, and pair of slacks, her hair was too short to put up. Brown and light she had fixed it to look messy and it flipped out in the wind. She showed her some information; she found where the coroner's office is located, names and people they need to talk to. 

They arrived at the large empty office around 10 am. There were only a few cars in the parking lot. They talked briefly then walked in. Natalie was in first, she approached the young girl at the front desk. The girl was a bit heavy, but well kept. She had dark brown hair, cut short and an unusually long face. She wore nice wire rimmed glasses and a mildly expensive suit. She smirked and asked who they were here to see.

"We are here to speak with Dr. Reins" Natalie said.

"Oh, do you have an appointment?" The office assistant snapped.

"U-" Natalie started, Heike interrupted.

"Yes, we do. I am Ms. Parker; I spoke with you today, about the possible murder, in the home case".

"Oh yes I remember, have a seat. I'll let him know you're here", she gestured to the chairs behind them.

They sat down, "What the hell Heike????" Natalie said smiling.

"Haha, didn't think I could be a sneaky bastard did you?" She was proud of herself, well deserved.

"Well, let’s just hope he cooperates with us."

About ten minutes later a stalky, heavy set man appeared from the back of the office. He was older, maybe late 50s. Hair short, all gray. He was taller than the two of them, but short for a man. He wore a long white lab coat, hiding his tan slacks and nice charcoal button up. His shoes were expensive, just like the Rolex on his right wrist. He motioned for them to follow him to his office. It was large, with a nice antique desk. On it were pictures of his family - a younger wife, and three children - all boys. He had some paperwork scattered about and asked them to excuse the mess. He had quite a few certificates, accommodations and golf artifacts on his walls.

"I understand you're here about the home case. What can I do for you...you're not with the police?" He seemed very intrigued.

Natalie deferred to Heike, "yes, you're right we aren't the police. We were just extremely concerned about this. There were events that happened that night that were, well, disturbing. We just wanted to ask your thoughts on the matter. Have you completed the autopsy?"

"Not yet. I have had quite a few more deaths than normal this week; I have been swamped to my ass." That was a new saying.

Heike proceeded to discuss the happenings, leaving a few "this only happens in scary movies" details out.

"So, if this is a dangerous situation why would they just release me the body?" He asked a good question. They had no reason.

"We don't know. Is there a way we can, 'assist' you with this? It's just that she," she was looking to Natalie, "was there the night everything happened, I walked in at the tail end. It was, odd to say the least. Something else was going on we are curious as to what that is".

He sighed, and then said something they didn't expect. "Okay, you've peaked my interest. Let’s go.”

Excitedly, they turned to each other and smiled. The Doctor called for his assistant, Morgan, to get the body ready for the autopsy. Morgan did as the Doctor asked. He gave them each a lab coat and head gear and led them to the morgue. Natalie had never actually had the pleasure of seeing a morgue. They are much creepier in person than on TV. Dark, cold rooms with unoccupied tables crowding the space. The big silver doors, like portals to the dead covering an entire wall. They entered through the massive swinging doors to the dark abyss; Alonya occupied the middle of the room, only a white blanket covering her. A chill ran down Natalie's spine and legs, almost numbing her feet. She pushed herself to enter the room. Heike was already inside. The Doctor, in his gear walked over to another table, at the end of the room and carefully moved it into place next to the corpse table. It was his tools, all lined up and shining under the large light that hung above.

The assistant came back and joined the doctor. Together they uncovered the body. Her skin was dull gray, but all the moisture had left it. It was eerie, it didn't look like Alonya at all, and her entire body had shrunken up, like the fluids had been pulled out by a vacuum. Her face was sunken in and her eyes were still open along with her jaw. It was locked into place. Heike must have been thinking, she asked him if he had the right person. He looked at them, astonished at the decomposition of this barely two day old corpse.

"Well this is odd". He said in a matter of fact manner.

"She didn't look this way when she died, this may seem stupid to ask but, what exactly is the odd part?" Natalie wanted to know what he was thinking.

"Well, the color of the outside tissues is much deeper and gray than most cases. Not to mention the lack of fluids noted." He deferred to his assistant who responded, "When they brought her in, I thought it was odd at the time, there was no pooling of blood outside of the wounds, or anywhere on the body".

"So where do we start?" Heike was ready to get this moving; her curiosity had kicked into over-drive.

He first assessed exterior of the subject; taking samples of her skin and swabbing the inside of her mouth and the gaping wound in her forehead. The assistant was intently watching the doctor, hoping to one day fill his shoes. Then he told the nurses, Heike and Natalie, to be prepared he was going to "open her up". The nurse in them started taking control and focused in on what he was doing, medically. He started with her chest, the loud crack was intimidating. The immediate look was what you'd expect. Organs all smashed into a small space. They looked at Doctor Reins; he was prodding and moving her insides around, looking for a specific starting point. He looked up and shook his head, "There is no fluid in here, she is bone dry" he said confused.

"We are somewhat new at the morgue situation, our patients are mostly alive so can you explain what you’re seeing?" Natalie asked.

"When you open someone up, there is a minimal amount of fluid left in the body, that’s there to keep the organs from rubbing against each other. Only in extreme cases is this not true. Was she starved or in extreme heat or cold?"

"No, no heat or cold. Unless you count an extended extreme body temp. The dehydration and starvation - she was in comfort care so she had not eaten or drank for three maybe four days prior to her death." They answered, as honestly as possible.

"The temp wouldn't dry out the space between her organs, and a few days with no food or water won’t either, not to this extent. The reports I received from the station were that she was possible homicide. That she was struck in the head as she was dying. They said this was verified by nurses, so that'd be you two right?"

“The initial 'findings' they shared weren't right. There was a problem. We tried to explain it to them, but they responded like we were insane. That’s why we came to you." Heike sounded sincere.

"This problem would be what?” The Doctor asked.

"The problem is that she may have died prior to the 'bash her head in' incident even though she appeared to...be...alive". Natalie said hesitantly.

He looked at them, then at the head wound, "well by the looks of this gash in her head, it was delivered post mortem."

He finished taking samples from her body, and brought them to their in house lab. Once he finished viewing the samples he looked at Heike and Natalie.

"At this point in the autopsy I am going to examine her brain." He gestured Morgan, who brought him a very gruesome looking bone saw, and began to cut her head open.

"Well this is disturbing; I’ve never imagined how this actually looked, in real life". Natalie shuttered and turned to Heike.

"I agree. But this entire thing is off the wall, even for me". Heike replied.

"Oh my god. Look at this!" The doctor shouted to the nurses.

"What? What is it?" They both hurried over to the end of the table, and their mouths hit the floor.

The brain. It was not what you would expect. It was dark, smaller than normal, all except for the brain stem. It was completely untouched, or at least it looked that way. A normal brain is supposed to fit inside your head with some 'wiggle room', fluids surrounding it to keep it safe. It’s composed of both gray and white matter, that look exactly like it sounds. Do you remember in school when the teachers and parents try to get you to not smoke cigarettes? They show you this anti-smoking picture of a smoker’s lung, filled with cancer. It’s all black and shriveled? He removed the brain and set it on a table. He also removed the brain stem, as a whole. He started poking and prodding at the specimen, jotted some notes then beckoned them over to it.

"This brain, it obviously looks different, right?" All nodded in agreement. "It looks as though it had died, judging by the amount of decomp, I’d say about a week ago. But there are a few other things that I notice as well. The first is the brain stem; it’s still the right size and color. Second; There are different sections of the brain, see the frontal lobe here? It has more damage to it than the rest of the brain. The centers that control hearing, and vision are mostly intact but discolored. The frontal lobe is almost completely destroyed." He took a moment.

"So, how the fuck does someone’s brains end up like this?" Natalie asked.

The doctor looked up, "I have never seen anything like this. I may have to call some other people in to see this." With that statement he walked away from the center of the room and stood with his arms crossed. He looked confused and troubled, deciding who to call.

Heike popped in, "Who do you mean? Like the CDC or like a specialist? "

 He turned and covered his mouth with his hand, the Rolex gleaming off the light.
"Let me make a few calls, before I worry about any agencies." He quickly walked out of the morgue.

Heike and Natalie followed, they got back to his office, and Morgan came in and asked the Doctor a promising question,

"Doctor Reins, would you like me to call Shawn?"

"Who's Shawn?" Natalie asked.

"He's a neurosurgeon; he used to work for the Cleveland Clinic.”

"Yes, call him - He's a friend of Morgan’s dad", he said to the nurses. "I'm going to call a friend of mine – John; he's a human diseases specialist".

The two made their phone calls, and then went back into the morgue to "put things away". It would be a few hours before the others got there. But they were on their way. The small group got the already collected samples prepared, and started researching anything that causes brain damage.