Dead Body Walking (Book One)

Chapter 1: If Only I'd Stayed In Bed

"Hey Morgana, got a fresh one for you, though fresh an't really the right word."

Morgana, that's me; Morgana Allea Weslake the county coroner. It was my job to process the dead and bring a little peace to their families. It was an unusual job but I liked it, the people I met might not be alive but that was better than the alternative. My home away from home was the county coroners office located in the basement of Hills Highland Medical Facility. Technically I didn't really have an office, just a desk crammed into the side corner of the autopsy room. Sterile and empty are two words to describe my work environment. Big double doors lead into a 20x20 floor space. Three rows of wall fridges face the door with a special built autopsy table in-between. Tables and cabinets spread about giving it a chaotic feel. Glancing up from my desk I watched as two of the city's EMT's, Bill and Ted rolled in. Leaving the paperwork for later I grabbed my lab coat and wandered over to see what they had caught.

"Hey boys long time no see. What brings you down here?"

Accidentally bumping into one of the equipment tables as they dragged the gurney in, the boys stopped and pulled back the sheet. On first glance I was looking at a male, late fifties to early sixties, Caucasian, brown hair, no idea on eye color. As I waited for the boys to answer I moved closer grabbed the sheet and pulled it all the way off.

"Hey don't look at us, the doc asked us to drop him off. Upstairs is packed, pile-up on the freeway."

I barely heard Ted as he continue talking about the accident; the guy on the table was huge, I was surprised it hadn't buckled under the weight of the body. The man must have been at least 6 foot 6, weighing well over three hundred pounds. Their lack of control of the table now made more sense to me, I was surprised they even got him onto it without breaking their backs.

"Sorry doc can't hang out gotta get back to work."

Jerking around I watched as the guys started to leave.

"Hold it right there you two."

Striding over I grabbed the back of their jackets and dragged them back to the gurney.

"First your going to help me get this big behemoth onto the autopsy table then your taking the gurney back where you found it. I'm not getting the blame for you guys leaving it here like last time. Nob I mean Norman took my head off about procedure and everything having it's proper place."

"But we've gotta..."

"Jesus Bill do you honestly think I could move that great mountain on my own."

Gesturing to the body I gave them my most put upon face. Knowing I'd won, they both sighed and gave in. As they started heaving I grabbed the paper work before it could fall off. According to the report he'd been picked up down near South Street, just lying in the middle of the road. Since he was DOA I was surprised the EMT's had even gotten the call, normally the police would call the coroner and go from there. Shaking off the inconsistency I had just dropped the papers on the desk when I heard an almighty crash. Spinning I stared as Bill was now on the floor with the gurney on top of him and Ted just stood about laughing. Shaking my head at their antics I was grateful they had at least gotten the body onto the table before knocking the gurney over.

Staring at the size of the corpse it occurred to me that I might actually need a hand with this one. I barely heard the fellas leave as I went around the room getting the equipment in order. Evidence bags and containers came out of the cabinets, while the autopsy tools were always ready and waiting by the examination table. I quickly grabbed the stairs for those clients who were on the large size and got to work. With everything in place I leaned over and got my first clear look at him. Handsome and extremely well built, if I had to take a guess something in construction maybe or at least definitely an outdoors-man. Reaching up I switched on the recorder as I made the preliminary checks of no pulse and no breathing. Turning I grabbed the scissors and tried to decide where to start first top or bottom. Now I know I looked away for less than a minute but when I turned back the corpse was sat up.

Normally at this point in the horror movie the dumb blonde would start screaming and get eaten. I was neither dumb nor blonde, what I was was the only girl of a family of five boys all older and all pranksters. When you've had spiders and snakes and every manner of creepy crawlies in your bed / clothes / food you tend to become shockproof. So when I saw him I didn't immediately start screaming, in fact I simply stood there for a few seconds just trying to process what I was seeing. It's not that I wasn't surprised, it was just I wasn't going to get hysterical over a body rising from the dead because I knew on an intellectual level that that was impossible: there are no such things as zombies. Being of a some what practical nature I decided to go for the straight forward approach.

"Er excuse me, would you mind lying back down I'm in the middle of an autopsy."

He either didn't understand or ignored me, which figured as nothing in my life had ever been that easy. Trying not to think of all the complications that would crop up if this guy really was alive, I jumped down and wandered over to the far cabinet. Opening the top draw I picked up a liver probe turned and stopped. It had just occurred to me that I couldn't really use a liver probe on a live person. I stood staring from the probe to the up right corpse. Sighing I threw the probe back in the draw and stomped over to my desk.

"First aid kit, first aid kit, if I was a first aid kit where would I be."

Yanking open the different draws I found it at the back of the bottom one. Dumping the contains on my desk with the rest of the mess I grabbed the temperature probe used for regular people. Making my way back to the table I realised he hadn't moved the entire time. Not making any sudden moves though he really wasn't paying me any attention, I stuck the probe in his ear. After a couple of second I pulled it out and read the readout, 23c. I stood blinking at the read out for a few seconds. Giving it and my head a quick shake I stuck the probe in my ear and waited: 98.4. I forced myself to close my eyes and count to ten. Opening them I found myself staring at the upright body knowing there was really only one conclusion: this guy was room temperature so he was most defiantly dead.

What to do now was a bit of a problem, I had to think. My boss Norman would probably say that he was dead and I should do my job and finish the autopsy. The thing was I didn't know if I could with him still moving and all. I mean even though he could be considered a zombie since he was dead but still moving he didn't really look like he wanted to eat my brains; in fact on closer inspection of his face he looked kind of sad and scared. Trying not to startle him I jumped back down and made my way to the door. Sticking my head out hoping that there was someone else about I gave a quick holler. When there was no reply I closed the door and stood staring at the 'zombie'. Knowing that I needed to do something, I had to think. It took a few seconds for me to realise that his head was moving. Moving into his field of vision I realised for the first time that he was staring round looking confused. Trying again to see if he was more than an upright corpse I spoke up.

"Are you alright?"

I was shocked when he turned and looked right at me, it was as if he seemed to see me for the first time. He slowly lifted his hand to his chest and tapped it twice. I simply stared in amazement; he understood me. I was about to speck again when once more he tapped his chest only this time he grunted. Quickly looking from his face to his chest I took a step closer. As I got nearer I finally noticed the indentation on his shirt; I could just see what looked like a bullet hole over his heart. Moving forward I automatically moved aside his shirt to get a better look. It looked like cause of death if I wasn't mistaken. This guy whoever he is was is oh shut up brain, the guy was murdered. Shaking my head at the ridiculous thoughts I quickly moved towards my desk, for it had finally occurred to me that this was way over my head.