Pulse (OUT NOW FOR PURCHASE! CHECK PROFILE FOR LINKS)

3 CHAPTER SNEAK PEEK / PREORDER DAY CELEBRATION

In Celebration of PULSE's preorder opening day, here's the first 3 chapters once again, for another limited time! You can read the first FIVE chapters over at my patreon for just $1, or you can preorder PULSE and receive the book on release day, January 1st!


Prologue

"His chart, Doctor."

The attending nurse handed off a clipboard to a tall man in white, then circled to the other side of the patient's bed to adjust an IV and check vitals. Nodding in thanks, the doctor's gaze turned down to the paper in front of him, a furrow passing his brow as he read.

"Looks like anemia," he mused aloud, seeking the nurse's input. He had only been out of medical school for a few years, obvious in his under-weathered skin and the way he still second-guessed himself.

"All the symptoms point to it. He's developed severe koilonychias, and when the ambulance arrived, these cracks on the side of his mouth were bleeding. His body temperature is abnormally low. Don't think I've seen someone so pale outside a morgue." The nurse folded her arms across her chest, letting the straight line of her mouth twist upwards as the doctor smirked at her quip.

The second of humor dissolved. It was always disheartening when someone younger than himself showed up in such a serious condition. He had yet to see a patient survive after arriving so lifeless.

He ran a hand through his hair as he thought, then put the chart back in its holder at the end of the patient's bed with a sigh. The eighteen-hour mark of his shift approached and it wore on him; he could feel the black circles under his eyes, pulling down his tired face and attempting to coerce his puffy eyelids shut. "Seems the most likely case. We should wait for the blood work, but get him ready for a transfusion. I'll give you the go ahead once I get the lab report back."

The nurse confirmed with a curt nod, and he dismissed himself, heading to the waiting room at the end of the hall, craving a coffee.

The night had other plans for him, though.

"Dr. Andrews!"

He glanced over his shoulder, another white-coated colleague jogging towards him from down the corridor. The technician already started speaking well before he reached the doctor's side. "I got those tests for the kid in ICU finished up. I think you should take a look at them." Uncertainty in his voice and apprehension on his features, he handed over the papers.

Frowning, the doctor took them and skimmed over the results. "This can't be right," he said, giving a firm shake of his head. "The patient is obviously iron deficient. With the high levels of iron you have recorded here he would be—"

"In cardiac arrest," the technician finished. He took back the papers and ruffled through them to show his thorough investigation. "Believe me, I'm as baffled as you are. I checked five times. The numbers are correct."

"But these are high enough to kill a person," the doctor protested, bewildered.

"These are high enough that the person would already be dead," the other corrected gravely.

They shared a brief look, one that all doctors knew: hesitancy. When someone had to make a decision even while having no confidence in the options.

"Karmen!" The nurse stuck her head out of the patient's room, and while turning to head back towards her, the doctor commanded, "Start the blood transfusion!"

Reading the urgency in his voice, the nurse ducked back into the room without question.

"Wait, Andrews. Are you sure about this?" The lab technician offered a timid objection, hurrying to keep up. "If he's anemic with high levels of iron, it could be that he's used to much higher. Giving him regular blood... It would have a fraction of this. It could kill him."