THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION

MYANMAR

Even left them and entered a short corridor that came off the surgical bay. The corridor ran left and right and there were entrances to other rooms staggered along its length.

He went right and went to the first door. It was locked. It had a window of glass reinforced with mesh and he cupped his hands to the glass and peered inside through the mesh. After a moment he stood back and went to the next door on the other side of the corridor.

This door was also locked and there was no window. As he stood there the door unlocked and when he touched the stud the door pulled back into the wall.

Inside was a square room the plascrete floors dusty but bare. In the middle of the room was a patient trolley. There was little else in the room besides the trolley with a number of stainless-steel stands in the far corner and by the door a washbasin and radiation station recessed into the wall.

He moved over to the trolley and stood about armslength from it. There was a corpse on the trolley and he examined it briefly.

It was probably a woman. It had delicate facial bones. The shaved head and baggy orange coveralls made a definate identification difficult. The overalls were rolled back from wrists and ankles to permit plastic shackles around both.

He thought she was an infected but there was a mystery in that her flesh though pallid did not have ulcers or rot. Perhaps she had been euthanized before these manifested.

He put the needler on the trolley and reached one handed to undo her restraints. He grabbed her wrist and meant to roll it but hesitated when he felt that she was warm, when her whole arm gave a myclonic jerk and pulled out of his grip.

He took a step back and looked at her. Her eyelids had come open and immediately she began writhing and pulling against her bindings. His eye kept returning to her face however where for no cause or purpose he could discern her eyeballs had been scooped out and now she stared around sightlessly from red hollows.

Can you hear me. He said.

He head whipped around and tracked him.

He tried again. She would only track him as long as he made noise and when he stopped she forgot about him and would return to struggling arcing her back and pulling on the bindings.

If you can hear me nod your head.

He gave her a minute and when he saw no improvement he reached for his needler. He reached over her and she must have felt or sensed it for she lunged for his hand and nearly got it. He whipped his hand back and her teeth snapped together narrowly missing his flesh.

He considered her for a moment. Then he moved around the trolley and retrieved the needler.

He held the gun and lined up the side of her head. When she arced her back next he squeezed the trigger. The shot was a line of light that burned through her temple and burst out the other side taking a good portion of her skull and brains with it. Her limbs convulsed inward then she relaxed.

Afterwards he undid the restraints from her wrists and then her ankles, fumbling with the plastic straps. Then he rolled her over to the edge of the trolley. The sheet came up with her stuck to her clothing by caked fecal matter. After a moment he stopped trying to peel it apart and gave her another shove which sent her over the edge of the trolley and taking the sheet with her. She hit the floor with a thump and left the stench of feces and urine behind.

A tarp beneath the sheet had remained behind and this he removed. The plastic sealed mattress beneath was clean. Immediately he came around to the back of the trolley and wheeled it out the door. When he came to where the biofikm creeped across the floor he shoved the trolley roughly across it. Immediately before the surgical bay he had to lift the wheels over a body that was decomposing into the biofilm, furred ribcage and pelvis and clothing puddled around the bones like a snake shed of its skin.