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I had to wrap a sheet around the stu blood or anything else thatand onto the stretcher, then I buckled the straps to keep everything in place and trundledthe stretcher and bag into the van wasn’t all that hard since the van and stretcher were the kind that could be handled solo But when I was trying to get it out at theof the stretcher No big deal if I’d been a nor like hell and leaving me with a nasty bruise But I wasn’t normal--and a strip of skin about an inch wide and five inches long peeled right off

I froze, looking down at the gaping wound inof black blood--which was alross as the fact that I could see bone And it didn’t hurt I mean, I could feel it, but only in the way you could feel pressure after a part of your body was nuut as I quickly yanked the trailing skin off the stretcher and hurried into thethe skin into the first biohazard can I saw, I shoved the stretcher ahead of e to run The floors were always slick in here, and I didn’t want to du on the floor, or bustoff

"Oh, thank you hail Mary Jesus!" I breathed as I entered the cooler and saw another body bag The hunger rose as I shoved the stretcher against the wall, then turned and yanked the zipper of the other body bag open in one ravated and distressed Sure, this body had a head, which was an iht in But it hadn’t been autopsied yet Its brain was still nice and safe within its skull

I quickly zipped the bag back up, then exited the cooler and headed to the co the schedule I allowed myself to feel a slim measure of relief At least the autopsy was scheduled for thishole in ," I muttered, then took a deep breath to try and controlpanic All I had to do was hide the fact that I was falling apart until the autopsy was finished The good neas that the sue would hide ood neent, but I illing to take anything I could get at this point

Chapter 14

"You’re certainly raring to go, Angel" Dr Leblanc gave me a quizzical smile as he picked up his clipboard

I was already coear--which, thankfully, had long sleeves--and gloves to cover the fact that I’d ernail I’d nearly been forced to resort to wearing aan itch on ht before givingcrater in the side of my face Wouldn’t that have been lovely? Several frantic od help ht now itto cover up some serious acne Or leprosy

The body was also ready: stripped of clothing, with the block beneath the shoulder blades to make it easier to open up the body and exale second to be wasted

"You know me, Doc I love rin, and he gave a laugh in return

"Fortunately, we can accommodate you" He made his notes and then coue Tech, ready with every piece of equipist needed before he could ask for it I had to bite back a whoop of joy when he finally gave o-ahead to cut the head open In fact, reat, I had to take several deep breaths to getso that I could make the incision across the top of the head Luckily, Dr Leblanc was too busy slicing organs to notice

When I opened the skull, the smell of the brains washed over e of the table to steady ritted e that wanted me to bury my face into that convoluted surface and suck it all down Breathing shallowly, I carefully removed the brain from the skull and set it on the scale, then passed it over to Dr Leblanc as soon as he took note of the weight

He murmured thanks and then bent his head to slice into it I moved to where I was directly behind hiers A mistake, since that ht I’d been hungry before