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“You’re in theto be fine,” Claire said “We’re going to get you off of that skinny little bed, right now”

Claire was still shocked that the woet some perspective This wasn’t the first tily dead person had revived hiue—or a coffin There were cases in the nineteenth century where people overdosed on barbiturates and were presuh they had, instead, fallen into a deathlike state Some of the time, they “came back to life” before burial

Claire wondered if there was athe woman in front of her, but then she remembered that there was a condition called catalepsy

Could the bloody woman have that disorder?

Claire knew that people who suffer fro and a weak pulse Their id, and sometimes they lose sensation in their body Claire recalled frogered by disease, certain drugs, or traumatic shock And if the “undead” was cooled down—for instance, by being stored inside a ue’s cold room—the brain would remain functional until death took over or the person awoke

In today’s high-tech medical environment, it would be hard to mistake catalepsy for death But this woman appeared to be an exception to the rule

The patient was clearly not dead

Chapter 5

The woood ar position

Claire’s spot assessed and bone-thin She’d been shot and was lucky to be breathing

Claire also saw that another bullet had grazed her hip Like the shot to her shoulder, it wasn’t life-threatening

Would this lady’s good luck continue? Or would bad luck send her back in the drawer?

Bunny and Mallory helped the woman onto a stretcher and pulled a sheet up to her shoulders while Claire checked her vitals The wo without assistance Her pulse was slow, but her heart was beating regularly Her wounds weren’t bleeding and she had spoken, which is always a good sign

Claire put her stethoscope away, and the woman’s eyelids suddenly flew open The wootten she’d been awake just o

“Who are you?” she gasped “Where am I?”