Valerie's sick day

The only part

English - - Valerie's sick day

Valerie's POV

I'm exactly where I want to be in life. David finally proposed and I've just made Head Nurse at Gotham General. His job has finally given him a permanent post so he can stop travelling from lab to lab. He chose our apartment and it has a spare room. He said it is for our family to grow and I couldn't be happier to start motherhood. This city is bad but that's David's job: to clean up this city.

Good coffee and blasting AC/DC. Could my day start better?
"No matter how loud you blast that, the clock will still keep ticking."
"Shhhhhh! This is the good bit!"
"You're impossible!" David declared through giggles.
Finishing the last heavenly sip of my cup I kissed him good bye and began the slow menial commute through my grey city. I mostly love my job but somedays so much loss weighs you down, I had to tell three families that their beloved were lost before lunch. Gotham is a town of crime, to the point in which no one watches the news anymore because they know what it'll say. "3 CIVILIANS CONFIRMED DEAD DUE TO MOB VIOLENCE" the newsman will read in a bored monotone day in and day it. It makes me sick, but we always have it on at work. I guess they figure the news cameras are our first warning of numbers and wound types. But this time there was no annoying voice and no body count when eight ambulances sped off. We just got the call, an accident had occurred. The worst part was waiting, knowing injured or extremely wounded people are about to burst through the door in massive numbers, and all you can do is wait...

                                                     ~20 minutes later~

When the Head Paramedic walked in slowly, everyones heart dropped. It was why the ambulances had taken so long to get here - everyone was already dead. Spending the next half hour unloading bodies into the morgue on the lowest floor wasn't a favourite job, but I always ended up doing it. You see I pitied the medical examiner. She would have to do it all alone otherwise. My skin was blanketed in goosebumps, I shivered. I don't like this place. These old gurneys hadn't slid smoothly since Benjamin Franklin was in power. This one constantly made a horrible screeeeeeeeeeech while it teetered precariously on its loose back wheels.
"OH MY..." was all I had time to say before the body hit the ground head first with a thud and a crunching of bones. In a flash I was desperately trying to lift the cadaver unsuccessfully. Through tears, my panic subsided and I started to notice. The little boy's eyes were twitching. His face looked torn and slashed, his chest still but his lids were moving. Maybe the cold is getting to me? At this point my instincts kicked in and I performed CPR. It was after a few cycles that the medical examiner came back and spear tackled me off him. " WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" She barked.
"He's alive!"
"Oh you saw the eyes, for gods sake that's what it does!"
"What what does?"
" I shouldn't say."
" I'm waiting?"
"Theres a new terrorist, we don't know how but they put a toxin in family homes - each toxin is slightly different like these people are being used as lab rats. Nobody has survived, one family's organs had all collapsed, some had all their blood vessels explode. But their eyes always twitch, we still can't work out why. I was told to keep this to myself. You'd be smart to do the same." I nodded and left, when I looked over my shoulder she was just staring at me with a grim face of pity.

                                                                         ...

"How was work sweetie?" called David from the kitchen, and before I answer he adds "I've got take out!"
"YES, I need that after the day I've had."
"What's up?"
"I gave someone CPR today."
"Ok.... isn't that part of the job?"
"Don't interrupt, I did CPR on a someone who was already dead, it was so embarrassing." He just looked at me like he thought I was stupid. I explained "What? Their eyes were moving!"
"You touched your mouth on someone who was dead and had twitchy eyes?" His tone was too serious and he over emphasised "you". I nodded confused. He paled and dropped my dinner to the floor. "What was that for?" My intelligent husband can't even form a sentence, he was stuttering and blubbering and crying! "Talk to me." He just shakes his head and mutters "not good, not good" over and over.