The Body Transport
A low muffl ed scream came from inside the morgue. Next came a rattle at the door, then it swung open. Out burst a terrifi ed man rushing headlong across the fl oor to the opposite wall. Panting heavily, he quickly turned around and leaned against it. Th e morgue’s door swung back before him and closed loudly, separating him from what he saw inside. He was not safe here. Nervously, he slapped the concrete behind him. “Oh God, it’s coming, coming right through these walls!” He abruptly lurched away from the wall as if it had suddenly been superheated, then continued down the hall. Sliding around the corner, he whimpered with panic, struggling to fi nd traction. Upon regaining his balance, he hustled up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Reaching the landing in the stairwell, he paused momentarily and looked behind him. Seeing nothing followed, he continued up the steps faster than before until he reached the top of the stairs. He pushed the upper door open and dashed out, running for his life. He had come here to collect a body for delivery but never expected anything like this. He barely heard the metal door slam behind him. Echoes reverberated through the stairwell, down the steps, along the corridor of two-tone battleship-gray walls, and back to the blackand-white tiled fl oor outside the morgue’s entrance. After the echoes faded, stillness settled upon that place. Unexpectedly one of the lights fl ickered, then another. Seemingly on its own, the latch clicked open again, and the morgue’s heavy door swung outward. After another bright fl ash, a man, naked and pale, appeared alone in the hallway. Between alternating strobes of shadow and light, the man stood motionless. Slowly, he began to turn in the direction the frightened man had fl ed. Th e pale man spoke, “Th at was not the one I have been waiting for.” Th e fl uorescent light snapped again in a steady strobe of the bulb. Now, the pale man was gone, disappeared in the resulting brightness. By now, the fi rst body transport was long gone. A new one would have to be identifi ed. Someone who could fi nish the job. Somebody willing to go back down into the morgue, back into the darkness with the pale man. Down the brightly lit hallway, the morgue door forcefully slammed shut.
