The Threshold of Obsession
Listen. We don’t have much time. They’re coming. But you should know who they are and why we’re in such terrible danger.
You see my name badge shows my department as “Delta Scanning Research,” and you’ve probably never heard of Delta Scanning, right? Things have come full circle for me in this scanning research, since the whole reason I wanted to develop new scanning methods came about because of my fascination with death. Ironic, huh?
It all started with my wondering what an MRI or CAT scan would show if a person died while in the middle of the scan. Yes, you’re right – a TV pretended to show this a few years ago, but that was highly fictionalized, of course. The number of people who have died in any scan is really small, and the images are really nothing out of the ordinary. There’s one CAT scan from 1978 that shows a strange circle of light in a dying woman’s brain, and then there’s a couple of MRI scans that show image distortions upon the patients’ dying.
Despite the limited number of examples, this idea of showing a person’s moment of death consumed me; there had to be something more out there that would give us a better glimpse of that moment on the threshold of death. I thought the newer PET scans would provide us with some innovations, but that’s proven just as inconclusive as the other scans.
Between the X-Rays of CAT scans, the magnetic waves of MRIs, and the radioisotopes of PET scans, no special moment of death was being recorded. The solution seemed so simple, but it was very radical at the time – why not do all three at the same time? That combination isn’t so difficult in itself, necessarily, but the next hurdle – finding someone about to die and getting them into our new Delta Scanner – was very frustrating. Here I was on the brink of amazing research, and I was being denied by short-sighted administrators who were all worried about appearance and lawsuits.
All this development and testing took years, of course, but even though Delta Scanning was providing some great new avenues for discovering cancer and other diseases, I was not satisfied. What would Delta show when a person died? I’ve spent the last two years waiting for an opportunity, deciding early on to bend the rules if necessary.
My chance came just last week. I’ve been hovering around ER in the past couple of months hoping that some accident victim, some bar room brawler, some traumatized athlete would fall into my lap, so to speak. Five days ago, on Friday, there was that major gas explosion downtown that killed 15 people, remember that? Our ER was swamped with dozens of injured and dying, and the doctors had to do some quick triage to determine who was likely to be saved … and who was going to die. One young man was “black tagged,” and put on a gurney in the hallway. As the chaos swirled around, I stepped forward and discovered that he was still alive. His wallet was on his chest, and I took a few seconds to find out his name was Kevin Vanden Berg.
I glanced around and saw that no one was paying us any attention so I immediately wheeled the gurney down the hallway and toward the elevators. I got to up to the third floor and Delta without any problem, and since it was fortunately late at night, I was able to try my experiment all on my own. I loaded Kevin gently into the scanner, even though it was a messy process with his open wounds. At one horrible moment his eyes flew open and he tried to say something but only blood gurgled out.
What? Scary? No, no – it was horrible because I thought he had died on me already. He hadn’t quite yet, but I had no time to lose. Once he was in place and injected with the colored isotope solution, I started Delta up and waited.
As usual, Delta began showing its crystal clear pictures of Kevin’s body, making his injuries especially apparent. With broken bones, collapsed lungs, organ damage, internal bleeding, and brain trauma, it was no wonder the doctors had determined him beyond help. After a few minutes, the EKG (which had been already faltering) began to jump and dance even more. This was it! Kevin was about to die! Breathlessly I watched the images. What would Delta show me about death?
At the moment Kevin flatlined, Delta suddenly showed a gaping black hole roughly where Kevin’s head should have been, an immensely dark hole ringed with light that seemed to be somehow flowing into the hole. Upon closer examination, though, it was the converse – the hole was flowing outwards. After a few seconds of this, a face appeared in this hole. A face of such malevolency and hatred that I took a step back, especially when it seemed to notice me. In a glance I saw fangs, an incredibly wide flat nose, and thin, red glowing eyes, all framed by a narrow gray face with tiny stubby ears. This face looked at me, and then looked back into the hole. With a jerk of his head that even at the time seemed to indicate “Come with me,” he looked back at me and started to climb out of the screen’s hole and into the control room.
With an impossible number of spidery arms and legs crawling out at me, and with dozens more of the evil faces appearing behind the first, I confess I panicked. I ran blindly out of the control room and into the main hallway, hearing skittering sounds of hard limbs on the floor tiles. I punched the elevator controls as you’re not supposed to do, and when the doors opened, I jumped inside just as two of the creatures tumbled out of Delta Research. They caught glimpse of me and chittered in a high-pitched painful tone that turned my knees to jelly. I sank to the elevator floor, and as the doors closed just in time, I saw them rush up angrily. As the elevator went up, I could hear their furious scratching on the third floor doors.
The rest I think you all know. How these creatures not only slaughtered personnel and patients throughout all the hospital, but have spread into the city beyond. Ferocious and voracious, and immune to most weapons, they hunt out all living creatures to shred and eat them in a flash. They can’t get through basic barriers of glass or metal easily, and they don’t like cold. And, yes, that’s we’re down here in the morgue among all the dead. But once they find their prey, they don’t give up until the prey is decimated.
Listen. We don’t have much time. They’re coming. You can hear their claws skittering in the hallway outside. But you should know before you die just how sorry I am. I thought you should know.
