Chapter Three: When is surgery more fitting than autopsy

Alicia performs autopsies and surgery while Kris has another appointment with Dr. Horns. Tae and Theo hang out.

Kris threw herself into a chair in Horns’ office, resting her mitts against her abdomen. “Good afternoon, doc,” Kris said wryly. “I wish we talked more at our last appointment.”

            Horns smiled sympathetically, folding his hands on his desk. “From your tone, I am sure you are upset that we didn’t talk more. My apologies, but I knew it would take a while to get you settled in to Flare. Furthermore, I have a rather tight schedule, so I am sorry I couldn’t see you sooner.”

            Kris forced a smile and waved a hand. “It’s fine. I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of each other in the next few weeks.”

            Horns nodded, certainly detecting the word few in Kris’ statement. “Great, then let’s talk,” Horns said. “How are you adjusting to Flare?”

            “Well? I’m very curious about the other people in here, but the regulations and schedule is nice. Comforting you could say.”

            “Comforting?”

            Kris shrugged, explaining, “I used live with strict parents who used schedules and stuff. So, it’s comforting, a little, to be reminded of my childhood. Or at least, I’m familiar with it.”

            “Interesting,” Horns commented, writing something down.

            Kris stiffened, knowing that Horns was getting more out of this conversation than her. She jumped to change the subject. “What’s up with Mø?”

            Horns looked up, quirking an eyebrow. “Hmm? His circumstances have no effect on you. I am not allowed to discuss other patients with you.”

            “Come on,” Kris replied in a needling voice. “He seems great. If I become friends with him, he could help my recovery.”

            “Then you can learn things about him, from him, to become even better friends,” Horns said shortly.

            Kris smiled at his furrowed brow, happy to know she was irritating him. She decided to keep it going. “You know you guys have criminals in here? How do you expect us to feel safe when people who have violent tendencies and powers are here?”

“They are kept mostly separate from the others, you shouldn’t be concerned. They are being rehabilitated.”

Kris wondered how true that statement was. Maybe Horns would be less forthcoming than she thought. “You should spend less time thinking about others,” Horns continued. “And more about why you are here and how you can get better.”

            Kris huffed, realizing that the fun was over. “Alright, what do you want me to do, doc?”

            “I think that when your feelings of guilt arise, you should challenge them with the truth. Whenever you think about that man’s death, remind yourself that venom killed him, a snake killed him, not you.”

            “I don’t know,” Kris said with a sigh. “It’s debilitating in the moment. To fight it is like fighting a tsunami.”

            “I know it is hard,” Horns reassured, leaning forward. “But it possible. You just need to keep at it.”

            Kris nodded and muttered, “Okay.”

+++++

            Alicia stepped into the lab to see Pagel gathering all the dead mice onto a tray with gloved hands. “I have a new side quest for us, sir,” Alicia greeted cheerfully.

            He rolled his eyes as he faced her. “What is it?” He asked. “Most of today is going to be side projects.”

            Alicia pulled the bottle of moss out of her bag. “I found this at a robbery last night.”

            Pagel walked over and took it from her to examine it. “The one you guys failed to stop?”

            Pagel smirked at Alicia’s glare. “Yeah,” She answered tersely. “Anyways, this moss was used to make a hole in a cement building.”

            Nodding, he fetched a sample bag and put the bottle in it. “Impressive, do you think it’s a lichen?”

            Alicia shrugged, following him to the counter. “I don’t know, but I want it identified.”

            Pagel wrote on the bag. “Genetically or just by morphology?”

            “Both?” Alicia replied, taking back the bag to look at the moss again.

            It was pale green and looked like a carpet. Alicia was unsure if it could be identified by looks alone, even more so genetically because it grew so fast and seemed to be corrosive. “Start with morphology,” Alicia decided.

            “Erika knows a botanist,” Pagel said. “I could get in contact with them through her.”

            “Oh, Erika?” Alicia replied, wiggling her eyebrows.

            Pagel waved her away. “I have a life outside of work,” He answered, setting the bag on the closest counter. “And if I want to have a life tonight, we need to start working.”

            Putting on gloves, Alicia nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

            Picking up the tray of dead mice, Pagel handed it to her and asked, “You remember doing dissections in undergrad?”

            Alicia laughed. “In high school, maybe.”

            Pagel shook his head and grabbed some supplies. “That’ll have to do,” Pagel said, walking to the door. “Let’s go to the morgue.”

            He led Alicia down the hall to the elevator. Hitting the down button, the doors opened. They stepped in and Pagel swiped his card before pressing the B1. Moving down, Alicia noticed that there were several other basement floors. She wondered which one held the nuclear reactor responsible for Orange Day.

            The elevator stopped and its doors slid open. Pagel walked to one of the first doors in the stale hall. Opening it, he let Alicia go in first. The morgue was chilled. In bluish light, Alicia took in the ominous wall of doors. Behind those were experimental cadavers. There were a few metal gurneys for people to do research on the said corpses. Power tools waited in a glass cabinet, ready to be used.

            Alicia walked in and set the tray down on a gurney. Pagel set down the supplies beside the tray. “Let’s make this quick,” He said.

            He grabbed a mouse corpse and set it on his corkboard. Alicia counted the mice as Pagel pinned limbs spread out to the board. “All of them died?” Alicia asked, sounding disheartened.

            “Yes, it seems we decided to let them recover too late.”

            He grabbed a scalpel and carefully cut open the mouse’s abdomen. He pulled out its viscera with forceps. “Anything out of the ordinary?” He asked.

            Alicia spotted the problem right away. “The liver looks necrotic.”

            It was swollen and marbled. Pagel nodded approvingly. “The white looks like scar tissue, while the black should be dead tissue.”

            “Without a decently functioning liver, the mice must have died from toxin build-up from their own metabolic processes. Even if we gave them time to recover, they couldn’t have.”

            “Let’s double check by dissecting all the mice,” He added while pulling the pins out of the mouse’s paws.

            They cut open the rest to reveal the same issue with all of them, a bad liver. “So, Kris should not inject people multiple times in a short amount of time, or very much in general. She could still kill someone.”

            “You could give criminals punch cards,” Pagel joked dryly. “Fifty times and you die, beware.”

            Alicia smiled for his sake as he straightened his back. “Alright, time for you surprise.”

            “What do you mean?” Alicia asked, watching him go to the wall of doors.

            She froze in fear as he picked a door. Opening it, she felt relief wash over her. It was a just pig. “Come help me carry it over.”

            Alicia helped him pick up the dead pig and carry it to a gurney. “What are we doing with this guy?”

            “Practice Miss James’s surgery, of course.”

            Alicia could have guessed, but it didn’t lessen her nerves. Pagel handed her a scalpel, continuing, “We are going to practice the second half of her surgery by using this pig’s spleen as a stand in for her gland.”

            Clenching the scalpel, she gave him a determined look. “Okay, talk me through it.”

            Pagel rolled the pig onto its back, holding it in place. “Make an incision vertically down its abdomen. Cut it deep enough that you get through the skin, the superficial muscles, and the coelom.”

            “I’m pretty sure you don’t call it a coelom for mammals,” She commented, cautiously slicing open the pig.

            She traced over her cut several times until she could see its intestines. “Good, now we are going to use some expanders to hold open that incision. They are over by the mice.”

            Alicia walked over to the other gurney, picking up the pair of things that looked like clamps. She brought them back to the pig and put them at the ends of the incision. It gave her a hand’s width to work in. “You’re going to want to reach in there and move its spleen closer to the opening.”

            Feeling her stomach start to churn, Alicia shook her head. “It’ll be okay,” Pagel said, trying to reassure her. “If you can’t do this now, then Kris will never get her surgery and she’ll have unresolved trauma for the rest of her life.”

            “Jeez, okay,” Alicia said, hesitantly reaching in.

            “If you think this is bad, just wait until it’s alive… and human,” Pagel responded. “Now, the spleen will be below the liver, which is pretty much in the center below the rib cage. It is triangular, kind of like the human pancreas.”

              Alicia felt around, thinking everything felt the same. Her hands circled around an organ and she decided that it was the right one, carefully pulling it down to the opening. Pagel looked in and nodded. “Looks about right.”

            “Take a needle and drain out most of the fluid. There are maybe 150 milliliters, so go crazy.”

            Alicia took a needle from the supplies beside the mice and stuck it a little into the organ. She pulled out the fluid and set the needle aside. The spleen flattened. “Great, pretend it’s a balloon. Pull at the extra material and clamp it. We want two centimeters squared.”

            She nodded, grabbing a clamp. She pinched the organ and pulled at its exterior, clamping the extra material. She cut it with some space to spare.

            “In the actual surgery, we’ll have a solution to put that in. But for now, just set it aside with the forceps and stitch him up.”

            Picking up the forceps, she moved the bit of tissue onto the gurney. She proceeded to slowly sew the spleen back together before removing the clamp. “Give it a squeeze to make sure its tight enough.”

            Alicia held the organ in both hands and squished it. It sloshed as she released it, but it didn’t leak. “That is great, put it back and we’re done here.”

            “I’m going to sew up the skin too, for practice’s sake.”

            “Sure, go for it,” Pagel replied. “Once you’re done we can practice the permeability test on the tissue sample.”

+++++

            “Tae! Welcome, come in and meet my grandma,” Theo greeted, opening the door to his home.

            Tae stepped in, looking around the tidy, small house. He spotted that Theo was in socks and politely took off his shoes. “Theo, who’s at the door?” A woman called from a nearby room.

            Theo led Tae into their living room. “It’s Tae, Gran,” Theo answered.

            A white-haired lady sat on a floral couch, reading. She looked up to see Tae. “Oh, he’s so little!” Gran exclaimed, standing up.

            She shuffled over and hugged Tae. Tae was very aware that he was the same height as her. He smiled anyways and squeezed her tight. “Hello, Theo’s grandmother,” He said as he let go.

            She grabbed his hand and shook it with both of her hands. “You can call me Gran or Tilly or Gran Tilly,” She said cheerily.

            “Okay, Gran, it’s nice to meet you,” Tae responded.

            “Oh, he’s such a cutie,” Gran said before looking at Theo. “When did you two meet?”

            “Only a month or two ago,” Theo answered, wrapping his arm around his Gran. “He was in a show that I went to.”

            “What show?”

            “Twelfth Night, he played Olivia.”

            Gran cupped Tae’s face with warm, rough hands. “I love Shakespeare. I bet you were a lovely Olivia,” Gran complimented.

            With an embarrassed smile, Tae replied, “Thank you.”

            “Alright, Gran, we need to work,” Theo said. “He’s helping me with paperwork from my job.”

            Gran nodded. “Okay, but Tae should stay over for dinner.”

            “Of course,” Theo answered. “I’ll cook your favorite Gran, jambalaya.”

            She smiled, giving Theo a kiss on the cheek. She walked back to the couch. Sitting down, she picked her book back up. Theo nudged Tae and led him to his bedroom. Tae examined the space, spotting a nice wooden desk in the corner opposite to the bed. “Nice room,” He commented quietly.

            Tae hovered by the door as Theo leapt into action. “Thanks,” Theo said while pulling a foldout chair from the closet. “Hey, I should ask if you’re a vegetarian or have any dietary restrictions.”

            He shook his head, saying, “I’m fine with anything.”

            Theo set the chair by the desk, then pulled out his laptop from a drawer. He patted the seat of the chair while sitting in front of the desk. “Let’s get started,” Theo declared as he turned on his laptop.

            He paused, turning to Tae. “How should we do this actually?” He asked abashedly. “I mean, we talked about having a website, but how should we do it?”

            Tae cracked his knuckles. “I know a few tricks,” He admitted. “I can set up something in the dark web… If you know the URL and the passcode, then you can access the data.”

            “Amazing,” Theo said with a smile, pushing his computer towards Tae. “Go for it.”

            Tae started typing and Theo looked over his shoulder. A grey screen appeared. A simple text box was the only thing amidst the grey. “Done with that,” Tae said. “What should the passcode be?”

            “Illuminati confirmed?” Theo joked, getting a dry laugh out of Tae. “I don’t know, something to do with Orange Day.”

            “OrangeDay, two capital letters and no spaces, sound good?”

            Theo nodded and Tae typed. “I think we should organize people based on their affiliation, an ally to us or not.”

            “I think there should be a neutral category,” Theo said. “Some people don’t want to be heroes, but they aren’t criminals either.”

            Tapping on the keyboard, Tae nodded. “Fair, but do we know anyone in that category?”

            Theo thought, his forehead wrinkling. “Not yet? Let’s stay optimistic.”

            “What should we include? I’m thinking name, alias, and powers.”

            “We should also have current circumstances, or means of contacting them,” Theo suggested. “Like we could mention that Bam is in Flare or have Ruby’s phone number.”

            “Okay, let’s list everybody. Six team members, Burning Man, Bam, Mason, Gunfinger, Moss, the King, and Ruby. What is that, thirteen people? Not so bad.”

            Tae began typing intensely. “For now,” Theo commented. “But we’re only going to find more people.”