Waking the Zed - By ML Katz Page 0,3

lip was the only thing that would keep her from making an ill-chosen response if she had much longer to wait.

Dr. Klein took her time, moving her head as she considered each of the frozen capsules. “I think Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Bell will be the best choices,” she finally said. Her head moved up and down in a determined nod. “They were both under fifty when they came to us. Poor Mr. Barnes crashed his small plane and couldn’t be revived. Dear Mrs. Bell was hurt in a freak skiing accident, though otherwise she was quite healthy.” She turned back to Pam. “Did you know that she had once tried out for the US Olympic team? Her death was quite tragic.”

Without waiting for an answer, Dr. Klein nodded and continued, “I need you to wheel in a tank marked Serum A. You will find it in the large cooler just outside this room. Be careful with it and remember that this is quite a big opportunity for you. Deserving or not, you may actually learn quite a bit today. Do you think you can handle it?”

“Sure,” Pam said, “I can handle the tank. I know how to move heavy things.”

As she turned on her heel, she had to bite back a snort. Sure, it’s quite a big opportunity to learn to handle a hand truck. Still, she was relieved to leave the company of her eccentric boss and her shiny capsules full of dead people, if even for a moment.

Since Pamela had chosen to study human pathology, she had no particular problem with cadavers. She had certainly worked with them before in order to gain skills she believed she could use to help living people. She believed that if her work helped living people, and she showed proper respect, she would honor the dead who had donated their bodies to science as a final gift.

And even though Pamela was already two years into her pathology PH.D., she had no problem performing manual labor. Raised on a working farm in Iowa, she had become used to hard work at an early age. It usually invigorated and revived her. Seeing a field full of healthy growing produce that she had helped plow and plant satisfied her as much as the addition of her name to a paper published in a prestigious journal.

Pam Stone was no squeamish ninny.

These days Pamela mostly immersed herself in school and science, but sometimes she only felt truly alive when she had some hard physical task to perform. In fact, Pamela had considered taking a low paying summer job on a therapeutic ranch instead of this internship just because she thought she would enjoy it more. She had no problems working with the dead, but only if her work might actually help the living. She had certainly hesitated before taking this internship, but in the end she had let her shrunken bank account and her advisor’s advice prevail. An internship with the notable Dr. Klein would be a star on her resume later. Ridiculously generous paychecks would allow her to keep her nice apartment and stave off more debt.

She found the fifteen gallon tank in the cooler. It had been clearly marked as Serum A in Dr. Klein’s usual meticulous way. Of course, the label told her nothing about what the tank contained.

Filled, Pam estimated that the tank weighed almost a hundred and fifty pounds. Still, she did not experience summers on a working farm without learning how to use tools to move heavy objects. With the right tools and techniques a sturdy young woman could perform most jobs as well as a much stronger guy. She rolled the heavy tank with practiced ease onto the platform of a hand truck. Then she wheeled it back to the laboratory. She had no idea why Dr. Klein wanted to experiment with a new blood replacement solution, but supposed the doctor simply wanted to find a better way to preserve the frozen remains.

After she returned to the preservation room, Pam assisted the doctor as she replaced the permanent serum feed with a temporary hose from the tank. They started with Mr. Barnes. When Dr. Klein was satisfied with the temporary feed she instructed Pam to do the same for Mrs. Bell.

The old solution slowly dripped from an outlet into drains on the steel tiled floor. As the new liquid replaced the old liquid the tanks grew slightly darker. They also seemed to pick up a faint pinkish glow from