Chapter 26
The next morning arrived as the surgeon was reviewing Edward’s chart. Even the doctors had come to despise the administrator but at the same time, none of them dared to speak up about his propensity for cruelty. He approached the surgeon with a demeanor that commanded attention. The surgeon looked up from the chart and found the administrator leaning against the desk while making a heavy degree of eye contact.
“Good morning, doctor,” he said.
“Good morning, sir,” the surgeon replied.
The administrator looked back at Edward.
“So,” he began. “You’re gonna be working on my buddy, Edward?”
The surgeon again paged through the chart.
“Yes, sir,” he answered. “It looks like we’ll be removing his right kidney this morning.” “Excellent,” the administrator replied.
He then got the surgeon’s attention again.
“Doctor, you got a minute?” he asked.
He motioned the surgeon over to a place away from the desk.
“I don’t want this one getting any propofol,” he said.
The surgeon’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Excuse me, sir,” he replied.
“You heard me, doctor,” said the administrator.
“Sir, I can’t operate on someone without administering an anesthetic,” the surgeon argued. “I took an oath.”
The administrator walked him a bit further from the desk.
“Listen, Doctor!” he began.
He didn’t like to be contradicted or challenged and considered his word to be inarguable.
“I don’t give a fuck about your oath! Now, I have a buyer for that kidney and this one has already been chemically paralyzed. And I want him alert when he gets back here. So, I’m giving you an order. No propofol! Am I understood, doctor?”
The surgeon tried his best to hide his anger.
“Yes, sir,” he answered.
The administrator walked away from what he considered a closed issue. But the Doctor had other ideas as he left the unit for surgery.
Edward had spent the night drifting back and forth between the reality of wakefulness and the hazy state of near sleep. The stress of having no control over his own body together with the terror of his imminent dissection left him frightened to the edge of his sanity. To make things worse, the administrator had returned for another visit. He sat down resting his elbows on the side rail.
“Wakey, wakey!” he began. “So, Edward, sleep okay last night? I don’t know about you, but I sleep pretty well knowing that I’m taking useless people out of society and putting them to good use.”
He chuckled a bit as he nudged Edward’s arm. Edward lay motionless on the bed. His only expression of awareness was the flush of anger that came over his face when the administrator taunted him.
“So, Edward” he began. “Today’s an important day. You are about to donate a kidney in order to help fund the government. When you come back we’ll have a dialysis machine ready…just in case something starts to go wrong with the other one. Don’t worry Edward. We’ll take good care of you.”
He turned around to see that the surgical transport team had arrived.
“Well Edward looks like your ride is here. I’ll come visit you when you get back.”
He got up and started out of the room, but slowed down as he walked past the transport team.
“Alright guys, he’s all yours. But, be careful with him. Got it?”
He continued to walk out of the unit as the transport team entered the room. With the help of the nurses, the bed and ventilator were rolled out of the room as Edward was carefully moved to surgery. And within the space of ten minutes, he was being rolled into the surgical suite where the surgeon waited with a small team of nurses and technicians.
Edward was moved over to the surgical table and placed on an inflatable mattress. He had rolled on his left side in order to expose the right side of his body. His right knee had been brought up and he had been turned at a forty degree angle. This was the position most often used for the removal of a kidney. After the IV bags had been hung and the ventilator was moved into place, the anesthesiology nurse noticed the bag of succinylcholine, a common paralytic.
“What the hell is this?” she asked.
Her eyes immediately went to the surgeon with a look of disbelief.
“Everyone put on your masks,” the surgeon said. Although he had his back to the door, he could feel the administrator watching through the glass. The surgical team’s conversation was muted by the sounds of machinery. The masks would keep the administrator from attempting to read their lips.
“Everyone, listen up,” the surgeon began. “We have a little problem with our fearless leader out there. First, I know the administrator is watching. So, don’t look at the window. Second, no emotional reactions -- I don’t want to raise his suspicions.”
He asked everyone to continue working as he spoke.
“Alright, here’s the problem. The administrator has this guy on a paralytic drip and doesn’t want him getting any propofol.”
The anesthesiology nurse was hanging a drape over Edward’s shoulder and paused to absorb what she’d just heard.
“Fuck that,” she said. “I’m not doing this.”
“Nurse,” the surgeon began. “Keep going. I’ve got this covered.”
He then directed his attention to the surgical technician standing at the instrument table.
“Okay, you,” he said. “Without be seen, I want you to draw up ten cc’s of propofol. Cap the needle, wrap it in a sterile towel and put it in a small basin.”
He then directed his assistant to stand between him and the anesthesiology nurse as the surgical technician turned and slid the basin under the drape.
“Alright,” he continued. “Everyone with me?”
A brief moment of silence passed among the team. “Good,” he said. “I know this dose is only good for about half an hour, but we can spare this guy at least a bit of suffering.”
“Doctor,” the surgical technician said.
“He’s not gonna be out for the entire procedure.”
“I know,” the surgeon replied. “This is the best we can do.”
“But, doctor…” the technician began.
“Look,” the surgeon replied. “We all know why we’re here. If there were real jobs out there, we wouldn’t be doing this. Now, at least he won’t feel the initial incision. So, focus everyone.”
He instructed the anesthesiology nurse to inject the drug into Edward’s IV line while having her hands under the drape. They watched Edward’s heart rate and blood pressure on the monitor.
“His numbers are beginning to drop,” the nurse said.
“Good,” the surgeon replied. “He’s out.”
When Edward’s vital signs had become stable the surgeon began by making a twelve-inch incision down his right side. After cutting away a few muscles, the surgeon cat and removed the two lowest ribs in order to gain access to the kidney. The incision was then held open with a pair of stainless steel retractors. Roughly thirty minutes into the procedure, Edward’s blood pressure and heart rate began to rise.
“Doctor,” the nurse said. “His vitals are going up.” The surgeon glanced up at the monitor.
“Shit!” he said. “He’s coming out of the anesthetic.”
The anesthesiology nurse requested another ten cc’s of propofol.
“Wait,” the surgeon said. “Is the administrator still watching?”
The surgical technician glanced up at the door to see the administrator’s face in the window.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“We can’t risk it,” the surgeon said.
The anesthesiology nurse looked up at him in horror.
“So, we’re just gonna let him suffer to cover our asses.
“Nurse, keep it down,” the surgeon ordered. “If he finds out that we put this guy out anyway, we’ll lose a lot more than just our jobs. We all know what he’s capable of. Now, let’s get this done.”
Everyone agreed to continue with the procedure.
Edward began to feel himself slipping back into reality. For a brief moment, he almost thought he was waking from a horrific nightmare. But, as he drifted back into consciousness, Edward was jolted by a sudden burst of pain like a hot branding iron being pushed against his right side. His mind screamed in agony as the surgeon continued cutting and pulling against his exposed flesh. Somewhere through the pain, Edward experienced a visceral sensation as the surgeon separated his kidney from the surrounding tissue and lifted it out of his body. Edward was certain he was about to die. But at the same time, prayed for a hasty release from the surgical disembowelment he was being forced to undergo. During the two hour procedure, the exquisite degree of pain Edward endured caused him to see colors and shapes drifting into his vision. This, however, would not be the last time Edward would be forced to experience such torture as the administrator seemed to now be fixated on directing all his anger and cruelty at him.
As the surgeon began to close Edward’s incision, the administrator was seen at the window grinning just before he turned and walked away. After he left, the surgeon ordered that ten cc’s of morphine be slowly pushed into his IV. This was done to minimize his postoperative pain assuming the administrator would order the paralytic drip be continued and in spite of the fact that he had just lived through the removal of a kidney while nearly fully conscious. As Edward was being rolled out of the surgical suite, the surgeon looked on feeling sick at heart over, not simply what he’d just done, but of the entire process. He’d become a participant in the elimination of those deemed unfit, unworthy, or undesirable. In any other setting, he would certainly be sent to prison for at least ten years. But, dissecting his fellow human beings apparently sat well with the collective conscience of a system that would otherwise condemn his actions. The administrator, however, was in complete lack of any moral compass. From the very outset, he had chosen Edward as his pet project. Perhaps it was out of boredom or the twisted pleasure he felt from exercising his cruel nature. But, there existed a silent consensus among the staff that some things were best left alone.
The surgical team moved Edward back to the unit and, as expected, the administrator was waiting at the doorway of the room. He stood by as the bed was rolled back in. Approaching the surgeon, he inquired as to the outcome of the procedure.
“So, doctor,” he began. “How did my friend Edward do?”
The doctor was just finishing a surgical note when he paused to answer the administrator’s question. “Pretty straightforward… right radical nephrectomy. No complications and not a lot of blood loss.”
The administrator nodded his head and glanced back at Edward.
“And is he alert?” the administrator asked.
He wanted Edward back conscious and alert.
“Well, it’s hard to say,” the doctor answered. “With the paralytic on-board, he’s not exactly gonna be following commands. But, I gave him ten cc’s of morphine for postoperative pain. So, even if he could respond his senses would be significantly dulled.”
“Excuse me,” the administrator began. “You gave him morphine?!”
The surgeon looked up at him quizzically. “Morphine is one of the standard drugs for post-op pain,” he said.
Upon hearing this, the administrator became furious.
“Did I fucking give you permission to administer morphine?!” he yelled. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, doctor, but we don’t exactly heal the sick around here!”
The administrator’s temper exploded as he continued to scream in the doctor’s face.
“And I told you I wanted him alert,” he screamed. The surgeon had reached the limit of his tolerance for the administrator’s psychopathic cruel streak.
“Understood, sir,” the surgeon responded. “Perhaps next time I should take a different approach.”
Now, the surgeon spoke in whispered sarcasm.
“What if I dissect you while you’re still awake? Maybe gender reassignment, so everyone will know what you really are. A pussy.”
The administrator became uncontrollably livid as he struck the doctor across the face.
“You asshole!” he yelled. “No one talks to me like that!”
The staff stood by and watched in horror as the administrator’s rage peaked. As the doctor got up from the floor and tried to regain his senses the administrator stepped forward while reaching into his jacket. Perhaps it was due to paranoia, but he always had a ten cc syringe of haloperidol tucked in the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He took it out and quickly uncapped the needle. And as the enraged doctor put his hands around his throat, the administrator drove the needle into his stomach. The doctor immediately became frozen with pain as the administrator pushed him back onto the desk.
“Ya know, I don’t actually need you. I mean, I can always get another organ jockey,” he said with a grin.
He pushed the needle in deeper and began injecting the doctor with the powerful sedative. The doctor’s eyes began tearing up as he starting grinding his teeth.
“Yeah,” the administrator said. “I’ll bet that burns just a bit. Doesn’t it?”
He pulled the needle out and let the doctor fall to the floor. He then handed the now empty syringe to a nurse.
“Get rid of that,” he demanded. “And get Tony down here with a stretcher.”
Everyone knew what Tony’s job was and realized what was about to happen to the doctor. Some nurses retreated to the medication room where they burst into tears, while others continued to look on in horror.
Tony soon arrived with a stretcher as the doctor lay unconscious on the floor.
“What the fuck?” he whispered to himself.
He looked around at the staff hoping for some small clue as to what had happened.
“What the hell happened?” he asked.
“Tony,” the administrator said. “Get rid of him.” The administrator stood pointing at Tony demandingly.
“Don’t ask any questions. Just do it!”
Tony could see that the doctor was very much alive and was horrified at the idea of incinerating a living person. It was easier when they were already dead. Tony continued to stare down at the doctor, unable to take his eyes away.
“Tony!” the administrator yelled.
He walked around the stretcher and stood at Tony’s side.
“Tony, I need you to do this!”
He waited a moment for a response.
“Fuck it! I’ll do it myself!” he said.
He shoved Tony aside and lowered one of the stretcher’s side rails.
“Can I get some help here!?”
Everyone stood frozen. They were too afraid not to help, but no one wanted to be responsible for committing an outright murder. And while many were disturbed by what the facility was doing, throwing a living person into a fire seemed like a completely different matter.
“Jesus Christ, never mind!”
The administrator picked up the now unconscious doctor under the arms and swung him onto the stretcher. Tony was still leaning against the desk trying to regain his senses as the administrator wheeled the doctor off the unit.
“I’m gonna be back in ten minutes and I want to see everyone doing their jobs!” he said.
A minute or two after the administrator left one of the nurses spoke up in a whisper.
“What the fuck do we do?” she said. “I don’t know about any of you, but I can’t just pretend that this didn’t happen!”
“That could have been any of us,” another nurse replied. They were all startled when the phone rang and after some hesitation, the unit nurse answered it.
“Unit four,” she said.
She listened as the uneasy voice of the dispatcher conveying something no one wanted to hear. After hanging up the phone, the nurse turned to the staff with an expression of both fear and deep concern. “The facility is under administrative lockdown,” she said. “No one gets in or out.”
Tony suddenly looked up at the unit nurse.
“So, what the fuck are we supposed to do?” he asked. “Wait ‘til he kills someone else?”
“We have to get out of here!” said another nurse.
“Wait,” the unit nurse said. “He can’t kill all of us. At least, not at the same time.”
“What’s your point?” asked Tony.
“I have an idea,” the nurse said. “Anyone who doesn’t want to do this doesn’t have to.”
She quickly explained that the administrator could be drugged. But, in order to do this, more than one person would have to conceal the drug so as to raise their chances of sedating him. The nurse asked for volunteers and five of the staff stepped up. The unit nurse quickly filled five ten cc syringes with haloperidol. The administrator couldn’t fight off five people at once. And as long as a person was able to give the injection, the administrator would likely drop like a stone.
The syringes were given out and concealed just as the administrator walked back onto the unit. The staff quickly busied themselves while trying to mask their fear. The administrator went straight to Edward’s room where a nurse was recording his vital signs.
“When will he be alert?” he asked.
He was still angry that the doctor had not only given Edward morphine but had the audacity to embarrass him in front of the staff.
“Maybe another hour, sir,” the nurse answered.
The administrator was clearly agitated as a palatable degree of tension grew heavy among the staff. But, they had a plan. All that was needed was for one person to gain the element of surprise. “Fuck!” he yelled.
He was quickly losing control and began threatening the nurse.
“If he’s not with it in an hour, I’m gonna fuckin’ toss you in with the doctor, got it?!”
The nurses’ eyes widened in terror as the administrator ground his teeth together in frustration and rage.
He turned to leave. But unbeknownst to him, Tony had quietly positioned himself around the corner of the doorway. And as the administrator began to cross the threshold, Tony launched himself at him with a needle tipped syringe. Although the administrator had placed the facility on lockdown in order to retain control over the staff he never imagined them to act against him, especially after making an example of the doctor.
Tony sunk the needle deep into the administrator’s side with a suddenness that caught him completely off guard. He grabbed Tony by the throat as he injected the sedative and spoke through clenched teeth.
“Tony,” he said. “I didn’t think you had the balls.” As the administrator sunk to the floor, he was immediately surrounded by those who also carried an injection. They attacked him with the ferocity of a pack of wolves, each stabbing him with a needle mounted syringe, pushing the sedative into his body. Within the space of only a few minutes, the administrator was dead and with syringes in hand, the staff backed slowly toward the desk. In the midst of a heavy silence, the unit nurse was the first to speak.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” she said quietly. “What the hell do we do now?”
“We should get rid of the body,” another nurse said.
They stood looking at each other waiting for someone to say something.
“I’ll do it,” Tony said.
He had become silently overwhelmed by his hatred of the administrator and quickly volunteered to dispose of his body. A stretcher was brought from an equipment room and the unit nurse assisted Tony in lifting the body and placing it on the stretcher. Without so much as a word, Tony rolled the stretcher of the unit toward the incinerator. He slid the body in by way of a set of steel rollers, closed the doors and ignited the gas burners. The incinerator roared to life as Tony turned to leave the room. Upon entering the unit, all eyes were suddenly on him as if looking for some assurance that things were now under control. But, the situation was far from being under control.
“It’s done,” said Tony. “Now, what?”
After a moment of silent bewilderment, a young nurse spoke up.
“I don’t know about any of you, but I’m leaving. I’ll go to the west coast or the midwest. But, I’m not staying here.”
“We’re in lockdown, remember?” Tony said.
“Maybe I can do something about that,” the unit nurse said.
The dispatcher did more than communicate with the ambulances. It was also their job to coordinate security. The unit nurse called the dispatcher on duty. Her name was Lana and although she had a strong confident voice, underneath she was neither strong nor confident. And she was terrified of the administrator. Lana picked up the line.
“Dispatch, can I help you?”
Under stress, her voice became somewhat unsteady. This was especially the case when the administrator was nearby examining her as though she was nothing more than a side of beef.
“Lana, this is unit four,” the nurse said.
“I need you to take the facility out of lockdown. Do you understand?”
“I can’t do that,” Lana said. “Do you what the administrator would do to me? He’s the only one who can authorize that!”
She was terrified of even the idea of acting against his orders.
“Lana,” the unit nurse replied. “The administrator’s dead. Now, unlock the building.”
Lana started to become emotional.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
A moment went by as the nurse carefully composed her response.
“Lana,” she began. “It happened here. He became violent. We had to stop him.”
Another moment went by.
“Lana, are you still there?”
“Oh my God,” Lana said tearfully.
“Lana,” the nurse said gently. “You can get as far from this place as you want. But first, I want you to take us out of lockdown.”
“What about the rest of the staff?” Lana asked. “What about all those people?”
“We’ll take care of that,” the nurse answered.
“Just get us out of lockdown. Okay?”
Lana began to calm down and took a few moments to gather her strength. She didn’t fully believe the administrator was dead. He’d made her life miserable, but secretly no one wanted to see him dead more than her.
“Okay,” she answered.
Lana reached under her desk and flipped a switch.
“Alright, it’s done,” she said.
She didn’t wait for a reply from the nurse, but picked up her purse and ran out of the building.
“Lana…” the nurse said.
She looked around at the staff with a bewildered expression.
“I think she left.”
“Are we out of lockdown?” another nurse asked. “Yeah…” the unit nurse answered.
“Fantastic,” Tony began. “I’m getting the fuck outta here!”
Edward’s nurse spoke up.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “We can’t just leave. What about all these people? We can’t just let them die!”
“Look,” Tony said. “They’re just shells now! What kinda chance do you think they’re gonna have?”
“Well, I’m not killing anyone!” she answered.
“We already have!” Tony replied.
“But he deserved it!” she yelled.
“Alright!” the unit nurse interrupted. “Let’s keep our heads on straight! Okay! Now, everyone calm down!”
Her words were met with silence as everyone struggled to maintain their composure.
“Now, what about Edward?” she asked.
“Well…” Edward’s nurse began. “He just came into the system. He’s only had a kidney taken.”
Edward was still in a morphine haze and unable to comprehend the conversation taking place just outside his room. A long silence fell over the staff. “So, what do we do?” asked Tony.
“Tell him he can just get up and leave? I know, we’ll take him to Maine Med and drop him off in the parking lot!”
The staff was at a complete loss for suggestions. Tony pointed towards Edward’s room.
“If he leads someone back here, we’re done. And I’m not going to prison!”
“So we’re gonna kill him just to save ourselves?” Edward’s nurse replied.
She quickly became disgusted with the idea of sacrificing someone who still had a chance to live their life.
“Nurse…” the unit nurse said.
Edward’s nurse suddenly turned to make eye contact with her.
“Go home.”
The young nurse looked around at the rest of the staff in horror.
“You’re really gonna do this, aren’t you?”
The rest of the staff stood with their eyes cast down to the floor in shame of what they were about to do.
“I’m not doing this!” Edward’s nurse said. “You people can cover your own asses.”
With these words, she stormed off the unit and left the building.
“Should I go after her?” Tony asked.
“No,” answered the unit nurse. “Let her go.”
“Let her go!?” Tony asked. “Are you fuckin’ crazy?! What if she goes to the police?”
“She won’t,” another nurse said.
“Oh, and how do you know this?” Tony asked.
“Because if she does, she’s gonna be the first to get cuffed. And she knows that.”
The unit nurse picked up the phone.
“What are you doing?!” Tony asked.
“I’m calling the other units,” the unit nurse answered. “The rest of the staff needs to know what happened.”
“Why?!” Tony argued.
“Because everyone else has the right to decide what they want to do!”
She called each unit, telling them what had happened to the administrator and that whoever wanted to leave could. Everyone not only wanted to leave but felt that there was no crime abandoning those whom they considered being already dead. The unit nurse hung up the phone.
“That’s it,” she said.
“So what now?” one of the staff asked.
“Cut the power,” Tony suggested.
“That’ll kill everyone!” a young nurse.
The staff was horrified at the idea of allowing so many people to simply die. After all, they were still people.
“I hate to say it,” said the unit nurse. “But that sounds like the most humane way to do this. And Edward over there’s still paralyzed and intubated. And he’s got enough morphine on board that he’ll never know what happened.”
A male nurse spoke up and asked the one question nobody wanted to answer.
”So, who’s gonna do this? Who’s gonna go cut the power?”
A moment of tense silence lapsed over the staff. Nobody wanted to be responsible for ending so many lives.
“I’ll do it,” Tony said. “I know where the main switches are anyway.”
The unit nurse looked at him with deep concern.
“Tony, you don’t have to do this, ya know,” she said.
“Yeah,” he replied. “But, I don’t see anybody else steppin’ up. And what else are we supposed to do?”
Tony hesitated as he began to leave the unit.
“Oh, once the power is out the facility goes into automatic lockdown. So everyone should leave the building. You've got fifteen minutes.”
As Tony left, the unit nurse quickly picked up the phone to update the other units. No one answered. She hung up and looked around at the few remaining staff.
“Everyone’s gone,” she said. “They left already.”
She knew that everyone equally hated the administrator, but she honestly didn’t expect that the entire staff would leave so quickly. Apparently, she concluded, people found it relatively easy to walk away without so much as a flicker of conscience. But, as unsettling as this was, she would also leave along with the rest of the unit staff. Once Tony cut the power, those who remained would quickly find themselves in the dark with at least three hundred dead. And the batteries in the emergency lights would run down after only a few hours. Beyond that, there would only be the cold unforgiving blackness and absolute silence bound together with the wandering souls of the abundant dead.
Tony made to the sub-basement, two floors beneath the unit and six floors underground. He first located the nearest stairwell and left it ajar with a large can of paint. He would first have to disable the generators in order to ensure that the power would be permanently cut. As he entered the generator room, he found a flashlight. It was touch activated and turned on as soon as he picked it up. He found the touch display of the master switch. Although he was a disposal technician, he also worked in maintenance and knew the shutdown codes for the main power and generator override switches. The display lit up as soon as he touched it. A numerical panel flashed up on the display and Tony punched in the override code. Upon pushing the enter button, a warning light came up with a confirmation display. The digital junction boxes that distributed power from the generators went offline as soon as Tony confirmed the power out warning. He made his way to the main relays that distributed power from the incoming high voltage line to every section of the facility. He brought up their displays and punched in the over-rid