#shil0wallace

SURGERY IS ROUTINE. Just another Monday. Scrub up. Pre-op. Zydrate and anatomy.

Dan lost count of the number of surgeries he has attended about seven bypasses ago. Twenty-six hour shifts and no sleep, caffeine-addled brain struggling to keep up -- the bodies begin to look the same. It’s around 5 AM when they finally cut the doctor loose from the operating room.

The surgeon wastes no time stumbling down the hospital’s steps into the back lot to get some fresh air.

You would think that the hospital was a safe haven – the people there will save your life, patch you up, replace your liver. Funnily enough, it reminds Dan of a watering hole. All the animals drinking from the same pool, including the beasts. Repo Men with their sharp tools and God complex prowling the edges for the weak.

Exhausted and irritated, the surgeon finds a clean spot on the sidewalk to sit. Botfly maggots squirm before him on the pavement, sucking at the decomposition left behind from all the fallen bodies. 

If I get this stuff on my shoes I swear I'm gonna kill somebody. Struggling with the gas pump was always an inconvenience. The days when common courtesy was a rule and gas station residents would appear at the side of the car, ready to assist in filling the tank, were almost obsolete. Tiffany wrinkled her nose at the smell as fuel pumped into the vehicle, keeping watch of the dispenser while the numbers continuously rose up. Cursing under her breath as it went over a few extra cents, she removed the pump and placed it back where it came from, eyes darting to the gas station where the guy with the baseball cap was still immersed in reading his newspaper. How tempting it was to just drive away without paying. She probably would have, had she not been drawn to the pair of eyes scrutinizing her from several yards away. Probably the owners daughter. Great.

Scoffing quietly, she stepped carefully around the car and reached into the passenger seat for her purse. Then, turning to find the eyes still fixated on her. --“Too much sugar will rot your teeth.”