Sarita closed her mouth, but shook her head again at the madness she was witnessing. Offering indignities to a corpse was an indictable offense in Canada and what they were doing seemed to fit that description. Unfortunately, this was not Canada and she had no idea what the laws were here in Venezuela. She'd certainly be looking into it the first chance she got, though, Sarita decided.
"Time!" Dr. Dressler snapped and quickly opened the roller clamp on the IV next to him, before rushing around the table to do the same on the second IV. Blood immediately began to race down the tubes toward the corpse's arms, but Sarita hardly noticed that-she was too busy watching with horror as Asherah poked a hole in the bag of blood she held, and allowed the crimson liquid to gush out over the body where the two halves were now pressed together.
"Dear God," Sarita breathed with a disgust that only increased when Dr. Dressler now grabbed a second scalpel and another bag of blood off those remaining on the wheeled tray and punctured it over the corpse's face. Blood immediately began to flow into the funnel fixed in the corpse's mouth.
Clenching her fists, Sarita stood to the side, revulsion curling her stomach as she watched the pair's actions. She was starting to wish with all her heart that she was a police officer in Venezuela instead of Canada and could arrest the mad doctor and his equally crazy assistant. She had no idea what they thought they would achieve with this lunacy, but-
Sarita's thoughts died abruptly as the corpse's eyes suddenly popped open and he began to shriek. Or tried to. What came out was a raspy gurgle as he tried to scream around the liquid pouring down his throat. It forced some of the blood back out in a small spurt that splashed over Dr. Dressler.
"You forgot the tube, Asherah," Dr. Dressler accused harshly, but quickly added, "Don't stop what you're doing!"
Asherah had started to lift away the bag of blood she was holding over the wound at Dr. Dressler's first words, but stopped at once when he ordered her not to.
"Sarita, there should be a length of tube on the counter along the wall behind me. Fetch it for me," Dr. Dressler ordered sharply as he continued to let the blood pour down the throat of the man she'd thought was dead, but who was now screaming his head off and shooting the blood back out of his mouth as he did.
Stunned now by what was happening, Sarita did as asked, found the mentioned tubing and took it to Dr. Dressler. When she reached his side though, he nodded toward the tray. "Grab another bag of blood."
Turning, she picked up the bag and offered it to him. He took it with one hand, waited a heartbeat for the one he already held to empty, then tossed it aside and moved the fresh bag over the mouth.
"Hold this," Dr. Dressler commanded once he'd punctured the new bag as he had the first.
Sarita hesitated, but then moved around to the opposite side of the table and took over holding the new bag of blood. Her hands were trembling, she noted, but she did her best to hold the bag steady and ground her teeth together as the corpse continued to scream, sending most of the blood shooting back up through and around the funnel and onto her and the doctor both now. But a moment later Dr. Dressler was feeding a tube through the funnel and down the man's throat. The tube, apart from ensuring the blood got to his stomach, also appeared to hamper his ability to scream. The moment several inches had been fed through the funnel, his screams stopped.
Quite sure the action was only adding to the man's pain, Sarita had to look away and shifted her gaze down to Asherah rather than watch. The assistant was tossing aside the first bag she'd cut open, but quickly grabbed and opened another over where his body was split in half. Sarita shook her head, unable to believe what was happening.
Dr. Dressler finished inserting the feeding tube, but didn't then take back the bag of blood she held as Sarita expected. Instead, he hung two fresh bags from the IV stands next to the ones already in use. It drew her attention to the fact that both bags were already half-empty. IVs usually didn't work that quickly in her experience. All she could think was that the catheter must be larger than the standard. She had no idea what it might be doing to the corpse's veins though.
The very thought made Sarita give her head a shake. The man obviously wasn't a corpse. Corpses didn't move and scream. But he should be a corpse. He'd been cut in half for God's sake. That thought kept running through her head as she held bag after bag over his mouth while Asherah did the same over his wound and Dr. Dressler manned the IVs and fetched fresh blood from the refrigerator as needed.
Sarita was holding her sixth bag and beginning to think this would go on forever when Asherah suddenly growled, "Time."