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Chapter XXXVI pg. 237
Doctor Heckleweit checked Johanna’s pulse. Twenty-five beats per minute. He’d hoped that it would drop faster. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Johanna’s room when she actually died. A few minutes later, he checked it again. Twenty-three. Then twenty. He entered Maria’s code into the monitoring equipment, increased the speed of the drip, and disconnected the audible alarm. Then he left the room, planning to wait another few minutes before calling the orderlies to remove the body. Johanna could do nothing but dream.
Underneath the suffocating blanket of mud, Johanna flailed her arms around. She drew a breath, inhaling slime. Her throat choked. She tried to cough, and her lungs just shut down. Her hand, thrashing in panic, bore down on a hard object. She felt something claw-like - and then a slender curved shape, like a string of beads. And then she felt fire all through her arm as the scorpion bore down on her fingers with the tip of his tail. She was dying. Johanna knew that. Her last act would be one of kindness. She reached for him, and holding his stinger pinched between her hands, she thrust upward toward air and life. I wonder if he made it, she thought, and then there was only blackness.
Chapter XXXVI pg. 237
Doctor Heckleweit checked Johanna’s pulse. Twenty-five beats per minute. He’d hoped that it would drop faster. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Johanna’s room when she actually died. A few minutes later, he checked it again. Twenty-three. Then twenty. He entered Maria’s code into the monitoring equipment, increased the speed of the drip, and disconnected the audible alarm. Then he left the room, planning to wait another few minutes before calling the orderlies to remove the body. Johanna could do nothing but dream.
Underneath the suffocating blanket of mud, Johanna flailed her arms around. She drew a breath, inhaling slime. Her throat choked. She tried to cough, and her lungs just shut down. Her hand, thrashing in panic, bore down on a hard object. She felt something claw-like - and then a slender curved shape, like a string of beads. And then she felt fire all through her arm as the scorpion bore down on her fingers with the tip of his tail. She was dying. Johanna knew that. Her last act would be one of kindness. She reached for him, and holding his stinger pinched between her hands, she thrust upward toward air and life. I wonder if he made it, she thought, and then there was only blackness.
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