The Lazarus Impact Read Online Free PDF

my boys,” Sheryl responds, almost angry.
    “What about your husband?” the nurse asks. Sheryl doesn’t respond. They come upon a pair of light blue swinging double doors labeled morgue . “This is it. Are you sure you want to do this?” the nurse asks.
    “Yes,” she says as she pushes the door open, revealing a cold, clinical room, brightly lit with buzzing fluorescent tubes overhead. The back wall is a grid of square metal doors for holding the dead in cold temperatures to prevent decay. Six stainless steel tables are lined up side by side in the center of the room; on each is a body covered in wispy hospital linen. The nurse pushes a smaller shelf-like wheeled table filled with crude looking medical tools to the side, out of their way.
    “Stephen is here,” the nurse says as she approaches one of the freezer doors. “His torso was badly wounded in the accident. He died quickly, painlessly.” She opens the door and pulls Stephen out on the rolling metal slab fitted into the unit.
    Sheryl whimpers when the nurse peels back the sheet that covers Stephen’s face. He’s been cleaned and stripped of his clothing. “My baby,” she says as she moves her face close to his. I want so badly to kiss his forehead one last time . This goddamn gas mask ... She yanks it off in frustration and plants a soft kiss on him, over the nurse’s pleading objections and warnings.
    Suddenly an alarm bell rings in the hallway. It blares violently, rapidly, like a fire drill in high school. Sheryl puts her mask back on. “Where is BJ?” she asks. There’s yelling coming from down the hallway by the ER.
    “We have to go now, Mrs. Bassonnet. I’m sorry. There’s an emergency,” the nurse says, taking Sheryl by the arm and moving her quickly out of the morgue.
    “I need to say goodbye to my son!” Sheryl begs.
    “Not now. We can’t. I can’t let you be here alone. We need to get you back to your room. You shouldn't even be up.”
    The smashing sound of broken glass just behind them shatters their argument as a maintenance worker breaks open the emergency fire kit in the hallway to reach for the axe inside. He rushes past them and out the nearby exit, by the ambulance port.
    “What’s going on?” Sheryl asks.
    “It’s been crazy here all day. We have to get you back to your bed, and I need to get to work, okay?” The nurse says with force.
    Sheryl caves. “Okay."
    They move back through the hall at a brisk pace. The alarm continues to ring, constant, piercing. Sheryl tries to ignore it along with her aches and pains. Doctors and nurses are rushing all around the ER in a frantic panic. They are overwhelmed, understaffed, and unprepared for what’s happening.
    “I checked her pulse twice just a minute ago! She was gone,” one nurse argues with another just outside a curtained ER room.
    “Well she’s alive now,” the other snaps back.
    They hurry back to Sheryl’s room and her nurse runs off after Sheryl is safely in her bed.
    “What is Mr. Mortenson doing up?” Dr. Levy calls out in the hallway. “He needs to rest.”
    Sheryl gets up from her bed, confused. She peeks down the hall to see an old man shambling his way toward the nurse station in the middle of the run. Half naked, his ass hangs out of his hospital gown, which is in the process of falling off his body completely.
    Dr. Levy trots over to him and takes him by the arm. “Mr. Mortenson, come back to your room. You shouldn’t be up. Using all this energy to walk around will wipe you out because that dust is blocking the air from getting into your lungs.” Mr. Mortenson groans at him, unreceptive. “Tina, I don’t have time for this, I need to check on about twelve other patients right now,” he complains to Sheryl’s nurse. “I know we’re understaffed but I need you to keep an eye on things. And he should at least have an oxygen intake.” Dr. Levy tugs at Mr. Mortenson’s arm, trying to lead him back to his room. He won’t listen, and Dr.