Prologue – Bite of the Raptor
Emily Manzosa listened to the rain pound on the metal roof of the San Covares hospital. A few seconds earlier she thought she had heard something above the deafening noise of the rain and had come to the window in the front lobby to investigate it. As she listened she began to hear an odd thumping sound coming from the sky above the beach in front of the hospital. Sounds almost like a chopper…. she thought to herself. She had worked in a trauma unit in Chicago for six years and was able to recognize the sounds of a large medical helicopter but what kind of pilot would risk flying in this weather… She opened the front door and stepped out into the rain. Peering skyward she could make out the landing lights of a large medical chopper as it circled over the beach looking for a place to land. The pilot spotted a suitable spot next to an abandoned fishing shack and touched down onto the sand. Immediately after the engines were shut off and the side cargo bay door opened. Six men jumped out followed by a stretcher that was carrying a young man. Emily ran back into the hospital and told the night nurse Diego to prep a bed and make sure they could get an IV in quickly. The men pushed the stretcher into the ER and Diego quickly started an IV in the young man's arm before moving him to the hospital bed. Another man dressed in a black business suit entered the room and walked over to Emily. "Doctor one of our workers was run over by a backhoe and badly injured." the man said. "Where did you come from?" Emily asked checking the young man's pulse. "A resort island off the coast." The man in the suit answered. Emily took a scissors and began to cut the man's shirt off. She knew immediately that young man was almost certaintly going to die. Large gashes were ripped into the young man's chest and across his arm. Normally when a worker was injured by an earthmover dirt would be pushed deep into the flesh but she did not see any dirt instead there was a thick white foamy slime. Looks almost like saliva…. she thought. She picked up his hand to check his wrist veins and instead found several deep serrated cuts on the palm that were bleeding profusely Diego was busy taking pictures of the gashes and swabbing sample's of the saliva like slime. She went to check the other wrist and also found the same serrated cuts. Just then as Diego shined a small light into the man's eye's the young man sprung forward screaming unintelligible things. Emily rushed over and forced the young man back onto the bed. He kept saying the word "raptor…raptor…raptor" Then he lurched forward again before beginning to violently throw up blood. When the man in the suit who had ran in when he heard the screaming saw the blood pooled on the floor he threw up in the wastepaper basket. Just then the man fell back onto the bed. Dead before he hit the sheets. The man in the suit had recovered and was now out in the front lobby. Emily walked out to him and told him the young man had died. Without a word the man waved the other guys back in to retrieve their dead comrade. Emily watched as the men transferred the dead worker back onto the stretcher and wheeled him out of the ER. The man in the suit walked over to her. "Donald Gennaro" he said introducing himself. "Dr. Emily Manzosa." she answered. "Well thank you for all that you did." Gennaro said silently grabbing the camera and slime samples from the lab table and stuffing them into his back pocket. "Sorry we couldn't save him." Emily answered completely unaware of the camera and samples theft. Gennaro shook her hand before heading back out to the waiting helicopter. Emily watched as the chopper lifted off the ground before disappearing into the clouds. She walked back into the ER were Diego had begun to clean the floor. She turned to retrieve her camera and the slime samples but found only an empty lab table. "Where did you set the camera?" she asked Diego while looking under the table. "Right there on the table." he answered. "Well there gone." Emily said walking out of the room. A few hours later at the end of her shift she clocked out and walked down to her small living quarters behind the hospital office area. Before turning in for the night she walked over to the small bookshelf where she kept several thick medical books and an English dictionary. She opened the dictionary and immediately began searching for the word raptor she found it after a few minutes of searching.
Raptor (rap – tor) – A bird of prey, in South American legends a raptor is a night demon who steals small children.