GH 2018 presents Elizabeth Webber; #004

"Devils in the Dark"

(This issue is rated PG-13 due to the implied description of a medical procedure. Though gory details are not used, one's own imagination might enhance the vague adjectives and verbs used)

Opening (narrated by the voice of Chris Robinson, formally "Rick Webber" on "General Hospital")

Due to the shortage of medical professionals in United States, chiefly doctors, registered nurses and anesthesiologist, it was quite common for the men and women practicing medicine in those fields to work extra hours as independent contractors.

In fact, many resident doctors went above and beyond their duty by creating handpicked medical teams from their home hospitals to help augment medical centers, usually those in mid to lower income areas where the shortages were even more pronounced.

The overwhelming vast majority of these roving medical teams were staffed by compassionate medical professionals trying to make a difference in their communities. But there were a slight few that that were doing something else; insidious would be a better description…(narration ends)

Fifteen year old Jeremy Allison felt a piercing pain at the back of his neck, and then he opened his eyes. A blinding medical spotlight was aimed down at his face from above, which caused him to become slightly panicked, and then a doctor wearing a mask over his entire face, as well as an additional surgical mask over the area of his mouth, leaned down and looked directly into Jeremy's wide opened eyes; their faces no more than three inches part.

"Listen kid," the doctor said with a pleasant sound to his voice, which was electronically enhanced by the surgical mask, "I'm going to be honest with you; you're going to be dead in about," the doctor looked up at a nearby clock on the wall, and then back down into Jeremy's eyes, "five minutes."

Upon hearing the doctor's words, Jeremy tried to move, he even tried to say something, but nothing happened; he couldn't move or talk. All he could do was move his eyes; and it was a very claustrophobic sensation. The doctor knew what Jeremy was trying to do, because he had seen it many times before; the teenager's eyes began to dart around, looking for the chance to flee. It was a natural and instinctive impulse, the doctor knew. And then he continued talking to Jeremy.

"Jeremy, you can't move, or talk, because I just injected you," the doctor was holding a syringe with a long thin needle, and he showed it to Jeremy, "with a muscle suppressant directly into your spinal column, right where it attaches to your skull; that is what woke you. One of the last parts of the body it will effect are your eyes."

Jeremy zeroed his eyes in on the doctor's eyes, because there was nothing else to look at. The doctor nodded his head slightly as Jeremy came to realize the situation he was facing.

"My name is Dr. Garth Landru, and I am going to remove five of your internal organs," Garth explained in a calm manner to Jeremy. "In order to limit the amount of chemicals running through your blood, and possibly damaging the organs before I can remove them, the suppressant I just injected into the base of your brain has paralyzed you. And even had you lived through this operation," Garth added, "the amount of suppressant I used would have left you as a quadriplegic for the rest of your life."

Garth stood back up and took a deep breath, nodded his head, and then suddenly the whine of a medical instrument could be heard. Jeremey watched helplessly as a nurse came into view and handed Garth the invasive instrument; it's slender blade spinning at a high rate of speed.

The whine coming from the device wasn't that much different than the sound of a dentist's drill; a dreadful sound most people would remember forever. But the whine of this instrument was ten times louder.

It was a device surgical doctors, like Dr. Garth Landru, used to saw open a patient's chest cavity with exact precision. The stainless steel frame of the surgical tool was so clean, it looked brand new.

Garth leaned down to bring his conversation with Jeremy to an end; again their eyes just inches apart.

"I'm going to use this tool," Garth explained, he spoke louder due to the noise of the device, but still with a friendly tone, as he gave Jeremy a closer look at it, "to make an incision from here," he put his index finger just below Jeremy's Adam's Apple, and then trailed it down the teenager's chest, "all the way down to just below here," he brought his finger to a stop just below Jeremy's navel.

Jeremy couldn't believe what he was hearing. How did he come to be in this chamber of horrors? And then he remembered riding his bike home from school and a car, coming out of nowhere, hit him from the side. And then, the next thing he knew, he awoke in the hospital, facing his soon to be macabre death.

"So," Garth said, as he now held the gruesome device inches above Jeremy's skin, and then lowered it to begin the operation, "you might be asking yourself, why am I even telling you this?"

Jeremy could see blood squirting upward from his body on to the doctor's light blue medical apron. A few sprinkles landed on Jeremy's cheeks, and very close to his now paralyzed, but still working, eyes.

"Well," Garth continued, as he glanced over at Jeremy's eyes for a brief moment, knowing that the his victim would soon die from shock as the blade cut into him, and the pain becoming so unbearable that even the suppressant would not shield him from the inevitable, "I'm telling you this because I've done many of these instant organ harvests and wanted to personally commend you. Thanks to the money your five organs will fetch on the black market, all of us," Garth motioned to his appreciative medical team, "will earn some extra money. In fact," Garth added with an appreciative smile aimed a Jeremy, "your extractions will help me pay off my son's entry fee into college someday. And for that," Garth added, as Jeremy's eye began to dilate, as death approached, "I will forever be in your gratitude…"

And then Jeremy died…

Next issue; Elizabeth Webber's daily routine at General Hospital Boulder Colorado becomes even more interesting as Grayson Wayne comes in for his first day of work. But will an unexpected FACETIME chat with Jason Quartermaine prove to be a bump on the road to her new life? Chapter #004 "Past Prologue" with special guest star; Steve Burton as Jason.

Keiyan Lonsdale as Jeremy Allison

and…

David Anders as Dr. Garth Landru