How was poor Schmidt to feel when the world stopped turning and the dial of the trial of life and death landed with it's arrow pointed at him? He always thought it would be the OR where he was fighting for his life but no. He's in the confines of a madman, facing the angel of death head on, in the ruins of a three story honky tonk that shut down due to Covid. Who is this mad man? Why is he being tested? Why is Grey/Sloan the latest target of a Jigsaw copy cat?
Hell if he knows. The life of Nico is in his hands. The 'Love of his life' I'm a writer I'm not allowed to hold opinions but a pandemic was enough to display that these two had about as much chemistry as a vaccine prepared in under a year and a patient who's allergic to Nickle Cobalt and Steel. Magnets. The very thing keeping the body of this man in place as his more timid partner paced the moldy floor of what used to be the dish pit. High above Dr. Kim is a cup rack; eight by eight of plastic in the shape of a square with square slots for round plastic cups to be washed over and over again as guest after guest dirtied them and a garbage boy went from table to table to collect them back when this place was jumping with a profit of over 3.6 million dollars a month.
In this cup rack are steak knifes and they aren't positioned very well because through the anxiety and temperament of the moment they fall one by one around his bare abdomen. Around Nico's neck and Ankles were chains and rope attached to pulleys from what was once an armature performer's stage. Group after group throughout each day singing songs by washed up country artists for drunk college dudes who were seeking out girls to save a horse and ride a cowboy.
All of this was tied together in one scary mechanism that Schmidt had full control over. What kind of a game was this? Who kidnaps people wearing a severed pigs head and locks them all up in a maze when these doctors should be out there saving lives? Simply put this killer disagrees. Whole heartedly believes they do the opposite.
Only Nico has proven to be the man to be tested. Why?
About fifteen minutes ago Schmidt would have been the guy to throw his own life on the line for this man. Only now things are different because to his right is the prep room in which he just survived his own test which left him without his left ear and several deep gashes on his ribcage. A test that now had him questioning the very existence in which he was given and the Niavety was gone.
In his bloody hands he held close this little block about the size of a cell phone with a tiny box inside holding a voice on a piece of black tape that ran through the block with the press of a button on the side. A deep voice that told him what to do as if it was God but God doesn't really speak to you this way. At least not the God he worshiped.
"LEvI!" Dr. Kim screamed as the steam from the dishwasher escaped in a gust of noises that all sparked up at once. The reality of the moment set in.
"Dr. Schmidt. The man before you has muzzled you for his own desires. He has sat back at watched as you mutilate yourself and he calls it love. The knives of betrayal and emotionless turns of the hand have stabbed you time and time again. All of Nico's vital organs are exposed right now and as a doctor I'm sure you know of ways to prevent the blade from entering his body but look around you. There's nothing here to help but you. Will you take the blades of life for him? Or will you walk away to save lives as you so feverently claim to do? The choice is yours." Static. And then only the rough whirr of the devices strapped to Nico.
Every jolt. Every jerk. Every pulse in Nico's body the magnets in his wrists would shift and down came another blade.
"LeeVVIII!" He screamed and his breath was haltered as a dagger sank into his stomach. The silver glint as it cascaded was enough to make Levi leap. He dove beneath the metal bar that held the drink racks to slide across the table top surface meant to hold plates, pots, and pans to land in the rising water from the over flowing sinks that moved to fast for the drains to keep up. Abandoned?
From the sky rained blade after blade and Levi was very aware in the present moment of two things. One; the heart in the chest of the man before him. Two; a surgeon needs their hands. Looking own at his own he decided there had to be any other way than to lose what made him the person he is today. Without his hands he was nothing. So then he looked at his feet.
Sheer panic lit up inside him at the thought of catching falling knives with his feet especially considering he'd have to walk the rest of the mapped out levels he's being forced to play. Could he count on the possibility that if Dr. Kim lived he might actually help him with the rest of the traps? There's no way of knowing.
He positioned himself to stradle the lap of his partner. A move they've done before. Nico likes being on his back. Only this time, in a spitting rage, Levi told him, "See me. Know that I am real."
The reality sank in. Levi was going to take a few knives in the back for him as he laid there, helpless. When Levi had every right to walk away. And one by one blade tip after blade tip fell into his flesh and with each scream Nico would jolt causing more to fall. The only protection Levi had against the attack was a stained lab coat and blue scrubs. Their hospital colors. Even the blood.
Only three made deep contact. Four extra gashes, and a rusty bent tip dangled from what a surgeon would deem a scratch. Levi pulsated and caved down onto Dr. Kim's chest and the two of them fell to the dingy water below for the restraints at last released.
"I NEED THIS OR!" Cried dr. Altman, "MY PATIENT IS GOING INTO MYDOTHORTACTIC MYOMA!"
"THIS CHILD IS BARELY HANGING ON BY A THREAD!" Spat back Maggie Pierce, "IF I DONT REPAIR THIS DAMNAGE SHE WILL DIE!"
A hospital, flooded with patients. Why? A bootleg treatment for a virus with no true purpose. Each and every patient is affected differently. The course of treatment changes hourly. Is this the hospital they know and love? With people vanishing left and right the news littered with heracy and debacle. The chaos of not knowing if you'll make it to tomorrow as the streets are littered with rage and violence. Who is the mastermind?
Where is cheif Miranda Bailey? In her office, surrounded by federal police officers, staring at a monitor where one of her doctors is seen patching up another in an undisclosed location, terrified. Among everything; the pandemic, the protests, the lingering atmosphere of death, her doctors have been taken away in the night by a sadistic serial killer.
"We also have this?" Said Sargent Pilon Keener holding out a large black envelope with a puzzle piece stamped on the cover in white.
Her shaky hands reached out for it and the sheer ice of death trickled down her neck as the sound of gunshots being fired brought her back to a terrifying day in her mind.
"What the fuck?" Said one of the agents moving to peer out the glass. "Sarg? You're going to want to see this."
As the crew moved to check out the situation Miranda Bailey opened the envelope fighting the many scattered thoughts to hone in on one; Who is terrorizing my doctors today and how can I stop it? Images printed out from scans. These images showed metal clunks. All of these scans were from autopsy reports and patients down in the morge awaiting departure that keeps getting put off for reasons unknown. Each and every name she recognized as the victims to a bootleg vaccine.
Her eyes moved to the screen.
On the other side of the black hanging tarp was where Nico had found the red medical bag taped to the expo and laid down his partner on the flat top of the line. It was here that servers came to grab heavy treys of the food that got wasted by a majority of people who would never admit to the fact that they were only here to drink. Food that a garbage boy would sling into a bucket to sling into a trash bag that he carried down three flights of stairs every day to dispose of in one of the twenty seven trash bins that needed to be emptied four times a day.
Stitched and bandaged but still asleep Levi left Nico with no choice but to sit and wait. These weren't his trials. This wasn't his game. Levi almost died for him today and this psychopath felt the need to make him Levi's first objective. He was in this. Through and through. Life can change forever in just a moment. Subconciously he checked his pockets for a device he knew wasn't there. A cell phone.
Levi's white lab coat was now red and after the careful removal of each knife Nico had been able to take off the scrub shirt and lab coat covering himself with the former and carrying the latter over back through the hanging tarp to wash it in the still over flowing sink. When he returned, however, Levi was gone. A puddle of blood where his body just was. Terror wove it's way into Dr. Kim's chest and he ran out into the server ally where plastic cups were filled with carbohydrated syrup by upwards to fifteen servers every ten to fifteen minutes on this floor alone. Hanging tarps divided his view of the three exit ways and Levi being only one person could have gone through any one of them.
Dr. Kim was lost and alone and he didn't like it.