Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta doctor. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta doctor. Mostrar todas las entradas

jueves, 13 de agosto de 2015

Dolor

   En este momento de su vida, a Marco lo único que le hacía bien era tener cerca de su novio Pedro. Por alguna razón, su espalda era un tapete de nudos que no se arreglaban con nada, ni después de haber comprado el colchón más caro en el mercado ni las mejores almohadas de plumas de ganso francés. Su espalda e incluso sus piernas le dolían todos los días y eran como si el dolor quisiera romperle los huesos. Marco nunca había sufrido de nada ni lo habían operado por ninguna razón. Pero ahora tenía un problema serio que muchos no parecían tomar en serio. Su doctor no encontró ninguna razón para que le doliera el cuerpo y lo atribuyó al virus de la gripa o algún derivado. Le aconsejo tomar muchos líquidos y descansar lo más posible.

 Su novio lo revisó en casa. Al fin y al cabo estaba estudiando para ser médico. Su conclusión fue que no sabía que tenía pero no era gripa ni nada parecido. Tenía dolores por todo el cuerpo y eran momentáneos, como alguien apretando con un dedo. La vida de Marco se fue poniendo difícil por culpa de los dolores. En el trabajo a veces no podía concentrarse y debía interrumpir seguido lo que hacía para tomar agua o simplemente salir a respirar. Era peor aún cuando tenía reuniones o citas en otras compañías con gente que debía verlo como una opción y no como alguien enfermo o distraído. Menos mal Marco era un buen actor y podía fingir no sentir nada cuando en verdad estaba en agonía.

 Su siguiente paso fueron los llamados remedios naturales. Fue a un sauna para ayudarse con el vapor y después a unas aguas termales donde decían que el barro tenía unas propiedades bastante especiales. Su novio fue cubriéndolo de barro hasta que parecía un monstruo y no un hombre. Y aunque el dolor bajó un poco, no se solucionó del todo. Era frustrante ponerse a intentar cosas nuevas y que simplemente no funcionaran. También lo hice con diferentes tipos de masajes como el tailandés, el de piedras volcánicas y muchos otros pero nada que su salud mejoraba. Lo bueno era que tampoco se ponía peor pero que podía ser peor que un dolor penetrante a lo largo del día?

 Incluso llegó a intentar terapias sicológicas, donde anunciaban que todos los dolores eran mentales en origen y podían ser apagados o prendidos si se sabía como manejarlo. Lo gracioso del asunto es que Marco nunca supo si en efecto el tipo era un sicólogo o no pero su técnica era una payasada. Marco nunca pudo apagar ningún interruptor del dolor y el doctor le confesó que la técnica solo servía cuando los clientes creían en ella. Era tanto como decir que tocaba mentirse a si mismo para que las cosas resultaran. O sea que fingir que no le dolía nada era lo mejor para él. Solo que eso no era posible pues días después los dolores de cabeza empeoraron y no había sicólogo que lo convenciera que su cráneo no se iba a partir en dos.

 Días después, Marco tuvo que pedirle a su jefe directo que lo dejara trabajar desde casa, al menos por un par de meses. Tuvo que encontrar un médico que asegurara que no estaba bien para trabajar en una oficina con tanta gente y tanto ruido pero su jefe le dijo que su trabajo no podía hacerlo alguien desde casa pues tenía que visitar clientes y demás. Marco le propuso que eso lo hiciese su secretaria y él haría todo lo demás que era tener en orden todos los pedidos de la empresa y las ventas y demás. El tipo, era obvio, no estaba muy convencido con la idea pero al fin cuentas tuvo que aceptar pues pudo ver la desesperación de Marco. Eso sí, le dio solo tres meses para que estuviese en casa, luego debía volver a trabajar en la oficina, como cualquier otro.

 Pedro ayudó a Marco a instalar una pequeña oficina, con todos los documentos que había tenido que traerse de la compañía. El jefe lo había permitido pues confiaba en Marco y sabía que no iban a haber problemas con esos documentos. Al comienzo la idea de trabajar desde casa fue una muy buena. Incluso Pedro le ayudaba a su novio cuando se sentía mal y este seguía intentando encontrar nuevas opciones para poder sentirse mejor. Empezó a tomar té verde todos los días y sintió que su cabeza se sentía menos hinchada, menos adolorida. Esto le ayudó para su trabajo también pues empezó a ser más eficiente y a trabajar desde casa tan rápido y de manera tan eficiente como lo hacía en la sede principal.

 Sin embargo, hubo algo que ocurrió que él no se esperaba. Gracias al té verde tenía mejor lucidez y su novio había comprado aceites diversos para hacerle masajes que había aprendido en internet. Según lo que le contaba, eran técnicas chinas para aliviar los dolores del cuerpo y Marco estuvo seguro de que funcionaban. Los masajes a veces eran suaves y otras veces eran fuertes pero poco a poco fueron mejorando su salud. Hubo un día en especial, en el que se sintió perfectamente, como hacía mucho tiempo no lo hacía. Hizo el amor con su novio, salieron a comer, montaron bicicleta e incluso corrieron jugando fútbol con otros amigos. La música no le molestó ni tampoco los sonidos repetitivos.

 Los demás días persistía el dolor pero Marco sabía que iría mejorando poco a poco. Y con esa lucidez vino otra revelación: su trabajo le aburría como nunca. Fue algo de lo que se dio cuenta de un momento a otro y se sentía culpable por ello. Al fin y al cabo, su padre también se había desempeñado en lo mismo y le había ido de maravilla. Tanto así que había criado una familia con ese trabajo. Pero Marco ya no sentía interés alguno. Así que lo consultó con su novio y tras una discusión larga y difícil, decidió renunciar a su trabajo. Le agradeció a su jefe toda su ayuda y le envió los documentos que se había llevado del trabajo a su casa. Al fin y al cabo nunca más los iba a necesitar.

 Como tenían que pagar cuentas, Marco trató de conseguir un trabajo menos tedioso con los conocimientos que él tenía. Era bueno con los números pero quería ser más ágil con su cuerpo y sus manos. Buscó por todos lados en los periódicos e internet y fue así que asistió a decenas de entrevistas y envió cientos de hojas de vida, esperando que en algún lado alguien lo aceptara por quién era y no por lo que había hecho en los últimos años. Después de varios días de incertidumbre, recibió la llamada de una galería de arte para trabajar como contador. En realidad, manejaría todo lo relacionado al dinero pues, al parecer, la galería estaba teniendo un éxito que nadie había venido venir y necesitaban alguien que supiese como manejar el dinero para que rindiera mejor.

 El trabajo era simple y pagaba algo menos que el anterior, pero Marco lo disfrutaba. No solo porque era más informal, pudiendo ir y venir a su gusto, solo con ciertas fechas de reuniones para informar a los dueños de la galería, sino también porque el sitio de trabajo era abierto, bien iluminado y siempre estaban las obras de arte que parecían aliviar el dolor que todavía le quedaba en su cuerpo. El trabajo fue ayudando a que su mente estuviese más tranquila y menos apurada por el deber, por lo que sentía que tenía que hacer. Se dio cuenta que la causa probable de lo que sentía era el estrés y se sintió triste al pensar que todos sus dolores se debieran a preocupaciones externas.

 Pedro siguió dándole masajes a diario y esto no solo ayudaba a su cuerpo sino que también estableció un lazo todavía más fuerte entre los dos. No era que no fueran íntimos como cualquier pareja normal sino que habían llegado a un punto de monotonía pues habían cumplido casi un año de vivir juntos y las cosas siempre habían estado igual. Los cambios con Marco habían ayudado, irónicamente, a que se enamoraran de nuevo. Era como si antes no se hubiesen dado cuenta de las razones por las cuales se adoraban y se querían tanto. Pero el nuevo contacto físico, la comunicación, hizo de su relación una mucho más fuerte que antes. Tanto así, que Marco le pidió a Pedro que se casara con él.

 No tuvieron una fiesta fastuosa ni una ceremonia muy arreglada. Tan solo se vistieron bien un día y decidieron ir a la notaría más cercana. Fueron con sus mejores amigos que sirvieron como testigos y los papeles los firmaron bastante rápido, tomándose fotos después, con los anillos puestos y sus copias del documento. Almorzaron en un bonito restaurante con sus amigos y en la noche viajaron a un pueblito cercano, donde se quedarían algunos días. Solo habían viajado juntos cuando su relación había empezado y se daban cuenta del error que habían cometido al no hacerlo de nuevo alguna vez.


  El dolor desapareció por esos días pero Pedro no dejó de lado los masajes y fue luego Marco que empezó a hacérselos a su esposo. En cuanto al trabajo, las cosas mejoraron pues otras dos galerías habían oído de Marco y lo pidieron para sus cuentas. No era difícil llevar tres cuentas y recibir tres salarios que, juntos, servirían para comprar un apartamento que compartirían con Pedro, que estaba por terminar su carrera de medicina. Marco se dio cuenta un día, con Pedro a su lado y el sol entrando por la ventana, que el dolor que había sentido tenía mucho sentido y que, si hacía las cosas bien, jamás lo sentiría de nuevo.

miércoles, 29 de julio de 2015

Blood test

 As far as I could remember, I had never had blood taken from me. I had never been sick and, being a man, I had never being pregnant. So the thing was very new for me and scary. It’s kind of silly to be scared of such a silly thing but aren’t we always scared about the things that we don’t even understand? Because I didn’t even know why they wanted me to give my blood after just a routine check-up. The doctor said it was good, once in a while, to do something like a full scan of the body to be sure nothing was off, nothing was out of place. But taking blood from my body seemed very invasive.

 I am the kind of person that takes days to talk to you, even if I have seen you for a year, at work, at school or wherever. I am the kind of person that always tries to be in relationships were the other person wants more love than sex. I’m the kind of person that would never put on a bathing suit in front of someone else or shower in a public place or something like that. I would die first to be honest. So giving away a sample of blood was just as if someone had forced me to give up something that was only mine and it didn’t felt right. Besides that, I had never done it and felt silly because I knew it was something positive to do. After all, he doctor was right: I needed to get to know what was happening inside my body. I had not being in a doctor’s office for five years or more and if he wanted to know what was going on, he was the doctor after all.

 I woke up really early to give my sample. I tried not to think about it until the moment was imminent. So I just woke up, showered, put on some loose clothes and walk out home. The weather was strange: it seemed that it was going to rain but it didn’t, as if the sky was waiting to make a more dramatic storm later in the day. I just thought the weather sometimes behaved like a moody human. I walked to the bus stop and waited there for the bus that would take me to the hospital. It was such a sad thing, to be going to a hospital. I thought tight there that I pity every single person that has to go to a hospital every single day of his or her lives. All that sadness and stress and just negativity…

 I mean, I’m not the most positive guy you’re going to find, not at all, but I do try to be objective and working in the health sector must not be an easy task, maybe if you are the head of a pharmaceutical company or something. When my bus stopped, I walked inside like a zombie. I hadn’t had anything to eat, as asked by the doctor, so I felt a little like walking on air. The bus was filled with people so early in the day so I just stood up by the exit and waited for my stop. As I did so, I noticed that most of the passengers in the bus were women and then another fact of life hit me in the face: women are so under appreciated. Not because they carry life but because they keep it going. All those ladies in the bus were proof of that and I felt bad as a man.

 One of them was talking about the day she was going to have. I couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but I could guess she was a housekeeper. She was telling another woman that she had asked her boss to give her two days off as she was feeling really tired and had many things to do at home. The other women asked her if her husband helped around the house and she answered that he did but that things were still backing up. She hoped to get those two days to run some errands and just be with her children for some more time that week. That was all I heard before I stepped out of the bus, twenty minutes after I had gotten in. I felt bad for her but I thought that at least she had a steady job. Things could always be worse.

 As it was very early, there were no traffic jams on the streets and no overcrowded sidewalks. The few people around were workers of stores or vendors that were installing their posts in strategic places for the morning rush. People were going to need their coffee, their newspapers and their dose of sugar and they were going to given them all to them. I walked past them and then through a couple of blocks where not a single soul was seen. It was the perfect time of the day to shoot a zombie apocalypse scene. I imagined it and smiled for myself. I finally got to the hospital and went straight to the second floor, where I was charged for my blood test. Then I sat down and looked around.

 Besides me, there were only two other people: a teenager with his mom and an elderly couple. The teenager was obviously checking social media and seemed very focused on it. His mom seemed moved her feet and legs without stopping. By her outfit, it was obvious she worked in some office and that she needed to get there as soon as possible, which was curious because wouldn’t you open up your morning to be with your son? Then there was the elderly couple, two lovely older people that were chatting about their pills and if they had them all in the woman’s purse. She pulled them all out and I was surprised to see at least ten little orange bottles in armrest of the chair. They were saying their properties, as no one ever knew the names.

 The teenager was called first and then the couple and when more people were coming in, I finally got inside too. I got into a small cubicle were a nurse checked my arms for the best vein and the she told me to look the other way, as it may look a bit too scary. I did exactly that, as I was not really looking forward to see my blood spilling out of my arm. As she did her job, she told me that the results would be available in two weeks. I wanted to complain but my arm hurt too bad and she told me, after putting a circular sticking plaster where she had put the needle on.

 When the pain passed, I asked her why it took so long to have the results. I told her it was just a routine procedure for my doctor but she told me that all exams were the same and that they checked the blood for every possible disease I could have: hepatitis and several sexual transmitted diseases includes syphilis and HIV. When she said the last part, I got even more scared that before the needle went through my skin. I didn’t ask anything else or said anything at all. She just gave me a sheet with which I could claim the results in two weeks time. Five minutes later, I was already outside walking home. Somehow, I didn’t want to take the bus back. I had too many things in my head and only wanted to vent a little before freaking out once again. 

 As I stopped to buy something to eat, I thout about the reason why I was freaking out. Exactly five months ago I had gone to a party and, strangely for me, I had gotten really drunk. The friends that had invited me there were just laughing their asses off because they had never seen me drunk and because, strangely enough, I was a very funny drunk guy. I told just, funny stories I didn’t even know I had and I talked to people straight away, even going so far as to ask them if they have had sex that day. Bare in my mind the party was attended by, at least, forty people and only knew a couple of them. I drank a lot and, the next day I was surprised to realize that I hadn’t vomited or anything gross like that all night.

 What was weird was that I woke in one of the bedrooms of the apartment were the party was held and I happened to be only wearing my underwear and with someone besides me. Now, I didn’t know if something happened and to this day I have no idea. It was just as if all memories produced after two in the morning had been erased by the computer that was my brain. I only know I grabbed my clothes, put them on and just got the hell out of there. Days later, I spoke with one of my friends that had been in the party and he just said he found me funny when drunk. But he never said anything about me kissing or talking in a “unique way” to someone. So I didn’t mention it and I had forgotten everything about it until the day of the blood test.

 The following two weeks were torture. Every time I had a moment to think about my life, I found myself wondering if I had sex that night of the party and if it had been unprotected. As I didn’t recall anything, and I didn’t really stayed in the room the next day to see if there was a condom wrapper around, I just didn’t know anything. I just knew I was very nervous and jumpy every time someone was looking to talk to me about anything. Days were long sometimes and I just wanted the hospital to call me and tell me they need me to pick up the results earlier but maybe that wouldn’t have been a very happy call.


 Anyway, I waited as patiently as I could and when it was time, I went to the hospital and asked for my results. It was very frustrating that I had to wait several minutes for them and that I had to go through them with a doctor different that the one who had asked for the damn exam. She must have realized what was going on inside my mind because she just said “You’re fine, honey”. I felt like an elephant had ben lifted from my back and I could finally worry about other things, like my life in general and the fact that I suffered from anemia.

sábado, 25 de julio de 2015

Life in the alley

   The club looked larger and even more filled with people from the second floor. I had just being there for less than an hour and I already felt a little claustrophobic, even though the place could fit a large plane inside, without the party goers of course. Most of the people were dancing, or their version of dancing, while some others tried to talk over the music on the second floor. People went up there because it was the lounge section and it was supposed to exist in order to mingle with others and just have a great time only drinking but the sound was too loud, even though it shouldn’t be. Anyway, people did their best to talk but I was too tired of trying to understand anything so I decided to go to the bathroom.

 I gave up to that fast as the line for the bathroom was very long and some people ere saying guys were fucking or something there so I just decided to exit, pee in the back alley and then come back in. I had a seal on my hand to do so I crossed the sea of dancing people on the ground floor and reached the door fast, as I felt more and more the need to go and pee. I finally went through the door, after having to push some guy flirting with this big hairy man, called bear in the gay slang.

 The day had been a very hot one so the night was very refreshing, not excessively hot nor cold. Just a nice weather to go to where the dumpsters were and pee. I closed my eyes for a second; wanting to concentrate on not drinking any more liquids but then I heard something. It sounded like a moan or some kind of complaint. I finished peeing, put it all away and then stopped and made no noise. There it was again, someone sobbing or something. My first thought was thinking than some guys had decided to take a trip to the back alley and have some fun but if that was the case, I would have heard some other moaning or at least two people breathing and I could only hear one. I walked away from the main entrance of the club, to where many bags filled with people, others with other type of garbage, had been put into a large pile. Then, I saw who had made the noises and felt really guilty about thinking those were sex sounds.

 As I had my cellphone with me, I called an ambulance right there. As I waited, I got closer to the guy: he had been beaten up pretty bad and was lying on the dirty floor, sobbing, incapable of saying a single word. Apparently, he was in a state of shock and couldn’t do more than just complain and sob. I tried to pull him out of the pile of garbage but he complained louder so I decided not to do anything. Then, I saw the light of the ambulance behind me and I stood up fast towards them, in order to tell them where the victim was. In no time, they had him on a stretcher and in the ambulance. I was about to turn around when of the paramedics told me they needed someone to go with him to sign papers and son. It could be anyone. So I went with them.

When we got to the hospital, I had to call my friends to tell me where I was but no one answered the phone. Of course, they were still inside the club and no cellphone, unless in front of their faces, would be noticed. A doctor came out to talk to me and told me they had to get the wounded guy to surgery. Apparently, the beating had been worse than imaginable and one of his lungs had been punctured. He had many broken ribs and was now hallucinating, babbling something that no one could really understand. I had to sign some papers saying it had been me who found him and that I had to be responsible for him for the time being. It felt like the right thing to do and, to be honest, it had been too shocking not to be both concerned and pissed about it.

 I stayed in the hospital all night. A nurse called Anita was kind enough to give me a quarter in order to get a coffee from a machine. I talked to her while I drank it, telling her I had just found the guy in an alley and had no idea of who he was. She told me that he wasn’t the first gay guy to come in like that. At least five in the last few weeks and it was rumored to be a very violent gang who also assaulted immigrants and prostitutes. Every victim had survived except for the youngest one, who had died only a week before. I thought to myself that, those guys in the club, most would never live through that. Guess they were the lucky ones.

 When the clock hit six in the morning, I was about to fall asleep right in the waiting room. I had nothing on me except my cellphone and wallet but nevertheless I had always been careful not to fall asleep where someone could take my things away. And after I had seen that night, I doubled my efforts not to fall asleep, even in a hospital. Thankfully, the doctor came out again and told me the surgery had been a success. He had to stay in the hospital to get better but he had been one of the lucky ones: other had been more brutally attacked and had tougher recoveries. The doctor also told me they had tried to locate his family and they had ben successful but they lived far away and, apparently, wouldn’t travel for their son.

When I heard that, my heart shrunk. I felt so bad for the poor guy, all alone in a hospital with a family unwilling to move from home for their victimized son. But, yet again, it wasn’t such an uncommon thing. I decided to go home and rest. Then, in the afternoon, I would visit him again. When I got home, I realized I had no keys so I had no other option than to wake up my flat mate. He was a weird guy and didn’t even say a word when he opened. He just went straight back to bed. I did the same, getting naked fast and into the covers, falling asleep in a heartbeat. My last thought went with the guy in the hospital, broken body but still alive. Was he awake? Was he wondering why that had happened to him?

  When I visited later that afternoon, he seemed to be much better than the night before. And I felt very guilty about thinking this, but when I entered the room I almost choked, as I hadn’t realized how beautiful he was. He had short blondish hair and green eyes. He was tanned and very tall. Maybe that was why I couldn’t really move him from the garbage. He was very nice and thanked me for what I had done.  He recognized, very openly, that his family was not coming and that he was going to try to get better fast in order to go back to his own place soon. He worked in a hotel as a lifeguard, also teaching tourists how to surf. His name was Michael but he told me to tell him Mike, so I did.

 I visited Mike every single day for the following week, until he got better. We chatted for hours, even making nurses come to shut us up. He didn’t share the room but apparently we were too loud for a hospital. The saddest moment came when he confessed me that his main attacker had been a guy he had liked in the club and that he had tried to flirt with him. That’s why they went to the back alley and the other guy surprised him with two more guys and beat him up. Kicks, punches, insults… It all flew towards him and put him on the floor. The really sad part was that he told me that after the beating, the guy that he had flirted with had tried to rape him but that the other guys decided it was best to leave so they did.

 It is very awkward to see a beautiful person sad or crying. I know this sounds bad but that’s what I thought after he told me his story. You just never think about someone that looks like a model in such a situation. Yet there was Mike, a short way from male perfection, beaten up by life. Anyway, we also chatted about nicer things, like our jobs and lives in general. As it happens, we had some people in common and he even recalled having seen me before but I had never seen him, I told him I would remember. Mike went red with this statement and told me that if I continued that way he would believe anything else I said. So we joked around with that and just became friends.

 When he was released from the hospital, I drove him to his house and had him installed. One of his arms was in a sling and he couldn’t walk a lot or very fast but he was alive. That day we ordered chines food and I realized I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing. If it went on like that, I would fall in love with him or become obsessed or something and it would be uncomfortable for the both of us. So I decided to be a friend and nothing more. Sure enough, we did exactly that and in a couple of weeks he was dating some big muscular guy he had met at the beach.  I was happy for him, mainly because he looked really happy, and it was the first time I saw him like that.


 Me, I went on with my life too. No, I didn’t met anyone and no; I wasn’t in love with Mike. That would have been too easy. I just wondered, every time I looked at him, about some many things in life. My first thought was to ask myself why would anyone do that to another person? Is someone’s existence so unbearable you have to kick them and almost kill them? But then I also thought about me, about how alone I was and how easy it was for mike to just get back on his feet. It seemed unfair somehow that life and people favor some over others just because of their looks, for good and bad. My conclusion: it was all a tragedy.

miércoles, 8 de abril de 2015

Afternoon in the museum

  The place was deserted, except for the small team of scientists that roamed the debris and walked tightly together, as if they were a single entity. They approached a square, where two members of the team that had guns stepped forward and escorted the others inside a big hole on the floor. There was glass everywhere and the stairs to go down where missing some of the steps. Everyone was very careful not to fall. When they reached the bottom, they reunited again. One of them, a woman, lit up a screen where she had a map of the place.

-       There.

 She pointed at a hallway and they all began to walk a little bit more relaxed, although some of their breathing equipment started making wheezing sounds. Yes, they had masks and tanks on their backs because the air had been deemed unbreathable. This was the consequence of the bombardment the city had gone through many years ago, during the Dark Wars. These battles and skirmishes had attempted to destroy every single trace of civilization in the world but it had been stopped just in time for that not to happen. Unfortunately, not every place in the world had been spared and cities such as this one lay empty and in ruin.

 The team followed Calista, the woman with the map, through the hallway. They did steadily but not in a run, but fast anyway. They saw rooms in darkness but didn’t enter any of them. After many other dark hallways and a few stairs, they reached a long corridor, lit by the sunlit coming from the outside.

-       This is it. The rooms by this corridor.

 They entered a door to the left and they all did the same expression of amazement. The room seemed to be stuck in time as all the pieces where still exactly where they had always been. Their state, besides some dust, was just perfect so Calista and her time started unpacking everything they had brought with them. There were bags and plastic and some boxes. There was also a rod that could be extended and had wheels, to help with the transportation of the objects. In a little while, they had all the small objects wrapped in plastic and into small boxes. They did the same thing with two other rooms until the two armed men told them they should here if they wanted to leave the city before dark.

 The team was too amazed with everything to worry about time. Shiny little objects, aged thousands of years, where now in their hands. They had been ordered only to grab the smaller things, the ones that came from far away countries now to far to reach. The Hive needed every single thing to be rescued in order to preserve it forever in the fortress in the mountains. Cities like this one were toxic and people would not be able to live there for many decades or more if they weather kept being as unpredictable as always. They had actually decided to go for the objects during summer, as the other seasons were very unpredictable. In summer the only danger was the heat but the city was now covered in clouds so that wasn’t much a thing to worry.

 The rooms they were going through had objects brought fro m the Middle East, some parts of Africa and Asia. They had been taken away from tribes and other cultures so many years ago. Violence had made many museums great at some point in their history. And now, many of the cultures that had done those pieces of art had been dead for some time. One of the helpers was not only amazed by the small sculptures but by the paintings. Some were European and others where from across the Atlantic. Walking away from the others, he stared at an especially vivid portrait of a young woman, who seemed to be looking straight at him. Then, the eye moved and a whistle was heard.

 Calista’s assistant fell dead to the floor, bleeding heavily on the marble floor. The armed men told everyone to stay down but there was no use as they now so what the dead man had seen before dying: the eyes of the young woman where not there anymore and there was a hole in her mouth. Someone behind the wall had shot the assistant. But who was it? Then, more whistles were heard. The person that was shooting was using silencer. The armed men made everyone crawl out of the room and stay down as they stayed by the door and shot down some of the paintings with their guns. The whistles stopped but then, they heard steps moving away. Whoever it was, he or she was escaping.

 They all ran towards the sound and Calista took out her map and checked the corridors. There were no secrete passageways on the map but there was a service door by the next couple of stairs. She yelled this to the armed men and they ran for the door. They did so just in time, as a shadow stepped out of it and they shot it down. Calista screamed. She realized it was a bad idea to kill someone who had probably survived the nuclear holocaust. Although, the person might not be right of the head. A medic they had brought with them came fast and checked to body. The person was dead. The men pulled the body towards the corridor and then, not only Calista but everyone screamed in horror.

 The creature had been a human. That was obvious because of his body but his face… He was gravely disfigured. Everyone’s breathing machines were working at full, as terror had required much more oxygen for them to breath. Calista and the doctor grew closer to the creature to check on the details of their attacker. He had a gun with a silencer on his belt and some other gadgets that they didn’t know what they were for. He also had a handful of keys in a chain. He was wearing normal clothes, although he was visible bleeding from open wounds on his legs and arms.

 His face was striking because there were no eyes there anymore. He had a mouth but the body seemed to have grown over it, making it small and disgusting, oozing some foul odor now he was dead. Then, they all pulled back. His hand had moved. In a second, one of the armed men show the creature several times on the chest. When he was finished, everyone looked at him, as if he was mad but he said he had seen some of the movies in the archive and dead always return before they really die. Calista smiled and stood up. She asked the doctor to do every analysis he could in a short time as they were leaving soon.

 An hour later, they had put several small boxes in three large boxes that they carried on the wheeled rod. When they reached the pint where they had entered the museum, the armed guys grabbed one end of the rod and three of the assistants grabbed the other end. They were careful not to fall down with it but that plan failed when several creatures appeared on top of them, looking down through the hole on the ground. The doctor and Calista replaced the armed men on the rod as these started shooting at every single creature they saw. They were all like the one they had gunned down inside: no eyes, some extra limbs, no mouth, … All mutated from the nuclear blast. These people had survived only to be transformed into something less than the most despised animal.

 The team finally reached the top and was able to create a circle. The men gave everyone a gun so they had even more chances to get out alive. The hovercraft that had left them there could not land so near the museum so they had to make a run for the nearest bridge. After passing it, they could as the pilot to bomb the bridge to prevent the mutants from crossing. One of the armed men called the craft as they ran with difficulty, both carrying the boxes and running and shooting at every disfigured face they saw. Then, they saw the hovercraft above them but this distraction cost the arm of one man, as one of the creatures grabbed him and broke it with ease. The wheeled rod fell on the ground and they had to put it up fast, kicking and shooting like crazy.

 No one knew how they really did it, but they ran across the bridge followed closely by the mutants, that moved incredibly fast. Of the armed men asked the pilots to shoot a missile at the bridge to blow it up. He did exactly that  rocks flew all over, making everyone fall to the ground. The hovercraft landed in front of them and opened the ramp. Shooting some mutants that had been on their side when the bridge exploded, they almost dragged the boxes into the craft and left fast. The machine went fast into the clouds and far from the city. Inside, they realized the assistant whose arm had been broken, was bleeding too much. The doctor tried to stabilize him went they realized his breathing apparatus had been broken in the run. They were both put in quarantine in a small room as they flew back to the Hive.


 Calista fell onto a seat and took off her mask. She was able to breath in calm, at last. She saw the clouds through the windows and asked herself if the mission had been worth it, if they the dead assistant had died for nothing and if both quarantined men were going to be ok. And then she fell asleep, never answering these questions.