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SUMMARY: Doctor Marcus is called in from his break to handle a very confusing case of rabies.

Emergency Room- Cleveland Memorial Hospital
Cleveland, OH USA
June 27, 1997 CE (Azraedum 6, 17213) 21:39 Eastern Time (Local Time)

The bulging fat globe of the moon lit up the dark spaces missed by the brilliant lights of the big city. The bright luminescence also told veteran Doctor Marcus that it would be long and crazy night. As he stood in the moonlight smoking a cigarette, an unexplained sensation bubbled up from his abdomen. He rubbed his belly, wondering if it was the tasty piece of Chicago deep dish pizza that he had on break, or if his premonitions were warming him again. Something was afoot, and his twenty years of ER experience told him he would probably find out sooner than he wanted.

Ambulances sped in an out of the bustling ER on the south side of Cleveland. The handsome and thin Doctor Marcus loved the ER. He had built up a successful practice as a surgeon, but he missed the quickened and frantic pace of the ER, especially when it was rocking. Now that he was in early fifties, he needed to take a quick break now and again to keep his head and body fresh. He stood at a distance from the ER, where he could watch it, and smoke a couple cigarettes. Marcus had reacquainted himself with the nicotine monkey when he had returned to the ER.

"Doctor Marcus! Doctor Marcus!" A short blonde nurse darted out of the ER automatic doors, waving at the grey haired medical maestro.

Marcus quickly dropped the cig, crushing it under his tennis shoes, and jogged towards the door.

"Yeah, what's up Ginger?" His deep voice carried certainty and a strong resolve.
"We've got a tough one on the way in. We could use your expertise on the radio. The EMTs are frantic."
"Let's go."
The two barged through the automatic doors and through the ambulance arrival staging area. They turned left, walking down the hallway, and into the large office staging area.

Marcus headed to a back counter were the radio equipment was. Nurse Aimes stood by the equipment, holding the microphone in her right hand and looking very perplexed. Upon seeing Doctor Marcus, she handed him the microphone, and stepped aside as the EMT kept speaking over the radio.
"...temp one hundred three point four degrees...b.p. one seventy three over one twenty one...pupils are dilated...she has come out of a temporary paralysis, and does not remember the events leading up to her collapse..."
"This is Doctor Marcus. Does she have any nausea or sore throat?"
"Yes...she does. She is complaining of salivating a lot...and that her muscles are sore, especially her neck and shoulder muscles with an accompanying tingling sensation on the right side of her lower neck."
"Has she been bitten by a dog or any other animal in the last couple of weeks?"
There was a long pause. Marcus looked at Aimes, and Ginger. Their eyebrows all crinkled with the extremely long wait for a response.
"She's gone into convulsions. Rich is having a hard time keeping her calm...we'll be there in a less than two minutes."
The radio transmissions stopped.