It was a seemingly worse than usual day for the Plague Doctor. As the clock struck noon, he was working as he often did, on animating an animal to try to rid it of the pestilence. This time, he had only been supplied a rabbit. Clicking his tongue in frustration, he narrowly avoided making a mistake in his precise surgical procedure. If he had severed its brain stem, all hope at reanimating it would be lost.

“Honestly, would it kill the foundation to supply me with something better than this?” *049 muttered to himself, gazing briefly with his silvery eyes at his work so far. He usually got along with the researchers well enough, but there were always those such as Dr. Hamm, that had managed to get on his nerves. He truly regretted his death, but anyone interviewing him should know better than to test his limits.

Hearing the electronic lock on his door, he immediately paused his work. Who could be interrupting him at such a time? He certainly hoped whoever it was would bring in something useful, like a deer or a cow. That way, he could get something meaningful done instead of reanimating something that bore little resemblance in either looks or intelligence, to his preferred test subjects, which were humans, of course.