The phone rings just as the giant steel door begins to open that contains another of Hathians recently departed , the sheet covering the corpse white with several blood patches blotted into it predicts another homocide statistic for the local police . " Yeah what .... Oh , ok im on my way .." the phone reciever closes and the morgue fridge door remains open as the mortuary door opens with footsteps exitting out and into the cold dark night .

White flashes and the mix of red and blue lights illuminate the nights sky as the yellow police barrier tape waves in the wind , the police trying there hardest to contain the masses of reporters and bystanders that surrounds Nyks lastest pay check , a rouge cop found dead outside the local precinct .... all immiediate evidence points to yet another homocide , perhaps an inside job or a local hit from gangs . The Police keen to get the body off the streets make room for the black van and Nyk doesnt hesistate in collecting the body with the help of a rookie cop who couldnt help but vomit at the sight of the bullet ridden corpse all over Nyks shoes as they load it in the back , " I just had them polished ..." , giving the rookie cop ...a female ...the look of venom and disbelief , " Sorry , its my first day ", came a shaky reply as the cop tried to hold her stomach to prevent further confrontation with the already annoyed Mortician.

Nyk had been up for what seemed like forever trying to clear a backlog of cases and autopsies after his assistant quit , claiming that the body they were working on sat up and belched at them ... the last Nyk saw of his assistance was watching them take off at olympic speed out the door and down the street before disapearing into a crowd of people , never to darken Nyks doorway again . The Morgue , situated in the local hospitals basement was home to several Morticians and Pathologists , mostly they were part time .. only making an apperence when there was money to made or fame to be claimed , Nyk was different.. it was his life and soul and all he knew except his gang affliations with a local mob which was kept a close secret among his colleges and even some friends . The morgue was his own according to him , it was his home , work and play area ...he had his own collection of tools for his 'job' each of which had a name and its own personalilty , each one was different in the way it did its job or function , the way it should be handled and used . Some would call it wierd and bizzare Nyk would call it much more then that.

His records of his cases were known as the 'Book of the Dead' , a thick hardback book that contained all the records of every 'customer' Nyk had worked on since he started the job some years back as a young keen apprentice . Today reading through the records make for some interesting reading for anyone medically or anatomically educated as every single death in the city of Hathian since Nyk started had the same verdict (cause) of death ... "Heart Failure".

The reasoning behind this , according to Nyk was simple . Every nature of death eventually causes the heart to fail , it didnt matter to Nyk if the deceased was shot , stabbed , run over or hit by a evil panda ... the cause would always be Heart Failure and so recorded in the book under each name the verdict of death was Heart Failure.

Those giant steel doors opened for the second time in the same night as the empty slab slowly slid out and the rouge cop was placed naked on its cold smooth surface , the body was full of scratches and cuts , healing wounds and burns .. it would certinally make for an interesting autopsy in the morning after Nyk had caught some sleep in the hospitals visitation room , a rain mack and the hard arm of the chair as a pillow was all Nyk needed to get a few hours shut eye in somewhat relative peace and quiet . Nyk shuts both fridge doors and begins to walk to the door where he would collect his mack and a stack of amature mortuary pornography magazines .. all current six volumes , he would reach up and switch the light off and slowly begin to close the door , a quick glance at his watch would have im calculate that he had now been awake for almost 47 hours .. As the door closes , the unthinkable happens.. the phone rings again ..

" Yeah ...... Im on my way ..."