Chapter 2 - The Screaming Sirens
The piercing wail of the ambulance sirens cut through the quiet suburban night like a knife.
Red and blue emergency lights flashed through the stained-glass windows of the funeral home.
Paramedics burst through the heavy oak double doors, carrying heavy medical bags and a collapsible stretcher.
They looked deeply confused by the dispatch call they had received.
A medical emergency at a wake for a man who was already dead sounded like a cruel prank.
But the sight of Rachel clinging to the edge of the coffin, weeping uncontrollably, told them it was real.
"Move back, everyone needs to clear the area right now!" the lead paramedic shouted.
He was a tall, heavily built man named David, and he immediately pushed his way to the casket.
When he saw the eight-year-old girl curled up next to the deceased man, he froze for a split second.
"Get the child out of there," David instructed his partner, a young woman named Sarah.
Sarah gently but firmly lifted a protesting Madison out of the casket and handed her to Lorraine.
David shined a bright penlight directly into Thomas’s unmoving, half-open eyes.
To his absolute shock, the pupils slowly constricted in response to the harsh light.
"I need an airway kit and an EKG monitor, right this second!" David yelled, his professional calm completely shattering.
He pressed his stethoscope to Thomas’s chest, listening intently through the thick fabric of the burial suit.
There was a heartbeat, beating at an incredibly dangerous rate of perhaps ten beats per minute.
It was a phenomenon known in medical circles as Lazarus Syndrome, but David had never actually seen it in twenty years on the job.
They worked frantically, cutting open the expensive suit jacket that Thomas had been dressed in for eternity.
Sarah attached the sticky EKG pads to his pale, clammy chest, watching the green line on the monitor spike weakly.
"He's severely hypoxic, we need to bag him," David ordered, inserting a plastic tube into Thomas's throat.
The crowd of mourners watched in absolute horror and fascination as the dead man was lifted onto a stretcher.
Rachel grabbed Sarah's arm, her fingernails digging deep into the paramedic's uniform.
"Is he alive? Please, you have to tell me if he is really alive!" Rachel begged.
"Ma'am, his heart is beating, but we need to get him to the hospital right now," Sarah replied urgently.
They wheeled the stretcher out the front doors, leaving a trail of absolute disbelief in their wake.
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Madison stood in the doorway, clutching her mother's hand, staring at the flashing lights.
She knew her daddy had a secret, and he was finally ready to tell her.
