Autopsying a corpse is nowhere near as fun or interesting as television makes it look like. Most people knew what was being broadcasted on the airwaves was an exaggeration, Mia figured, but it took working with dead bodies for the countless Police Procedurals on the tube to really get beneath one’s skin. Death was depressing, and more to the point, very smelly. It wasn’t just due to the fact that people voided their bowels upon death, although that post mortem function certainly wasn’t helping things. The smell of a dead body is amongst the most revolting stenches the human nose can ever have the misfortune to experience. And the worst part was how the stench was present among everyone and anyone.

You could be an OCD-inflicted model of cleanliness, carrying Kleenex with you everywhere, or a beet farmer with a strong aversion to bathing, it matters not. Once you kick the bucket, or as often was the case in Mia’s profession, the bucket kicks you, the body you leave behind will be a crap scented middle finger to anyone without sinus issues. The body Mia was examining right now was no exception. A cleanup crew had come in before her, so the toilet, er, “duty” was thankfully not hers. Still, the body smelled horrible. Mia sighed; it would take her days until her portable examination table smelt like a lemon again. A hastily converted kitchen at Bensen was not an ideal place to do an autopsy, but lacking any other proper place in about a hundred mile range limited Mia’s options somewhat. Also limiting her options were the obstinate demands of the Campus Police to keep day one examinations restricted to Porter Hall.

Mia understood the concept of keeping some things underwrap at first, especially at a college campus, but to not allow her to use the chemistry lab was borderline ridiculous. It certainly was callous, that the victim’s autopsy would be the basement of the very residence hall that she had died in. The victim this time was a girl from Bensen University, about the age of eighteen, maybe nineteen. She’d met her end through homicide. It wasn’t too unusual for someone her age. Most victims of homicide tend to be twenty four or younger. Mia chalked that little factlet up to hormones and lack of full brain development. The story the police told Mia was tragic, even to someone who spent as much time with those with a pulse as she did without. The tale was brief but sordid. The victim, Danielle Letteri, was heading back to her dorm, to apparently check in on her roommate. Unfortunately, tragically, the very roommate she wanted to check in on stabbed her in a fit of dementia.

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Mia shook her head in the pristine white room, there was really no villain in this incident, just a bunch of victims. But she didn’t get paid by the Government to mull over philosophy, her pay checks came because of her ability to determine causes of death in those unfortunate enough to experience. She didn’t even need to look closely at the wounds to know how this girl died. At a glance, the gashes on the legs and thighs of the athlete could clue in even an amateur what happened: the femoral artery on either, or perhaps both, her left and right leg had been pierced and broken. Human beings are more susceptible to death than most people assume. Even a cut on the finger, if left unchecked, can cause an Olympian to die in his or her sleep.

Now, the femoral artery, if that is pierced then the game was pretty much over, even if you were skilled enough and iron willed enough to prepare a tourniquet. Well, perhaps that’s a general statement. The femoral artery can be cut and the person can make it through easily enough, but only if the cut is a clean one. If the artery is cut in a jagged manner, then the victim has at best four minutes before he or she passes out and two minutes after that before death. Even if this girl was “lucky” enough to have been surrounded by her friends when she got stabbed, she still would probably have been a goner. Mia sadly shook her head, this girl never stood a chance. She jotted down the cause of death on her autopsy report:

Victim was stabbed multiple times in both legs.

Femoral arties both severed.

Estimated time of death; 12 AM – 130 AM.

With that bit of business finished, Mia put a body cover over the deceased girl. She was about to go get a well-deserved (in her opinion) black eye, (a coffee with two shots of espresso) from the college brew shop when her cell phone vibrated.. A frown came up on her face: her Red Eye would have to wait.