Louise found Fellis sitting outside her clinic, working away on her phone. She was in her familiar pose, back legs sitting and front legs locked straight, giving off the impression of someone leaning back on a stool. Ahead of her, strange machines were floating around, seemingly on their own, transporting construction materials into place as she expanded her building.

Louise had to weave her way through a loose crowd of a couple dozen onlookers, milling about in the road and staring at the outlandish sight.

The doctor stood up when she saw her visitor coming. “Oh, hey.”

Louise lifted the pail she was carrying. “Brought you lunch.”

“Ah, nice, thanks.” Fellis looked into the pail and immediately pulled out the small bottle of whiskey. She looked from it to the machines going about their business. “Hm, probably shouldn’t drink while I’m doing this… Fuck it, I’ve been at it long enough.”

With a few commands typed into her phone, the construction stopped fairly abruptly, each machine dropping off its last load then flying up to its resting place on the roof of the building.

“You wanna go inside? You look fuckin’ cold.”

Louise was indeed cold, but she almost didn’t want to admit it, standing next to Fellis. She was bundled up in thick furs and two layers of wool, while the doctor had only one layer on to keep off the wind.

Fellis’ clothes were unique, to say the least. Her roomy hood had buckles on top, to allow it to go around her antlers, and under the hood was a collar that covered the lower half of her face. The rest of the covering was just as billowing as the hood, and fitted to her body, covering the whole of it in one piece. It was shockingly white, whiter than even the undisturbed snow around it, and made of an oddly shiny, solid-looking material that none of the assembled onlookers could identify. On her legs were what she would refer to as ‘boots’, but which were more like bracers, only coming down to the middle of her hooves. They matched her dark brown gloves.

Inside the clinic, the building had been completely remodeled from the last time Louise had been inside, when it was a grocer’s. The newly-built walls were bare white in most places, mint-green wallpaper only applied in one corner so far. A seating area had been set up there, the only furniture in the room.

There was a quiet buzzing noise as Fellis undid the strange opening of her clothing, drawing one hand down from her neck to the space between her front legs. She awkwardly pulled her lower half out of it, leaving her naked. Louise looked away, shocked.

“Sorry, should I put some clothes on?”

Fellis grumbled to herself as she carried her outerwear through a back door out of the room and quickly returned wearing a skirt and chemise. She was still scandalously under-dressed for company in Louise’s mind, but she tried to get past it. Meanwhile, Louise had removed her own outer layers, her furs and thicker wool jacket thrown over one of the chairs.

They sat down, Fellis in an odd, low sort of couch apparently made for her, and Louise in a luxuriously plush chair across from her. They split up the meal, sharing everything except a cooling meat pie, which Louise had to herself. 

Louise put a hand over her mouth daintily and spoke between mouthfuls. “So, how is the clinic coming along?”

Fellis shrugged. “I’m ready whenever people start coming in, I guess. Nobody has yet, though.” She gestured to the walls around. “I’ll try harder to get the word out once I’m done this. I’d like to look professional.”

Louise chuckled lightly. It was hard for her to imagine Fellis pretending to be professional.

“Gotta get my lab set up before I can do anything too special, though.”

“Special?”

Fellis reached under her seat and pulled out her synthesiser. “This thing’s really only got emergency medical supplies programmed. Well, that and a few other random things, just some shit I happened to use it for before now. I’m gonna have to make a lot of stuff myself before I’ve got a practice I’d be satisfied with.”

“Wow… You can do all that?”

Fellis waved a hand in front of her face. “Ah, don’t be too impressed. I’ve mostly got manuals to tell me what to do and all that.” She poured herself another glass of whiskey. “It’s not like I’m gonna be repeating two hundred years of fuckin’ medical research or anything.”

Despite her caveats, Louise came away from the conversation even more impressed with Fellis.

*****

Ernie burst into the clinic to find Louise and Fellis, practically blacked out drunk and listening to loud music that was, to his ear, horribly discordant. Three empty bottles sat on the side table between them.

“You.” He pointed to Fellis, who lazily turned to see him. “You’re supposed to be a doctor, eh?”

Fellis replied, hesitant. “Uh, yeah?”

Ernie kept on, interrupting her. “There’s something… I don’t know what it is, but you need to come help.” His tone was almost accusatory, for someone asking for assistance.

Fellis leaned forward, almost falling off her seat, and pulled out her saddlebags from under it. “What’s going on?” She rifled through it clumsily, finding an injector.

“It’s… a monster.” Ernie was shaking, and he ran his hands over his head. He’d lost his hat somewhere on the run over. “Oh god, it’s some sort of monster attacking the town.”

Fellis and Louise exchanged looks of doubt as the doctor pressed the injector to the vein in her neck. She closed her eyes for a minute, then leapt up, suddenly alert and energised. Throwing her bags over her back, she walked toward Ernie and the front door.

“Ok, show me where to go.”

The chill outside had only deepened after the sun set, and Fellis immediately regretted not taking the time to put her outerwear back on. Ernie led her to a crowd on the edge of town, in an empty lot across from the town’s hotel. There, a handful of people were lying on the ground, attended by several men. Two were wearing Dominion Police uniforms.

The people stared at Fellis warily, but parted to let her through. As she approached, one of the men in uniform jumped up and pulled his revolver. 

“What the fuck is that thing?”

Fellis ignored him, walking past and showing no concern for the gun pointed at her. She knelt beside one of the more badly wounded people, a young woman who was bleeding heavily. An older man was trying to save her, but resignation was creeping into his face.

“Are you doctor Cooper?” Fellis pulled out her synthesiser and plugged an injector into the jack on one side. “I’ve been meaning to introduce myself.”

Doctor Cooper, looked up and froze in apprehension. “Doctor Fellis?” A beep from her machine roused him, and he wiped the back of his hand on his forehead. It left behind a small smear of blood. “I, uh, don’t…” He cleared his throat. “Uh, nice to meet you.”

Fellis nodded curtly, then tore the wounded woman’s jacket further, looking for a clean spot to inject her. Once she did, she handed the device to the other doctor.

“Wait for it to beep after each use, that means it’s sterilised. Inject each patient once, somewhere between their biggest wound and their heart, close to but not directly on a major artery if possible. Try not to get blood on it.”

Doctor Cooper took the device gingerly in two fingers, then sat frozen again. He was staring at the chest of the patient below him. Her bleeding had already slowed considerably.

Fellis turned away from him, to one of the other medics. “Hey you, come bandage this woman.” She knelt down again to look doctor Cooper in the face. “Is there anything else I need to look at here?”

Cooper slowly shook his head, then shook it faster to clear it. “I’ll… get to work on this.” He held up the injector, then turned to another bleeding patient behind him.

Fellis stood back up and returned to where Ernie was standing on the sidelines. “You said a… ‘monster’ did this?”

Ernie nodded slightly, barely visible behind his shaking.

“Tell me what you know.”

*****

As Fellis searched the direction she’d been sent, she heard a gunshot nearby. While rushing to find the source, she heard two more. She turned a corner to find two Mounted Police officers standing over a body lying on the ground. They were bringing their revolvers to bear on it.

Two quiet cracks rang out as Fellis stunned each of the cops. They stumbled and fell backward, toward Fellis, and dropped their guns.

As she stepped over the cops, Fellis holstered her weapon and pulled out a mask from her bag. It was mostly a clear visor and vented mouthpiece, reminding the cops, who watched on in confusion, of a miner’s inhaler. She stopped in mid-stride a moment as she lowered the straps over her antlers, and brought it into place. Before continuing, she pulled out a pair of gloves and put those on, as well.

Gently turning the body over, Fellis jumped back in shock. “Holy fuck! What is this?” She scanned it with her phone, which was now covered in a clear film bag. As she did, she slowly leaned forward toward it. “Jesus… What the fuck?”

Fellis stayed like that for some time, just crouched over the body and staring at her phone. She stopped twice to prepare injections with her synthesiser, which she used on it. Her concentration was only broken when the cops behind her began to try to talk, mumbling weakly and incoherently.

“Hey, you two able to move yet?”

One of the two pushed himself off the ground. The sun was rising, and he finally got a good look at the thing.

The creature was clearly a human, or what was left of one. Its entire left side was completely twisted and disfigured, missing patches of skin and showing the oddly dark muscle underneath. Its left arm was massive, ending in a bloody claw with a shriveled thumb and pinky finger. Its breathing was shallow, causing the thick cord of muscle across its chest that connected to its oversized arm to rise and fall.

More to himself than anyone else, the officer spoke. “What… what is happening?” He held one hand to his forehead.

Fellis stopped him with one raised finger. “I asked if you could move, not talk. Shut the fuck up.”

The officer’s arm dropped, and he looked at the doctor in shock.

She turned to him, obviously angry. “This man is obviously sick, why the fuck would you shoot him?” Her rage was even more glaring because of the intimidating mask, and the way it distorted her voice.

The officer stammered for a moment, unable to reply. He fell silent, looking down at his victim apologetically.

“Go back to doctor Cooper, see if he has a stretcher.” She looked from the frozen cop to the other, who was just getting to his feet. She gestured with one hand. “Go.”

The two looked at each other, then rushed off without a word. They’d soon returned with the stretcher, the other doctor following behind.

“Doctor Fellis, what is this?”

Fellis took one last look at her phone, then shook her head.

“I have no fucking idea.”