THE LIGHTLESS Character Profiles #8: Dr. Kannon

Wercy Kannon was a sharp dressing, sharp minded middle-aged man, and was Infectious Disease and Chief Medical Officer at Morrowtown General Hospital. His life had been dedicated to helping people, a passion that many within the medical field shared. His family doted on him constantly for his many accolades, and for keeping Morrowtown’s people healthy, when there was so much happening to make them otherwise.

Another wave of tainted drugs had made its way back into Morrowtown, much to the dismay of everyone involved—besides the people using said tainted drugs. These buffed up drugs were collectively called Boosted, as were the users. These tainted drugs all had names of their own, mostly street names that varied dealer to dealer, and their effects could be just as eclectic. Some people died instantly, others hallucinated, some hemorrhaged, but the most astonishing and uncommon side-effects were that of super-human strength and agility, and the shutting off and ignoring of all pain. The psychedelic effects too could range from none, to mild, to extreme, to permanent. Boosters who happened to gain superhuman abilities were usually swiftly dealt with by the Morrowtown Police Department, though their ranks had thinned over past six years, sometimes leaving these drug-addled, pain ignoring people roaming the streets, and occasionally taking a life before the police arrived, or they took their own.

Dr. Kannon had campaigned hard against the use and distribution of these boosted drugs, though many of Morrowtown’s residents had fallen hard into the life-threatening habit. The job market had crashed, real estate was in the gutter, and Morrowtown’s once proud and ready workforce had effectively turned into zombies. While his campaign to stop this hadn’t worked so far, he could still help treat the people that came in suffering from adverse reactions to the drugs. However, he would have to be terribly careful, as many drug users flocked to the hospital in order to get medication that they could either substitute, sell, or add to the things they were already taking. His ability to prescribe medication had been greatly restricted and watched over, so many people were turned away, left to fester outside the hospital, begging comers by for a share of the meds they had been given. Even some of his own staff had fallen victim to these boosted drugs, bringing them into the hospital and taking them while on the job, and stealing medications from patient's’ rooms, and various hospital stores.

It pained Kannon to see his once lively and gregarious town slowly dying, but he was already doing everything he could. There was not much more he could do, besides splay himself open and see if perhaps his insides had the cure to everyone’s problems he just couldn’t seem to fix while they were nestled comfortably within his tired body. Occasionally, he gave this silly notion real, serious thought. Occasionally, his profession was too much for him. But he thought it must be for many with jobs such as his. Life and death were nearly one in his head, he had seen so much of the latter taking or reshaping the former, that every now and again he would catch his apathy overtaking his empathy.

The Maulings

Kannon’s truest test as a medical practitioner came on the night of March 17th, when Sal Dagostino was brought to the hospital. Truer and more alarming a test than even his home decaying before his eyes, he would never forget Mr. Dagostino, nor what had brought him to Morrowtown Gen. What happened to Sal? Why was this such an unprecedented situation?

You can look forward to finding out in THE LIGHTLESS…