by Jen Haeger
“Two men enter, one man leaves,” he said, laughing at his own joke.
The man in black gave Klause a withering look then turned his gaze on Allen. “You fight,” he said coldly. “If you win, you eat and drink, maybe we let you go.” His lips cracked a mirthless smile. “If you lose, you don’t…If you lose three fights or refuse to fight, we kill your family.”
At those words an involuntary cry escaped Allen’s throat and he was forced to his knees by the resulting shock from the collar. The man in black continued speaking as though Allen had not responded to him.
“If you continue to lose fights, I shoot you in the gut, throw you in a cage and wait for the flies.”
Allen looked up at the man in black with as much hate as he could muster. The man looked very pleased with himself. Allen launched himself at the man, but Klause was ready for that, and lunged forward with the cattle prod as the man in black dodged out of the way, chortling. The jolt from the cattle prod was much worse than the collar, and Allen was thrown backwards and fell onto his back, twitching uncontrollably. The man in black’s face suddenly loomed over Allen with a wild smile plastered across it.
“You’d better get up, Soldier, the other whelp is coming this way and he looks hungry.”
21
When Evelyn awoke, she felt like she had been asleep for days. She was stiff in every muscle and the fog of sleep was still heavy on her brain. She recognized where she was, but it took her a moment to remember what had happened in the last twenty-four hours: Katie’s different viral strain, the Wolfkin woman they had rescued from the forest. It all started coming back to her. She knew she should get up, eat, and check on the woman, but she also felt like she could use another couple minutes of snoozing. Then she heard voices. At first she thought that it was just David talking on the satellite phone. But then she recognized that there were two voices and one was a woman’s voice. Damnit, he said he would come get me if she woke up, thought Evelyn grumpily as she began getting out of bed. She heard David laugh at something the woman had said, and felt even more annoyed.
Evelyn walked out of the bedroom to find the woman conscious and sitting up slightly on the couch while David held up a glass of water for her to drink. The two of them had not noticed Evelyn come out of the bedroom, so she cleared her throat loudly. The woman looked up at Evelyn and gave her a weak smile, and David turned, smiling amicably.
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I thought that you were going to come get me when she woke up,” Evelyn grumbled.
David’s smile faltered a little, “Oh, yeah, I was going to, but Kim here was really scared and disorientated when she woke up and I couldn’t just leave her,” he explained hurriedly. “But she’s feeling a little better now, aren’t you?” He turned to the woman on the couch, Kim, for confirmation.
“Yes. Much better now,” she whispered gruffly. “David tells me that I owe you my life.”
“You needed help,” Evelyn said simply.
“Yeah, I had to explain to Kim that she had an accident in the woods and we helped her out, but the accident must’ve been a bit traumatic because she’s having trouble remembering how she ended up in the woods,” David said, pointedly.
Evelyn raised her eyebrows. “Oh. She doesn’t often go for nighttime hikes in the woods?”
David shook his head. “The last thing she remembers is leaving the gym and heading out to her car just before sunset.”
Evelyn thought about what David had said. Was it possible that Kim didn’t even know she was a werewolf? She walked over to the table and pulled one of the chairs over next to the couch. She looked at Kim’s face. Evelyn could tell that the woman was genuinely confused.
“Has this ever happened to you before? Any other episodes of memory loss?” she asked.
David butted in before Kim could answer, “It’s O.K., Evie’s a doctor.”
Kim nodded at David, then frowned and shook her head at Evelyn. “No, I don’t think so.”
The wheels in Evelyn’s mind were spinning frantically. “Have you been bitten by a wild animal recently or received any blood transfusions?” she pressed.
Kim looked even more confused and shook her head.
What’s going on?! thought Evelyn anxiously. She was about to grill Kim some more, but the poor woman looked as though she were about to pass out. Pain and bewilderment were clear on her face, and Evelyn almost forgot that Kim had very recently been near to death. Evelyn chided herself for being so callous and gave Kim a gentler look.
“Let me get you something for the pain.” She rose and went into the bathroom, coming back with a pathetic few tablets of Tylenol and Ibuprofen. “I’m sorry, but this is all that we have. Do you think that you can take these?”
Kim hesitated but then nodded, and David and Evelyn helped her to sit up a little more in order to make swallowing the pills easier. Evelyn placed the pills into her mouth and David tipped the glass of water to her lips. Kim swallowed the pills down, but coughed weakly and began sweating from the effort. They eased her back down again and Evelyn checked on her makeshift bandages.
“Your bandages are looking pretty good, so I’m not going to change them yet.”
Kim looked thankful that more moving around was not going to be required.
“David, can you get me some fresh ice packs from the freezer in the lab and take these back?” Evelyn asked as she handed David the room temperature packs.
“Kim, I’d like to examine your legs, O.K.?”
“O.K.” Kim rasped.
Evelyn professionally poked and prodded at Kim’s legs in order to determine the extent of the damage that had been done to them. She pinched Kim’s inner thigh.
“Can you feel that?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn pinched several more spots, but it was clear that Kim’s strength was fading fast as her responses switched from actual words to small noises of affirmation or disagreement.
“One last thing, I promise. Can you wiggle your toes for me?”
Kim grunted as her toes feebly moved back and forth.
“That’s great!”
Evelyn tried not to sound too relieved that no serious nerve damage had been done, but in truth she had no idea what they would have done if Kim couldn’t walk out on her own. Evelyn seriously doubted that she and David would have been able to carry Kim out. David then returned with the new ice packs, and Kim didn’t stir while Evelyn repositioned the packs around Kim’s wounds. It was clear that they needed to leave her alone to get some rest, so Evelyn tucked the blanket around Kim snuggly and stood.
“Try to get some rest now. We’ll be just in the other room if you need anything, and we’ll come check on you soon.”
Kim didn’t respond. Her face was still drawn and unhappy, but Evelyn hoped that the meds would soon at least take the edge off of the pain. Morphine would have been infinitely better for the poor woman, but they would have to work with what they had. Evelyn motioned David to follow her into the bedroom, and she shut the door softly behind them. They just stared at one another for a moment in a lead-weighted silence, then David sat down heavily on the bed.
“She doesn’t know does she?”
Evelyn sat down next to him. “Not only that, but her infection is all…wrong. Just like Katie’s.”
David looked puzzled and frowned. Weariness hung about his face and Evelyn remembered then that he had not gotten any sleep yet. He put his hand up to his face and rubbed his temples.
“Do you think that it could be something like dirty needles?” he said lamely.
At first Evelyn was going to dismiss that thought out of hand, but then she stopped herself and thought about it. An accidental use of dirty needles seemed highly unlikely. Not only were medical personal required to conform to strict sterility rules nowadays, but it wasn’t like Katie and Kim were neighbors and went to the same local physician. Unless Kim and Katie were drug addicts, it just didn’t fit that they would’ve been ex
posed to infected needles. However, a deliberate and malicious contamination of needles at the manufacturer might be possible. It didn't help matters that Evelyn didn’t have a good idea of just how much blood it took to infect a person with Languorem luporum. She knew that it was not much because David had been infected with only a tiny amount of very old blood, but if Kim and Katie’s infections had been a malicious act, then that brought up all sorts of other questions and dark implications. An even scarier alternative explanation, which took into account the differences that Evelyn had found in Katie’s DNA sample, was that the virus had mutated and was now infectious in a new way. Evelyn shuddered. She didn’t know what to think at this point.
“If it is some kind of contamination, I don’t think that it’s accidental. But, David, what if the virus is mutating? Becoming more infectious?” said Evelyn, her voice layered with worry.
David looked up at her. “You think someone is deliberately infecting people?”
“Either that or a mutation.”
David shook his head, “I don’t know about a mutation, Evie, it’s been hundreds of years and it doesn’t seem like much has changed about it.”
Evelyn was starting to get annoyed, “David, I know what I saw when I looked at Katie’s viral DNA. It’s different than ours, I’m sure of it! It would explain all of these sudden strays.”
David put up his hands in a placating gesture, “Maybe you’re right…but maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s because she’s just a little girl?...or maybe it’s just a mistake.” Evelyn gave him a withering look and he started to back-peddle. “I’m not saying that it’s your mistake, Evie. Katie’s sample could have been degraded or compromised. It was saliva, and you’ve only been working with blood up until now.”
Evelyn wasn’t convinced, “But Dav-“
David put up a weary hand again to stop her. “Evie, please, at least until we have more solid evidence of a mutation, let’s just try to focus on some kind of deliberate infection of people, and who might do something like that and why.”
Evelyn stood up and threw up her hands in frustration. “Let’s think,” she said sarcastically, “who could possibly be cruel and crazy enough to do something like that?”
“Evelyn, we can’t automatically just blame the Vulke for everything that goes wrong. There can be some other explanation. We just don’t know enough right now to make any assumptions. Let’s just find out some more information before we go running off panicking or making accusations.”
Evelyn didn’t appreciate David’s attitude. She turned to say something, but David stood and continued talking, “AND we have a more immediate problem to deal with right now.”
“What problem?!” shouted Evelyn.
“We have a new Wolfkin who doesn’t know what’s happened to her. She’s injured,” he checked his watch, “and we don’t have much time before she’s going to change again. And we have to figure out how we’re going to tell her what she is when we can’t even tell her how she became infected.”
Evelyn’s anger wavered. David was right. That was a problem. Kim was going to be a big problem. She sat back down on the bed, her head beginning to hurt from stress. They could try to physically restrain her, but that might only lead to her hurting or even killing herself. They could NOT restrain her, but that might also lead to more injury or death of not only Kim, but of David and Evelyn and anyone else who they might unfortunately run across. They could try to explain things to Kim before she changed and hope that she could contain the rage, but that was really iffy, and that was only assuming that she believed them right away. Evelyn did have one thought that might work, but it was dangerous and a long shot. They would have to sedate Kim, but the only possible chemical that Evelyn currently had access to in that capacity was the chloroform that she used as a solvent in the lab. Although chloroform could be used as an anesthetic, it was toxic. Evelyn would need to figure out a way to administer it to Kim in a large enough dose to knock out the Wolfkin in her without killing her.
She looked up at David. “I think we’re going to have to sedate her, at least for tonight. Maybe we can find someplace tonight to put her tomorrow night, like a cave, or a pit or something, I don’t know.” Evelyn shrugged her shoulders.
“You don’t think that we should even tell her?!” David asked outraged.
“Not today. There isn’t really time, and she is weak and already confused. I just think that she would think that she’s been abducted by psychopaths.” She met David’s eyes. “It’s what I would think…what I thought. I have an idea for telling her tomorrow. We should use one of the security cameras to film her changing. I think it will help for her to see.”
David nodded unenthusiastically.
“But you should get some sleep now. I’ll put together what I need to anesthetize her and get the camera in place. I don’t need your help for that, but I will need you rested tonight while we look for somewhere to keep her contained tomorrow night.”
David looked like he might argue at first, but then just nodded again. He straightened the bed slightly then climbed in. Evelyn went out to check on Kim then went into the lab to get together the chloroform and some equipment. After three hours Evelyn had jury-rigged a delivery system for the chloroform using a mixture of laboratory equipment, hiking supplies, and a generous application of duct tape. It consisted of a harness made from part of Evelyn’s backpack that hung via straps from the lighting fixture. Inside the harness was the bottle of chloroform to which a syringe had been attached at the opening. Evelyn had tested the syringe using water and found that when she connected a twenty-four gage needle, the water dripped through at a stable rate. Now all they had to do was move the couch to position Kim’s face under the drip system and cover her face with cloth that would absorb the sweet-smelling liquid and keep Kim breathing in the anesthetic fumes.
The light of day was now fading, so Evelyn hurried to wake up David. Evelyn didn’t want Kim to awaken while they were moving the couch, so she took the shirt that she was going to use to cover Kim’s face and doused it with chloroform from another bottle and held it firmly over Kim’s face for a full thirty seconds. The injured woman stirred but didn’t wake up. Evelyn then carefully placed the shirt over Kim’s head. It was one of David’s shirts so Evelyn hoped that it was large enough and would stay over Kim’s face when it had turned into a muzzle. Then she and David moved the couch under the drip bottle, positioning Kim’s head directly underneath the apparatus. Evelyn got the drip going and as one last emergency precaution, they used some nylon rope that they had in their packs to secure Kim to the couch. Evelyn wasn’t sure that it would be enough to hold her if she woke up, but at least she wouldn’t roll off the couch during the change and negate the whole anesthesia system.
Evelyn checked Kim’s breathing and pulse one last time and then she set up one of the security cameras that she had retrieved from outside on the kitchen table and focused it in on the unconscious woman. David and Evelyn then locked up the cabin and headed out into the woods. They had to rush away again to gather some distance between them and the lab. After the change, David and Evelyn were cautious, both listening and smelling for any other possible Wolfkin in the area, then they quickly hunted an unfortunate deer and got to work searching for some location that might work to contain a wild Wolfkin Kim without causing her to harm herself or others. Evelyn was thinking of a cave or some kind of pit or deep, narrow culvert that she and David could somehow block the entrance of. They began scouring the area for such a place, but Evelyn didn’t hold out much hope of finding one in actuality. She had just wanted to have some kind of plan for the next few days since she knew that they didn’t have enough chloroform to keep Kim sedated for three more nights.
22
By the time the sun came up, David and Evelyn were exhausted and still hadn’t found a suitable location for holding Kim. Evelyn was trying to do some mental calculations on how much chloroform they had, but she then stopped because she realized that
the sedation system might have failed utterly and they wouldn’t know until they got back to the cabin. As they approached the lab, Evelyn didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary; she just hoped that she hadn’t killed the injured woman.
David and Evelyn listened at the door, then, hearing nothing, unlocked it and slowly opened it. Everything was just as they had left it and Kim was still on the couch although the shirt over her face was slightly askew. The dripping bottle of chloroform was almost empty and the air inside the cabin reeked of the cloying sweetness of the chemical.
“Can you take the bottle down and cap the syringe? Maybe prop the door open too?” Evelyn asked while she took the shirt off Kim’s face and checked her vital signs. Her pulse and breathing were normal.
“I think she’s O.K.”
Evelyn gave a huge sigh of relief. David finished bracing the door open with a chair then helped Evelyn to untie the nylon rope and take down the drip apparatus. They then moved the couch back to its original position so Kim would hopefully be less bothered by the odd changes when she woke up. Evelyn decided that now was a good time to check on Kim’s wounds and David helped her unwrap them by lifting up the sleeping woman. The strips of cloth that had been pressed over the punctures were soaked with blood, but it had not seeped out to the outer wrappings. The bleeding looked to have slowed considerably and Evelyn gave another sigh of relief. She bandaged the wounds back up using a good portion of the remaining sheet strips, then frowned and nodded to herself as she stood.
She turned to David. “I have to go into town today. I have to get some medical supplies for Kim.”
David just stared at her. They both knew it was risky to be seen in town too much, let alone to be buying suspicious supplies in town. He opened his mouth to protest then closed it again, scowling.