The Spiked Wolf

by David Shiels

  Finding The Origin

  Jessica sheepishly walked into the room holding both of her hands low in front of her, and down the steps towards the three people. The two security officers were already out of the room before she even reached the bottom of the steps.

  The man with authority noticed her looking back at now closed door and said towards her in a very serious tone “Not even they are allowed to know what words are spoken within these walls”

  He walked backwards towards the wall and took a deep breath.

  “I wish there were more time for pleasantries but time truly is important” His long brown jacket ruffled with every exaggerated hand action he created.

  “You three have been bought here because you are the best in your fields, Jessica you are the absolute best in animal cell research and have made some remarkable achievements for such a young age of 27” He now turned away from her and faced towards the woman next to her, she was short than Jessica, maybe 5’6 and had short black hair which came to her ears.

  “Ah Kathy Bremer; renowned throughout the science community all over the world. You have been winning awards and solving so many scientific conundrums for over thirty years, you are what we call the jack of all science trades” His face truly shone brighter with each second he was talking to the grey haired lady, who would surely be stunning back in her heyday, but apparently still got older men hot under the collar. Jessica wondered if she truly was such a great scientist, as she has never heard of her, or was she here purely because of her appearance.

  He finally tore his eyes away from the elderly woman and lifted them high to the tower of a man who was the third and final scientist.

  “Ah, Tom, your work on animal genetics has been fascinating, you have captivated millions of people with your theories and work on hybrid animals and you will synchronise with this crew delightfully well”

  Jessica had a sudden twinge of anger she couldn’t control as the man seemingly droned on. “This is all very nice but you said time was short and you lied about my daughter being dead to get me here, how about we move on?” She surprised herself with how powerful it came out.

  Kathy, giving Jessica a stern nod before turning to the authoritative man, added “Indeed. I was told my grandchildren had been abducted and that I was needed as a ransom for their safe return.”

  Tom added nothing but frequent nods of approval towards his peers as they spoke their words.

  “Ok, I understand some bold strategies may have been used to get you here but you now need to understand how important this all is.”

  Everyone remained quiet, eager to learn what was about to change their lives.

  The man went on to explain about the wolf epidemic, showing them pictures and news cut-outs with details of the events that have taken place over the past two days.

  “This is all hardly known to the American public at this time, news slipped about the wolf attacks in Russia but they have little knowledge about how far this has all spread, were looking already at over one billion wolves patrolling the earth and it has been only two days”

  The man's eyes were mostly fixated towards Kathy, who awkwardly moved her eyes away after they met his for a few seconds too long.

  “So this is why social media was promptly blocked in every single American state without much news” Kathy spoke with folded arms, one hand touching her chin as she spoke.

  “Yes” he nodded “We did not need the public panicking, it is looking like we are the last safe place on earth, but our forces are struggling to keep the outbreak at bay.”

  “So” Jessica added “You deceived the American public into not knowing how much harm is potentially around the corner and have now refused them the right to prepare themselves? I’m stuck here while my family is in real danger!” She strongly folded her arms, her face beginning to turn red from the anger which swelled from the deception.

  “It’s all for their own safety but please, you have all been brought here to help us tackle this; you are the three greatest science minds with relation to animals, you will stay here for as long as it is needed and conduct research using all of the state of the art technology we have here, most of it unseen outside of these walls.” The man’s eyes now proudly scanned over the trio as he spoke his words.

  Tom finally spoke his soft words “What if we don’t want to stay?”

  The answer came fast and hard:

  “There is no choice in this” A heavy atmosphere came over the room, the three scientists suddenly feeling like they had been entered into a situation they can never win.

  Exact details of what work they would be undertaking was explained in as much detail as he could fit in as many small sentences as possible, then the two men were called back into the room and the trio of great minds were ushered to their own personal labs which were all next door to each other. When the mention of bedrooms came up, the subject of no sleep came up in return.

  Jessica was now all alone in what should be her dream location, but it was all ruined by ruthless deception and false pretensions, she was surrounded by such technology that she should be in her most happiest zone. But she felt empty.

  The large glass wall made her feel uneasy. She knew there were cameras watching her but she was used to that invasion of privacy in her own lab, but the entire wall being made out of glass made her feel paranoid that she would turn around and there would be dark figures watching her, making sure she was working as fast as possible.

  On the desk spanning the opposite wall was a small computer; it looked as if the wall had developed a large mouth and attempted to devour the terminal but got it stuck halfway in.

  What, were they scared of me running off with it?

  She was told that this terminal is where she would record all her progress and be able to read messages from the other two scientists; why weren’t we allowed to be in the same room?

  Before she could further mope on her emotions the door to her lab slid up and entering at an alarming speed was a trolley with the bloodied corpse of a wolf displayed on it; the man that pushed in the trolley did not say a word leaving as quickly as he had arrived, his head constantly facing the wall, his face making no contact with hers. Jessica worried he was going to crash into wall as he scurried out of the room as if she was some monster he was trying to escape from.

  The man had informed her, or rather the wall, that she needed to find out as much as possible about the wolf through any means necessary. Next to the corpse was a small pink envelope. She tore it open and inside was a small letter.

  It read: This wolf is an Alaskan wolf, it is not one of savage wolves but this is all we have available right now, research what you can about it and see if there are any abnormalities. More will be on the way. DO whatever it takes. You have all the tools needed.

  The tools available; scalpels, razors, knives, a drill...

  Working with animal cells was one thing, but having to dissect and analyse a perfectly normal looking wolf was not something Jessica studied all of her life for.

  The Wolf Genes

  Since being a child she had always wondered how animals functioned and evolved, how they came to be and what motivated them to do the things they do. This had always fascinated her and is the core reason she spent most of her time through university studying and not partying and sleeping around. But this is what it has come to.

  She would not resort to this right now, so she buried her head in the sand and instead took small blood samples and placed them under the impressive microscope which gave her an almost perfect picture of every single cell. It truly was amazing.

  She placed the cells onto a small plastic rectangular slide and placed it into the cell analysis machine that was connected to the terminal. The terminal made beeping and bopping sounds whilst many boxes flashed on and off on the screen.

  The result was as she expected: it was simply a normal wolf, no abnormalities, nothing; it was a perfectly healthy animal before being slaughtered. She sat down at th
e terminal and began to relax herself, but before she could take even three slow breaths a loud voice came into the room from the camera: it was the authoritative man who would not give his name.

  “Ms. Blight you weren’t brought into this exquisite lab in the middle of the desert to simply take a few blood samples and take a break. You have surely seen the tools available to you in this room. You must do whatever it takes to get the results we need. We brought you here for your intellect and your inspirational hard working nature. Remember, no one is leaving here until results are found.

  The anxious sweat began to yet again form as she realised she was under constant supervision. If she ever wanted to see her beautiful family again she had to indeed do whatever it takes.

  She began by picking up the scalpel and hesitantly staring at the corpse which had died by gunshot to the head, and started penetrating the stomach and sliding the small silver blade the full length of its stomach; it felt like she was cutting through a piece of steak.

  This made the contents of the beasts entire torso spill outwards to the side, causing Jessica to have to turn away and gag into her hands, the feeling of vomit reaching the back of her mouth leaving a bitter taste as it returned to where it would surely come from again. Blood flowed over the table, sliding over the edge of the table. Not one bit of white could be seen any more on the once pristine table top..

  Now she had all these wolf organs scattered across her work table, so many she had no idea where to begin. It was like being in a butcher shop.

  She looked at all of the machines around the room. She had seen them before in magazines as prototypes but never believed they had actually been built and who knows how long for. She quickly fathomed what the machines functions were and began tearing open hearts and livers down to the smallest pieces, blood spraying as she diced away against various organs; her white jacket she had received on the day she had received her master's degree was no longer a white jacket, and never would be again.

  Vomit would slither its way up her digestive track again and again as she would perform these tasks but as the hours went by and the amount of dead wolves that had entered her lab increased considerably, she felt less and less disgusted and it became more like routine.

  Her room now began to look like a wolf morgue, they would bring in more wolves but never take the ones that had been tested upon. The place would smell putrid if not for the excellent air conditioning which would sweep the approaching smell away before it could ever reach Jessica’s nostrils. She would have been sick many times if the her sense of smell was able to join with her sense of touch and vision.

  Jessica began to feel tired from the constant work. Every result was the same, these wolves were all perfectly normal down to the smallest details, but every time she would stop for a rest the voice would yet again jump from the speaker and remind her of how important her work is with subtle veiled threats to her family soon following.

  She wondered how Kathy and Tom were doing with their research. She was concerned for Kathy considering her age but then she smiled and thought that maybe she was with the man behind the speaker performing all sorts of...acts.

  Tom, she did not know much about but he looked young and healthy so this work would be of no problem for him.

  She spared some thoughts for her family, she wondered what little Veronica was up to, she would be wondering where her mummy was, why didn’t she come home last night? why wasn’t her face shaped toast ready and waiting for her on the breakfast table? She wondered how her husband Byron would explain it to her; they had rushed her away so fast she has had no contact with anybody. What has this...corporation said to people?

  She didn’t have much time to mull over these thoughts as the awkward man soon rushed into the room again with another trolley, this one was much different to the other wolves that came before, this one looked like something out of a dark fantasy film.

  It was large and very dark, it’s fur looked like it would be sharp enough to penetrate flesh without much encouragement, it’s eyes were dark and small.

  Jessica had been shown shaky camera footage of the wolves attacking people but she never quite expected them to be this large or this grotesque looking. The normal wolves just looked like slightly bigger dogs but this thing is clearly on another level.

  The man rushed out the room even faster than usual, this time slamming half of his body into the wall on the way out. Jessica was too stunned by what was lying on the table in front of her. She didn't know what to think.

  She didn’t ponder for long as the voice of authority came to her yet again.

  “This is one of the beasts that has ravaged almost half of the world already, we killed it trying to approach the country via the Canadian border. You must be careful not to touch the fur on its back, it is imperative that you heed this as we do not know if the transformation agent inside the wolf's fur is still active after death.”

  Jessica, without having moved her eyes off of the deceased monster, wondered how best to approach this situation, she needed to obtain samples like with all of the other wolves but this one required such precision she was unsure if she was capable; one mistake could cost her life.

  Revelation

  Now that she has seen this monstrosity first hand she knew how much trouble the world is in, and if Canada and south America were compromised then it meant that this threat was close to her and her family; Jessica gained a new perspective, she no longer felt like a prisoner but felt like a saviour and the feeling of honour swept over her, Endorphins circulated her brain.

  She began the procedure almost immediately, but carefully. She jabbed the scalpel into the stomach of the spiked wolf but to her shock it snapped on impact and not a single dent was left in the stomach of the beast. She quickly checked for how it had met it’s end and noticed countless bullet wounds around the spine of the beast, it looks like at least 10 shots had been fired into its back; but the most amazing thing was that most of bullets were still visible through the skin: only one or two had managed to find a weak spot and hit vital organs.

  It was time to get serious she thought, so she reached and picked up a large electric drill off of her table of many tools, at first using only one hand yet this almost resulted in her arm being pulled down to the floor; the other hand was quickly ushered in for back-up.

  As she held the trigger the drill vibrated with life, to her it felt like having her hands resting on a blender that was spinning at full power, impossible to control.

  She stabbed erratically at the stomach with her electric weapon, finding it hard to aim even with her two hands firmly holding it, her face squinting like she was facing a roaring sun. After some missed attempts stabbing the air and the table, she was able to slightly enter the belly of the beast by a few centimetres. Even the screw that was being spun a thousand times a second struggled to tear open the flesh. She slowly dragged the drill down the curved belly, the drill pausing and making horrible churning sounds as it went, feeling as if it may explode at any moment. She held her face back at angle, thinking it would help if any parts of the drill were to shoot in her direction.

  Eventually the now all too familiar job was done. Jessica was able to properly examine the insides of the beast, and amazingly it all seemed to resemble any normal wolves, the only obvious difference was that the skin was extremely durable and thick, it was at least three times as thick as a basic wolf.

  She performed the usual tests on the wolves organs. No matches were found on the international database, all blood tests confirmed the insides as being one hundred percent wolf. What caused Jessica to become dumbstruck was that it was seemingly a new species of wolf, there existed no records of any such beast with and it fostered no connections to any other wolf breed.

  To save her family and the world she needed to find out the source of the wolves but if there were no matches to any of the tests performed then what could she do? A hopeless feeling fell over her as she thought of her family being mauled by one
of the beasts, maybe it had already happened while she was down here, failing at what she has always wanted to do since being a young girl. Tears began to slide down her grimy feeling face, a face that had not been washed in almost a day.

  Then she had an idea. The wolves caused humans to transform into more wolves, which would mean that…

  She spoke her thoughts to the man over the speaker and requested access to the international database of every single person in the world, she knew that if this man had access to all of this laboratory then he must be able to grant this access.

  And he did, instantly, her computer desktop showed the icon to the database appear almost as soon as the man had finished confirming her request.

  She quickly opened up the database and started by checking the blood DNA results against a worldwide search, thousands of names whizzed past her eyes, names of from many countries across many different languages. She felt as if she was looking at every single registered person in the world. Then it stopped on a name, a young female from Russia.