C2 Changed

Like a fish on a hook, Mike was yanked back to the brink of consciousness. He twisted, trying to take stock of his surroundings while making as little noise as possible. A little shake of the wrists and ankles told him that he was being held down with something, presumably metal clamps since he still had a little wriggle room for his wrists. His behind was extremely sore, which meant he was probably on a hospital bed, not too comfortable, probably covered with sterile sheets. His surest guess was that he was in a sort of hospital or facility, and his being held down was probably down to the fact that he was some sort of lab rat for an experiment. The alcohol had completely worn off, and all the bad choices he'd made the night before was coming back in torrents. Why had he gotten so drunk in the first place? Why had he left his daughter at home unsupervised? And what type of tranquilizer gun in God's green earth caused so much unbearable pain?

He opened his eyes. Shafts of artificial light from above pierced his eyeballs and he groaned and blinked a couple of times.

"Don't move too much." A voice said "It'll only cause more pain"

Mike turned his head abruptly. The voice belonged to a tall, redheaded woman. She was leaning against the doorframe, her arms folded, wearing a white lab coat.

"What..?" Mike tried to say but the woman shushed him. She moved closer to his bed and laid a rubber-gloved hand on his wrist.

"It would be over before you know it." She said, smiling. "You've gone through too much pain already. Dr Makovsky and I would fix you up in no time. You are not the first case of lycanthropy, neither will you be the last, but Dr Makovsky and I have successfully perfected an antidote. You will be the first in a long line of recoveries, Mike. You will set the record for scientific breakthrough."

"What are you talking about?" Mike croaked. "Antidote for what?"

The woman dialed on the intercom by the bedside and spoke into it "Dr Makovsky? He's awake"

"I don't know what is going on here, but I really need to go home to my daughter. I left her at home alone overnight and–"

Mike was interrupted by the opening of the door. The white-haired man from the night before walked in, labcoated and carrying a tray of syringes and needles and strange liquids, which the woman promptly collected from him.

"Hello, Michael." The doctor said "We meet again"

"What are you doing to me?" Mike yelled "I demand to know. I am an officer–"

Ignoring Mike, Dr Makovsky turned to Beth and gave a swift nod. Beth neared him with a syringe full of clear liquid in her hands, the smile still on her lips. "Hold still, Mike." She said, then injected into him a shaft of pure pain. Mike let out an inhumane scream as his body was racked with a hundred times the pain of the tranquilizer gun. He tried to roll over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side.

"Give him the buprenorphrine." He heard the doctor say after a couple of seconds.

Mike's head cleared as the pain went as fast as it came. His clothes were drenched in his own sweat, along with the sheets on which he was laid. His throat felt like he had never had a taste of water in his life. He tried to speak but all he could let out was a desperate croak. The woman forced a glass of water into his lips.

"What are you doing to me?" He asked after taking a few sips.

Ignoring him for the second time that night, Dr Makovsky turned to the female assistant and gave another set of instructions. The woman drew another syringe, with more of the clear, water-like liquid.

"Please..." Mike whispered, shaking his head vigorously "No..."

The woman approached him with the syringe and injected him on the arm. Immediately he started to shudder and jerk more violently. His eyes rolled into his head and veins popped out on his forehead. He released another guttural scream as pain coursed through his veins. Within his agony Mike vaguely heard the woman say to the doctor "Is it supposed to hurt him this much?" At which the doctor gave a muffled answer.

Both doctors walked out of the room and into a corridor, where all that shielded them from the screeching man was a wall of glass. They both watch impassively as the man writhed and stretched against his shackles.

"How long will this take, doc?" The female asked the old man.

"Not too long, now. We should leave him here. Just in case..." He replied in his halting English.

"Just in case?" The woman turned to the doctor "Just what..."

"Beth," The doctor interrupted "This... antidote might not work as well as we thought. Let's wait and see."

"You said the pain was supposed to last for a few seconds at the most." Beth protested. She turned to the shrieking man, and her eyes widened as the man slowly broke free of his manacles. "What have you done?"

"It was just an experiment, Beth. A scientific breakthrough, remember?"

"This was not what we planned. This... you've created a monster out of an innocent man!" She grabbed at his lab coat, shaking the old man "Where's the antidote? Where is it?"

He forcefully freed his lab coat from her hands, his face devoid of emotion. "There was never an antidote. Beth, let's get out of here and I'll explain. I'll explain everything."

Mike Sommers had broken free completely. Savagely he tore off the hospital garment he wore and let out a fierce, ear-piercing howl. He was completely unrecognizable as the effects of the drugs had set in. His eyes were yellow and glowing, slitted vertically like a cat's, his body completely covered in fur. His hands were now claws that ended in four-inch dagger-like claws appropriate for tearing the flesh off bones. His lips were jerked back in a snarl and saliva dripped from his fangs as he regarded the two scientists behind the glass wall.

An alarm had gone off, and the whole corridor was drenched in swirling red lights not unlike that of a police van. A metal grate had blocked the door, leaving a barrier between the glass wall and Mike. He yanked them off their hinges and threw them across the room, then barreled towards the glass wall and hit it with a loud thud.

Beth let Frank Makovsky drag her away, her eyes never leaving the monster-man she had created. Sobs built up in her throat, threatening to let loose. She watched as Mike hit the glass wall repeatedly. It started to show serrated cracks at every impact. Dr Frank must have seen what she saw as they reached the elevator on the other side of the corridor and he started punching the elevator button frantically.

The elevator doors opened and revealed two scientists armed with long guns. Dr Frank gave them instructions in rapid Russian and they nodded, face grim, hoisting their guns. They faced the monster bravely as he ran towards them on all fours, having rid the room of its glass wall. Before Beth could see any more, the elevator doors slid shut and began its descent. She slid down the wall of the elevator, a boneless, bereft sliding, and began to sob. "What have we done? What have I done?" She said.

"What we have done is make headway in a scientific experiment, Beth dear. I had my doubts, never thought it would work this well. Cut yourself some slack. You did well."

"I did well?" She looked up. Tears had clouded her vision "What I did was send two innocent men to their deaths at the hands of a monster I created."

"A terrible loss, no doubt, but nonetheless. With our experiments a human became a werewolf without contact with another werewolf. Think how huge this could be for us, Beth. We could create an army of werewolves, even." The doctor said these words, his face still lacking any emotion, his voice passive.

"If I had knew... If—"

With an abrupt movement too fast for his age the doctor yanked Beth off the floor by the arm. She struggled against his iron grip. "If you had known, sweetheart," He breathed into her face "There is absolutely nothing you would have done to stop me." The elevator doors slid open with a ding into the large foyer that was the entrance to the science facility. Other scientists stood waiting, staring at the duo in the elevator.

"Do you want to go back upstairs and save your little monster, or do you want to escape here with your life?" He whispered.

She nodded almost imperceptibly, and almost slid to the floor again as Dr Frank let go of her hand and stepped out of the elevator.

****

Fiesh! That was all Mike could think of as he tore into the throat of the second scientist. The first was lying a few feet away, his insides gored out, blood running in rivulets. He could smell the soft flesh of people a few floors down. Their scents, their different intoxicating scents, almost calling out to him. Infact, everything called out to him. Colours stood out to him in a way they had never before. He could see the sterile whites of the walls around him, could even see the smaller, darker patches made by hands. He could hear things. Could hear the harried voices of the people downstairs, as close as if they were whispering behind him.

The monster-man bounded on all fours to a flight of stairs. He could hear the frantic voices of people many floors down. Almost running mad with hunger, he leaped down the first staircase and then another, almost losing his balance as he covered the distance between himself and the delicious flesh waiting for him. The voices grew louder as the distance grew smaller, and soon he found himself on the ground floor, at a whitewashed foyer full of scientists in lab coats.

They all stopped their murmuring and looked at him in trepidation, fear gripping them to the spot. One of the scientists stepped forward with a gun in his hand, squinting as he tried to focus it on the beast. Mike growled, strings of saliva hanging from his fangs, and charged at the man. The other scientists dashed out of the foyer in fright, and the gun dislodged with a cracking noise, burying a bullet in the beast's left limb and slowing it down.

"Axel, run!" One of the scientists screamed at the man. Ignoring them, he cocked his gun again and released another bullet at the werewolf, this time hitting it square in the chest. Mike whimpered and pawed at his wounds, as the man cocked the gun a third time, limping towards him as the latter let off a few shots, all of which ricocheted off the walls and missed the beast completely. The werewolf leapt over Axel, blood dripping from its wounds, and escaped into the night with a terrifying howl.