Wild (25 page)

A sound alerted me to the fact that she had dropped an empty syringe to the floor. I was ready to lunge at her to rip Annette from her hold, but stopped in my tracks when I stared straight into the barrel of a handgun. Annette struggled to break loose, but didn’t seem to have the strength.

“Let me go!” she protested.

“Shut up!” was Rebecca’s response, before she addressed me. “I’ve been waiting for you. Thanks for bringing your little hussy. I figured you would since you looked so inseparable in the park.”

I despised the way she talked about Annette and a low hiss escaped my lips. But I couldn’t move to free Annette from her. Looking at the gun pointed at me I knew that despite my speed I wouldn’t get to her quickly enough.

“What was in the syringe?” I pointed at the floor where the empty syringe lay. I needed to know what was wrong with Annette. She didn’t look well. Her skin was flushed and she looked like she was feeling ill and weak.

“Oh, that. That’s your fountain of youth,” she said casually.

My heart stopped. I could feel the anger rising in me and feel my muscles harden. Would I be fast enough in my animal form to jump her before she had a chance to shoot me? I couldn’t risk it. I tried to suppress my anger to push back my transformation.

“And this time I didn’t bother with the time release capsule, so it’s going straight into her bloodstream. I figure you’ll have what, four, maybe six hours to save her? But you’re the doctor, not I.” She played with me and enjoyed it too.

“What do you want?” I asked her anxiously looking at Annette who was close to collapsing.

“The real fountain of youth. I can see you’ve found it, but obviously you didn’t want to share.”

So she did believe I had found the solution. I decided to keep her in that belief to buy myself some time. I had to keep my anger under control. I couldn’t afford to transform, not now.

“Thanks for the useless crap you left behind,” she went on. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out about the side effects?”

“I didn’t leave anything behind.”

She waved me off. “You were leading my father on all this time, hiding the true results. He was loyal to you and you treated him like a piece of dirt. You owe him.” She didn’t make sense. “If you want to save your girlfriend, you’d better be coughing it up. Do you think I want my husband to spend day and night in the lab trying to find out how to fix the serum while he’s getting older and older while you selfish bastard stay young?”

I didn’t believe she really did all this for him. I remembered the Botox bottle I had found in her husband’s office. I got the distinct feeling she was the one who didn’t want to age. She was the one who wanted to stay young forever.

“I figured you’d come out of hiding once we started infecting enough people with your useless serum. We made sure we only injected people who didn’t have any family, so that the chance of us being detected by somebody other than you was minimal. We knew that once the serum took hold, the people would disappear and with a bit of luck they’d do what you did. We knew eventually you’d all drift together – animals of the same kind. And you would figure it out and come after us. It was just a matter of time. When you broke into our home, we knew we had you. You couldn’t stand the fact that somebody else might profit from it, could you? You wanted it all for yourself.”

I was shocked to hear she had planned this to draw me out of hiding so she could get me to give her the real serum, the one she didn’t know didn’t exist. She and her husband had willingly endangered innocent people just to get to me so she could get the true fountain of youth. I blamed myself for not having guessed something sinister was going on. I should have known better. But the depth of evil some people were capable of still surprised me sometimes.

“So your husband is having you do his dirty work?”

“Don’t worry, I enjoy this part,” she sniped.

“What made you think I was still alive?”

I tried to keep her talking so I could think of what to do to save Annette. She could barely stand now and I could see her eyelids flutter.

“My father never believed you’d kill yourself. You were too ambitious and selfish.”

She looked at Annette, who she still had in her grip.

“But I keep chatting away here, while your girlfriend is getting worse and worse,” she said sarcastically. Her tone suddenly became icy. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll keep your precious little girlfriend here and you’ll go get the real serum. No tricks. And to make sure you don’t palm some useless liquid off on me, we’re going to try it out on her. Don’t even think about involving the police. She’ll be dead before they can break down the door. Don’t worry about me. I have another way out.”

She winked at me.

I had no choice but to leave Annette with her, but I wanted to make sure she knew what would happen if she harmed her.

“If she dies, I’ll destroy the serum and you’ll never get your hands on it. And then I’ll hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands, and I’ll make sure I’ll take my time with it. It’ll be a long and painful death.” I meant it. I turned my attention to Annette. She was semi-conscious.

“Angel, I know you can hear me. Trust me. I’ll be back for you.”

“How cute,” she bristled sarcastically.

I wanted to snap her neck, but I knew she would shoot me first and then there would be nobody to save Annette. I couldn’t risk it.

I love you, Annette. Hold on, please hold on.

I was full of fury when I ran to my car and jumped in. I could feel my body transform, but I fought it back, just like I had fought it back in the lab when she had confronted me. The thought, that Annette was with her made my blood boil.

I raced through the streets, weaving in and out of traffic without much regard for anything. I knew people would be cursing me. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered to me but Annette. She didn’t have much time. I raced into the garage and ran into the lab. I jerked open the fridge and pulled out a tray of vials.

I took two of them and started mixing them like I had previously with the help of a syringe, then pushed the liquid back into one of the vials. I repeated the process with the next two vials, so they both would have the identical compound in them.

I looked at the clock. Time was ticking away. I knew she wouldn’t want me to bring in my instrument bag thinking I would try to smuggle in a weapon, so I didn’t bother. I stuffed a fresh syringe and the two vials into my coat together with a tourniquet and band aids.

There was one more thing I needed to do. I logged into the computer. Using one of my many stolen logons I logged into UCSF’s system and pulled up floor plans on facility management’s server. I needed to familiarize myself with the layout of Entwhistle’s lab. I knew that a few years earlier the University had undertaken some renovations in the area. Mrs. Entwhistle had mentioned she knew of another exit and I was sure she wasn’t lying. Frantically I searched through the blueprints. Once I had found what I was looking for I sprinted back to the car and drove off.

I hit Market Street and instantly knew I should have avoided it. A bus had broken down and was blocking the lane. I didn’t care that the police were stopping everybody. I honked and drove onto the pavement, narrowly avoiding a few pedestrians. I raced along to get around the bus.

I could hear a police siren behind me and sped up. My rear view window showed me that the police car was a couple of blocks behind me. The needle of my speedometer reached sixty and passed it. I turned into the next street using my hand brake to make the tight turn. I could smell the rubber burn. I had full confidence in German engineering and knew the car could take the tight corners without flipping over.

A few turns further and I had lost the police car and raced up the hill approaching UCSF’s Parnassus campus. I stopped the car outside a side entrance and ran out. I didn’t bother locking it.

She was waiting for me in the lab. I saw immediately that Annette was worse. She lay on the floor, unconscious. I ran to her while she watched me like a hawk, and kept the gun pointed at me. She stood several yards from me, so I wouldn’t be able to lunge at her without giving her a chance to fire at me first.

“Welcome back,” she greeted me.

I didn’t say anything, but touched Annette’s face. She was burning up.

I pulled out the first vial and prepared the syringe, then applied the tourniquet to find a vein in Annette’s arm, pulling it tight around her biceps.

I steadied my hand when I inserted the needle into her arm, then released the tourniquet and pushed the liquid into her. I pulled the needle out and prepared for what was to come.

I kneeled on the floor, taking her into my arms. Then the spasms started and she screamed. From the corner of my eye I could see how Mrs. Entwhistle stared at us in shock, but she didn’t move and kept pointing the gun at me.

I pressed Annette close to my body to absorb some of her pain, but the spasms which ripped through her body were violent, and it nearly tore my heart out to know the pain she had to go through.

“This better be working,” I heard her snipe behind me. “Or you’re both dead.”

I glared at her while I kept my angel in my arms, hoping it would be over soon. It seemed like an eternity until she finally fell still. I checked her pulse immediately. It was coming down and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Rebecca had watched me and seen my relief and knew Annette would be fine.

“The serum.” She demanded.

I had the vials in the palm of my hand.

“Put them on the floor and push them over here.”

I did as she said. She picked them up without lowering the gun before making her way to the door. She stopped and turned a handle to a pipe near the door. I heard a whooshing sound like some air escaping.

Before I knew it, she had snapped off the handle.

“Thanks and enjoy the last few minutes together.”

She went out the door and slammed it shut behind her. I heard the sound of a bolt, and knew she had locked us in.

I looked at the door and knew instantly it couldn’t be opened anymore. I could immediately smell it: she was releasing gas into the lab. She wasn’t going to let us live. I had expected as much.

Annette was still unconscious. I scanned the room. There was only one window. I checked it. It backed up to another building and there wasn’t even enough space for a cat to squeeze through the gap.

I smashed it nevertheless to give us a few extra seconds of air. There were pilot lights in several of the instruments in the lab which would make the gas ignite eventually even if we didn’t suffocate before. One way or another, we would die.

I recalled the floor plans I had been so familiar with and had refreshed my mind with just minutes earlier when I had been back at my lab. I knew there had been an elevator before they had remodeled the place.

I opened the closets. I looked at the awkward layout of the lab and tried to superimpose the floor plan in my mind. I knew UC always did things the easy and cheap way. Instead of spending the money to remove an old elevator they would just build a closet around it. There was a corner which shouldn’t have been there, so I opened all the closets around it, ripped out the shelves and pushed behind it. There it was: the old elevator. I pressed the button to call the elevator and prayed UCSF hadn’t spent the money to disconnect the systems. My prayer was answered. Immediately I heard the sound of the elevator moving. Unbelievable!

I picked up Annette and held her tightly in my arms before squeezing through the space I had created to get to the elevator door.

“We’ll make it, I promise you,” I whispered to her.

The elevator doors didn’t opened even though I could hear that the cab stop at our floor. I propped Annette against the closet wall to have my hands free. With all the strength I had I tried to pry the doors open, but they didn’t move. Panic shot through me. I couldn’t do it. The University had obviously disabled the floor so that nobody would accidentally try to get out where there was no exit.

I could feel my anger rising and I suddenly knew what I had to do. In my mind I recalled the terrible things Entwhistle and his wife had done, the danger they had put Annette and Carmela in. It made my blood boil, and suddenly I could feel my transformation coming.

As soon as my claws appeared I tried the doors again and with the added strength my power animal provided me with I was able to pull them open. I quickly picked up Annette and jumped inside, pulling the doors closed behind me. I was on the ninth floor. I pressed the button for the first floor, hoping an exit would still exist somewhere down there.

The elevator moved. We passed the sixth floor, the fifth, then the forth, when I suddenly heard a loud bang. I knew what it was. The lab above us had exploded. I pressed the third and second floor buttons instantly hoping the elevator would stop at either one.

When the shockwave hit us a second later, I could feel the elevator shake. It stopped suddenly. Slowly one door opened partially. We were almost at floor level. There was enough space for me to squeeze myself holding Annette tightly to my chest.

I jumped and landed on my feet. Annette was still unconscious. I was glad about that.

As soon as I had touched down, I heard a ripping sound behind me. I turned and saw the elevator come loose and fall.

I oriented myself. I was on the second floor. I ran through the corridor looking for the exit. When I found it, I pushed the doors open, triggering a fire alarm in the process. I sprinted to the car, put Annette on the back seat and sped off. As I drove I felt my body relax and transform back.

I knew I couldn’t speed through the street with her on the back seat so I drove toward Twin Peaks and pulled off behind the reservoir, where I brought the car to a stop and switched off all lights.

I jumped into the back seat and picked her up to cradle her. I kissed her face. I felt her ice cold hands and knew I needed to warm her.

I pulled out a blanket from under the seat and spread it over us. I rubbed her back with my hands and could feel the warmth starting to come back into her body.