Wild (6 page)

I stopped him. “What serum?”

“If I am right in my assumptions, then he injected you with a serum which has the capability of mutating your genes.”

The word
mutate
made me hold my breath. He saw my fearful look and took my hand.

“I’ve followed his research. I don’t think it’s advanced enough yet. The serum hasn’t had enough time yet to alter your cells. There’s still time.” He looked at the tray with his instruments and bottles.

“I need you to trust me.” He looked into my eyes and I could not tear myself away from them. I felt like sinking to the bottom of the ocean, floating without aim.

“I will give you a compound which will enter your blood stream and seek out any foreign cells in your body and destroy them. Unfortunately this will also mean it will destroy the morphine still in your body. You’ll feel the pain in your leg.”

He searched in my eyes.

“Will it work?”

“As long as the serum hasn’t entered your cells’ building blocks yet it will. I promise you.”

“And if it has?”

His expression was suddenly pained. “I need you to stay positive. Will you do that for me?”

I swallowed hard. Here I sat on the couch of a stranger who I had met only a very short time ago, a stranger who was still holding my hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and didn’t know what to say. I closed my eyes trying to think straight. Had I lost my mind? Why did I trust him? It wasn’t natural.

“And …” he hesitated. “I’m sorry, but I will have to keep you here under observation for a few days until I know you’re alright.”

That sealed the deal. I wanted to stay longer. I wanted to stay with him. This was a legitimate excuse. I opened my eyes.

“Let’s do it.”

I watched him draw a liquid from a small vial into a syringe and then push the liquid into a larger bottle. He shook the bottle fiercely before he stuck the syringe into it and drew out the mixed liquid.

He held the syringe up and tapped it to make the little air bubbles rise to the top so he could squeeze them out. He took my arm, wrapped an elastic band around my upper arm and I immediately realized he was going to shoot the liquid right into my vein. I looked away and pressed my teeth together.

“Breathe. It will hurt less if you exhale while I inject you.”

I took a deep breath in and exhaled sharply.

“Ok, you can start now.”

“I already have.” I could hear the smile in his voice, and when I turned to him I saw that the needle was in my arm and he was slowly pushing the liquid inside. He had already released the elastic band from my arm. There was a slight uncomfortable sensation when he pulled the needle out. He put some pressure on the injection site and reached for a piece of gauze and a band aid.

I could feel a strange sensation slowly travelling through my body.

“Why were you so angry with me before?” I blurted out. What the hell was I asking him?

His head jerked around to stare at me.

Oh rats, I should have kept my mouth shut!

I would just make him angry again.

“Angry with you?” His voice was incredulous. “You thought I was angry with you? I’m so sorry.” He took my hand again. It felt good. 

“I was angry with the man who did this to you. I was angry I hadn’t caught it earlier, that I hadn’t seen it when I examined you last night. I could have spared you this.”

He really meant it.

Then the pain shot through my body. I screamed out loud. Vince instantly pulled me into his arms, rocking me back and forth to comfort me. His body felt warm and strong. All of a sudden the lights went out and blackness engulfed me.

4. Vince’s Uncertainty

As soon as she collapsed in my arms her teeth let go of my shoulder. She probably hadn’t even noticed she had bit me. The pain had come on too fast. I knew it would, but there was no way for me to prepare her for it. It wouldn’t have made it any easier on her, she would have been even more anxious had she known how violent the pain would be.

That was why I was right there to hold her when the pain came. I was half expecting she would dig her fingernails into me, but I didn’t quite expect her teeth biting into my shoulder. I barely felt it and in a few hours the teeth marks would be gone and she wouldn’t even know when she came to. I healed fast.

The pain was a good sign. It meant my serum worked. Now it had to work itself through her body and expel everything foreign which shouldn’t be there.

I blamed myself. When I had brought her here, I had let myself be distracted by my desire for her and had neglected to examine her entire body. Had I done so, I would have found the capsule before the time release coating could have had a chance to dissolve.

I was still holding her in my arms unable to let go. I told myself she wanted me to hold her, that she had not rejected me when I had pulled her into my arms. But I knew full well that even if she had wanted to push me back, she wouldn’t have had the strength. Her holding onto me had only been a reflex caused by her pain. Holding her like I did, I could feel her breasts crushed against my chest. She only wore a t-shirt and no bra which made the sensation even more real. Her breasts molded themselves against my chest and I didn’t want to tear her away from me. They felt warm and soft and I could feel how my mind started battling again.

Take her
!

I fought against my animal side.

I had bought myself a few more days with her, because I had to monitor her condition while the serum was in her body. It was the truth. It gave me one, maybe two days at the most which I could legitimately keep her here. After that even she, as trusting as she seemed to be, would want to leave.

I had noticed that many of her reactions to me and the entire situation seemed irrational. I was almost certain that this irrational behavior was a result of the contamination from the capsule and the shock she had suffered from the assault. The combination of those two forces could knock anybody off their path and screw with their mind.

I felt that once she was over the shock and her blood was cleaned of the remainder of the serum, she would come to her senses and realize the unacceptable situation she was in: alone with a dangerous stranger who looked at her with unyielding desire in his eyes.

She would leave immediately.

My resolve to let her go when this happened was still firm, but I could feel the longer I was with her, and the more I touched her, even in my capacity as her doctor, the weaker it became.

I realized she was still in my arms, unconscious. Holding her in my arms felt like the most natural thing to me. I stroked her back and I knew it was wrong to touch her, but feeling her body so close to mine, sensing the warmth and softness of her skin was like a drug for me, one I was quickly becoming addicted to. I lifted her up and carried her to my bed. She would be more comfortable there. It was painful to let her go and put her to bed, alone, but it was the right thing to do, the only thing to do. As she lay in my bed, I felt how my hand suddenly reached for hers and all by itself lifted hers up to my mouth. As my lips kissed the back of her hand and lingered there for several seconds, I knew I would lose my battle soon. With all my strength I pulled myself away from her.

My stomach growled. I knew I needed to eat. I would be stronger once I had had some food. It would drown out my other desires for a while, or at least subdue them a little. I was drained, but after the third steak I felt better.

Annette had fallen into an uneven sleep and I had decided to put a heart monitor on her just in case. It was not an easy thing for me to do, since it involved touching her skin. I had to reach underneath her t-shirt to attach the nodes without looking at her. I didn’t dare lift her t-shirt which would have made it easier to attach the nodes in the right places, but would have made it impossible for me to take my hands off her again. I knew if I got a glimpse of her naked breasts my animal side would instantly not only win the battle, but also the war inside of me. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

As I saw the line on the monitor bounce up and down in a rhythmic pattern, I felt a little better. I hooked the monitor to my network and went to the lab, where I switched on the computer creating a split screen. One side showed me the heart monitor, the other the image of the camera I had pointed at the bed.

I would be able to do some work and would still be able to watch her at the same time. I could be upstairs at her side within seconds. I turned the sound of the heart monitor up so I could hear the rhythmic beat.

I slipped into my lab coat and opened the door to the back room. The lights were already on. The wall of the room was full with plastic cages. Each cage held a mouse. They were running around in their cages, eating, chasing their tails. Each cage had a number and a date on it.

The opposite side was lined with steel benches on which I conducted my experiments. After I made sure all my mice were still alive, a ritual I performed every morning, I went back into the other room and closed the door behind me.

The beat of the heart monitor was steady. I glanced at the computer. She was asleep.

I opened the fridge and took out the contaminated blood I had taken out of Annette’s body with the help of the vacuum pump. I had stored it a sterile container the night before when she was asleep.

I distributed some of the blood into twelve vials and added a different reagent to each of them. After I marked each vial with a number, I placed half the set of vials under the incubator, closed up the other half and placed them into the centrifuge. The centrifuge made a low humming sound when I switched it on and set the timer.

I stared at the appointment card again Annette had given me, or rather that I had so rudely taken out of her hand.
Dr. Ernest Entwhistle,
it said. Not a name one would easily forget. I recalled the interview I had seen him give on one of the local news channels.

He had sat opposite the female anchor wearing an expensive suit. Even though he was in his thirties, his hair was all grey.

Probably genetic.

“I’m here with Dr. Ernest Entwhistle, Professor of Genetics at the Institute of Aging at UCSF,” she had introduced him. “Dr. Entwhistle, you’ve just published a paper which has created quite a stir in the medical world. Please tell us laymen more about it,” she had invited him.

His chest had inflated like a peacock during her introduction. He was full of pride.

“Thank you Kathy. It’s a pleasure being here. Since you ask, I’ll certainly try my best to explain my research in laymen’s terms,” he had said giving the camera a charming smile. He was all public relations. I had seen the type before.

“I’ve been working on one of the most exciting areas in medical research since the discovery of Penicillin: the question why we age and how we can halt the process.”

“It sounds a little like the so-called Fountain of Youth,” she had chimed in as if on cue.

He had nodded enthusiastically.

“You are a very smart woman. Indeed, we’ve been working on gene manipulation, specifically on how to switch off the gene which controls the aging process.” He had sounded excited.

“So, in fact, you’re trying to stop people from aging?” She asked to have him clarify.

“Exactly!”

“And what have you found so far?”

“We have found the receptors of the gene and isolated them so we can start testing different
switches
so to speak.”

Kathy had looked at her notes, before she had launched her next question.

“Dr. Entwhistle, I assume you are aware that another researcher has tried this before.”

A shadow had come across his face then.

“You are referring to Dr. Vincent Mesaros? Sure, sure. He did something similar back in the Seventies if I recall correctly,” he had mused, as if he hadn’t been sure.

In 1978 to be exact
.

“But as you know, as promising as his work was at the beginning, his research wouldn’t have led in the right direction. I recall he disappeared after his lab burned out and all his records were destroyed. Surely if his research had had any merit, he would have continued, even after the fire, wouldn’t you think so?”

She had nodded briefly.

“But if his records were destroyed, what makes you think he wasn’t on the right track?” She had argued nevertheless.

“Some of his records which were believed to be lost have surfaced over the years.”

Surfaced? Impossible!

I had burned everything there was, except for the few records I had taken back with me. He had to be bluffing.

After the interview I had started collecting information on Entwhistle and followed his research closely. I knew he was dangerous because he was arrogant, as arrogant as I had been with my research. He would make the same mistakes I had made and put everybody around him in danger. So far I had been unable to put all the pieces together of what he was doing. I only had assumptions.

But now I had one more piece in the puzzle: the serum he had injected Annette with. I guessed what it was and the thought frightened me to no end.

The solid tone of the heart monitor pulled me out of my thoughts. Flat line! My heart skipped a beat.

It took me all of two seconds to run upstairs.

I stormed to the bed ready for CPR - and found it empty. A sigh of relief washed over me as I saw the nodes of the heart rate monitor attached to nothing.

“Annette!” I scanned the apartment for her. It wasn’t hard to find her. She lay on the concrete floor of the kitchen.

As I looked down at her she gave me a guilty look.

“I was thirsty. And then I got dizzy.”

“Annette, do you remember my name?”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Sure.”

“Then use it and call for me when you need something.” I was slightly irritated. “You nearly gave me a heart attack when I heard the monitor go flat line.”

“Sorry.”

She didn’t protest when I lifted her up, and it felt good to feel her in my arms after the shock she had caused me. I told myself I deserved to feel her body pressed against mine and pulled her closer to my chest.