Compound 41

Chapter 5

Evelyn had diligently appeared at her appointments at the time scheduled and received her injections without incident, however there had been several instances of numbness in her hands since her last seizure. It was just starting to get dark when she arrived at the clinic to check in for the 48 hour testing and observation the Doctor had insisted upon.

"We're going to be running a lot of tests, drawing a lot of blood and trying a few different things to see how your body responds" the Doctor was telling Evelyn as they hooked her up to a few different machines that she didn't recognize. They were in a large surgical suite, the kind that has windows up high for others to watch through and observe. It made Evelyn feel very vulnerable and exposed but she wanted to see if the tests would give the Doctor a clear direction on treating the new onset of numbness in her hands, as she didn't want her condition to take away the use of her hands now too.

Evelyn was soon given a breathing tube and mask, and told to count down backward from 20, and was unconscious before she reached 7. By this time several individuals had gathered in the space above and were watching what was going on in the medical room below. The Doctor and his nurses spent a few minutes performing their reviews and checks on the monitors when they disconnected Evelyn from the machines, and gave her an injection.

Within a few moments, Evelyn had fully shifted into werewolf form, panting heavily. The Doctor then opened the set of emergency doors from the room that led to the outside. He whispered something into Evelyn's wolf ears, and she bounded out of the hospital room. She came back a few minutes later, covered in blood and dragging along the carcass of a deer.

The Doctor again whispered something into Evelyn's ear, and she ran out again. This time it was several minutes before she returned, and this time she brought with her a rabbit, still alive and struggling in the grasp of her teeth. At the Doctor's command, she released the rabbit that immediately disappeared out the still open door they had just come through. The door was then promptly closed and locked by one of the attendants in the room.

The Doctor then gave Evelyn another injection, and she soon transformed into her human form, in a a naked unconscious heap on the floor, still covered in the deer and rabbit's blood. The nurses helped to cover her and place her back onto the surgery table and reconnect her to the machines before cleaning her and redressing her into a clean hospital gown.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" the Doctor addressed those who were watching through the windows. "I present to you, the effects of Compound 41. As you have just witnessed, we have been able to control the shifting process of this young werewolf, as well as train her to obey our commands. As you can imagine, the implications of use are extraordinary. For the past 20 years, my team had I have formulated and tested a vast array of compounds and test subjects to come up with the best combination for control, and this it. By using a werewolf that had a human parent, we have been able to mask and conceal their own werewolf genetics from them. Likewise, we are able to remove the inhibitions as you've seen by this demonstration, and through years of training, have been able to control the wolf when we release it and force its shift."

There was scattered applause after the Doctor had finished speaking. "I will take a few questions at this time, and then we will reconvene in the conference room tomorrow morning with the results of tonight's blood tests."

"How often do you have to administer the compound in order to maintain control?" someone asked.

"The subject must receive the injections weekly, otherwise the wolf inside begins to get close to reaching the surface of the subject's psyche and can begin to manifest physically. When this happens, the human's body mimics a seizure as the wolf is forcing itself to the surface" the Doctor replied. "Next question?"

"What are the side effects of the compound on the human?" asked someone else.

"In order for the compound to fully sedate the wolf, it needs to be strong enough that it does impact the subject's basic motor function. In the case of this subject, thus far it presents as paralysis and loss of feeling from the waist down. An increase in the dosage decreases the subjects overall human capabilities and feeling. I'll take one more question before we dismiss for the evening."

"What about other werewolves? Are they able to identify that the subject is part werewolf?" came the last question.

"No," responded the Doctor smugly. "We have conducted a few covert assessments, and as this subject is only half werewolf, and because the compound has dampened and masked the gene and scent to such an extent, other werewolves have not been able to distinguish her as any different from another human."

There was significant excited chatter between the observers of the demonstration. The Doctor oversaw the process of transferring a still unconscious Evelyn to her hospital room for the remainder of the night, and several blood samples were taken for analysis. The Doctor felt very good about how his demonstration had gone, and was eager to see the resulting blood work and how well the wolf gene was still able to be masked, even after the inhibitions had been counteracted for the performance.

Evelyn spent a restless night, fighting dreams that haunted her. She felt the sensation she had the night of her last seizure, but it wasn't freeing and liberating as it had been then. This time, it was like she was being shackled and forced to comply with something that wasn't natural. She had flashes of being outside, of feeling the wind on her face and the smell of the night air, but also of sorrow and loss. As if she had done something she didn't want to do, or wasn't supposed to do.

When she woke up the next morning, she was tired and felt lost. Like the inner sensation wanted free but was locked away, deep inside and she couldn't reach it. She had dreamed about a deer and a rabbit, and when trying to recall what her dream was about, all she could remember was that there had been a dead deer and a wounded rabbit, but no other details remained.

The Doctor told her that the tests they were progressing smoothly, and that things looked promising. He told her that he felt they were making progress and that he hoped to have an updated treatment plan that would continue to prevent further degeneration of her muscles, but everything he said felt empty for Evelyn. The struggle she felt going on inside of her discouraged her, and she wished she knew how to release the sensation she had felt before, but without the darkness that seemed to surround it this time.

The next night went much like the night before. Evelyn was hooked up to many machines, and didn't remember anything after counting back from 20. She just had the flashes in her mind, dark dreams of being outside, running free but somehow being forced to do things she didn't want to do. She didn't have any memory of what those things were, other than the image of a man's face, bloody and empty. He looked like he had been attacked by a wild animal. When she woke up, she couldn't shake the image from her mind. The face of a man she had never met, was covered in blood. She could see his face, and somehow she felt responsible for something bad happening to him.

After the 48 hour observation was over, Evelyn was glad to leave the hospital. She didn't like being there and hated how she felt after all of the tests. She still had to continue her weekly injections, and the Doctor insisted that she come quarterly for 48 hour observations, like the one she had just been through. The one positive to it all was that the Doctor confirmed that there hadn't been further degeneration, and the numbness that had come and gone in her hands shouldn't come back and didn't seem to be anything long term.