Black Angel (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 28 - Then and Now

This is Doctor Veld Burkenhein. I have begun this diary to show the progression of my work in the coming years.

It is April the twenty-third of the year eighteen fifty, and my colleagues and myself have finally been given the green light for Project KRESNIK. This has been ten years in the planning since the reveal of the alpha predators, Vampires, and the building tension between the nations and this new... genetic phenomenon. Along with my friend Gregor Mendel, we have been devising a way of fighting this threat.

But before we could begin our work, Gregor made sure to remind me, persistently, that fighting unnatural with unnatural would lead to its own form of calamity.

I told him that was something we would have to deal with when the time came. One issue at a time. First, we had to survive this threat before we can deal with one that has yet to happen - - and may never.

But I agreed to tread this road with him carefully; while the threat loomed over the horizon, we could not rush it, regardless. We had to think our actions through and ensure that we did not back ourselves into a corner.

In some ways, I knew he was right. But I also knew that while it is perfectly acceptable being able to take our sweet time with this, we would not have forever. Time was not to be wasted. Every moment counted.

So we set to work.

Through means in which I am not at liberty to divulge, we obtained our first vampire specimen.

"Subject," my colleague, Randall Crossman, insisted. "Subject, for it is a person."

"Specimen, for it is an it," I argued.

For the sake of time, I will refer to the specimen as Adam, it is befitting for the seed of our new creation and in a way, it will get colleagues like Crossman off my back. It is not a person. It is Adam.

Adam is powerful. It was difficult to create a concoction that would keep Adam sleeping, for it is too wild and untamed while awake. So Adam must stay asleep, as innocent as a newborn babe. We feed it blood to keep it alive and provide a drip to keep it hydrated. Normally, I would want to keep it as weak as possible, but I know that Adam must be strong in order to father our creation.

One of the interns, Crossman's nephew, I think, says that Adam's name is a slight against God.

"Adam was a man. The first man," Crossman's nephew said. Joseph, I believe his name was. Biblical indeed.

"Adam is an it," I countered.

I knew Joseph did not mean the Adam we had practically comatose in the center of the room, but he and Crossman have been getting on my nerves as of late. Some wanted Adam to be a person, but not a representation. They want for it to be somebody, just not Adam.

But Adam he will be. I have not the time or the energy to fight God-fearing men and their views on a simple name that I found very fitting. Admittedly, perhaps I kept the name simply because I felt like something more than a man, creating an entirely new species of being.

And perhaps because I like the way it makes Joseph fidget. Crossman and his 'brilliant' nephew are getting on my nerves more than anything else. I have to get my amusement somehow, seeing as the project is slow going.

The goal of phase one is simple: isolate the gene within the vampire that is the source of their mutation. It is only then, that we may be able to begin with phase two: manipulation of the gene. Phase three will be graphing the gene into a living or artificial being. The final phase will be if the being is capable of it's purpose: Killing Vampires effectively and efficiently, and preferably in large quantities.