Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 38

“Dr. Achak! I need you to check on the experiments in lab 3 when you have time.” The lab ȧssistant’s eyes glowed red in the dim light.

A man with unremarkable features, glanced up from the computer monitor he was studying.

“Why? Have they started dying again?” His tone was uninterested as he turned back to his monitor.

“No, one of the subjects is exhibiting an unusual amount of sėxuȧŀ aggression. We’ve had to sedate him three times.”

“What of the blood tests?” asked Dr. Achak, not bothering to look up.

“The blood is showing larger than usual nutritional value.”

Sighing, he stood up and motioned for the man to lead the way. They had to come up with a stable blood supply soon, or something drastic would happen.

Turning down hall three, the doctor could smell the musk in the air. Wrinkling his nose, he entered the room, and looked over the three large werewolves in the containment cell. Deep claw marks were in the concrete and thick glass, but he ignored them, to watch as one of the wolves was trying to capture another in an attempt to mate. Large splashes of blood on the wall were the only signs that it didn’t care about being injured in its attempts.

Tapping his chin, he moved over to study the test results of the three. As he looked through the data, ignoring the monsters a few feet from him, another scientist entered the room. She would have been beautiful if you could overlook her blood red eyes as well.

“All three of the specimens were introduced to the same strain of virus, but only the one seems to be reacting in this manner,” she said, waving a hand at it, as the unlucky werewolf receiving its advances threw it across the room.

Looking up thoughtfully, he spied the werewolf’s face as it climbed to its feet and shook its head to clear the cobwebs. A large scar ran across its face, causing one eye to be cloudy.

“Wasn’t that the specimen caught raping women?” he asked curiously.

The woman flipped through a folder, then nodded. “The damage to its face occurred while being captured and brought for testing. Do you think that made a difference?”

He didn’t glance at her doubtful face as he nodded. “It’s the only difference that has occurred in this strain. Double check its blood to verify the strain hasn’t mutated again, just to be sure. If the mental state of the specimen makes such a difference, we may be able to use that to our advantage.”

“What should we do with it?” asked the ȧssistant as they watched it get thrown across the room again.

“Separate it for now, we’ll fix it and observe what it does in isolation. If its blood is as nutritious as you say, we may want to start harvesting it regularly.”

They both nodded at his words, and he returned to his computer. The message from the council was still up as he sat down.

The words were the same despite his hope they would change.

“The numbers of wild prey are dropping drastically. Fewer are being found by the Slavers and there is a fear among the nobles that there will be a food shortage like during the war. Three more colonies have had to be purged when their food stores ran too low and they began to exhibit odd animalistic traits.

“The current orders are to limit the number of Slavers to the minimum and to increase breeding and creation of suitable blood donors. No new vampires are to be allowed to be created until the food situation is resolved.”

Dr. Achak rubbed his aching head. No new vampires had been allowed for the past twenty years. For them to repeat that warning meant there were those still doing so, which didn’t help his job any. There were days when he wished things would go back to the way they were before, but that was impossible now that normal human blood was tainted.

Pushing the pile of documents aside, he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up. He wanted to go back to his research trying to find a way to remove the taint in the human blood, but the need for nutritious blood had fallen on his shoulders. He was the only vampire who had gone into a scientific field before the war. Despite the taint, vampires were trying to drink the human blood and it was affecting their minds. There just wasn’t enough blood to go around anymore.

Glancing at the awards that still hung on his wall, he reminisced about the times he had gotten so close to finding a cure for some disease or cancer. He smiled fondly as he imagined the way things had been before.

A knock on his door, drew him away from the fancy of the past and back to the present. The ȧssistant opened the door to let him know they had transferred the patient, and were ready for him to conduct the surgery. Putting his feet on the floor, he stood up to follow. He was tired so that meant the sun must have come up at some point. He should try to get some rest soon, but first, he had to see this possible food source.

Howls drew him down hall three, to a different door that led to lab four. This was normally were they drained their failures of the precious blood before they disposed of their corpse. The werewolf was in a small room with his back to them, howling occasionally. The noise was horrendous, and he nodded at the woman. She jabbed a long pole into the room, sticking the wolf with a large needle. A concoction meant to calm the beast entered its bloodstream, knocking it out as it turned to attack whatever had harmed it.

Putting on some gloves, Dr. Achak moved forward with a scalpel. It was time to neuter the problem, and see what the outcome was.