Rabid

My hands hit the linoleum floor with a loud slap. I was now on all fours, just like the animals I tested on. I turned and sat on the ground examining the wound I just received. The adrenaline pulsing through my body eliminated the pain, but the blood that was leaking through my pant leg caused me to start panicking.

I heard its nails clicking from around the corner before I actually saw it myself. Its large black head popped into sight first, focusing its attention on me. My breathing caught in my throat. I couldn't’t scream and I doubted that I could outrun it.

The rabid pit bull lunged towards me, its relentless eyes gazing at my exposed throat. I finally caught my breath and let out a large scream just as the lumbering shape overcame my gaze. I blacked out.

Every inch of my body ached with a pounding pain that seemed to emit from my inside out. I could feel the bandages wrapped around my body, soaking my skin with their embedded healing balm.

The obscene weight on my eyes made it almost impossible to open them. I fought for at least five minutes and my persistence paid off. My eyes opened to be shut once again by a blinding white light being shined into them. Squinting helped me see, but allowed my eyes to adjust.

I was lying in a bed. I could head voices from outside the door, but I couldn't’t find the muscles to move my body into the sitting position. I decided to try and speak. At first, nothing happened. Then, small clicks and gargles were made and eventually turned into slurs of words.

I heard the doorknob turning and footsteps walking in. I tried to say hello, but it came out sounding more like a muted howl. “Adam! Thank goodness you’re awake!” I recognized that voice. It was Amy, one of my coworkers. It figures that she would be the one waiting for me while I was recovering. I was basically her best friend, and there was no doubt in my mind that she was smitten with me.

“Oh, my God Adam you look terrible! Do you remember what happened?” She asked pulling up a chair, its legs making scraping sounds against the floor.

I tried to look through what was left of my foggy memory. “All… All I remember are a pair of eyes… And teeth, lots of teeth.” My fingers began to tremble at the thought of those eyes. They were so full of anger and hate, but they also held some other feeling. Something that looked like sadness.

Amy’s voice and a loud beeping sound brought me out of my memory. “Adam, calm down! Your heart rate is going off the charts!”

I blinked twice, “What?” My question was answered as she pointed to the t.v like monitor beside my bed. The thin red line was bouncing all over the screen in a frantic matter. “Oh, yeah. I guess, I guess I should rest, but what happened.”

Amy placed her hand in mine, “One of the dogs we were experimenting on somehow got lose.” She paused for a moment, as if she wasn’t telling me something important. She could see the concern in my face and smiled. “Oh don’t worry. The dog has been ‘taken care of.’” She made little quote signs with her fingers.

“Do the doctors know when I can get out?” I asked, but I could tell by the bandages that it wouldn't’t be for a while.

“They just have to run a few more tests and wait until they are sure your wounds are healing properly.” Amy smiled, “You’re very lucky though. The security guard heard your scream and came rushing in just as it was about to,” “To kill me.” I interrupted.

Amy looked too her hand from mine and folded them neatly on her lap. “Yeah. He was able to shoot it and call the police. We had some trouble getting here. The usual protesters were outside, marching around with their signs. Huh, you know how we always make fun of that riff-raff. Well, when they found out that it was a scientist that was harmed in the attack, they blocked the ambulance and police cars from getting into the parking lot.”

“Yeah, really nice of them. Sometimes I think they care more about the animals then other people. They don’t realize that we are doing our tests for their benefit. Almost every major medical breakthrough had some sort of animal testing period.”

“Yeah.” Amy looked at her hands and twiddled her fingers. She was making me nervous, but it was nice to have the company.

The door opened and a young man in scrubs came walked in. “Alright Mr. Clarke, it’s time for your morphine.” I noticed he was holding a small syringe. He pulled the cap off with his teeth and injected my IV with the morphine. I was already sleepy but the morphine was what really pushed me over the edge. I could feel the cool liquid running through my veins as I lolled my head back to rest on the pillow. Amy smiled as I drifted back off to sleep.

I awoke later and I questioned the time. My eyes were easier to open this time and I realized that it was dark. My ceiling light was turned off and there was no light shining through the small window in my door. That’s strange, I thought to myself. You would expect the nurses to keep the hall lights on.

I was feeling a little better than I had earlier that day and so I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. My eyes were almost completely adjusted to the darkness around me when the light outside my door clicked on. I squinted to save my eyes from the pain. My pupils dilated normally and I took a look around the room. Something wasn't’t right.

There no longer was the t.v like monitor beside my bed. My IV was still attached but it was dripping a strange brown-red liquid into my body. The room itself was different as well. Instead of the eggshell white walls, I was in another room with what seemed to be some sort of a stucco pattern on the tiles. My breathing quickened as I heard footsteps and muffled voices outside my door. When the footsteps came closer, I was able to make out parts of sentences. “….. He will wake up soon…. We will want to know…. Maybe we should just take care of him right now before any rumors surface….”

I gathered my strength and tried to up, but to my surprise I found there was something restraining me. There was a tension pulling against me on my wrists, ankles, and over my abdomen. I lifted my head and struggled against what I now knew were leather straps. My struggles caused the metal gurney I was on to scrape against the floor, alerting the voices outside the door that I was awake.

“Adam, calm down!” I recognized Amy’s voice amongst the ruckus. She and another dark figure were holding me down as another took a syringe and injected it into my IV. The sedative was fast acting and immediately my body went limp. It was like I was a marionette and someone snipped the strings that led to my arms and legs.

It took me a moment to fight the haze of the sedative and find my voice. “What…What are you do… doing to me? P…P..Please tell me what’s go…. going on.” There was a sharp click and the light above my head came on. I began seeing spots due to the frequent changes in light and there was a lingering pain which started the onset on a migraine.

I was now able to see the three figures clearly. I had already determined that one was Amy, but I hadn't’t imagined who could be the other two. When the light illuminated their faces I gasped. Standing above my pyre was my boss and my lab partner Nathan. Their faces that were usually so full of smiles and happiness were now full with sorrow, regret, and strangely, curiosity.

The three large figures surrounded my bed and looked down at me. “We’re sorry Adam. It had to be someone. We had hoped it would be the security guard, but no one anticipated that you would be working late.” I recognized the calming voice of my boss.

My eyes frantically searched the room trying to find some escape. “I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about!” My eyes then focused on Amy. Tears were running down her face, smearing her makeup and leaving black lines.

“We had to move you from the hospital before their tests uncovered what we had done.” Amy sniffed and pulled out a tissue.

The anger flew through my body like a jolt of electricity and I could almost feel my legs through the sedative. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on! I have no clue why I’m here and to be honest I’m getting a little scared. I feel weird and I want to leave right now!”

Nathan moved to a position closer to my head and sighed. We had been friends in Med. school and it was great when we were able to find this job together. “It was the second half of the Rabid experiment.”

“I’ve never even heard of it!” I interrupted.

“That’s because you weren't’t classified in that case.” This time it was my boss that spoke. “We were issued by the government to try and create a super bacteria. The bacteria’s main job was to strengthen the body and boost the immune system, thereby creating a super human, or super soldier as the case may be.”

I didn’t need any further explanation. Immediate human testing for this type of experiment is illegal. They infected the pit bull with the super bacteria and let out of its cage on purpose, hoping to bite the security guard. That way, they could move on to human testing without anyone knowing. They could have it classified as an accident. The bacteria transferred from the pit bull’s saliva and flooded into my body through my open wounds. Acting as some sort of reagent, the bacteria traveled through my body, changing and morphing its systems to perfection.

I sighed and a single tear fell from my eye. “So… what’s going to happen to me now?”

There was an unhealthy silence that spread through the room as I waited for a response. “What is it? Am I just going to become a test subject like the other animals here?”

Still, complete silence. “Adam.” My boss said quietly. “We have given you classified information. We can’t have any of it leaking out. We have found that the bacteria can live and thrive in a host, as long as the core temperature is above 70 degrees. We can still study their effects on a human body. Weather the body is functional or not.”

“Functional,” I whispered. “You don’t mean…”

“Yes Adam.” Amy pulled out a different syringe from her lab coat, her tears growing more frequent and light sobs beginning to form. “You’ll have to be ‘taken care of.’”