SNAFU: Wolves at the Door

“Genetic splicing.” Mara folded her lab coat and placed it under Dr Sturgess’ head. She looked over at Rolf; her green eyes would have pierced a hole through lesser men. “That,” she said motioning toward the lab, “was Project Lupine. We’ve been attempting to pair human genes with various animals. Until recently, we hadn’t had much luck.”

“You call that luck?” Sully grumbled. “Remind me not to invite you to Atlantic City.”

“They’ll never understand, dear.” Dr Sturgess pushed up to a sitting position. She rubbed at a spot on her head and grimaced. A splotch of crimson streaked her mostly silver hair. “What we do here is for the benefit of all mankind. Think of all the disease and sickness that decimate humanity but not animals. If we could only find a way to combine some of their DNA with our own, the results would be miraculous. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, Ebola, or AIDS could be eradicated at the genetic level. At least, that was our intent.”

“Look, no offense Doc, but I don’t give two shits about your intent. All I care about is getting the rest of our happy asses out of here alive.” Rolf motioned around the small group around him.

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. Once the alarm sounded, a quarantine protocol went into effect. Only the project leads and TriGen brass, seven of us in total, were to be evacuated along with our research.” Dr Sturgess held up a flash drive attached to a nylon strap from around her neck. She looked at her assistant, an expression of pain on her face.

“How could you?” Mara said backing away, betrayal lighting those green eyes. She sat next to the other rescued technician; they leaned on one another.

“Mara, Bernice, I’m sorry. TriGen wouldn’t have let us work if we didn’t agree to their demands. You must understand.”

“What about the rest of us? What about the facility?”

Dr Sturgess looked down. She licked her lips but said nothing.

“Answer the question,” Bernice said.

“An explosion would wipe out the facility and any evidence of our experiments. It’s supposed to look like an accident. Your families would all have been paid handsomely.” The calm, even tone in Dr Sturgess’ voice turned Rolf’s stomach.

“We’re all expendable.” Rolf shook his head, slowly letting the anger fall away. “I guess I should have suspected as much. Typical executive bullshit.”

“I hear that,” Sully said with a nod.

The alarm blared on. A few people in lab coats ran past seemingly uninterested in anything else but where they were going.

“I thought we were clear? Why didn’t they cut the alarm?” Dot asked.

“Each of the labs tried the same experiment at the same time. The only difference being the subject. Lab Two reported their subject expired shortly after the initial injection. Lab Three’s subject didn’t survive the transformation,” Dr Sturgess said.

“What about Lab four?”

“No one has had contact with them since the experiment began.” The doc looked down at her watch. “It’s been just over an hour now.” She pulled a handheld radio from her lab coat and handed it to Rolf. After trying to get ahold of anyone but only getting static, he handed it back.

“We simply didn’t know what effects, if any, the splice would have. That was Leroy ‘Pig Sticker’ Addison.”

“The cop killer?” Sully whistled. “That’s one bad dude lying dead in there. He killed a dozen cops with a Rambo knife or something.”

Dr Sturgess nodded. “It would seem the splice took to the more violent subjects – the more violent the better the splice. If only I had more time to discover why.”

Rolf grabbed the old bird by the lab coat and pulled her close. Through clenched teeth he asked, “Who was on four?”

“Richard Dean Novak.”

Rolf let the doc go. She took a step back and smoothed out her lab coat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Cruz said. “The serial killer?”

Dr Sturgess only nodded.

Mara rose and moved closer to Rolf. “You lied to us, manipulated us. And you were prepared to throw us away like trash. For what?” She slammed a fist into the window. “So you could play God with your genetic experiments?”

“Out of everyone here, I expected more from you, Mara,” spat the doctor. “This could be the next step in human evolution. Ten years from now the world will be full of human and wolf hybrids. Think of the possibilities!”

Rolf could tell by the gleam in the doctor’s eyes there would be no reasoning with her. He saw complete dedication there. There was no telling how far she would go if push came to shove. He’d have to assume she’d do whatever it took to ensure her work survived, even if it meant stabbing each of them in the back. Unfortunately, right now, they needed each other–

Everything went dark.

The lab, hallway, and every other room lost power. A moment later the emergency generator came on. Yellow lights did little to illuminate the hallway. Visibility was poor at best.

“That’s just great.” Cruz stood and started for the door marked ‘stairwell’ when a scream echoed from somewhere below.