The Zompire (6 page)

Back at the laboratory, Dr Mabel was yet working on sourcing as much knowledge as possible from the vampire as had never been available in the past decade and a half. He went over to his desk to continue with some of his research papers. He was at it for several hours and when he did take a break from it, he realized that the vampire had not even lifted a muscle. His effort to communicate with him was in vain as it didn’t even bat an eyelid. Perhaps he was abiding by the penal code of silence, the law of Omerta or what is it called? Mabel thought to himself. After lunch, he and the team of VCA agents and men of the state security service met back at the lab. The leader of
the SSS told Dr. Mabel that the government wished to have all possible tests that will give an altruistic detailed information of all that needed to be known about vampires. Mabel also learnt that the National Scientific Society had sent a delegation that will soon be with them. They preferred to work with him in the present lab rather than theirs because his lab was better equipped for this special purpose. He was excited that such geniuses in science were all interested and coming to him.

It was not till hours later that they arrived. Soon after they exchanged pleasantries, Mabel brought them up to date on all he knew and what had been done so far. The likes of Professor Kerkov and Professor Socrates, both of whom were experts in the field of biology, proposed a number of complex surgeries. Mabel put up a mild protest on the ground, firmly stating that they knew didn’t know how a vampire would react to such, but the men confused rather than convince him out of his fears. He decided not to bother himself really, since they were superiors in their chosen professions and it would be almost impossible for him to get anyone to take his word against theirs.

Soon the tests and surgeries began in earnest. The first few tests on how they react to different elements and substance invasions went well as they did most of the introduction of these elements into the body of the vampire while he was still awake and securely restrained. This allowed them to quickly see how it reacted to such and quickly apply remedies for the ones that proved lethal.  They soon got to the more advanced tests which would require surgical procedures. The surgeons prepared their tools and soon got down to more detailed analysis. They first began with taking an in-depth look into its muscular system. After that, they went over to its head, a team of dentists taking charge of that one. What they wanted so much to know was how these creatures so call ‘drank’ the blood of their victims without the blood clotting. They already had assumptions that an anti-coagulant maybe present in its saliva. The source of this chemical exactly, they wanted to find out. Their initial tests to know if the fluid responsible for prevention of clotting was present in their saliva came out negative. It was therefore logical that there was another source within its oral cavity. It took the keen eyes of Dr Kerkov to see that there was a tiny hole almost on the back of the vampire’s eye teeth. Careful examination showed that it was also present on the other eye teeth. They therefore assumed that this indeed was the place from which the chemical was injected. There was however no way they could get to know for sure without bringing out the teeth or at least by some means, getting to study its structure and underlying mode of operation. Therefore, upon Dr Macauly’s suggestion, they set about taking out the teeth. They needed to see where the draculin that prevents clotting of their victim’s blood while they feed stems from. They carried the vampire into the adjoining room which was dedicated to dental surgery and heaved him onto the seat. They then got to extracting its teeth that were of great interest to them. When they removed it, there was a bit of blood. Dark red vampire blood which was to be expected but soon came the gush of a transparent fluid which they suspected would be draculin. They expected the flow of fluid to cease, but it was not to be. Its black licka(blood) keep gushing profusely from the wound and even though it was just a tooth that they had taken, they soon began to fear that the vampire was losing too much blood. Whatever they did to contain the flow of blood gushing from the wound which the tooth was removed was not working. Its oral cavity was all dark red and it was even difficult to see the exact point the blood was coming from. Minutes later of trying in vain to salvage the situation, they began to see the situation as rather hopeless. The vampire draculin was probably the reason the wound was not even clotting, more so when the rupture was a hollow cavity, the size of its giant tooth. They realized they were meant to be concluding the surgery right about then but there seemed to be no end to this particular surgery, not the end they wanted anyway. They feared that the vampire might awake any minute as the anesthetic they gave it was timed to wear off by then.

Dr Mabel was very worried about the turn of events. He ran around and thought of what remedy there was that he could use but he could not conjure up any. Even as they carried it back to the operating table and strapped him back on, hoping that this turn of events would improve, he was yet restless. They should have known better than opening a cavity into what held the magic to continuous blood flow. Mabel called Dr. Lenzo on the phone in his erratic worry and put him up to speed about the situation on ground. Dr Lenzo could not think of what could be done to salvage the situation. The vampire now back on the surgical table, none of the scientists nor surgeons dared get close, let alone let their hand invade its jaw which now only spelt danger to them. Mabel could not stand back. For some reason he sort of saw it as his conquest and property which he was not ready to lose. He plugged the hole with his thumb for several moments but realized that would not help. It was like he was giving himself the death sentence. Giving the vampire more anesthetics was not advisable either. It had already lost a lot of blood and it would only be logical that they have him wake at least so that they can know in which way to proceed next. In the minutes that followed, the vampire did not move. This made them worry more. They didn’t know what the government’s reaction would be to such failure on their part. Mabel checked its body temperature but there was no decipherable difference in its typically cold body. When several minutes more there was no sign of movement from the vampire, they decided to give it an electrical shock. They did a couple of times and then the beeper went off, trailing to a sudden stop. It was hard for Mabel to believe that all he now had was a lifeless specimen. Its motionless and seemingly lifeless body laying there, the bleeding stopped consequently to the inactivity of his organs, and its body was getting even colder. They checked and double checked but there was no pulse. What more was there to do? Mabel sat on his desk and stared into the space before him, looking at nothing in particular. He remembered a serum that they had made which had been tested and proved positive in regenerating dead cells. The problem was how to tell these scientists especially as this had been a top secret of the lab itself. Many scientists in other fields of research never knew about this. He was hesitant about what their reaction to such revelation would be. He knew that they were his superiors in some facets and that if such case made it out and were to be judged as a criminal offence against the state, his word would sure hold little water against theirs. He called Lenzo in secret to seek his advice. Lenzo thought about it briefly and figured that even though it was risky to tell them now of research into this serum, it was necessary to let them know now because he doubted that they would leave the lab without seeing the remains of the vampire cremated. He told Mabel he could let them in on it and also explain to them the chance that the serum could revive and give them chance to conclude their tests on the vampire. Lenzo let out a worried sigh as he finished the call and went back to where the rest of them were in the lab room.

“We have a last avenue to explore” he began …. “towards the end of the previous year we launched into a research which we believed to be worthwhile in this lab and the results we got have been resounding and astonishing. Not much is known outside about this research as we did everything including funding of this research within ourselves here. We succeeded in developing a serum which can regenerate dead cells. It has been administered to smaller mammals and has worked. I’m suggesting we try this serum on our specimen. It might yet revive him…..”

They had all been listening attentively. As opposed to his expectation that they will be offended that they had not been involved in the research and development of the serum, they were curious to see the effect and use of this serum which would be fascinating if it did serve the purpose it is said to.

“ I very much hope you’re not squeezing our balls with this one….and for the sake of your job, you better fucking hope it works!” said one of his superiors.

“Do we have this bloody hell serum available now?” Dr Kerkov chipped in and asked.

“Yes we do,” Mabel replied.

“Let’s give it a try then..” Kerkov replied, looking at the rest of his colleagues who gave their approving nods and looks.

Mabel led the way through the flight of stairs and passage that led to the serum storage area. It was a cold room which ensured the serum is stored under temperatures that favors its preservation. He took out two tubes filled with the serum. Mabel told them that he was not certain the dosage to be given to the vampire as they had not administered it to a large mammal before then. They talked about how best to determine the appropriate dose while questions were thrown also as to how it was usually administered. They brainstormed when they got back in the theatre and after few deliberations, decided it would be appropriate to calculate the dosage to be given based on the body mass ratio of the vampire to that of the smaller mammals that had been used in the initial tests of the serum. Mabel checked his records and obtained the file for the rabbit named ‘Malcolm’ on which they tested the serum first on. After calculating the mass ratio and obtaining the appropriate dose, Mabel instructed the assistants to set out the tools and equipments for the bone marrow operation. The delegates from the National scientific research body were excited as much as they were surprised at the intricacy of the procedure. They had not expected that the point of injection would be the bone marrow. The surgery which took nearly an hour was a tedious one and everyone was glad when it was all done. They left the theatre and after taking off their overalls and gloves, they washed thoroughly before going to the lounge to relax. A training assistant to Mabel kept watch to observe and look out for any changes. After two hours of rest. Mabel announced that he wanted to go and check on Michael who was observing the Vampire. He met him there, still waiting but there were no changes yet in the readings of the meters. Mabel told him he could now let it be.

“He is on lock down anyways; whenever it awakes we would come to see him” he said.

They both left the lab and joined the rest of the teams at the lounge. The team of expert scientists asked where else they ate around and Mabel offered to take everyone to his favorite eating spot. They soon left for the restaurant. They arrived at the eating spot and had lengthy and scientific discussions over their meals. The main topic that took the centre of discussion was their questions on how the serum was developed. It dragged Mabel into explaining to them the biological make up, procedures of preparation and test and countless failures that they had to go through before arriving at the final serum. He also explained how he had singled-handedly gone around motivating the people he had access to, in order to get them to invest in his research and how at last he was able to raise all the funds needed. They left the restaurant and made small talk as they headed back to the lab. Mabel did not speak much on their way back as his mind was preoccupied with imaginations of what good news it would be to find the vampire awake when they returned to the lab. On getting there, they stepped in and Mabel directed everyone straight to the lab. He unlocked the door but was surprised to find the surgical bed empty. He was strapped to this bed when they left. He was still thinking of the possibilities, wondering whether the assistant who they left to take care of the lab while they went out to have dinner actually did transfer the vampire to another room.

Mabel was heading back through the door to go ask Michael, the assistant some questions when a low growl was heard. Before he could look around, he suffered a bite off of a huge trunk of his jugular muscle. His bite sent his body into shock as he slumped to the ground. It happened so fast. The now revived creature had now attacked a second personnel. The others tried heading out of the room but were stopped in their tracks. The ‘back from the dead’ creature quickly followed suit and got to them before they could make it out of the door. It was very fast and the rest of them who were standing could not see any good in the fate that awaited them given the killing machine that was before them.  Two State Security Service agents had already pulled out and had their revolvers in hand. They rained bullets on him repeatedly, but were dazzled when it turned around and confidently made its way towards them, seemingly unharmed by the bullets. Bullets now seemed to have no effect on him. One of the more zealous officers took out another loaded pistol from his waist and shot the creature in the forehead again and again as it approached but it kept coming even though a good part of its forehead was already blasted open. He was still shooting when it grabbed the gun out of his hand and knocked the other officer beside him out cold. Grasping him around the neck, the rejuvenated vampire raised him off the ground with just one hand, stared into his eyes seemingly excited by seeing him visibly shaken with fear, then gave him a bite to his jugular and dropped him. The distraction provided by the two officers had provided ample time for the two remaining scientists to escape from the room. They locked the lab and ran into the night. They immediately headed to the phone booth and placed a call to the State Security Services emergency unit. They didn’t want the media attention that would follow should they call the regular state emergency unit. They were also confident that the beastly creature which they didn’t know what to classify it as was safely locked in the facility as such, it was secluded from the civilian population till the troops would arrive.