Wolf Asylum (24 page)

“Medical science can only take us so far. It's the rules that hold us back. If we allowed human testing—on a volunteer basis, of course—humanity would be further ahead medically than they had ever dreamed. Let's face it; testing rats can only take us so far. Doctor Mengele wasn't the first to realize that! We have a chance here Teddy, to make improvements to ourselves; to improve the species. It's dark and troubling work, but I promise you that I will keep you as comfortable as humanly possible,” The good doctor assured.

“Of course, ma'am.”

“Come now, Teddy; call me Evita,” she insisted while pushing his wheel chair through the empty halls at Hadamar. “I know we had a rough start, but I want you to be at ease around me.”

“If you insist,” Teddy responded as politely as possible, all the while his insides were churning with fury. He had decided to follow Steve's instructions, even though he couldn't be sure what he had been asked to do. Steve was asking, for reasons he didn't completely understand, yet he found himself trusting the messenger.

“I thought this afternoon we would try something a little different,” she eluded. “How would you like to walk again?”

The question was a stupid one. Of course he wanted to walk again, not to mention be able to stroke his own cock like God had intended. How could he respond in a way that would satisfy the doctor and yet protect his own beliefs? Teddy wanted nothing more than to be able to walk again. If not to walk the world, he would be to be able to walk to his own suicide. He was resigned to death; he longed for it.

“Is that possible?” he asked.

“That's what we're going to find out. I believe if our bodies can regenerate, perhaps they can assimilate new flesh. I believe I can transplant new legs to you and your body will absorb and make them their own. The worst that will happen is your body rejects them and your stumps seal up.” They entered an operating room with another patient inside.

“That sounds very possible; I'm eager to assist,” Teddy said, trying to sound supportive without being too fake.

She replied in cold honesty, “Of course you are. What's the worst that happens to you? You go back to your room with stumps. The best that happens is you can walk again. Now, I did have a hard time finding a suitable donor. The best match I could find was a sixteen-year-old from the mine. He's malnourished and has wasted some, but I'm sure you can bring his limbs back to strength. It was that or a black guy in his thirties, also emaciated. I went for aesthetics.”

“Sixteen is fine, I'm sure they'll grow into me, “ Teddy remarked, making a small quip.

“First things first…we must get them attached,” she spoke without emotion. “I think the first task in making this work will be getting the circulation going. Once the infection spreads to the new limbs, the regenerative properties should engage. If we can't get the arteries and veins connected I don't see how this will work. The other problem will be your own healing. Your limbs might heal before I can attach the new ones. It's a learning curve.”

“What's his name?” Teddy asked as his gurney came to a stop a few feet from his donor.

“You know Teddy, I'm not really sure.” She stepped on the brake, bringing his journey to an end next to an operating table.

“I was James,” the meek creature responded.

“James! There you go, it had a name,” Doctor Gagnon smirked, raising an eyebrow. “Okay Teddy, slide over to the operating table and I'll get your limbs secured.”

“Ahh, Evita?” Teddy asked reluctantly as he crossed onto the butchers' board. “Would it not make more sense to do all four today? You have a donor and I am willing to undergo the pain, let's just go for it!”

She stopped and looked to him, assessing the sincerity. “It will be incredibly painful.”

“You may not believe me when I say this. It's not the pain that bothers me; Darwin has changed me. I actually welcome the pain now, I thrive in it. You saw how I can handle it,” Teddy begged.

“I tell you what, we'll do the legs first and if you're holding up okay we'll consider moving on to the arms. I don't want you wolfing out on me during the operation,” Gagnon reminded as she strapped his legs to a stirrup.

“I won't wolf out! Trust me. I get off on pain.”

“Yeah.” She chuckled. “What about the young man on the table next to you? Don't you think the smell of his meat might push you over the edge? That's the last thing I need…you eating the donor half way through the procedure. Then you'd have only one white leg and I'd be forced to use the other donor to finish the transplant. One white leg and one black leg. You'd look ridiculous!”

Teddy's heart sank because he knew she was right. He was hungry and had been hungry for days. He imagined heroin withdrawal felt like similar to what he was experiencing. The seed had been planted and his brain wouldn't stop thinking about it. For Teddy, it was the first time he realized he was more than just a werewolf. He was a monster no different than the rest. In time, he would kill willingly and savagely.

“I think you're right,” he admitted softly.

“I know you'd look stupid,” she replied.

Teddy surrendered. “No. I think I should eat before the operation. You're right, I will kill James if I get a smell of him…I'm too hungry. He had promised himself he wouldn't do it. Was he giving up or was he doing it for the greater good? He needed legs to fight back, yet he could feel the addiction flowing through him and possessing his every thought.

“We shouldn't operate on a full stomach, but how about a light snack? That should help take the edge off,” she said with proper bedside manner.

“Anything would be better than nothing,” Teddy replied with drool leaking from his lips, running down his fangs that had spontaneously appeared as his resolve weakened.

Doctor Gagnon went to a fridge and retrieved a small glass bottle that looked to be filled with fluid that had the consistency of lumpy barbeque sauce. She went to a microwave and zapped the product for twenty seconds before returning to Teddy.

“Drink this up. It's potent and will probably send you over the edge, but your hunger should go away.” She removed the cap and placed the lip of the bottle to his mouth as Teddy allowed the substance to be poured down his throat.

His body immediately glistened with perspiration and he began expelling semen as the substance coated his insides, bringing relief and ecstasy to every corner of his polluted soul. Teddy huffed and snorted, still with wolf on his face, but the tweak was reduced and contentment filled in the voids.

“That was amazing. What was it?” he asked, already curious to have more.

“Aborted fetus,” she replied as she took the empty container back to the counter.

“Is that why it felt so good?” Teddy asked, feeling sick but wanting more. “It was like a new lease on life welling up inside of me. How long will the feeling last?”

“It's hard to say…everyone is different.”

“Why wasn't I good enough?” James asked meekly from his table.

“Only you would know the answer to that,” she replied with a snap. “Judging by your indolence, I would guess you were labeled as useless.”

“It's not fair.”

Doctor Gagnon stated flexing her logical prowess, “It wouldn't have been fair to bless you if you had nothing to contribute to the group. You would have sat on your ass eating our resources. We couldn't have had that now, could we?”

“I was never given the chance,” he said, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Well, this is your chance! You're going to evolve medical science and help to rehabilitate Teddy. He will be able to walk again without prosthetics and maybe even help him regain the use of his arms, doesn't that sound like a noble cause?”

“I was hoping I could keep those,” James croaked pathetically.

“Oh, Jimmy, you're too funny. I like a sense of humor, so I'll do you a favor. I'll give you a cocktail of drugs so you don't feel a thing. You should be flattered; I never take pity on my subjects.” Doctor Gagnon began filling a syringe with a small amount of clear liquid. She quickly took the needle and injected the serum into the IV line she had set up.

“Do I get some drugs too, Evita?” Teddy yapped, feeling frisky.

“I don't think so.” She smiled. “Now James, in a moment, you're going to feel sleepy. I don't want you to fight it, just let yourself go into a deep sleep. When you wake up it will all be over.” The good doctor patted the thin cheek of her donor.

James drifted off to sleep as Doctor Gagnon set off to work, grabbing a stainless steel bone saw from her tray table.

“How come you took pity on him?” Teddy asked.

“I didn't,” she said coldly.

“Isn't being asleep better than being awake? Who am I kidding; I should know the answer to that!” Teddy joked.

“I gave James only enough anesthetic to put him out. I gave him nothing for the pain and nothing to paralyze his muscles. It's my hope to induce operational awareness; that's when the patient wakes up and recalls feeling everything, but couldn't speak during the procedure.”

“What is there to learn from that?” Teddy asked, truly curious.

Doctor Gagnon walked over next to Teddy and began to examine his left stump, “I think three inches above the scar tissue should be enough; that will put your new knees in roughly the right spot.”

“Sure, as long as they work.” He laughed, trying to defuse the tension.

“What there is to learn, Teddy, is can it be done. Can we cause the problem? By causing the problem we can then learn how to prevent it. The flip side to that is, does it occur randomly and without reason? That's an interesting question, too.” She returned to the motionless James.

“Or you're doing it because you enjoy it,” Teddy shot back.

For the next several hours Doctor Gagnon hacked away at James' limbs, fighting bleeding and trying to keep the tissue healthy for transplant. On the first attempt, the doctor had wished she had someone to help her. The task of operating and surgically reattaching limbs was too much for one person to accomplish.

The first leg she scythed as she had forgotten to use a tourniquet. The life-fluid spewed from the wound causing her arousal. From Teddy's table, he could see Evita struggle with her wolf and the operation. He never thought he would be the educator in limb severing, but he had been there and he knew what worked.

He said, “You've got to cauterize the wound; it's the only way to stop the bleeding. Darwin use to slap alcohol soaked bandages on my stumps and light them on fire. It was crude but it worked.”

After the first leg, the process became easier. Doctor Gagnon stopped briefly to have her own shot of fetus before continuing. With a wet spot on her garbs, she pressed on with the attachment.

Sticking to her initial plan, the doctor chopped off the stump and tossed it to the side. Knowing the wound would seal over quickly she tried to attach the artery and as many veins as she could to get the blood flow started. She worked quickly, appending the tissue but the size difference in the limbs made her work challenging.

Teddy was flushed with sweat and grunted in pleasure as she rooted through his flesh. He was holding his wolf back, knowing how easily it would be to let go.

“Almost done, Teddy,” she assured. “I'm going to undo the tourniquet and see if the blood begins to fill. If it does, you should be able to assimilate the new limb. If the blood begins to move into the leg, I think you should change. It might help the leg fuse to your anatomy faster.”

She released the blood flow and watched as the fluid began to inflate the conduits, and began to cross the threshold into the newly acquired human limb. Her re-attachments were less than perfect…blood droplets leaked from the bonding points, but the blood continued the march into the new leg.

“Okay Teddy, go ahead and change,” she instructed as she continued to watch through the flesh.

Relieved, Teddy let go of his control and his muscles and hair rushed to the surface. The transformation rippled down to his stump and the wound began to heal. Losing her window, the doctor shoved the new limb into the closing wound and began the waiting process to see if Teddy could absorb the new leg.

The transformation stopped at the human flesh. Teddy's wolf thigh wrapped around the new limb but nothing changed. For several minutes the doctor watched, hoping the change would over take the dying human material, though it looked like the operation had been a failure.

Just as the doctor was about to give up and walk away she noticed a slight discoloration in the new limb. The veins under the skin were darker and the flesh also appeared to be changing color. It was promising, even if the change was minor.

Within seconds, the color changed and the leg jumped in spasm, marking its return to life. The foot began to lengthen and the cracking in the bones could be heard. The leg transformed and became one with Teddy. Doctor Gagnon could see the leg still wouldn't look right but she hoped the gift would find a way to make the new limb look more natural.