by Mark Clodi
“What is interesting?”
“The blood could have come from two different sources, this stuff is the 'after' and it is not blood, not as we know it. Or knew it I should say. I want a complete analysis of both samples and I want it yesterday.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I think we might be closer than I thought to reversing cellular senescence, I need the analysis to confirm this and additional samples will need to be tested, of course. Over time especially.”
“I agree, I have brought you Dan's employee file.”
“Oh, um yes. Next of kin?”
Heather shook her head, “None in the state.”
“Hobbies, friends? Who is his emergency contact?”
“Hobbies include drinking alcohol on his nights off and weightlifting, he fraternizes with the other guards is only marginally liked and could be missing for weeks before anyone noticed he was gone.”
“Weeks?”
“Possibly months.”
Sentry's face lit up in a smile and he nodded, “That is good. Very good. What about the staff who witnessed the...events today?”
“They will be undergoing debriefing today with me, and you, at the end of their normal work shift. I have Dan secured in the room next to Vic’s. There is no one involved in the project who knows everything that is supposed to be happening. I am going to spin this as a normal, desired result of our study, Dan, due to his hapless ineptitude became contaminated inside of Vic's room. I will be implementing a class 'A' series of restrictions to enter either patient's room until we can get a handle on things.”
“Class 'A'? Won't that make gathering the samples more difficult?” Class A was a head to toe bio-shield suit with an independent air supply.
“Only for a week. We need them to think there was a setback and that we are concerned, but not that there was an error beyond repair. I will remind them of their non-disclosure agreements and provide them with hazard pay for today and every other day they work in the class 'A' environment.”
“Say that is good, very good! It will cost us more, but they won't talk, not at triple pay. Do it. I will provide a suitable speech on how progress has been made here today. Also the prison system will eventually need to be notified of the success or failure of the project.”
“Months, they check on Vic once a month, the last check was just before he took the serum. We have twenty eight days until the next checkup and if we go back to class A and explain the reasons why the inspector will probably be content just to look through the observation area. We can tell them Vic is sleeping.”
“Then we will need to find a way to sedate them. That will be our first priority. This is going to work and if we have made the jump I think we have then we are much closer to eternal life than I imagined I would be at this stage.”
Heather nodded and smiled to herself as Sentry went off to his office, no doubt to prepare his speech for the staff; he was nothing if not prepared. Slipping a digital voice recorder out of her pocket she whispered the time and date into it and turned it off before tucking it away again.
Chapter 5
It had all started with his research into cellular senescence, why did cells stop losing the ability to divide? Or rather why did the chromosomal telomeres get shorted with each division instead of replicating true? If he could get cells to copy without the chromosome damage...well it was a good bet that he would have found, or been well on his way towards finding, the fountain of youth. 'In Florida, no less. Ponce de Leon would have been so envious' thought Doctor Sentry.
After looking over his notes and the video footage from the lab Sentry was trying to decide how best to proceed. It had been three days since Vic had been attacked and neither he, nor Dan had gotten better. So far the staff had kept their mouths shut to the media as well, the triple pay for hazard duty and the reminder of their confidentiality agreements seemed to be keeping them in line. The first priority had been to find a way to make the men appear to be asleep for the inspection whenever the prison got around to sending someone to check on their inmates. So far the two men were not affected by anything the doctor had given them; nothing sedated them or changed their vital signs. Worse the two men didn't eat anything. They didn't appear to be deteriorating, but Sentry knew they could not last forever without getting substance of some sort.
This led him to look back down on the pad in front of him. It was paper, most of the researchers had electronic devices for their notes, but Sentry used a notepad and transcribed them daily into a formal log. They had tried to get water into the two men, to little effect; the IV's they had put in didn't function properly. This was no great mystery either; both men's heart rates were so slow as to classify them as legally dead, sometimes not even a single beat in five minutes time.
'Which means brain damage.' That could explain the lack of cognitive function as well. The two men did seem to grow more animated as their handlers came into the room, they would stare at the staff with dedicated fascination.
'And Vic bit Dan.' Sentry thought.
A knock on his office door brought him back to reality, “Come in.”
The door opened and Heather came in with two steaming cups. “Still thinking of what to feed our two zombies?”
“I wish you wouldn't call them that.” The name had been co-opted from bad horror movies and applied to the two men in the clinic by the staff.
“They look like zombies. I think it is the way they track us when we come into the room. Like they are hungry.”
Sentry shrugged, “That term isn't scientific.”
Heather shook her head and handed the doctor a coffee, “So what'd you come up with?”
Looking away with a grimace Sentry showed her the notepad. Heather looked at it and laughed. “Blood huh? Well if it works the staff will call them vampires.”
“I should hope not.”
“They will and you might as well let them. What do you hope to accomplish if they eat it?”
“I don't know, well, maybe to keep them going. As long as they are moving they are not dead, not really.”
“Brain dead maybe.”
Sentry looked at Heather, as if seeing her for the first time, 'She is smarter than she lets on.' then he said, “I don't know, this is all new and their blood has changed.”
“It carries no oxygen; I cannot imagine a scenario in which that is good for their brains. So when will you try this?”
“I had the hospital send over six units this afternoon.”
“Only six?”
“It should be enough to tell if it works.”
“What excuse did you give them?”
“The usual, plus comparison analysis with that of the test subject.” The lab did go through a small supply of blood each month during experimentation.
“So you want to try it now then?”
“No. Not really Doctor Wilkins. I would rather not try it at all.”
Heather's eye's widened, “You think it will work!”
Rising to his feet Doctor Sentry said, “We will soon find out.”
Leading the way down the hall Sentry did not even bother to done the protective equipment he made the staff wear. He had found out that the changes the men had gone through could be passed on by saliva to blood or blood to blood contact and he would be careful to avoid both. He did, however, pull on latex gloves and done a pair of clear safety goggles, it made sense to take normal precautions. Glancing at the clock at the end of the hallway he was pleased to see it was seven in the evening, most of the staff had gone home, leaving only four guards on duty with him and Heather.
“How will you administer the...food, Doctor?” Heather asked.
“I thought a syringe would do the trick, I wasn't planning to just cut a corner off the bag and dump it into his mouth, if that is what you were thinking.”
“Perish the thought. A syringe should be fine.”
Sentry came up with a blunt nosed twenty cc syringe and then went over and pulled a pint of
blood off of a tipping tray that sat behind a closed glass door in a cabinet. Placing the plastic bag on some clean surgical paper he pierced it with the needle through the inlet port, then pulled back on the plunger to draw out twenty cc's of blood.
“I am surprised you didn't go with a fifty cc syringe.”
“Hm? No, we can use the blood for our work, if Vic doesn't take it. I don't see the point in wasting the blood necessarily.”
'As if this is just business as usual.' thought Heather.
Once the syringe was full Dr. Sentry put the pint back in the cabinet. “Will you come in with me?”
“Of course. I need to see if this works.”
The two approached Vic's room and Sentry unlocked the door. Heather opened it and they filed into the room where Vic's dead eyes tracked their every move. The man was completely strapped down with nylon webbing, they had been forced to do a full strap down otherwise he would pull the IV tubing out of his arms and the monitoring equipment off of his chest.
“Vic. I am going to try and feed you this.” said Sentry gesturing with the syringe. Vic said nothing, only watched intently as the needle came towards his mouth.
As Sentry brought the need closer the man opened his mouth. Startled Sentry almost dropped the syringe. He recovered quickly enough to hover the needle over Vic's gaping maw and push down on the plunger. Vic didn't spit the blood up as he had with so many other food items the last few days. He drank it all and kept his mouth open for more.
“Get the rest of the pint.” Sentry told Heather, who scrambled to obey him.
Chapter 6
“Hiya Doc!” Vic said as Doctor Sentry pushed into his room. “How's it hangin'?”
“Just fine Victor. And how are you this lovely morning?”
“Right as rain. I've been eating well.”
Sentry looked at Victor's charts and nodded, “I can see that. Three pints this morning already. Do you feel sated?”
“No, I could eat all day. When are you going to let me out of these?” asked Vic, who raised his arms about six inches before the handcuffs stopped him.
“I don't think that would be a good idea yet Victor, I am concerned....well after Dan.”
“That was a month ago! And before I was lucid, you've said so yourself. Where is the old boy these days? Is he getting the same treatment as me?” Vic knew perfectly well where the 'old boy' was, in the room next to his, he could feel him there, slow and stupid as the day he had died. So far Vic had not told the doctor about his ability to feel the other man through the walls of the clinic.
“Dan is still in the clinic, but no, we are focusing on you right now, leaving Dan as a control group.”
“Awful small control group.” Vic commented, “So how'd my results come out?”
“Your blood has been irrevocably changed, everything we have done has left it un-phased, if we take your blood and mix it with that from a fresh donor, the blood all looks like yours within minutes.”
“So, no transfusion then?” The doctors had discussed that as a way to reverse what they had done to him.
“No, I am afraid not. Vic, the prison inspector is coming here tomorrow. I need to know what you are going to tell them.”
“That depends.” said Vic, “On what you want me to say and what you are going to do for me.”
“What do you want? I think we have given you eternal life, isn't that enough?”
“Doc, I have been thinking about that and I have decided I don't want to go back to prison for another hundred and eighteen years. Sure maybe it'd be half that with good behavior, but what would I be worth after sixty years in prison?”
“Your sentence could be reduced further by participating in this study, you might be out in thirty years, maybe sooner if a governor or presidential pardon could be issued.”
Vic shook his head and said, “No, that won't do. I've thought of an easier way. I die here. I mean I did already, didn't I?”
Thomas Sentry thought about this for a minute, using the data tablet to hide his face. They had not told Vic that he had medically died, quickly thinking through the options he decided it would be easier to lie to the man to get through the inspection, “What did you have in mind?”
“I die here, you cremate me, my family buries me. That is it. I will agree to stick around here for a few months after my cremation to help you out, after that we go our own way.”
“I might be able to arrange something like that.”
“Without the actual cremation. Just use Dan, if no one has come looking for him yet, no one will.”
“Too many people know he is...like he is. I will have to think about that part of it. I think, Vic, that we have a deal.” Dr. Sentry approached the side of the bed and shook Vic's proffered hand, wincing at the man's vise like grip.
“Yes, see I've got it all planned out; I die tomorrow while the inspector is here. You call it a heart attack or an aneurysm or whatever the fuck you want, but I die in front of the inspector and you do the autopsy. Then you quickly cremate me before the prison system can do their own. I'll fill out the paperwork saying that is what I wanted.”
“Vic, that is moving very fast. It will throw a pall over the study...”
“I don't give a goddamn about your study! It worked Doc, I feel stronger and more alert than I ever have. Time will tell if I age, but if I do I want to be free. Now!” Vic lunged forward but was held back by the chest restraint.
“Vic, please calm down. Let me talk to my associate, I am sure we can come to an arrangement, but we have to plan it out better.”
“Always with the plans. Just go with it for once and stop planning out everything.” Vic advised, “Well you got until tomorrow, don't you? Let me know before then.”
Doctor Sentry glanced at the test results awhile longer and then left Vic lying in his bed. He headed back to his office where he logged into his computer and reviewed data from Vic's blood tests. Doctor Wilkins came into the room which caused Sentry to glance up from the reports, slightly annoyed at her presumption Sentry asked, “Can I help you?”
“Thomas, it is time.”
“Time for what?”
“Vic needs to keep his mouth shut. He spoke to me, so I know he spoke to you too. The inspectors are coming for a visit tomorrow and we need to decide what to do.”
“Do you see things from his side?” Sentry said, sighing and leaning back in his chair.
“No. Not at all. I have a different thought.”
“Go on then, tell me. Everyone has a plan for me to follow these days.”
“Vic dies, he gets cremated. We have Dan to work with; we can go slower and not be rushed. Even if the prison pulls their support, it won't affect us now.”
“So you are advocating murder. You want us to kill Vic to cover our failure?”
Glancing towards the door nervously, Heather said, “He already died, we would just be...restoring him to where he was.”
The anger that had flared briefly in Sentry faded and he slouched back into his chair. “It is a better plan than Vic proposed, though I suspect he would like this one less. I've been looking over the data...”
“And?”
“The mutation we have encouraged with our therapy has changed him substantially.”
“Anyone can tell that, the man requires blood now to live.”
Irritation, Sentry shook his head and said, “Quiet please and let me explain.”
Heather nodded once and Sentry started an impromptu lecture. “He has been changed more than we wanted and I think I can isolate the cells further to eliminate the unwanted mutations that led to his death. I thought I was isolating the successive shortening of the chromosomal telomeres, but in order to get to that point I had to take educated guesses about the other affects I would be pushing onto the subject.
“The results of these affects are clearly available to me now. Well, most of them are. I have made a serum to stop the aging process, which is what I set out to do. Analyzing the blood from both Dan
and Vic, there is no difference in their cells from today as compared to the cells taken months ago in Vic and from Dan in four days. Admittedly in Dan's case the change would have been so minuscule as to be almost unnoticeable. However there still should have been observable changes with the equipment we have. There is none. Both of their bodies alter the blood in some manner and imprint the changes of foreign blood to match their own. They get something else from this process too; they must because in the four days since Dan was infected he has not become any more aware. Yet Vic, who was given blood, has become his old self again. What it is, precisely, that they are taking from the fresh blood, I cannot say.”
“Soul? Spirit?” suggested Heather.
Sentry waved off her notions with his hand, “Mysteries of life are always found by science, we needn't revert to becoming shaman or priests to explain what we cannot yet understand. We needn't bring spirituality into this at all. The physical change that is most observable is his return to awareness of being; those that are a less well observed are his increased strength and his body’s ability to repair itself.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, I made an incision when I was taking my sample last night, as a test to see if his body, which for all practical purposes should be rotting, would mend itself. This morning the incision is gone, with not so much as a scab or scar. His increased strength is measurable by the fact that he has stretched the cords and restrains that we have holding him down. In fact, I think he is shamming, I think he could burst free of his bonds at any moment he chose.”
“So, he heals fast and he is stronger. How do we control him?”
“That is where it gets interesting. I don't think we can. Oh, certainly even his strength has limits; we could pile on the restraints until he could not shake them off. I think, perhaps we should test a 'fast' on him, to see if he loses awareness when his food is cut off. Otherwise the only area of his body that shows any medical signs of normality is his brain. To me this indicates an area of vulnerability as well. If the activity were stopped, I think he would be stopped. Dan's brain also shows some subdued activity. I would like to start giving Dan blood, to see if he will regain some of his awareness as well.”
