Page 52 of Tracking the Alpha
“Follow me and I’ll show you.”
“Wait.” Barrett grabbed him by the arm. “How many soldiers does Davidson still have?”
“I’m not sure. Used to be about a dozen, including the brass. Definitely not that many at the moment, though, as I know two went on a supply run yesterday and never came back. Major just sent out another pair to see if they could locate them, plus two others popped out to grab supplies.”
Add in the soldier mauled by the coyote and the general was down to less than a half-dozen military personnel. “What about civilians? I assume he’s got people doing the cooking and maintenance, plus doctors and shit.”
“He’s been using soldiers to handle everything, which explains the crappy food we’ve been getting. As for the project, he’s got five of us for the whole operation.” Wendell’s mouth twisted. “We started out as a team of eight, but two of the scientists mouthed off to the general, and we lost another when a patient flipped into a bear without warning.”
Barrett couldn’t help but exclaim, “Bear? I thought this experiment was to make wolves.”
“Yeah. So did we, but as we’ve learned, people react differently to the serum. Most end up as wolves, but we’ve seen coyote, tiger, bear. We had one buck early on in the project, but he escaped, and with it being hunting season…” No need for him to finish that sentence. “We also suspect we’ve gotten a few possible aquatics seeing as how autopsies show those patients asphyxiating despite having nothing wrong with the air quality or their lungs. Dr. Levy seems to think it’s because they didn’t develop gills properly.”
Gills? This got more and more nightmarish. “How many have you killed since you started?”
Wendell winced. “We’ve had a few die.”
“How many?”
“Sixty-one.” Wendell hung his head as he whispered the reply.
The number floored. “And how many of those were part of my section?”
“Just one.”
Just. As if that made it okay. “Take me to them.”
Barrett couldn’t stand to listen anymore. This ended today.
The hallway didn’t appear to have any cameras, and even if there had been, nothing Barrett could do but hope whoever watched didn’t think it odd a soldier followed Wendell to the elevator. The guy held his face still for a scan without prompting.
As they entered the metal box—almost triggering a claustrophobic attack in Barrett—Wendell wrung his hands nervously. “I meant what I said earlier. It’s a really bad idea to release the patients.”
“Still gonna do it.”
“Some of them aren’t human anymore,” Wendell stated as the doors closed, but he didn’t press a button.
“And whose fault is that?” Barrett cooly reminded.
Wendell ducked his head. “I’m just trying to warn you. Some of them have no self-control. If you let them go, people will get murdered.”
“If that happens, it’s only because they’re behaving like the animals you made them into. Keeping them locked in a box isn’t an option.”
“Releasing them might be worse.”
“For who? You? If one of them munches on you, can’t say as I really blame them given what you’ve done.”
“Not just me. Everyone in the world could be at risk.”
The wild claim made Barrett snort. “I doubt that. There’s like what, maybe twenty of us, give or take, still left alive?”
“I’m talking about the possibility of mutating all of humanity.”
“Say what?”
Wendell’s sour fear intensified. “We’ve not fully tested whether or not the treatment is contagious.”
“How is that possible? It took a series of injections for you to change me,” Barrett argued, even as he felt his blood chill.
