Patient Ø - File 2 (Compendium A+B)

Patient Ø – File 2

Compendium A

“The underground Research and Development and Military complex known as the Chimera installation has three main entrances and a ‘back door’ entrance, not including air ducts and other connections to the city above that are far too small to be considered entrances.” Patient Ø was re-listening to the standard new recruits introduction tape he was handed so long ago. The woman’s voice was a dull drone but the information was still up to date and relevant.

“The ‘back door’ entrance is kept locked with safety countermeasures installed at all times to prevent incursion. The countermeasures and locks can only be disabled with a direct order from either the installation’s General Bramby or Head researcher Dr. Tinney.” Patient Ø almost growled at Tinney’s name. Since the capture of the Alpha wolfwere, Tinney had become absolutely obsessed with research on his ‘new specimen’ and Patient Ø was positive that Tinney did not care how many human lives were lost in pursuit of his research.

“The three main entrances to the city above are well disguised within buildings owned by subsidiary companies within the square mile of the Chimera installation.” Patient Ø suddenly remembered some of the facts that were originally reeled off at him; the Chimera installation was created at a cost of billions, it was, at the time of construction, and probably still is the largest underground facility ever built, it is the nerve centre for all anti-vampire and werewolf operations in the country.

“Each entrance is securely protected by a two-part locking system involving both a key card and a blood sampling process linked to the owner of the key card,” Patient Ø had his own key card and had been stabbed in the back of the hand by the blood sampling process countless times. He looked down at the PDA and selected more information about the process, after a second of loading screen the woman’s voice continued. “ Upon scanning of the key card the Chimera personnel is required to enter his or her hand into the blood sampling device. The device will take a small sample of blood from the back of the hand and scan it for particular radioactive traces that all personnel are required to have injected. The exact composition of these traces is personalised for each member of personnel and upon verification that the traces in the blood match those indicated on the key card the entrance to the elevator that leads to the Chimera installation will be unlocked. Would you like to hear more?” Patient Ø looked out the window, the car would be arriving any time now, he looked down at the reports that he was supposed to have completed and sighed.

“Don’t suppose we could stop off at a bar before we get there?” Zero asked the driver.

The driver laughed. “Sorry sir, you know the drill, I pick you up and take you straight to Chimera.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zero sighed again, “Would you at least stop calling me sir? You do actually out-rank me ya know!”

“Yours is an honorary rank sir. Technically you are still a civilian therefore I am required to address you as sir.” The driver turned around to look back at Patient Ø, “Sorry Zero, rules are rules.”

Patient Ø sighed again. He’d been doing this for six months now; once a week every Wednesday he was required to come in to the Chimera installation for a medical and to give blood and tissue samples, to re-arm, and to report to the General about the weeks activities including an accurate account of how many wolves and vampires he’d killed. In return the Chimera installation armed him, housed him in a nice apartment and had given him an honorary rank of private, which as far as Zero could estimate meant next to nothing. This was the deal he had struck with Chimera, Bramby had seemed happy with it but Zero knew Tinney had wanted to keep him under closer observation.

The car passed the checkpoint and pulled into the basement of one of the Chimera subsidiary-owned buildings. The top floor of the basement was a car park for all of the employees of the company that owned the building, a large office supplies retailer known as ‘Angel Office Supplies’; the employees of the company were blissfully unaware of the building’s true purpose. Another checkpoint and the car descended down to the second car park, this one for employees of Chimera and for the military vehicles that they used. As the car pulled to a stop Zero shoved his half finished reports and the PDA into his bag, thanked the sergeant and walked over to the entrance, reaching for his key card as he did.


Dr Jonathon Tinney was slumped in his chair behind his desk which was currently somewhere underneath a mountain of paperwork. He’d recently made a new breakthrough concerning the Alpha Wolfwere and had been able to determine that, much in the same way that Patient Ø’s body had re-written the retro-virus, the Alpha’s had done the same. Originally he was infected with the Werewolf virus but his body had changed it and he had become the first wolfwere. Essentially the wolfwere’s were a more advanced evolutionary stage of the werewolves. This new discovery opened up as many questions as when Patient Ø had first been brought to Chimera, such as; what would have happened if either individual had been infected by the vampire bat virus instead of the wolf virus? It also meant that if there were two individuals who’s bodies could do this, there were almost undoubtedly more. All Tinney had to do was…

A beep from his computer suddenly interrupted Dr. Tinney’s train of thought, it was yet another email from Dr. Joseph with another research proposal. Dr. Tinney’s recent research had been so enthralling that for almost 3 weeks now he had done nothing but perform tests and correlate the data, however just yesterday the board of directors had called him in to discuss his recent lack of supervision to his subordinates. He had tried to explain to the board that the head researchers task should be to research but they had insisted the paperwork needed to be completed and filed and the researchers underneath Tinney warranted as much time as his own research. Dr. Tinney did not agree but even he had to answer to the board.

There was a knock at the door interrupting Dr. Tinney’s train of thought once again. “What’s with all the interruptions today?” Dr. Tinney asked to himself. “Yes, come in.” The door opened and Patient Ø stood casually on the other side wearing the same morbid expression that always adorned his face.

“Zero? Is it Wednesday again already?”

Patient Ø stood silent for a moment before answering. “No doctor, it’s actually Sunday I just couldn’t bare being away from you and your needles for so long.”
Dr. Tinney snorted and stood up from his desk. “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit Zero.”

“Maybe, but I could break every single one of your limbs.”

Dr. Tinney laughed and nonchalantly ignored the obvious threat in Patient Ø’s voice. “Come on, lets gets that blood out of you.”

Dr. Tinney led Patient Ø down the featureless, white hallways to laboratory 1 where he sat him down and prepared to take the blood the Chimera installation needed to keep the Alpha wolfwere sedated. Without the transformation suppressive agent within Patient Ø’s blood Dr. Tinney doubted any amount of sedative would work on the Alpha.

“Any progress on developing a cure? Or a vaccine?” Patient Ø asked as the doctor began to draw blood.

“No, no. Nothing on the cure yet, I may have made some progress on finding others like yourself though. If I can isolate…”

“Will that help develop a cure?”

Dr.Tinney paused and looked at Patient Ø for a second as if remembering whom he was talking to. “All new information about how the viruses work will help, Zero.”
Patient Ø sighed. “What about the suppressive agent in my blood? Any progress on synthesising it yet?”

Dr. Tinney shook his head. “We’re yet to isolate exactly what it is in your blood that suppresses the wolf transformation.”

“Fine,” Patient Ø motioned to the needle in his arm, “Just take what you need.”


“These reports only look about half finished.” General Bramby was skimming through the reports Patient Ø had handed him.

Zero had continued on his usual Wednesday routine; first he’d go and see Tinney, and then he’d have a personal meeting with the general to discuss his reports and be briefed on any new developments. Patient Ø far preferred his meetings with the General; Tinney reminded him of a spoilt child whereas the General seemed to have a much firmer grasp on reality. Zero looked up at the General who was holding one of his reports. “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s been a busy week.”

“Zero I understand that the reports may not seem necessary but they were part of the agreement we struck. We need accurate reports on the number of wolves and vampires you are encountering.”

Patient Ø pointed at the pile of reports; 1 for each day of the week. “Read them again general, the reports themselves may not be finished but there is an exact number at the bottom of each report, and that will explain why I’ve been busy,” Zero paused for a second, “Something’s not right General, I don’t know if your teams have noticed but there’s been a lot more vampires than normal this week, A LOT more. This week I’ve killed more vampires than I usually would in three weeks.”

The general frowned. “Actually we’ve encountered quite the opposite. There’s been almost no vampire encounters this week, there were also less Werewolf encounters despite the full moon four days ago,” he shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs. “I need you to finish the reports during your stay here tonight and hand them back before you leave tomorrow. The board weren’t happy with the deal I struck with you In the first place, they tended to agree with the Doctor more, and they insist on receiving your reports.”

Patient Ø actually growled. “I really hate that man, I’d love to kill him.” Zero’s words were met with a sigh from the general.

“The man we took in less than a year ago would never have said that.”
Patient Ø winced slightly at the generals’ words. The truth of them stung like a barb to the heart. It wasn’t just his DNA that had changed since he was infected; living in a world full of death had changed his attitude as well.

The general sighed again. “Have you been to see Captain Green yet?” Zero simply shook his head in answer. “Don’t put it off, she’s had a… hard week.”
Zero suddenly looked up. “Is she alright?”

“You know that she opted to stay locked in her own quarters during the three days of transformation each month since being infected with the wolfwere virus. Well we’re not going to be able to do that anymore. Two days ago she broke out of her quarters while in her transformed state, we managed to sedate her but not before she had seriously wounded two of our men.”

Patient Ø still blamed himself for Captain Green being infected. The alpha wolfwere had done it because of Zero and Zero wasn’t fast enough to stop him. “I’ll go see her now,” Patient Ø said sedately as he stood up and picked up the half finished reports from the desk, “And I’ll have these finished for you.”
The General saluted. “You’re dismissed private.”


Captain Susan Green was sat at the desk in her quarters. There were two letters in front of her; one was addressed to Private James Morrison and the other to Sergeant David Buckland, the two men she had attacked two days ago while in her wolfwere state. She had wanted to apologise to them both personally but they had both been moved to a private military hospital and she had been informed that they were both receiving transfers to a different military installation as soon as they were fit. So instead she had decided to write them apologies. General Bramby had assured her that they didn’t blame her, but if it wasn’t her fault then who’s was it?

Susan sighed and looked over at the door. “If you don’t knock I can’t tell you to come in.” She had been aware of Patient Ø’s presence outside her door since he stopped there almost a minute ago, she had been able to smell him and she was also pretty sure she could sense him, although Susan had to admit to herself she wasn’t even sure what that meant. Even so Zero had been there for over a minute and had yet to announce his presence.


After another minute of waiting Susan eventually stood up and walked over to the door, she opened it to met by empty corridor. She could still smell Zero; he had definitely been there but had left already. Susan closed the door, sat back down at her desk and picked up her pen, the apologies weren’t going to write themselves.


Patient Ø – File 2

Compendium B

General Bramby checked the small desk clock beside him, 0200 hours. He pressed the button on the intercom and instructed his assistant Cheryl to show Dr.Tinney in. The general had been behind a desk far too long for his liking and constantly having to deal with the Doctor was not helping his current feeling of discomfort.

Dr.Tinney was clearly a step in front of the Generals assistant. As he opened the door and walked through himself, he waved her away with one hand firmly closing the door behind him with the other. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the generals’ desk without waiting to be asked and very abruptly confronted the General.
“What is it Frances? I’m very busy at the moment. My hapless subordinates don’t seem to be able to perform the simplest of tasks without my supervision and if that wasn’t enough I’ve got my own research to carry out as well.”

The General suspected Tinney used his first name on purpose but he decided to remind him about their titles. “Well Doctor, I requested your presence over two hours ago.”

“I just told you didn’t I? I’m very busy at the moment. Now what is this all about General?”

General Bramby recognised this as dangerous territory. The board of directors that oversaw the chimera installation viewed the General as replaceable, after all he was only a soldier, Doctor Tinney on the other hand was a genius and therefore irreplaceable. It was this exact situation that often forced the General to back down to Tinney.

“I’m concerned about Patient Ø doctor. He’s becoming more wolf like, the changes show in the way he talks and the way he moves. We ran tests on his body to document the physical changes but I think we overlooked how it would affect him psychologically. He was never a soldier and we…”

“This is why I wanted to keep him under closer observation.” Doctor Tinney interrupted. “The deal you struck with him gives him too much freedom.”

“I deemed it better that we keep at least some track of him. If we had tried to confine him too tightly he would have found a way to disappear.” This was an old argument between the two.

Tinney waved his hand in a dismissing motion. “Yes. Yes, I suppose you may be right. I must agree that I have noticed a difference in him, he seems much more predisposed to violence nowadays. I wonder what would happen if…”

Suddenly a deafening alarm interrupted Dr.Tinney. After a moments confusion the General opened a draw in his desk and withdrew his pistol then walking over to the locker he pulled out two bullet proof vests and a rifle.

The doctor had to shout to be heard over the alarm. “General, what does this alarm mean?”

The general threw one of the jackets to the doctor before responding. “It means the Chimera installation has been infiltrated.” The doctor simply looked confused. “We have hostiles inside the installation Tinney!”


Tinney was being dragged along behind the General as he moved his way through the Chimera installation. The alarm was still sounding through out the entire installation and everywhere seemed to be in chaos. Despite being surrounded by soldiers escorting the installation heads Tinney felt decidedly exposed. It hadn’t helped that the general had refused to arm the doctor saying ‘you’d hardly know which end of a gun to hold’.

The General was barking orders to soldiers sending them off in all different directions but Tinney had managed to glean a few pieces of information. They were being attacked by an unknown number of hostiles who were presumed to be vampires. They were dressed as Chimera installation personnel but it was yet unclear how they had infiltrated the facility.

Tinney had been working in the Chimera installation for two years and they constantly had dangerous specimens being brought in but this was the first time he had ever been scared inside his own facility. Another two turns brought him and the Generals party to the command centre, the heart of the Chimera where teams and operations were managed, orders were issued and the most important bastion inside the facility.

At first glance more than half the security cameras were showing nothing but static, probably disabled or destroyed by the intruders. An electronic map of the entire facility showed the location of all active personnel as pulsating red blips on the screen, it also showed all inactive personnel as dull grey spots. Tinney studied the screen quickly and realised that by the amount of grey spots a fair portion of the Chimera personnel had already been killed by the intruders, they would have to re-staff soon.

A soldier from the communications desk signalled for General Bramby and Tinney followed him. “General we’re receiving a report from Captain Ferguson that the hostiles have cordoned off a corridor in section A12.”

Captain Ferguson’s voice sounded loud and clear through the radio. “General they’ve stationed themselves in the room just down the corridor from us. There’s 5 of them in there sir. Well trained. My men cant get close without being gunned down.”

“What’s in that room Captain?” The general asked.

“It’s the server for the installations research and development data.” Tinney said as he studied the map. He turned to one of soldiers manning a computer system. “If you access the server from here you should be able to see what it is they’re looking for by tracking their movements within the server.”

“What they’re looking for?”

“Well of course.” Tinney stated as if talking to a simpleton. “I doubt it’s an accident they’ve locked themselves in a room with all my research data.”

The soldier looked up at the general obviously asking for orders. The General nodded. “Do it.”

After a few moments the soldier spoke up. “Its no good sir, they’ve built a firewall around the server, they’re blocking us from accessing it.”

“Tinney.” The general dropped all formalities. “Just how much is in that server?”

“All of it. All of our research on Patient Ø, the Alpha, the viruses. We have backups of it all but right now they’re able to access everything we know.”

“General.” It was captain Ferguson over the radio again. “We could do with Zero down here sir.”


Patient Ø had been sound asleep when the alarm had started. After taking a moment to get dressed and gather his wits he left the sleeping quarters assigned to him. He’d never heard the alarm before but the fact that it hadn’t stopped yet suggested it was not a drill. That’s when he’d smelled it; the scent that undoubtedly belonged to a vampire. A smell of blood and bat, and it was close. He had tracked the smell, which led him in the direction of a small arms lockup. It was there he encountered the two vampires; they had killed 3 Chimera soldiers and were attempting to force access to the armoury door. He had dispatched both vampires with ease and now stood inspecting the bodies.

Both vampires had been wearing Chimera soldier uniforms and both had the Eagle badge symbolising they belonged to Delta squad. Patient Ø checked the necks for recent bite marks, none. That meant that they must have infiltrated the installation by killing Delta squad, stealing they’re uniforms and ID cards and then fooling the blood sampling test by drinking the soldiers blood before coming back to the installation. All this came to Zero instantly as he assessed the situation.

Zero let the body of the vampire dropped back to the floor and sniffed the air. He couldn’t smell any more vampires near but he doubted that it would just be the two of them. Perhaps now at least the general would believe him that the vampires were up to something. He’d need a radio so he could meet up with the general.

He bent down to search the bodies of the 3 Chimera personnel. It was then Zero realised he knew one of the men. He couldn’t remember the mans name but he remembered the face, the man had accompanied Zero on one of his first missions after joining Chimera, it seemed like a lifetime ago now, before Zero had known what about his own virus, before he had become Patient Ø. Zero stood a moment looking down at the man and then swiftly plucked the radio from his belt, no point in mourning someone you never really knew.

Part of the information he was given during his visit to the Chimera installation every week was that week’s security codes and emergency radio frequencies. Zero had doubted he’d ever need to know such information but every week he memorised it just in case. He flicked the radio over to the emergency frequency and immediately he heard chatter. Orders were flying around over the radio and it appeared the entire facility was in chaos.

Zero decided to wade straight in. “This is Patient Ø. General Bramby do you copy?”
The chatter continued for another few seconds and then abruptly stopped. Zero knew this meant that the General had switched the radio onto one of the sub frequencies so they could talk.

“Zero, this is Bramby. You need to get down to the detention block now. Over.” There was some static but the General’s voice came through clear enough.

“The detention block?”

“Captain Green underwent the wolfwere transformation again Zero, our cameras have her headed in that direction. Over.”

Zero didn’t even wait for the General to finish before he dropped the radio. He snatched a pistol from one of the dead soldiers and set off at a speed that defied human limitations. In his mind the facts railed against what Zero knew ‘there was no full moon tonight, Susan Green should not have been able to transform into her wolfwere state, and there was only one thing down in the detention block that would draw her there. The Alpha.’


The General made another pace around the control room and once again looked up at the board showing the location of his soldiers. The chemical injected into each persons blood was not just a key to unlock the entrances to the facility, it also served as a tracking system, almost like sonar within the facility it allowed them to track every single member of staff that worked there, it also entered an inert form when the person died. Too many of his soldiers were showing up as inert.

Tinney had already realised that the only way for the vampires to gain access was to have the blood and chemical of one of the Delta squad members running through their veins, this had led to the discovery that the hostiles could be tracked on the board. So far 4 hostiles had been killed and 5 more were still holed up in the research database storage room. The vampires had not ventured anywhere near the living quarters that were assigned to all Chimera staff, so the majority of the researchers and other civilians were safely locked away in their rooms. More and more the General was realising that this couldn’t have been mere opportunistic behaviour of the vampires, this infiltration must have been planned, and for a reason. It also meant that the vampires must have had detailed information about the security of the facility.

Tinney was typing furiously on one of the workstations that he had impatiently ordered a soldier to vacate. Although the vampires had managed to gain access to the Chimera research data and built a firewall to keep others from disturbing them, Tinney had managed to create a ‘back door’ to allow them to see exactly what the vampires were looking for.

“They’re pulling up all the information we have on Patient Ø and the way his body modified the QVB ‘wolf’ virus.” Tinney leaned closer to the screen and frowned. “They’re transferring all of our data onto an external hard drive, I guess that means they’re planning on leaving soon. They’re also leaving viruses all over the system all of which seem intent on corrupting the data.”

The General was horrified. “You mean we’re going to lose all our research?”

“No, of course not.” Tinney said impatiently “I’ve already told you, we keep backups of all our data on isolated systems and on top of that the board of directors insists on receiving a copy of every bit of information we discover. What it means is that unless we stop them soon we’re going to lose weeks to getting all our systems up and running at full speed again. This will be an even bigger delay than having to re-staff.”

The General was already staring up at the map showing the location of Chimera personnel. “Tinney, can you get the security cameras in the detention block running again?”

“I have more important things to be doing right now.”

“No.” The General said gravely. “You don’t. Captain Green has just reached the Alpha.”


Patient Ø sped through the corridors, something that was made much easier not only by the lack of people to block his access but also because all the security doors in the facility seemed to be unlocked, unfortunately he realised that might also include the cell doors in the detention block. Only when he rounded a corner and found the entrance to the block wide open were his fears slightly abated. It appeared the cell doors must operate on a different system to the rest of the security doors; this still did not ease his worries about why the security doors were open in the first place. He slowed down but still moved quickly through the detention block towards the high security cells, the inhabitants of the block snarled and banged the observation glass as he moved through the cells. Zero noted in passing that the door to the high security cells was open also. He crossed through the door with his gun drawn and panting from the exertion just as the hiss of a sealed room sounded as a door to a high security cell opened.

Captain Susan Green stood in her wolfwere form hunched slightly from the low ceiling of the room. Even with her ungainly, clawed hands she had managed to enter the pass code to open the door to the Alpha wolfwere’s cell. A snarl twisted her enlarged wolf features at the same time Patient Ø raised his gun and levelled its barrel at her head.

The Alpha sat in his cell, his gaze lazily sliding from the wolfwere to Patient Ø and back again. He struggled against his straight jacket slightly but gave it up and his head lolled down to one side. He was obviously doped up on a high dose of sedative. He started to work his mouth in order to say something but was quickly cut off by Patient Ø.

“Let her go.” Zero said loudly, addressing the Alpha but not taking his eyes of Susan. “I will not allow her to release you, even if I have to kill her.” There was no lie to his words.

The Alpha let out a huge sigh he had been suppressing and the large wolfwere that was Susan Green fell backwards and began to spasm. Without the Alpha sustaining her transformation somehow, she started to revert to her human form. Then the Alpha managed to speak.

“Too… Late.” His words were slurred as his mouth tried to form the correct sounds. “He… here.”

Patient Ø looked a little confused, his eyes travelled from the now prone and naked body of Susan Green to the Alpha wolfwere. “Yes, I am here.”

The Alpha managed what sounded like it was meant to be a laugh and his head shook from side to side on his shoulders. “No… I… kill… him.” The Alpha lifted his head slightly and Zero could see a light in his eyes like a small flame.

Patient Ø crossed the room slowly and pressed the close button on the Alphas’ cell. The door slid shut silently and then a hiss and a click a moment later signalled it was once again locked. The Alpha’s head and once again lolled down to one side and Zero had to wonder if he was even conscious, they obviously kept him well sedated.

Zero turned and walked over to Susan Green, he couldn’t suppress his grin, he’d never seen the Captain naked before. Suddenly he visibly shook himself and then shrugged his jacket from his shoulders to cover as much of her body as possible. He then stooped and picked her up.

“I think you should go on a diet, you weigh as much as a truck.” He jested to the unconscious Captain knowing full well that all wolfweres weighed as much as their wolf forms even when in their human forms.

He carried her from the detention block and headed towards the soldiers quarters. “I suppose I should get you back to your room, you’ll probably sleep for a day and then eat as much as three full grown men.” The captain groaned slightly at Zero’s words but did not stir.


Patient Ø had only just placed Susan Green on her bed when the messenger arrived. A soldier Zero didn’t recognize arrived at Susan’s door panting from running. Between large gulps of air he managed to convey the Generals orders that Patient Ø make his way to the command centre immediately. Zero followed the soldier and was soon stood waiting for the General to finish barking orders at some poor soldiers over the radio.

Tinney strolled up to Patient Ø as he waited. “Good to see they didn’t get you.” The Doctor said to Zero jovially. “Not that a few vampires would ever be able to best you I’m sure.”

“I see they didn’t get you either Doctor.” Patient Ø made a show of letting out a sigh and then moved his gaze back to the General.

“Yes well they managed to get away with all the files on you.” Tinney said ignoring the insult.

“They got away?”

“Yes.” General Bramby entered the conversation. “The vampires got into our research database and took every file we had on you. They also managed to infect the facility operating system with viruses that are systematically shutting down all the security systems. That’s how they escaped. We’re currently working to restore all operations.”

Patient Ø had been nodding but seemed distracted. “I request to be part of the team that pursues the vampires General.”

The General paused for a moment. “There isn’t going to be a team. At least not just yet Zero. We lost a lot of people in this attack. We need to get the facility running again before we attempt to strike back.”

“How long ago did they escape General?”

“They left via the west entrance no more than 5 minutes ago Zero but we cant spare people to go after them.”

Patient Ø nodded. “Thank you General. I can track them down from there.”

Doctor Tinney stopped Patient Ø as he turned to leave. “Zero, they’ll have the stolen files with them. Make sure you return them here.”

Patient Ø shrugged his arm from the Doctor’s grasp. “Don’t worry Tinney, you’ll get your damned files.” And with that he left at a trot for the west entrance.

“What happens if he looks at the files after retrieving them?” This from the General stood just behind Tinney.

“He won’t be able to break the encryption on the files.” Tinney turned to look at the General. “Thank god.”


With the security systems of the facility completely shut down both the vampires and Patient Ø had been able to leave the facility grounds completely un-remarked. The vampires had entered a vehicle and left the basement of the ‘Angel Office Supplies’ building. It didn’t matter. Patient Ø could track the scent of blood and death that trailed behind them and with traffic in the city as congested as it was he’d probably move faster on foot, although he’d have to take to the rooftops soon to avoid attention. Even as dark as it was people would notice someone running along the roadside at his speed.

Tracking them down didn’t take long. They had driven the stolen van to one of the less densely populated areas of the city and abandoned it, heading into a park that provided heavy tree cover. Zero had expected this; they would ditch the stolen vehicle, and pick up another pre-placed vehicle to avoid being followed. That would not doubt stop any human but that would not fool a wolf. The thought brought a grin to Zero’s face as he trailed them.

Then he found them. Patient Ø crested the rise of a small mound and saw the vampires. They were idling around a bench in the park; they seemed to be just waiting there. Five vampires; 2 were leaping around in a boyish fashion probably recalling the earlier events from the facility, 1 was talking on a cell phone, another was typing furiously on a laptop and the final vampire stood slightly apart from the rest. He gave off the quiet air of leadership and was staring directly at Patient Ø.

The vampire with the cell phone quickly finished the call and addressed Patient Ø. “Well it’s about time you got here. In truth I thought we’d lost you back there.”

Patient Ø studied the vampires quickly. They have given up the pretence of being part of beta squad and had ditched the uniforms somewhere along the road. They stood as a haphazard group obviously without real discipline. He couldn’t smell any others but he suspected a trap. Abruptly Zero decided. He could take them.

“Ya know, some of the soldiers you killed back there were my friends.” Patient Ø announced as he started forwards towards the vampires.

“Were they?” Said the vampire with the laptop. He typed a few keystrokes and let a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.

“The files you stole are on that.” Zero said more as a statement than a question. “Good to know.”

Abruptly the vampire that Patient Ø had determined as the leader moved to stand between Zero and the others. He said nothing and his hands hadn’t left the pockets of his leather jacket but his stance said he was prepared to fight. Zero took two more steps to be in range of the vampire and readied himself.

With impossible speed the vampire rushed Patient Ø and delivered a punch to the gut that forced Zero to the floor and made him struggle for breath, Zero hadn’t even seen the vampire take his hands out of his pockets. At length he surged back to his feet just in time to sway away from a swing at his face, the punch still connected but glanced Zero instead of striking him. Patient Ø recovered quickly and charged the vampire striking him in the mid section and bodily lifting him off the floor, forcing him backwards. As soon as the vampires’ feet touched the floor he quickly and simply twisted his body sending Zero sprawling to the floor.

Patient Ø regained his feet as the vampire was rushing for another attack. He swung a punch at the vampire with such power and speed it would have killed a human outright. The vampire ducked and spun, easily avoiding the punch and ending up behind Zero. Patient Ø felt an arm reach around his neck and moment later a foot pressed against his calf sent him down to one knee, another arm pushed his head forwards. He couldn’t breath.

“We vampires are ageless.” Zero recognised the voice as the vampire who had been talking on the cell phone but couldn’t move to see him as he struggled against the grip around his head. “The older we get the more we become accustomed to our bodies and the viruses continues to improve our bodies. Basically, the older we get, the stronger we get…”

The vampire was still talking but Patient Ø could no longer hear him through the pounding in his ears. He couldn’t breathe. He could feel his life slipping away. His vision began to darken from the edges inwards. And then, he was gone.

Compendium C now available as a seperate document, just check the portfolio.

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