Patient Ø - File 2 (Compendium C)

Patient Ø - File 2

Compendium C

Patient Ø awoke to find himself in a very uncomfortable position. He couldn’t quite force his eyelids open but he felt as if he were upright and his arms were raised higher than his head and stretched outwards. Something cold bit into wrists and he felt as if he was leant forward slightly, his weight straining against something holding him to surface at his back.

He hung there for a while, barely conscious with his head drooped downward on his chest as he tried to remember why he was here, and where here was. Vampires had attacked the Chimera installation. He’d followed the vampires and found them. Everything after that was a blur. Zero had a faint recollection of being hit hard, the pain in his stomach and jaw suggested that was fact.

At length Zero managed to pry his eyelids open; they seemed so heavy that it was a real effort to keep them up. He was in white room with lots of instruments and tools he recognised, it was a medical laboratory, and almost as well stocked as Doctor Tinney’s labs. At the other end of the room a guard leant casually against a very large, very sturdy looking metal door. This room was as much a cell as it was a medical lab then. The guard looked up from picking at his nails and noticed Patient Ø looking around.

“He’s awake.” The guard called into the adjoining room as he stood up straighter and moved out of the doorframe.

Zero slowly tilted his head to look at his arms. His wrists were shackled firmly to the wall and he was hanging forward from them, it certainly explained the aching pain that pounded through his shoulders. His feet touched limply on the floor but Zero couldn’t seem to work up the strength or effort to make himself stand.

After sometime Patient Ø looked up again to see a man staring at him intently. The man didn’t so much look old as antique. He held his obvious years with a strength that seemed to war with his body. His skin was deathly pale and he wore a well tailored suit with an unreasonably grand red and black cloak around his shoulders. The look in his eyes was bright as he stared at Patient Ø. But most of all Zero noted the stench that emanated from the man. He reeked of death.

Patient Ø strained against his chains for a moment and then let out a snarl, baring as many teeth as he could. A grin broke forth from the mans face and he took a step forward towards Zero.

“I wanted to meet you, to speak to you before…” The man paused a moment before continuing. “Well before you die. I hear you put up a bit of a fight. Jonah was quite surprised you actually managed to land a blow on him.” Zero then noticed that standing just behind the old man was the one who had beaten him, the man wearing a leather coat once again had his hands in his pockets but said nothing and betrayed no emotion or thought on his face.

The old man took another step forward; he was almost within striking distance, Patient Ø once again strained against his restraints. “I don’t really know where to start.” The old man was speaking again. “So I guess the beginning would be best. You didn’t stand a chance against Jonah. You’re simply a good two hundred years to young. Vampires get stronger as they age; the body continues to change as the virus… evolves within us. And there is only one vampire older than Jonah. Me.”

“I was the first. The first vampire. The original Patient Ø you might say.” The old man paused a second. “What should I call you?”

Patient Ø licked his lips, his head was starting to clear and he was starting to suspect he’d been drugged but his mind still worked, albeit quite slowly. “Your heinous will do just fine.”

The old man chuckled to himself. “Well I suppose Patient Ø will do. Yes well as I said, I am the first vampire. And I am quite different to any other vampire you’ve ever met. However, despite how my virus has changed me over my many years I still have a problem. Sunlight. A vampires skin is very sensitive to ultraviolet light, small amounts can burn us and in sufficient quantities such as the sun projects onto the earth during the day it will kill us. It is… a flaw in our design. Werewolves have a flaw in their design as well although it’s very different to our flaw. For three days of each month the light reflected from the full moon forces them to undergo a transformation into a mindless creature driven only by its instincts and base desires. But.” Suddenly the old vampires hand whipped out and grabbed Patient Ø by the neck forcing his head up the vampire tried to meet Zero’s eyes. Zero looked away, a very wolf like trait he knew. “You don’t have that flaw do you Patient Ø. You have all the strength and speed of a werewolf but you don’t have to undergo the transformation, you don’t have to expend huge amounts of energy to fuel the transformation process.”

“Not a werewolf.” Patient Ø managed to say.

“What?” The old vampire pulled his hand away from Zero’s throat to allow him to speak.

Patient Ø coughed and wheezed in a few breaths before speaking again. “I’m not a werewolf. I’m a wolfwere.” Zero almost spat the words at the old vampire.

“No. You’re something else. But I’ll get to your friend the ‘Alpha wolfwere’ soon enough.” The old vampire started a circuit around the room picking up to observe scalpels and other medical instruments as he talked. “I wish a vampire had found you first.”

Patient Ø let out a hollow laugh. “Now you sound like Tinney.”

“Doctor Tinney, head researcher of the Chimera installation? Well I suppose in a way that’s true. We have the same goal he and I. To find a way to replicate your virus. I believe that if your base virus, is infected by the vampire virus it will modify it to cut out the flaw that all other vampires are subject to. The difference between myself and this Doctor Tinney is our method. I intent to rip the answers from your body, I will take every drop of blood and every scrap of flesh and then the very bones themselves to find out exactly what you are and how you work.”

Patient Ø was shaking his head from side to side almost violently. “They want to make a cure, not create more of me.”

The old vampire bellowed out a laugh. “You can’t believe that can you. There is no cure.” The old man bit each word off. “You must have at least a basic understanding of the workings of the virus. After infection it re-writes the DNA of the infected person, the body then undergoes an overhaul in accordance with the plan of the new DNA. The only possible way to cure the virus would be to create a separate retrovirus to re-encode your DNA exactly the way it was before infection. Every human being would need their entire DNA code mapped just in case they were ever infected and then a retrovirus written for each specific person. There can never be a cure.”

Patient Ø had sagged against his restraints as the truth hit him like a brick wall. Of course, it made sense now. Tinney would have realised from the start there couldn’t be a cure but he knew that Zero wouldn’t have helped if he had known his real intentions so the doctor had simply told Zero what he had wanted to hear. But surely if Tinney had known then the General must have known too.

“Are they ready yet?” The first vampire was still staring at Zero but spoke over his shoulder.

“Not yet. The Chimera researchers compiled a lot of data and our boys want to make sure they know it all before they start on him.” The vampire that had been guarding the door motioned to Patient Ø.

“Fine, fine. I want them to start as soon as their ready.” The first vampire grabbed Zero by the throat again and forced his head up. “Goodbye. And thank you, for being the tool we use to bring vampires into the light.”

As the first vampire began to walk towards the exit Patient Ø lifted his head and spoke, a strange light flickered behind his eyes. “You vampires always thought you were the ‘superior’ lot didn’t you. Your virus evolves within your own body? Well I AM the evolved wolf virus. And as first one to first one I give you this warning vampire. I come for you.” As the last word came out from Patient Ø’s mouth his head dropped again and consciousness once again fled him.


Tinney had been working solidly for almost 4 hours now, he thought about handing some of the work to a subordinate but he didn’t trust them to not make the situation worse somehow. Every time he isolated and removed a virus it activated another one that took up the processes and fled to another part of the computer system. The vampires had obviously meant to completely cripple the facilities of the Chimera installation, and they had done it, with greater efficiency than Tinney had thought possible. The only security systems the viruses didn’t touch were the individual cell doors in the detention blocks. Tinney could only assume this was because the vampires didn’t want wolves running around when they had been stealing all the Chimera’s research data.

Tinney could see General Bramby out of the corner of his eye the entire time. He paced around the room, occasionally shouted orders and more occasionally kicked one the computer consoles as if an act of brute force would get the systems running again. It didn’t help that a while ago the viruses had knocked out the com systems so all the soldiers were know having to use the old walkie-talkies that were kept in case of extreme emergency. This seemed to infuriate the General even more as it was not the most secure way to communicate.

If things weren’t bad enough Patient Ø had still not come back from his vampire hunt. This could only mean one thing as far as Tinney could see; Patient Ø had somehow managed to crack the encryption and read the research files on replicating his virus, this made him unpredictable at best and a further danger to the facility at worst.

Without warning an ear splitting howl tore through the air, Tinney clamped his hands over his ears and looked wildly around to see others doing the same. The howl was guttural but obviously formed from human lungs despite the force of it. After the sound had died down it took a few seconds for order to resume and the General was immediately on the radio.

“Sound off. I need to know which entrance that came from. Over.”

The radio was silent for a moment before the soldiers at each entrance responded.

“South entrance clear sir, no hostile contact. Over.”

“East entrance clear sir, no hostile contact. Over.”

“West entrance clear sir, no hostile contact. Over.”

The General stood shocked. “That means we must have hostiles inside the facility.” He pointed at the electronic facility map. “Is that thing still working?”

Tinney sighed. “Just barely but I don’t see…”

“Bring up Captain Greens current location.”

Tinney switched computer terminals and typed a few keystrokes, a second later one the lights on the map started blinking.

“She’s headed this way.” Tinney said.

General Bramby picked up the radio and spoke. “This is General Bramby to all personnel. The Alpha has escaped and has a wolfwere escort. Do NOT engage. I repeat, do NOT engage. Over.”

“General what are you doing?” Tinney was incensed. “They’re headed this way.”

“Doctor calm down or I will have you secured.”

It didn’t take long for the Alpha and his escort to arrive at the command centre. The footsteps of Captain Green in her wolfwere form could be heard as could the scraping of the claws on the metal flaw. She had to duck to squeeze through the doorway and the Alpha followed quickly on her heels, he moved sluggishly still obviously under the effects of his prolonged sedation.

The General addressed the soldiers in the room. “Hold your fire, keep your weapons ready.” He then addressed the Alpha. “Speak.”

The Alpha was leaning slightly on Captain Green. Her lips were pulled back in a snarl and her teeth were showing as she looked around the soldiers in the room. Most of the soldiers in the command centre were security personnel and had never seen a wolfwere in the flesh.

“Right now every wolf in the city is headed here.” The Alpha spoke through gritted teeth.

“That’s not possible the full moon…”

General Bramby turned on Tinney. “Doctor. Stand down.”

“Not possible?” The Alpha focused on Tinney. “Then neither is this.” He motioned to the wolfwere stood behind him. “Believe me Doctor, you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

The Alpha turned his attention back to General Bramby. “They are coming General and I’m betting you don’t have the manpower to drive them off right now. You definitely don’t have enough to secure me as well. Even in this condition…”
“What is it you want?” The General cut in.

“I want out. You tell your men to let me go and I leave, then you just have the werewolves to deal with.”

“And the Captain?” General Bramby pointed to the wolfwere.

“She comes with me.”

The General shook his head. “She’s one of my soldiers.”

“Not any more.”

Tinney stood up, his face was bright red. “General he can’t be trusted, he’s clearly bluffing.”

“He isn’t bluffing Doctor.” The General called over one of the security personnel. “Escort the Doctor to his laboratory, have him collect any important samples then take him out the back door.”

The General spoke into the radio again. “The Alpha wolfwere and one wolfwere escort are leaving the installation by the west entrance. Let them go. Over.” He then addressed the Alpha again. “Where are you going?”

The Alpha turned to leave the command centre and spoke over his shoulder. “One of my pack is in trouble.”

The General waited for the Alpha to leave then walked over to a computer console and picked up the headset. “Computer this is General Bramby, command password; snowy seven seven seven. Release all security locks on Chimera back door and disable all safety checks.” A green light blinked on signalling the back door had been unlocked. “Issue general evacuation alarm.” A second later an alarm started echoing through the facility.

The General picked up the PA comm. system and set it to broadcast to all areas. “This is General Bramby. All civilians are hereby ordered to evacuate the facility via the back door. This is not a drill. Evacuate the facility immediately.”

Finally the General switched the radio back on once again. “To all soldiers still active. We have incoming werewolves, numbers unknown. Cover all entrances; do not allow any hostiles through. The civilians need time to evacuate, its up to us to give them that time. It has been an honour serving with every one of you.” And with that the General left the command centre for the south entrance.


The Alpha fed. They had 3 corpses, 2 he had claimed for himself and the other he left to his wolfwere companion. Too long had he been starved of meat, too long had he been fed only through IV’s and scraps the humans had given him. Now he fed in a frenzy, he could feel his atrophied muscles re-building themselves and knew the energy he needed for a transformation was being quickly replenished.

“Still a shadow of my former self.” The Alpha said between mouthfuls. The hunched form of Susan Green paused in her feeding to look up at the Alpha with her head cocked to one side. The Alpha motioned towards the corpse she fed on and it was all the permission she needed to continue feeding, the Alpha did the same. He was right though; the six months in captivity had not been kind to the Alpha. Constantly kept doped up on drugs and fed next to nothing his once powerful muscles had wasted away. His hair had grown long and matted and where once he had enjoyed wearing suits and fine clothing he now wore rags, worn, torn and now covered in blood. The once proud Alpha wolfwere had become little more than a shaggy, stray dog. His pack had been all but made extinct, consisting of only three individuals now, and one of them was in dire danger.

After gorging themselves on the fresh meat of the corpses the Alpha and his wolfwere companion took a short while to rest up. The Alpha knew precisely where Patient Ø was, what he had said to Tinney hadn’t been a lie; none of them had any idea what the Alpha was capable of. He had a connection to every single member of his pack and could sense just where they were.

“It’s a warm night but dark.” The Alpha addressed the wolfwere beside him while staring up at the sky. “We shouldn’t have any problem moving you, and besides, those Chimera’s of yours should be far too busy by now to stop us.” Susan Green let out a low growl in reply.


The building where Patient Ø was being held was a recent addition to the city. The Alpha didn’t recognize it, which meant he had been erected since his capture, this city had been his territory and he had known almost every inch of it. This new building had around 30 floors, and had large glass windows on every floor, it was not what the Alpha had expected but he guessed the windows must be tinted to protect against the sunlight. The worst feature of the building was that it reeked of bat; the smell was almost tangible to the sensitive noses of the Alpha and Susan.

Patient Ø was a fair way up the building, maybe the 16th floor. The Alpha could sense his location and through him so could Susan. The wolfwere beside him let out a whine of anticipation.

“Go.” The Alpha said to Susan while motioning up at the building in front of them. “Use the outside to get to him. Free Zero from this damnable cage. I’ll deal with the keeper.”

Susan Greens’ wolfwere form gave a quick submissive bow to the Alpha before racing towards the building. With one powerful leap she scaled 3 floors and then began to noisily make her way up the balcony and ladder system that served as a fire escape.

The noise of Susan’s ascent had already stirred a fair amount of activity by the time the Alpha reached the main door of the building. As he opened the door and stepped through an alarm began to sound and before long people were pouring into the main lobby in which the Alpha now stood.

As the Alpha wolfwere looked around he noticed that not all of the people now facing him were vampires, some were human, no difference, they would know what their employers were and that made them just as bad. Some of the people facing him were armed, some looked as if they were trying to evacuate.

It was a Vampire who spoke first; he wore glasses and held an air of authority over the others. “He’s resting at the moment.” The vampire addressed the Alpha wolfwere. “We had expected to deal with you later.” When the Alpha didn’t respond the vampire went on. “I suppose if we deal with you here though, he might give me a promotion.”

The Alpha wolfwere grinned showing as many teeth as possible, his blood was boiling with the anticipation of finally getting his hands on some vampire corpses. “Good.” He growled through gritted teeth. “You can entertain me while I wait for your master to wake up.” And with that the Alpha lunged towards the closest body.


Susan Green had entered the 15th floor through one of the large glass windows close to the fire escape. The glass of the window now lay in broken shards and the two vampires she had found in the room lay as lifeless corpses, they were no match for a fully transformed wolfwere. Now she followed her nose, despite the stench of bat it led her unerringly towards her pack, towards Patient Ø.

The corridors were slightly too small for Susans’ enlarged form and she had to break a couple of doors to reach her destination, the door frames both ended up a little larger and more rough around the edges but her mind was fixed on helping the pack, nothing else mattered.

Finally she found what she was looking for. A room filled with human furniture and tools and at the far end a big metal door, her pack mate was behind that door. Susan walked over to the door, displacing furniture as she went. The door was large, metallic and locked. She pitted her strength against the door, the metal groaned under the strain but didn’t budge. The human side of her brain took over for a second and noticed the locking mechanism beside the door, it was a card swipe device, she would need to find a card, it was likely a vampire somewhere near would be carrying one.

Suddenly something hard crashed into Susans side making her stumble away from the door. As the metal chair that had attacked her clattered to the floor Susan growled and looked around for where it had come from. At the far end of the room a vampire stood blocking the exit, he wore a leather jacket and his face was carefully expressionless. The vampire started to slowly move further into the room, keeping his eyes on Susan the entire time. Susan lowered herself; this vampire smelled different, worse. Then she realised, this vampire probably carried a security card, and she could free her pack. With a single bark she charged.

The muffled noises coming from outside his cell were unmistakably those of a fight. Patient Ø slowly lifted his head. The scientists locked in the room with him were looking confused, discussing something and motioning to the door, Zero couldn’t understand what they were saying, they were speaking plain English but the words didn’t seem to make sense to his ears. One of the scientists held a bloodied scalpel in his right hand. Zero looked down at his chest, the scientists had started to cut him, and likely the commotion outside the cell had stopped them before they had done any serious damage. Awareness flooded back into Patient Ø, unless he did something soon these scientists with their tools would kill him. At that moment a wolf like howl tore through the building from the lower levels, the acoustics of the building made the noise echo on itself and Zero could almost feel the building itself shaking from the noise. Before he could form a thought of his own Zero found himself joining in the noise with a guttural howl of his own. The noise seemed to lend him both strength and clarity and Zero found himself taking hold of his own restraints and pulling with every ounce of power he had.


Bodies and bullets littered the ground around the Alpha and he was painted almost head to toe in vampire blood. They had managed to get a few hits in, the Alpha had at least two bullet wounds but that was not nearly enough to stop him. He held the last remaining vampire against the wall and pushed heavily against its chest. The vampire was struggling wildly and soon began to cough up blood, eventually the struggling stopped as the Alphas’ strength collapsed the vampires chest against the hard stone wall behind it.

He let the lifeless body fall to the floor and took a minute to rest. Apparently he’d killed enough vampires to get the attention of their master. The first vampire walked calmly and silently into the building lobby.

“You seem to have made quite the mess.” The first vampire said as he looked around the lobby. “I take it you’ve never been house trained.”

The Alpha wolfwere turned to face the first vampire and let out a howl that shook the building as his transformation began. He tore his ripped and tattered clothing from his body as limbs began to extend, bones changed their shape, hair grew from every inch of his skin and his body almost tripled in size. It didn’t take long for the Alpha to fully transform into his wolfwere state but not once did the first vampire flinch even as the 13ft Alpha wolfwere stood fully transformed and a low rumbling growl made the floor of the lobby vibrate.

The fist vampire made a show of stretching and the cloak he wore began to ripple and then almost seemed to transform into wings that spanned out a good 8ft either side of him. “Impressive are they not.” He motioned to his wings, the Alpha simply growled again in return. “The Alpha werewolf was much like you. I killed him. Tore his heart from his body and crushed it in my hands.” The first vampire said as he took a ready stance, preparing to fight. “I’ll do the same to you, and to Patient Ø upstairs. THREE GENERATIONS OF WOLF WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!” And with that the two charged each other.


The vampire ducked another of Susans’ swiped and send her staggering backwards with a single powerful jab to her torso, and quick kick to her head later and the vampire was once again dancing just out of her attack range. This had been going on too long already, Susan was fading fast from the punishment she was taking, and it appeared as if the vampire was toying with her. A sudden banging started on the metal door that caged Susans’ pack mate as if something was trying to get out. As the vampire glanced over towards the metal door Susan gathered the last of her strength and pounced at him. The vampires’ attention snapped back to Susan and with impossible speed he closed the gap between the two. With a sweep of his legs he sent Susans’ huge body slamming down onto the floor, before she could get her bearings the vampire picked her up and threw her against the near wall and followed up with a powerful combination of punches to her body and head.

As the vampire stepped away Susans’ form began to twitch and slump to the floor, she no longer had the energy to sustain her transformation and was reverting to her human form as unconsciousness claimed her. At the same time the banging on the metal door turned to a groaning, creaking noise as if a tremendous amount of pressure was being applied to the hinges that held the door in place.

Suddenly heavy screws flew across the room as the door was ripped from its hinges and fell with a deafening crash to the floor. Patient Ø stood silhouetted in the doorframe, the chains on his wrists dripped with blood and wildness shone in his eyes.


Patient Ø surveyed the scene quickly. The vampire that had beaten him previously, Jonah, stood in a crouched combat stance, his glance flickering between Zero and something lying on the floor. A quick sniff told Zero that it was Susan Green lying on the floor, he could hear her heart beating faintly, she was still alive. From the looks of things she had taken a heavy beating from the rescue attempt.

Jonah narrowed his eyes and stepped sideways putting a table between himself and Patient Ø. Zero responded by taking a step into the room, perhaps the vampire could sense the difference in Zero.

“You know. It seems like only yesterday you were kicking my ass.” Patient Ø grinned. “Right? Ready for round two Jonah?”

Patient Ø waded right into the fight heavy, he was still as much as a brawler as ever but somehow he felt stronger and faster than the last time he had faced Jonah. The first two punches Zero delivered knocked the vampire to floor but Jonah quickly rolled to his feet and rushed Zero, parrying his wild swing and delivering a quick
Combo of his own finishing with a drop kick that sent Zero half way across the room.

Patient Ø stood up more slowly, blood trickled from a cut on his lip but the wound was already beginning to close up. Zero quickly grabbed hold of a chair and swung it at Jonah, using his own momentum he followed the chair. Jonah knocked the flying chair out of the way but Zero was following it too closely. Zero quickly ducked under Jonahs attempt at a jab and grabbed hold of the vampire; he lifted him up and then quickly slammed him back down on the floor hard. As Jonah lay on the floor dazed Patient Ø took the opportunity to straddle him and send in punch after punch directed at the vampires face.

Zero wasn’t sure how many times he punched Jonah but by the time he had finished his fists were dripping with blood. Jonah was dead, not even a vampire could regenerate that sort of damage. Zero stood up slowly and backed away from the mess that had been his opponent. Suddenly the building shook as if a small earthquake had hit it. The fight on the lower levels was tearing the place apart. He knew he should probably go to help the Alpha but more important was getting Susan to safety. Her heart was beating too faintly and as Zero looked down on her naked body for the second time in two days she looked skinnier. The transformations and the fight had taken too much out of her, she needed time to rest and recover.

Patient Ø knelt down and picked up the unconscious form of Susan Green, he couldn’t cover her body this time; the vampires had stripped him of all his clothing except for a pair of worn and bloodied trousers. The building shook again, there wouldn’t be time to exit the normal way, which only left one option.

Zero picked his spot carefully and with a swift kick the glass window shattered and rained glass down upon the pavement below. There was a smaller building not more than 20 meters away.

“Lets hope I can make it.” Zero said as much to himself as the unconscious Captain. And then with a small run up he jumped. Four seconds of flight time seemed to stretch into minutes before Zero landed on the flat roof of the smaller building, as he landed he rolled, protecting the Captains’ head and came to a skidding stop.

After laying Susan on the ground Zero walked back to check on the building in which the Alpha and the first vampire were fighting. The first 2 floors were a mess; rumble lay everywhere around the building. The structure wouldn’t take much more punishment, Zero knew it, and the Alpha knew it.

Suddenly the building began to buckle, and with gathering speed the entire structure collapsed in on itself burying everyone left inside under hundreds of tons of stone, glass and metal.

Patient Ø wasn’t sure how long he stood there staring at the rumble. He was there when the emergency services arrived, but it was finally the cold that convinced him to leave, if he was cold then Susan must be too. Once again he gathered her into his arms and began looking for a way down.

“Just me and you left know.”



Feel free to rate and review

File 3 (the last file) coming soon