Chapter 8 - Born Again Or Back To The Front?

As we step through the gate, we're back where we left from, I think. I mean, it looks exactly the same and that's where I wanted to go back to. Maybe I'm just getting pessimistic.

"Hello?" I call out.

There's no response. I glance at Rain and then move towards the door, gently pulling it open. There's no one in the corridor either. This can't be a good sign. I motion to Rain and whisper to him "Follow me, but try to keep quiet."

I move quietly down the corridor, heading towards where I think the mess hall is. A scream rips through the in corridors behind me and I whirl around. Rain is looking down the corridor, then glances to me.

"Come on!" and I sprint down the corridor towards the scream. As we run flat out, there's another scream, a different voice this time. I skid around a corner and bolt down the corridor. The doors at the end are missing. I can see the room beyond and some horrific creature is looming over someone.

It's the kind of creature you see in nightmares, the one they say is under your bed. The thing is made up of many limbs and jointed arms; a scaly hide of blackish green covers it. Its neck is slightly longer than normal and it has a head like a praying mantis with wicked mandibles. Each one of the multi jointed arms seems to end in a wicked claw that I see descend upon its victim and a spray of blood coats the creature. It tosses the victim to one side and I growl. The room has a multitude of people around it. Each one of them seems to have been badly wounded. I don't have time to look longer. I need to take this thing out and save whoever was still alive!

I haven't done this yet, but I scream to the beast inside me. We're in danger, we have to fight! I let it fill my body and instinct starts to take over as I rush down the corridor and with all of my strength I leap towards the beast before it can react.

My body grows vastly in size and I'm grateful that I'd already leaped towards the beast because I wasn't completely comfortable with this new shape. I hadn't even had enough time to change once already. I plough into the back of the thing and immediately start shredding and pulling as I ride it to the floor. My longer limbs allowing me to grasp and claw multiple of the limbs off in great strikes and shreds. The thing below me screeches and flails around, its claws whipping back and attempting to claw me off its back. I get my arms under the joints on its back and start yanking hard, pulling more and more of the limbs off and clawing at its back, digging into the scales below that and ripping into the flesh below.

The thing starts to try to roll itself over to throw me from it. I barely manage to keep my balance on its back and keep slicing at any appendage that I see trying to earn it leverage. Another wolf appears with beautiful white and black striped fur and tears into the thing as well. I don't have time to take much more notice as I gouge my claws into where I hope the spine is, praying to hit something vital. I raise both of my hands above my head and clasp them together, bringing them down with a hammering blow to the back of its skull. A crunching sound causes the thing to squeal and twitch below me, its limbs straightening it out with the blow. I raise my hands yet again and repeat the motion, hard as I'm able to and the skull gives. There's a sickening crunch and squish sound and the head vanishes in a gout of foul smelling liquid that splashes my hands.

I scream in pain as the stuff burns into my flesh. My hands are on fire and I whip around, looking for somewhere to get this stuff off. I spot a fountain and run over to it, quickly spraying the splashes with water and feeling the pain ease a little as I get most of the shit off it. This stuff has to be acidic though, water will help, but I need to get some treatment on it or I'm not going to get better, werewolf or not.

The striped wolf walks up beside me and whimpers a little "Alex? Big Bro? You alright?"

I look at the wolf, he's totally different to how he looked as a Black Spiral. I liked the fur colouring.

"Yeah, but I need medical attention. Are any of them out there garou and alive?"

Rain glances out then turns back to me "I think they're all garou, a few appear to be dead, but the majority are still alive, just badly injured."

I curse softly "Rain, we need medical aid. We need to stabilise anyone who's a healer. If you can find me a first aid kit or preferably the infirmary I should be able to help some of them until we find one who can heal the others. I'll see what I can do here, you go find someone or medical stuff."

Rain nods and spins around, running off on all fours down the hall. I look at my hands and silently ask the beast to please retreat for now as I need my human hands to work on the treatments. My claws recede and so does the fur, my human hands returning from under the much larger appendages.

This is bad, very bad. I knew that I'd been plain lucky taking that thing on. It wasn't expecting something as big as me. Had I been a normal garou, I'd have been dead. There's at least 10 garou here. My memory flares and I recognise some of them from being chained when that mage attacked. We hadn't exactly had time to get acquainted what with me being locked up an all.

I move out into the courtyard. Stopping at the first person I find. She appears to still be breathing, but there's a lot of blood around her chest. I'll apologise later for the impoliteness as I rip her top off and find a nasty slice going down between her breasts. It looks like it missed any major organs but she's badly hurt and I don't have any kit to patch her up. What I can do is turn her jacket inside out and tie it tight around the gash, stemming as much blood loss as I can for now.

The next one is a male who sounds like he's breathing in water. I tear off his top as well and another nasty knife like wound has pierced through his ribs. That looks like his lung has been hit. He still appears to have the other working, but this one is nasty. I root through his pockets and the pockets of the other girl and pull out an empty crisp packet, some chewing gum, cigarettes, a biro and cello tape. Perfect. I tape the empty crisp packet to his chest and leave a corner un-taped. When he breathes in, the crisp packet seals the wound and he's able to breathe still. It should hold him for now.

All the wounds are so frighteningly neat and almost precise. There's a couple who have had their heart's pierced and one I managed to resuscitate, but all of them have wounds that were slow killing without medical attention. This thing was like a surgeon, even when being attacked. Fuck, how lucky had I been? A cold shudder races up my spine as another thought follows that one. Had I really been lucky or...? I shake my head, there's no time to think about that right now. My medical knowledge is pretty expansive but I don't have any more materials to keep these guys alive! Oh god Rain, please hurry....

I find Soothing and Wyrmripper in amidst them, both with a multitude of cuts on them; they must have been the first in the thing's face. They must have tried to overwhelm them with numbers but the damn thing either got the upper hand or they weren't fast enough. There's only about 12 garou left alive here but if I can't do something soon, then it's going to be for naught.

"ALEX!"

I spin around and Rain comes running into the room pulling a medical bed!

"The infirmary isn't far! I got the equipment and beds up and ready, the place is kitted out! I found the chemical burn treatments as well!" He pants and hands me a basket with an assortment of medicines.

"Good going bro, get that girl onto the bed and into the infirmary whilst I slap something on my hands." Rifling through the meds I find some calcium gluconate and a spray bottle marked 'Burn Spray'. How convenient. I quickly slap the pair on my hands and pray that it does the trick.

Rain has managed to lift the first of the casualties onto the bed and I quickly go to help him push the bed. Following him down another corridor across from where we came in, it leads to a pair of big double doors marked 'Infirmary'. Rain props open the door as I push the bed in and get a look around.

The place appears to be the standard infirmary, only the machines in here look a lot more hi-tech than the one's I'd seen. This place is so much more technologically advanced than my world, I hope I can get these machines to work like I need. It looks like there's 16 beds in here, more than enough for the garou that are left.

I slide the bed into a vacant position, I'm guessing where Rain got the bed from originally. We'd picked up the guy with the punctured lung first, the occlusive dressing seems to be doing the trick for now. Yet we're looking at surgery on that thing unless I can get a healer up and working. That makes my eyes narrow, and I check this guy's pulse. It's there, not as strong as I'd like it, but it's still firm. If he wasn't injured, I'd have thought he was sound asleep.

Oh god no, please. Please let me be wrong. I grab another bed and tear back to the slaughter area. Rain follows me and I can feel him watching me as I check each garou. All of them might as well be asleep if they weren't injured. I turn my attention to the corpse of the thing. It seems to be melting down slowly, I wince as I realise there's an acrid smell arising. This thing wasn't decomposing, it was literally dissolving. I manage to poke one of the appendages into a better view and I see what I really didn't want to. Each of the wicked claws at the base, there's a bulge. I grab a shard of something, I think it might have been glass, not entirely sure, and poke the bulge. A squirt of silvery liquid squirts from a hole at the base of the claw and runs along the blade. Poison, it had to be. that's why no one is awake.

I put a hand across my eyes. This isn't just bad, this is beyond bad. I just don't have the knowledge to combat this.

"Alex, what's wrong?"

I look over at Rain, he's looking really worried at me. "Rain, the blade marks, they're coated in poison of some kind. Everyone is asleep because of it."

"So what can you do for them bro?"

"I'll have to operate on them. I can hopefully stabilise them and then.... I don't know."

"You keep them alive bro, I'll get on an antidote."

I frown and look at him. "Just how do you intend to do that?"

"You didn't look through the door at the back of the infirmary. There's a whole laboratory there. I'm guessing the pack set it up because they've been here for a while."

"You think you can do that Rain?"

Rain nods "Count on me bro, you keep them alive, I'll get them awake!"

I smile at his enthusiasm and nod. "This thing is dissolving, grab samples while you can Rain. Then help me get the guys into the infirmary." He nods right back at me and puts another garou onto the bed he was pulling then runs back with the bed. I follow suit and load up another injured.

The next few hours prove to be the most testing ever. I had begun a medical degree before I died and I had completed the courses to be a surgeon, even some minor operations. I had done all of that, but I'd never done something like this. I sewed and sutured lacerations and incisions, then hooked people up to the monitoring devices, Rain kindly showed me how to put them on automatic. I didn't have an operating room but I did have a lot of the equipment luckily. Besides the room where Rain had gone into there was a fully stocked pharmacy and medical storage room. I had to hope somewhat that as garou there would be a lot less chance of infections as I just didn't have time to create a sterilised room. I went through box after box of gloves. My hands aching where they were still burnt, but I rubbed more cream and sprayed them each time it got too much. I couldn't afford to let the pain get the better of me.

The last bit done, I collapse in a chair near the entrance to the infirmary, next to what I'm guessing is the nurse's desk. I'm breathing like I've run a marathon and my head is pounding. Yay, headaches, one of the other things I hadn't missed when dead. I've done all I can for now. I'd like to say I felt lucky at having all the tools needed to hand, but I'd have swapped most of them for a good healer right about now. I'd never thought I'd regret not being a vampire, but right then, I'm more than a little torn about it.

My stomach growls at me and I realise that I haven't eaten. Shit, neither has Rain. He went into the room the moment we got the last of the injured into the room and hasn't come out since. I don't really want to disturb him, but if we go down due to our own stupidity then someone is going to bitch slap us. I grunt and stand up, then I have a thought. I start checking the desk and to my delight, there's a map! The cafeteria area isn't far. If I jog, I can grab some stuff from the fridge and get my ass back here within a few minutes.

I do just that, running down to the cafeteria area and grab whatever cooked food and sandwiches I can carry out of the fridge and some drinks. I hoof it back and whisper a thank you to whoever is watching as I return to everything being exactly the same as when I left it. I shove a sandwich into my mouth as I walk to the room in the back and open the door.

It's very crowded in here, there's some serious machinery around. Few pieces I recognise, like a centrifuge and some test tubes, but the rest of the kit looks like I just walked into a mad scientist's lab. Rain is tapping away on a keyboard, looking at a computer screen that I realise appears to be flat. It can't be more than a couple of inches deep. Fucking hell, this place has some shiny tech stuff.

"Rain? I brought food and drink."

He glances back at me and gives me a quick smile before returning to his work. He's back to human form now and I realise that he seriously needs to get some new clothes.

"Thanks bro. Look, I've checked this shit out and it seems to have a similar properties to a chemical aesthetic called Propofol."

"Okay... I've never heard of that stuff."

"What? Really? It's been in circulation for the last 7 years."

I shake my head "It's not been invented in my world yet, I'm guessing . So what does this stuff do?"

"It's basically keeping them asleep, but the problem is that Propofol is supposed to wear off after a short time. This shit has been modified so it keeps being potent regardless of the dose."

I wince, that's some nasty stuff. "So how do we get it out of their system? We don't have any mystic means at the moment. What options do we have?"

Rain sighs and shakes his head. "Not a lot. The only information I've managed to garner is that Propofol can be mitigated by using a stimulant like Ritalin."

I nod, that makes sense. At least I knew what Ritalin was. Using that might be enough to get one of them up and running, however there's a couple of risks that I could think of.

"Yeah. Though I'm a bit concerned about a couple of things. If we use Ritalin, then there's no guarantee that it would be enough to actually counteract the steroid version of Propofol for starters. On top of that, there's the side effects of whoever we use it on, not to mention the fact we have to consider their beasts. If we over stimulate the body, it may cause a change and possibly an out of control rage."

Rain bites his lip and nods, tapping the desk in front of him. I look at the screen but I'm thinking too hard to pay attention to what's on it. We could introduce the Ritalin slowly until we start having a reaction, but then we run the risk of saturating the body with Ritalin. The side effects would most certainly be more prevalent there. On the other hand, introducing the body to a large amount of Ritalin in one go would almost certainly either kill the garou or get them to rage out of control.

"Actually, making the beast come out might not be a bad idea." says Rain.

"Explain?"

"If we use say three quarters of the maximum dose on one of the garou who doesn't look like a fighter, we might be able to pull them out enough for the beast's survival instinct to kick in, heal itself and tell us which one is a healer or has the ability to get rid of poisons. Then if there's enough time, we can ask how to get in touch with the Sept and get some aid here."

I chew over the idea whilst biting my bottom lip. As plans go, I don't have a better or worse idea. That level of a dose would be enough to shock a system but not enough to fuck them over, plus we'd have a greater buffer level thanks to the subject being a garou with a higher metabolism.

"But again, we're betting on them being powerful enough to control their beast. The risks of introducing the Ritalin slowly might be a safer choice."

Rain nods "Yeah, but we're low on time. Whichever way you think is best bro."

I wince, looks like I have to make the choice here.

"Okay, we'll try your idea first, if it doesn't work, we'll go with the slow introduction."

"So how are we going to do this and who are we going to use?"

"The who unfortunately is easy. it has to be Soothing. From what I know he's calm and thinks things through and I think he might be a healer himself. If not, he at least will grasp the situation quickly, that much I'm certain about. He should be able to give us the information to get aid if nothing else. We can't afford to risk the alpha going crazy and I don't think he'd approve if we chose someone who's weaker than him when we're trying to do it based on who can control their beast."

"Okay, so are you just going to dose him now?"

I shake my head. "No, lets minimise the risk at least. I'll take Soothing to a cell and I'll dose him there. That way if he does rage, he won't be able to hurt anyone. I'll see if I can find solitary in here, if there is one. The cells there should be what we need. You get something to eat and keep an eye on things here. I don't suppose there's any radios or some such around?"

Rain grins at me and pulls out a pair of CB radios. "You read my mind there bro." He hands me one.

I stand up and make my way back into the infirmary. All is quiet in here except for the beeping of the machines. I make my way through to the pharmacy room. A brief search turns up just what I need. I dump it all into a first aid bag and head back out towards Soothing.

I don't want to do this. He looks peaceful asleep, but I know if I'm going to help the others, I have to disturb that sleep. The thoughts of what could go wrong are running through my head as I take the breaks off and start wheeling him to the door. I pull out the map. There is a solitary, it's located the opposite way of the cafeteria. The whole place is built in a square, so getting from one place to another is pretty easy. I push Soothing on his bed to the secluded cells.

The journey through is pretty much the same as my first exploration of here. All the damn corridors look the same to me. However we hit the area where there are obviously 1 person cells. One of which I discover very gleefully is padded. That was a bit more then I'd hoped for. It takes me a bit of searching the nearby area to find the keys though. They were tucked in the drawer of a desk which I assumed would be for a guard.

I prop the door open and wheel in Soothing. There's no preamble for this. I have to do it now. I push the bed against one wall and prepare the needle with Ritalin and a bit of adrenaline to speed up the injection. The needle plunges home into his arm and I inject him with the concoction. I realise I'm holding my breath as I wait for a reaction and force myself to breathe properly.

A groan and movement, his eyelids flicker a little and then slowly half open.

"Soothing? Can you hear me?"

He sort of looks up at me, I can see his pupils fighting to dilate. He's struggling to wake up.

"Soothing, quickly, if you can remove poisons, do it on yourself now!"

Another groan and he slowly shakes his head. Fuck.

"Can any of the pack?"

To my horror, he shakes his head again. I clench my teeth, we're not done yet.

"Tell me how to contact the Sept. We need help."

His lips move but he can't seem to make words. I gently shake him, partially from frustration but also in the hopes it'll get adrenaline going enough to tell me. Another groan and he's blinking harder, he's fighting hard.

"Phone. Cell 134. Tina." he manages to say.

I nod and smile. "Okay, I'll get help. You rest."

His eyes close and he's sleeping again within a few moments. This is really bad. The dose I gave him was really strong and the shit that's in his system is even stronger. I have to hurry, we've no way of waking these guys ourselves. I have to call help.