“Is she ready?” Dolores asked, speaking into a slim microphone.
“Yes, ma’am,” Michael Lee replied, sitting in the control station, just inside of the medical lab. It had once been an underground supply area for a food bank.
Inside the lab, Heidi Nguyen lay upon the gurney. She was unconscious, thanks to two shots from one of Van Niekerk’s heavily-modified cattle prods, but Jesus had still ordered her strapped down to the metal table. Many vampires had supernatural strength far beyond what one might expect of a normal person.
Dr. Patel entered the sealed-off room in surgical garb and mask.
Dolores and Jesus Montoya watched via closed circuit television. Kelly White Cloud was with them, anxious for the serum to work because she knew how difficult it was to overcome the addiction of the vampire.
Inside the room with Patel was Lee, monitoring the various machines that showed Heidi’s life functions, which currently consisted of just a slow heartbeat and some brain waves. A few feet away, holding a submachine gun, stood Cantrell Ryker, just in case Heidi rejected the serum and had to be killed. Dolores knew Ryker saved the woman, but she also had no doubt that he could kill her without too much remorse. That much she learned from her friends at Moonrise.
Jesus murmured a silent prayer. Dolores heard it and smiled quickly to reassure her wary husband. He took a deep breath and leaned down to the microphone.
“Do it, Doctor Patel.”
Patel moved over to the gurney. He heard a sharp sound and looked up to see Ryker taking the safety off his gun. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to his patient and raised a hypodermic syringe filled with a red liquid. He wiped an area on Heidi’s throat with an alcohol swab, to kill germs, and then injected the full contents of the syringe into her carotid artery.
Almost immediately, she woke up, screaming like a banshee, strained against the heavy leather straps holding her down. The straps could hold down a young bull – yet they stretched to their limit to keep Heidi on the table. Patel jumped back.
“Cantrell!” he called out.
He watched Ryker rush up and push down hard on Heidi’s chest to restrain her, he held his submachine gun ready in his other hand. Fortunately, Heidi’s struggles diminished rapidly. Only when, she slipped back into darkness and lay still, did Patel let out a huge sigh of relief, as if he’d forgotten how to breathe.
“Still no change in vitals, Doc,” Lee reported. “It might take a while.”
Patel frowned. All of his previous test subjects had shown no immediate reaction, as well. It had taken hours for the side effects to emerge and he hoped it would be different with Heidi. Then again, he chided himself, these things always took time and it was foolish to think that he could change things just by fervently wishing.
“Give me a status report when she does show a change, Doctor,” Dolores said, through the microphone.
Outside the lab, Dolores hugged her husband and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She told him that he had to give it time. Reluctantly agreeing, he let her lead him away to the cafeteria. Kelly White Cloud lingered for a moment, pausing to stare at Heidi and feeling more sympathy pangs. Then, she, too, went to the cafeteria to await word.