Blood Links by R D Larson	Part 1 appears in this issue.
conclusion

“Come on, girl, let’s go to work.” He grabbed his lab coat off the hook in the laundry room and started down the basement stairs, the click of Honey’s nails just behind him. He punched in the code to open the steel door. There was a motion sensor light that came on at the third step. He then flipped the off switch of the motion alarm detector.

When he reached the basement he smiled and Honey looked up at him wagging her tail. He stooped to pet her, rubbing the big collie’s ears. “You’re a good friend. Yes, you are.”

She went to her dog bed, and sighing, lay down. Jared went to the rows and rows of Petri dishes in the warm baths beneath the glass tops. He checked each batch carefully. They were progressing as expected. Rather as he expected. The DNA tinkering with the developmental time had been sped up to one-tenth of the so-called three trimesters. The last batch was nearly ready to be introduced into the neonatal center.

As he finished checking the final batch, he glanced at the stainless steel door that led to the most expensive and technologically-rich part of his laboratory. He’d spent more than he had earned for years on it but he had the best and newest equipment. He had well-paid sources that kept him apprised of each new discovery.

The neonatal area was state of the art. Some of the incubators were nearly filled with liquid bags of fluid with various stages of fetuses growing in them. The older batch was kept in traditional isolettes.

The incubators or open warmers were all are attached to various types of monitors. All had respiratory support ranging from extra oxygen by head hood or nasal canula in the more advanced batch to automatic CPAPs (continuous mechanical ventilation in the younger batch).

“Hi, Carl. How’s the little bonuses ?”

Carl sat in a rocking chair with A2 feeding it a bottle of nutrients. The fetus sucked happily. Near in a bassinet A1 slept, wrapped in a yellow pile blanket. His tiny hands were curled in to fists, ready to fight.

“A1 is nearly ready to be ‘born,’ isn’t he, Carl?” Jared leaned over A1 watching the tiny body rise and fall in the more rapid breathing of eight-month old fetus.

“Yes, Jared. The baby is so...”

“Dr. Simmons, I have told you not to call them babies. It’s not healthy to get emotional about them. Remember you work for me? If you weren’t here you would be out of the medical field because of your age. You know that. If you get too concerned about these experimental fetuses you will have to return to the Golden Age facility. I won’t sign you out again.” Jared flushed with anger and shook his finger at the old man.

“Yes, yes but when I hold them...” Dr. Simmons stopped as his eyes met Jared’s fierce gaze.

“This is business. That’s all it is.”

Carl put fetus A2 into it’s bassinet and turned toward Jared. “I understand but, Jared, it is so risky...”

“Never mind; we’re nearly finished. I’m wondering about A1 and A2. Do you think they need a blood transfusion before delivery? They seem to be anemic. Did you... Have you seen the recent chart?”

“No, I haven’t, because I’m more involved in their daily care. What makes you think they are anemic?”

“I ran two blood tests on them yesterday and this morning. Their hemoglobin is low; it was okay last week.”

“Last week they were on the tube feeds. The bottles contain the same nutrients and complex sugars with added iron. I don’t see how they can be anemic.”

At the sound of a low cry, they both looked at isolette containing A1. As they watched, the fetus gathered itself and rolled over. Raising itself onto hands and knees it glared at Jared. Resting, it gasped. Jared rushed toward it.

“Here, let’s wrap it in a blanket so it can’t move. Carl? Carl? Well, don’t just stand there! It’s pushing up the lid.”

He grasped the fetus as best he could and rolled it into the receiving blanket and tightly tucked in the ends.

“Carl! What is it with you?” He turned to see Carl staring at him.

“Jared, did you tinker with the DNA after you promised me you wouldn’t?”

“Not exactly. Not really. I just sort of souped up the process. Not really the DNA. Just the timer — its internal timer. Don’t get all ethical with me, Carl. It’s not as if they are humans.” Jared shrugged and looked at the fetus again.

It had gone to sleep, a faint smirk on its lips. With that dark hair, it did sort of look like the egg donor. Rita had been the perfect match, he thought. She’ll never see the phenomenon to which she’d unknowingly contributed. Think of the possibilities.

Carl left without saying good-bye. Jared grinned — the old geezer liked a paycheck but didn’t like the wavy-navy ethics. What an ass.

Jared checked the other two isolettes with A3 and A4. All were sleeping or whatever the things did before birth. He smiled, and called out to Honey.

And they went up to bed. As he tried to sleep he thought of Judith Howard-Taylor. Maybe after he went public with his new developments, he’d feel secure enough to ask her to dinner again.

The next morning Jared got up late, pouring his first cup of coffee at almost eight o’clock. He certainly didn’t lose sleep over his new method of developmental gestation. It had been worth the years of work.

Jared heard a noise; maybe Carl had come in the door. Purposely he’d left it unlocked when he’d let Honey out earlier. Had Carl gone straight down to the lab yet? He thought he should apologize whether he meant it or not. Stopping at the hall table he saw his bonus folder and opened it

He gave a sharp whistle. Much more than he expected. What would he get when Phil found out about the success he had achieved with this batch of fertilized eggs? He and the rest of the world were in for a big thrill.

Grinning, he let Honey out the door and stood while she ran out and did her business. She grabbed the rolled newspaper and brought it to him.

“Good girl. You’re a honey, Honey,” he told her, patting her head. She looked up into his face with a love that gave his heart support in ways that no other ever did.

“Well, girl, I had best check the laboratory before I go in to work. I like to make sure everything is working before Carl comes in. I hate to leave the office after I’ve gotten there and settled in for the day.” He grabbed a breakfast bar from the cookie jar and gave half to his dog. Munching his half, he grabbed his lab coat and went to the stairs, flipping the detection switch off.

As he entered the door a loud shriek assaulted him. Honey pushed past him growling and snarling. Jared stepped in behind her and gasped.

“Oh, no, no!” he exclaimed as he saw the isolettes knocked over, with the fetuses, bloodied and lifeless, tossed about on the tile floor. A4 through A10 were dead or dying, their tiny bodies torn apart and ravaged.

Then he heard Honey whimper. He looked up as A1 and A2 grabbed the dog. They had doubled in size and now had sharp teeth. They were trying to turn the dog over on its back. Honey struggled bravely but the two had her by the scruff of her neck.

They were smeared with blood. Their eyes seemed unfocused but fierce. Their little mouths and hands were clawing at Honey’s throat like hungry little demons. They had grown to the size of an eight-year-old child.

“No, not the recessive vampire gene. NO! NO!” Jared shouted grabbing Honey and pulling her away from the two creatures. He shoved her behind him and then grabbed an office chair to fend off the little demons.

He pushed Honey toward the door, holding it open with his foot. Just as she scrambled out, he slipped on the blood and fell to the side as the door swung shut. With the click of the latch, the two bizarre little demons lunged for him, ripping his arm and shoulder through his shirt with their teeth and claws. He screamed, hitting them violently.

They retreated, crouching. As he stared at them, the male grew enormous genitalia and the female developed large, quivering breasts. Their body hair grew quickly as did their fingernails. Their eyes turned yellow as they waited for their chance to spring again.

He could see A3 and A4, now able to crawl, coming toward him. Jared tried to get his legs under him, but slipped again.

They attacked him in a fever of speed, shredding off his clothes with their fingernails and searching his body while their fangs closed on his throat artery. They sucked furiously, rhythmic and in tandem, as they pleasured each other with his body. He pushed at them, kicking and gurgling a scream. His fists struck futilely at the hairy, evil faces. They sucked, moving harder and faster.

They fastened on his throat with a vengeance he’d never imagined. Filled with blood and sexual hunger A1 and A2 sucked viciously on his blood as their nails searched his body’s orifices in release of their carnal urges.

As he writhed in pain, he felt the hands and feet of A3 and A4 reach his legs. One of them fastened on to his femoral artery and the other took his groin artery. The two on his neck sucked madly at his blood, bloating as they filled their vampire lust.

One officer tried to pull the now large, engorged creatures from Jared’s neck but they turned with the ferocity of a wombat. Their bloodied mouths and huge eyes looked hungrily at the three men.

“Watch out, here they come,” shouted Carl.

The officers drew their guns and with the sound of the two shots the horrible beasts released Jared. The werewolf kits sprang back to crouch again in preparation for an assault on Carl and the officers. Amid the howling and screeching, they noticed that A3 and A4 had grown in size. They were formidable opponents as the five of them crouched ready to suck the blood of the three men. Jared lay dying at their feet.

With Carl stumbling ahead of them the officers backed out dragging Jared. The steel door slammed shut just as a howl and a loud crash smashed against the door. Half-carrying and half-tugging they dragged him up the stairs to the kitchen. As they passed the alarm and the motion detector Carl threw the switch. When they had entered the kitchen, Carl pressed the buttons to lock the steel entry door. One of the officers called for medical emergency vehicles and for back-up.

“Dr. Simmons, you will need to explain this to us. It’s unbelievable.” The other officer, an older man, heavily sweating and red in the face, said to Carl.

Carl gasped and held his breath for a long moment.

“Jared Mahoney had been altering DNA from a donor to speed the development of the fetuses. Unfortunately for him the donor is a vampire.”

“Wait a minute, let me get this straight. This guy is a vampire...” The officer looked dazed and anxious. His face was gray from shock.

“I’ll explain further as soon as Dr. Mahoney is taken to the hospital,” Carl said gently.

They could hear the sirens now. The three looked down at Jared Mahoney. His eyes were wide in terror and his mouth frozen in a scream.

“He blinked! He isn’t dead, thank goodness,” Carl said. Then he realized that Jared had been paralyzed possibly from a stroke he’d suffered during his ordeal with his own experimental fetuses. Someone with more ethics should be the scientist that works with gestational development, Carl thought as another crashing noise came from the lab, someone like me.

Copyright © 2006 by R D Larson

Proceed to Challenge 227...