One day, I woke up, and all the men had been taken away again, and I didn't feel very well either. Now, I had more and more nausea and dizziness; I was cold, and my muscles ached sometimes. I was nauseous all the time, dizzy, and achy from time to time. I staggered over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Coca-Cola, opened it, just managed to twist it open, took a couple of sips, and walked slowly with the bottle in my hand.
Suddenly, my stomach cramped, and I fell to my knees. The bottle fell to the floor, and the soda soaked into the carpet. I threw up on the floor in an arc. Everything I had drunk, including a couple of energy shakes, flew out and hard. I tried to move, and the same thing happened again. The carpet absorbed everything I threw up from my stomach. I lay on the floor for a while, in my vomit, before I finally managed to crawl to a slightly cleaner place to lie down when the door opened.
The nurses lifted me onto my bed and didn't even bother to tie me up because I was completely limp. They just covered me up and put me in a semi-sitting position without saying a word.
They brought the men back into the room, asleep, and tied them to the bed. At Adam's, one nurse said. " I think this one has had his last dose. It needs to be changed here and now."
One nurse nodded and left the room for a moment. The two nurses turned Adam onto his side to expose his back. The nurse returned with a small slip of paper, perhaps the size of a palm and skin color. The first nurse poured a gauze pad into alcohol and began to wipe Adam's back; after a moment, she felt around for a moment and found the edge and pulled a similar piece of paper off Adam's back.
She waited for Adam's skin to dry and then took a new sheet, removed some protective film from it, and placed the sheet in place of the previous one. She took the remote control in her hand and moved it over the film.
"Well, now it's reset again. Seven doses left again.", the nurse said to the other.
I watched behind almost closed eyes as the patch was absorbed into the skin as the remote control passed over it; it somehow went into the skin like some kind of gel or jelly.
"This new transdermal implant is very practical for these objects. We can get them under control effortlessly." One nurse said to another.
The nurse just nodded and checked that the patch wasn't felt anywhere, pulled Adam's patient gown back down, and turned Adam onto his back.
The doctor came into the room. The bloody chubby one. I could smell the garlic on his breath; he had been eating, apparently. The smell didn't help my stomach settle, but it was empty, so I didn't vomit; I just felt it cramping.
"What's that smell?" he asked, disturbed.
"Omega had thrown up on the floor. The carpet was soaking it all up," one nurse said.
"Well, clean it up, change the fucking carpet. No one suffers to be in this fucking stink.." the doctor said irritably.
"What is Omega's condition now?"
" See for yourself," the nurse said. " Pretty much harmless, almost unconscious. Completely inconsequential, you don't even have to tie her down."
The doctor stared at me and said, " Change the carpet. And make sure Omega stays in bed and doesn't throw up on the floor again. Lift the sides out of the bed."
Then he walked away. One nurse picked up the phone, dialed a number, and called. Another nurse came in to check on me, took my pulse, put the blanket better over me, lifted the board, and put vomit bags on the table next to me. I was almost unconscious again. Apparently, my blood pressure fluctuated, and sitting up made it go down occasionally.
However, I leaned back, powerless on the bed, not even thinking about what was going to happen next or what my fate would be, but I already had a distinct advantage over the men; now I knew about those implants, and without them, well, the men might be able to function.
" Maintenance, yeah, we have a little carpet replacement downstairs for you; yeah, it's carpet, but if you could just cut out that dirty part and replace it with a new one, yeah, well, good, thanks."
The nurse explained in a flat voice; she listened for a moment and grumbled something; apparently, the maintenance staff were not so terribly motivated to work, but then she hung up and said. "The maintenance staff will be here to change the carpet in a minute. I don't understand why there must even be carpets when they're not in the whole room. "
The whole carpeting started in the space between the kitchen, sort of, or the dining area and the washrooms and the sofa. There was e carpeting, but the area nearest the door where the bed was put was some laminate or something like that.
One nurse looked at me. "Should I tie Omega up just in case she gets mad?"
"Oh no, you don't have to. What's she going to do, throw up on you? It's not a threat. Just leave her. Right now, her blood pressure is at rock bottom, and the sitting position is keeping her unconscious. She can't stand or move anymore. " Then the nurses left.
I knew that the implant information alone was worth its weight in gold, and I tried to save my strength to tell the men. I didn't know how long we had been on this ship. I had no sense of time, whether it was always morning or evening. Unless I looked out of the window, and often these days, I was so damn tired I couldn't even move much. I felt like my whole body ached, and moving was so damn overwhelming.
I knew there were some sedatives ready for me in an upstairs cupboard. In case I was a threat, there were other tranquilizers and sedatives. Because none of the men had even had time to plan to attack anybody with the fucking implants, but if they didn't have them, now those drugs could be helpful if we could get the men off the implants.
Some time passed, and the men still hadn't woken up when two men in overalls came in. One was younger, taller, with straw-colored hair and a mustache. The older man was shorter, stouter and almost bald, with dark brown hair and a wobbly walk. The younger man was carrying a roll. They were carrying a roll of carpet, lighter than the one currently on the floor.
They went to the dirty spot and cut it off with a carpet knife. They dissolved the glue on the carpet with some acetone or something similar. The piece of carpet came off, revealing a steel floor underneath. There was a hatch about a meter in diameter, round, old-looking, which I could see with my tired eyes.
The younger man asked. "What is that hatch?"
The older man replied: " This space used to be an engine room. It's an old service hatch that could drain sewage, ash, or even oil when you get to port. You could fit a person in there, but not me. It's kind of a few, maybe five or eight meters long, runs inside the ship, and drops off to the other side. "
The man laughed and clapped his beer gut.
"My uncle used to work on a ship like this and sneak through that hatch to meet girls in port. In those days, coal burners like that weren't appreciated, and they wouldn't have been allowed off the ship anyway, but my uncle was a ladies' man, and he used to make conquests in every port. Of course, you had to crawl along the pipeline to see if any good females were available, but often, the call of the ladies was too much. Yeah, he was one of those guys. He died old, something like 80, in a car accident. Pretty crazy."
I knew that here was an opportunity that would never come along better, at least for men. From what this older man said, I knew I wasn't cut out to be a pipe crawler. My fitness couldn't take it, but if we can get the werewolves' implants out, they'll get away. My blood pressure can't take it. It goes down just sitting there.
That hatch didn't look so big that anybody, even Bran, could carry me on his back, and when they got away, you'd have to act fast, then when they had to swim ashore, probably, yeah, I couldn't get away, but the men could.
I knew it would be a close struggle because all three of them had shown extreme protectiveness towards me. Especially Adam. But they would have to escape, and maybe then they could rescue me at some point or at least see where this thing was going. The men put the carpet in place and didn't even glue it properly.
The older man said, " Those glue fumes are not so good, and this will hold up very well with less glue. It's so much work to heat up that glue, and those fumes are bad for the breath."
The man stood while the younger one placed the mat and pressed it firmly to the floor. Then they left.
Now, I would just have to wait for the boys to wake up and tell them everything.
Finally, the men woke up. I waited for them to wake up properly, and I said. "Come here. I have good news and bad news. Some new things came to light here, which are important for you, too. "
Adam said: "Tell me the bad news first. I want to hear it first."
I said, "I'll explain everything first, and then I'll tell you later, okay? Just bear with me."
I sipped the orange juice that Bran had brought me when I saw how weak I was. The doctors wouldn't keep me on the drip; I had a cannula, but I couldn't get fluids through it when I was awake. Samuel wouldn't let me interfere with the cannula because I might get an infection even with it, so I had learned to tolerate it for now. Samuel was a good doctor, even though I saw more than once that it was hard for him, too.
So, I told them about implants and how alcohol brings them out.
I said, " I mean, the nurse was wiping Adam's back here, and then she felt the side of the implant. It was like a piece of paper, but when she pulled the control over the piece of paper, it became transparent and disappeared. The nurse called it transdermal."
Samuel said thoughtfully.
" Hmm, transdermal, meaning they are inside the skin. I could cut the whole skin off, but first, everybody has to find it."
I told him where Adam had it. I said, " Come over here and I'll show you."
Adam came to me, and I showed them the spot. Samuel took some alcohol, and after a while of wiping, they got it out with alcohol. Bran and Samuel's implants were also quickly removed. I felt the men were geared up for what was to come. Now they had a chance.
"Then the next step," I said. "I have an escape route, but here comes the bad news. I can't come with you. I really can't; I'm too weak. My blood pressure can't take it. I'm powerless. The route is simple for you, but I can't do it, and that's a fact. Well, if you can escape, then maybe you can keep an eye on this ship and rescue me somewhere along the way, but this is too good an opportunity to miss."
Adam looked for a moment and said: "Don't worry, I'll carry you."
I smiled wearily and told them about the hatch.
I said, " Look under that piece of carpet. There's an old service hatch that runs through the ship's interior and then drops down to the other side of the ship; it's narrow, but you should be able to fit through it, but not with me. Besides, you'll have to swim and run away. I can't go with you. I'm just too weak."
Bran and Samuel set off to explore. Adam sat on my bed very quietly. He didn't say a word. Finally, he got up and went to look at the hatch. It was so narrow. Adam was big and strong, and he would have the tightest fit. Adam was stroking me all the time, watching me closely, and I could see he was trying to find some way to get me out of there right away, too, but I knew that wasn't possible.
Bran said. "I'll go through that pipe and make sure there are no surprises, then we'll see what we do. It could be that the pipe is blocked, and there's no way out. But I'll go check it out."
Bran was the smallest and had the easiest time getting through the pipe. Bran disappeared into the pipe.
Twenty minutes later, Bran came back and said. "Here's the way out. I even opened the outside hatch and smelled the fresh air. This is our escape route. It's a tight route for you, Adam, but you'll fit. And Mimi, you're right, we can't get you in then, no way. That pipe is too narrow for me to carry you and it's dirty and you're so fragile..."
Bran's voice almost broke. He was furious with himself for being powerless in the face of it.
Adam asked quietly, "What about Mimi? What happens to her when we run away? How do we save you?"
I said wearily, "I told you I'm not going with you. Now, for the next stage of the escape plan, come here, and I'll tell you what I've been thinking. This is where I have to be a little sneaky and I have to guarantee you the best possible escape. "
My plan was simple. We had learned to detect when we were approaching the harbor, and usually, the men only stunned us once we were anchored. They would escape before then. Contrary to popular belief, werewolves can swim and are strong swimmers.
As we approached the harbor, the men would slip away, jump into the water, swim to shore, and escape as quickly as possible before they would leave the ship. They would take medicine from the top cupboard and drug me into a deep sleep. Samuel had gone through the medicine. There were drugs that worked in different ways. Some of them would even cause amnesia.
Samuel would come up with a cocktail that I wouldn't wake up for a few days, or if I did, I wouldn't remember anything. I knew that the same doctor who had programmed me to kill Nicholas was also involved, and it was possible he could get something out of me. That's why I had to give the men as much of a head start as possible.
Samuel went to look at the drugs and was already planning the cocktail. He understood my purpose perfectly. And now that I was weaker, I couldn't get off the drugs quite so quickly, and I would be confused for a long time and wouldn't know anything.
Adam couldn't believe his ears. They had to leave Mimi behind. The plan was sensible and feasible, but Adam had always defended and protected women and never abandoned them.
Adam said to me, " This is so fucking wrong, so very wrong, and if there were only some way to get you to believe me, I would do anything."
I nodded and said, " Adam, you are an amazing, wonderful man, and it has been a great honor for me to know you. Not that I have any experience with men, but you are perfect. "
Adam said, " If I were perfect, I could save you. I'll save you one day, and then you can live in my house in Chicago. You'll have your own room."
I said wearily, " That's settled then Hauptmann, now get ready, you've got to be ready."
Samuel had already booked the drugs. He advised his father, whose job it would be to administer the drugs, that Adam should go first, as he would be the most restricted, and then Samuel.
Bran would come last and be the quickest through the pipe. The ship would shake in a familiar way, and I knew it was now or never. The men looked out of the window, and you could almost sense the excitement.
Adam came up to me and said. "I'll find the name of this ship; I'll somehow arrange for you to get off. Now you just have to hang in there and know that I'm here to save you all the way."
I replied. " Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing if you can get a Marine or a Swat here. And then I like pink if you offer me that room one day."
I knew that my rescue would probably remain an attempt. But I didn't dare say that to Adam. I didn't know if I was going to die or what my fate would be. I had just taken the day at one time.
Adam said: " Bye until we see each other again. I'll see you again when I get the rescue operation going."
He walked like a panther to the hatch and slipped in. Samuel came up to me for a moment, shook my hand, and said: "Hold on. You are an incredibly resilient and strong girl; it has been an honor to know you. I just wish it had been under better circumstances."
I laughed and said, " Well, at least it's been an adventure for you. You are a wonderful doctor. Never forget that."
I nodded. Then Samuel went down the hatch.
Bran was calm and methodical. He looked at Mimi. She was lying in bed, head down, because Mimi's blood pressure was so low again. She probably weighed 30 kilos or fewer now. Her skin was translucent, her breathing was somehow labored, her arms and legs were covered with bruises and contusions. She had scars all over her body, but no stitches now.
Bran pulled the medicine into the syringe. The midazolam would first cause amnesia and then sedate Mimi. Samuel had told him to give 20 mg. Bran injected 30 mg. Bran had struggled with rage all his life. He had helped countless werewolves to accept themselves, but Bran also knew mercy. Sometimes, an individual just didn't fit the bill as a werewolf or was too old and no longer in control of their wolf.
These would come to Bran, and Bran would always take them with him on a hunt and then return alone. Bran knew the meaning of a good death, of allowing rest to those who deserved it, and Mimi was just that.
Next up, ketamine. Even there, Bran put more of what Samuel told him to put in. Ketamine would put Mimi to sleep and sedate her even more deeply. Finally, pentobarbital. This was the one that Samuel had warned could paralyze breathing if given too much and was used to kill the animals. Samuel had said no more than three milliliters, which would be enough to keep Mimi in a deep sleep but breathing well and responding to pain. Bran took a 10 ml syringe and filled it.
Bran knew he was doing the right thing. When he looked at Mimi, he saw her weakness, suffering, and death. A slow, painful death at the hands of these sadists, but no more; now Mimi would just fall asleep, and all the pain and agony would stop. Adam and Samuel would not know of this, and if ever Mimi's fate came to light, well, this had been weak, so death would not have been a surprise.
He smiled at Mimi.
" Okay, here comes the medicine. " Bran said.
I looked at Bran closely. I saw in his expression a kind of protectiveness, a gentleness as if he wanted to spare me from something. I didn't think about it, and that expression was on Bran's face for just a moment. His eyes were looking steadily at me now and I felt a huge tiredness wash over me, and I closed my eyes. I felt him stroking my hair. Bran took the next drug, and he didn't have to put much on as I fell asleep. The darkness took me with it.
Bran pressed the plunger down. Mimi sighed deeply and went limp. She breathed calmly. Bran took the pentobarbital syringe, attached it to the cannula, and slowly pressed the plunger. Mimi was breathing slowly, but with some effort and something inside, Bran wanted to do this, save Mimi from being much worse.
He sighed and said: "I'm sorry. Now you don't have to suffer anymore. You no longer have to be a weak, pained guinea pig. Rest in peace, little one."
The piston had sunk to the bottom as if of its own accord. Bran threw away the syringes and walked to the hatch, listening as Mimi's breathing slowed and her heartbeat slowed. Bran slipped through the hatch and pulled the lid closed behind him before the heartbeat stopped completely. Bran knew he was doing the right thing. He would not say anything to Samuel or even Adam. Again, he had done what he could, helped the sufferer out, and it was never easy, but it always gave him a sense of peace of his own.