11:06:25 - All previous symptoms seem to have vanished. It appears the medication has finally begun to take affect. In two hours the specimen should begin showing signs of the transformation.
The man capped his pen, and slid it behind his ear. Before him the surveillance monitors flicker in nuances of black and white, stained by yellow numbers glowing in the bottom right hand corners indicating the number and location of each chamber that flashed across the screen. Each new room showed a new set of faces, all in the same situation. Groups of ten to twenty emaciated men, women, and children possessed each windowless cell, all huddled together or curled up in corners trying to escape the pain each new day brought. Most had not been fed in weeks, some even months.
Earlier, many of them had been curled up on the floor, fleeing shadows and tearing at their own skin. When the floor man had done his rounds, he had found most of them were feverous, delusional, even suffering from violent spasms. Those who ate, could not keep the food down, and those who didn't had taken to gnawing at their own flesh.
The medication they had been given seemed to be working, in any case, the madness had stopped. For the moment.
He shifted slightly in his seat so he could see the panel of buttons that stretched out from under the monitors. Placing his experiment log down he reached out and pressed one of the closest buttons.
"Lights out." He muttered, and watched as every screen flickered once, before momentarily becoming dark. With his thumb he flicked a switch, and the images appeared once more, now in shades of green and black. He noted absent mindedly the looks of fear that had formed across the faces of the many captives. They huddled closer to each other, struggling to get into the center. From the speakers screams, and desperate cries could be heard, children began to weep and parents grunted as they fought each other.
One of the bulbs on the distant wall sparked and took light. Through the speakers a new sound could be heard, a low hiss that seemed to crawl beneath your skin, that grew beneath the chaotic frenzy of thrashing bodies. He watched through the monitors as a strange cloud began to fill up the rooms.
It would be their third dosage within the hour.
Many of the bodies began to grow slack, he could see it in their posture. Raised fists grew limp, and very soon, bodies began to slump and collapse upon the floor.
Thousands had been ushered in only hours ago, the number had since then dwindled. If the fad continued, they should be down to a hundred now.
The light dimmed and diminished, and the cloud that had permeated every pore began to recoil and soon vanished into nothing.
He unclasped his walky-talky, took a deep breath, and squeezed the button.
"Sir." He grunted. "We have narrowed down the specimen."
Releasing the button, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Glancing once more at the monitors now riddled with dead bodies. In two more hours the captives would begin showing signs of transformations. Until then, more and more of them would have to die. He drew in a shuddering breath and closed his eyes.
"Phase one is complete, sir. We await your orders."
