Automatically, the system booted up as the front door unlocked, cameras switched from night vision to their normal mode and the hall became brighter with every light bulb that obeyed the command. The flickering light revealed new developments: on the floor of the cell, Ethan's body looked far more human than it had the day before, though his hair was greyish rather than his usual dirty blond. The peaceful picture of him wrapped in the blanket was disturbed by the long claws protruding from his fingers and toes. Soft snores escaped the slightly elongated jaws. He turned over in his sleep, mercifully unaware of his surroundings, and the blanket slipped down to his waist.
It had become a ritual for Chris and Charlie to be the first people to enter the building in the morning and the last to leave, if they didn't stay the night. This usually meant that they had time to discuss the changes of the night and get ready for the coming day.
This morning, forty-three days after they had begun the procedure, they stared speechless into the containment cell. Somehow, Ethan had made a leap in his recovery. They hadn't expected to find him transformed into a lycan, though. As he turned in his sleep, the slipping fabric showed more of his changed physique: still rather lean, the muscle mass - especially on torso and abdomen - seemed better developed and toned. A yawn showed off the sharp, dog-like teeth.
"I don't get it, wasn't the stuff we used from an advanced variant of the E-series? How do the village's mutamycete lycans fit in?" Charlie asked.
"When we talked in the factory, Ethan told me that he had literally waded through blood and how he discovered that enemies turned into crystals after their death. I thought nothing of it at that time. But come to think of it, he was covered in dust when we pulled him out. In the light of this development, I think this might have been some kind of spores or sclerotia that must have infected him in his weakened state", Chris reasoned. "What puzzles me is how he changed this drastically overnight."
"Uhm, I may have an explanation. And a confession to make. It's kinda my fault", Charlie admitted sheepishly. "Mia gave us this recipe for a 'smoothie' to get him back on his feet and he really liked that stuff. I've only fed it to him three times, twice right after he collapsed on the brink of starvation and… yesterday because he looked so exhausted after the tests we did."
"What the hell did you give him?" Chris asked, barely containing his irritation.
"Uhm, eggs, beef, pork, lamb intestines, poultry pluck, and blood", he listed, shrinking slightly back under the captain's stare. "Human blood. Sorry."
"Where did you get enough human blood to feed him, for fuck's sake?"
"Our medicine cabinet. There were 8 IV-bags for each of us in the freezer. On that note, we should restock", Charlie faltered. "Sir, I do apologize for this misconduct. I should have asked for permission to use the supplies."
"Charlie, did it ever cross your mind that maybe the misappropriation would bother me less than the fact that you willfully fed human bodily fluids to a friend of ours?"
"No, Sir", Charlie admitted.
"And he ate it?"
"Scoffed it down once he'd tried it."
They took a few pictures and sent them to Mia with a short note on the sudden change; her call came less than half an hour later. She switched her camera on and it showed her in the house, surrounded by the plants she was repotting. Somewhere in the background, a lullaby played and Rose babbled sleep-drunkenly.
"Good morning, gentlemen! How did you manage to evolve Ethan within the span of 10 hours? I can barely keep a colony bred from his tissue alive without encasing it in a layer of white mold", Mia chimed, a hint of resentment in her voice.
"Charlie", Chris addressed the younger man and let him explain, throwing in his theory about the crystal dust at the end.
"Odd", the woman mused after he had finished. "Though I agree with you, spores or something similar would be the most plausible cause of a mutation like this. That means we're not talking about two, but three strains coexisting and possibly affecting each other in a single infected human. Oh, that's why my calculations for his improvement were way off!"
Mia wiped her brow with the back of her hand, smearing dirt across her forehead and laughing at herself for it.
" Like I said, I struggled with cultivating a stable colony. Every time I take a piece from the container to study it, it dies within minutes. This behavior seems similar to the necessity of a 'mold-friendly' environment or proximity to the megamycete for two of the strains, whereas the white mold is pretty much a pioneer. I've had the thought for quite some time that Ethan must have grown an independent 'core' despite the BSAA's best efforts to remove all growth during the surgery. The other types must have latched on to this."
"Mia, please consider us laymen in your mold science", Chris sighed.
"If I'm right, he's his own self-contained environment, he… of course!" Mia exclaimed a little too loudly and baby Rose complained with a whine. She carried on in a more hushed voice: "He wasn't fed to the mold like the others. It became part of him. There was no need to change its surroundings, it had a perfect little meat suit that protects it. So it grew strong and when the village mutamycete infected him, it took control over the newcomer, becoming its anchor so it doesn't need the megamycete. And the white mold works as a multiplicator and protector for the black mold cells. The chances were abysmal for this to happen coincidentally, but here we are. A fucking fine mess."
"That surely made sense somehow, but we don't live in your head. What does this mean for him and our further procedure?" Chris filled the expanding silence after her rambling.
"We were dealt a wildcard, but we'll continue. It didn't harm him whatsoever until now and I can see no problem arising from the mutation the combination of the strains caused. He is - in a way - stronger than a lycan and I think that trait will prevail. With a bit of luck, he may even gain his own set of additional powers like the ones the village lords developed", Mia said resolutely. "And… don't watch the video footage of tonight. I've skipped through it before I called and it's mildly disturbing."
She was right about the footage. Both men felt sick to the stomach after watching a sped-up night of twisting flesh and torn grey skin shedding from Ethan's shape until he sank to the ground, barely enough strength to pull himself back to his usual sleeping spot and cover his shivering body with the blanket. Looking at the snoring beast now, none would have imagined such a violent transformation had taken place. The filters had done short work of the dust, leaving the floor clean.
Dion and Emily arrived by the time they discussed the benefits of feeding Ethan more blood to boost his condition. The main door fell shut as they entered the building, the sound rousing the creature from its slumber. As soon as the eyes snapped open, his whole body sprang into action, turning on the spot and scrambling onto his feet. Thus were the other squad members greeted by a panting, snarling, and very naked man crouching in the corner of the walls farthest from the door.
"What the hell?" Dion asked and almost dropped the bag of groceries he had carried.
"Is that Winters?" Emily added and tried hard not to stare.
"Yeah, he's turned into this overnight", Chris confirmed the question. He shut the laptop and came around to the newcomers.
"Holy shit", Dion mumbled. "Didn't expect that. He looks… better."
"Almost better than when he was alive", the blonde whispered. "More abs."
The creature seemed to come to the conclusion that the people couldn't get closer and slowly eased into a little less defensive position. Sniffing the air, he watched them walk around the enclosure and off to one corner of the hall.
Charlie only listened half-heartedly to the explanation, instead he scribbled down his observations and tried to cross-reference them with photos they had taken during the village raid. All in all, Ethan looked less like those lycans and more like an interpretation of one, a faded and fear-tinged memory. His eyes had the round pupils of diurnal predators and the same honey and amber hues as his primal shape, but the sklera were of a deep black as was the inside of his mouth with the exception of a crimson tongue. Bright white, sharp teeth with elongated fangs contrasted with the oily darkness behind them. They were closer to normal albeit non-human dentures than a lycan's mismatched, broken teeth. Also, his stature was definitely more 'Ethan', thus far more slender and agile than the village brutes. Maybe it was really Ethan's idea of what he had encountered and how they looked like to him in his panic.
"So, you think you can work with him in this state? Test if he's gotten smarter or whatever?" Dion asked provocatively.
"Hu?" Charlie snapped out of his contemplations and looked around into expectant faces. "Yeah, probably. I mean, if he remembers me as the harmless guy bringing food, I don't think he'll attack."
"You'll wear protective gear nonetheless", Chris said sharply, "until we are sure that he is stable enough."
"I wasn't suggesting going in without", Charlie defended himself.
"No, you just would've forgotten it. At least a leather suit and gloves. No back talk", the captain insisted.
Stable was an optimistic notion. Maybe Ethan was still getting used to his diminished size or his new reflexes were just hair triggers. Every sound had him on high alert and every movement had to be observed as if his survival depended on a prompt reaction. First item on the agenda would be getting him into some clothes. Then, trying to figure out where all of this was heading. Hopefully, not to a disaster, again.