"Any requests for your last meal?"
For some reason, that simple question really drove home the reality that she was going to die. Even though the experiment had been planned months and months in advance, all that time and it had not sunk in. Maybe because…
"I mean, it's not REALLY my last meal." A simpering smile.
"The last time you're going to have real food," he grumbled. "Like a human being."
He was right. And although she was actually as nervous and un-hungry as ever, it seemed best to take full advantage of the offer. For all she knew, this might even be her last time eating. Full stop.
"Well, I guess something hearty. Stew or porridge with some fresh bread. Oh! And for dessert…"
Private Van Winkle,
You are ordered to report to the infirmary at 0700 hours this coming Monday. Do not eat or drink anything the day prior. Please do not bring anything with you to the surgery. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Avondale Napyeer
Rip Van Winkle re-read thru the official message to make sure she hadn't missed any instructions.
"Just die of thirst, I guess," she said aloud to her reflection in a small handheld mirror. It seemed important, poetic somehow, to see what she looked like one last time before everything changed. Would she be much different as a vampire? What if her personality changed, or it turned her into nothing more than a mindless soldier?
Rip shuddered at the thought of losing herself. There was no going back, though. Disobeying orders now would be mutinous, and her odds of survival were better, if only slightly, with the doctor's planned operation.
It was still about ten minutes before the scheduled time and Rip was licking her teeth when the door to her quarters opened without ceremony, causing her to startle and drop the mirror back onto the table. Two soldiers stepped inside, neither of whom she was well-acquainted with. The taller of the two said, "We are to escort you to the infirmary. Are you ready to go?"
Rip released a nervous laugh at the unannounced show of force. "Did our fearless leader think I might change my mind and run away at the last minute?" The thought deflated her for just a moment, but she recovered quickly.
"Oh well. A pretty girl ought to have an escort on such an important day."
Standing up, she stretched her long arms over her head and yawned loudly. "I. Am. Ready!"
Rip bee-lined for the door, which seemed to startle one of the soldiers who grabbed her forearm to stop her from crossing the threshold. But she ignored this awkward move and threw off his hand easily, clutching his arm with both her hands instead.
"Such a gentleman. Please lead on!"
He looked up, somewhat helplessly, at the taller man, who simply shrugged and said, "Let's just go already."
The three Millennium soldiers made their way briskly down the corridors and stairways of the giant industrial complex, which housed nearly their entire world. Their destination, the medical facility, was appropriately in the bowels of the place, for it was the domain of arguably the most sinister of the Major's associates, Herr Doktor.
The brig was also down below. This was convenient since its occupants were regularly drafted to be experimented on, then thrown back into confinement to see if they survived, which also kept them from tearing the place to shreds in their madness.
Rip was chattier than usual, though her entourage remained silent.
"So it's obviously the definitive version if you ask me, but ahh, I see we've arrived. Well, it was nice talking to you and thank you for accompanying me. I did not know we had such gentlemen in Millennium but I'll be sure to put in a good..."
The soldier whose arm she had commandeered steered her inside while she was still talking. The tall one, who had rushed ahead and was holding the laboratory door open saluted, interrupting her.
"Good luck, Private. We'll be just outside." He shut the heavy door until it latched with a click.
She sighed. "Auf wiedersehen, then."
Turning around, Rip was somewhat surprised to see how many people were already in attendance, and so early in the morning. Quite a few medical aides were bustling around the operating theatre, appearing busy. Operating theatre. Now that was an appropriate play on words. And she would have an audience, she surmised, based on the several rows of chairs that had been set up to one side.
Her eyes continued to scan the room, but there was no sign of Dok, as he was "affectionately" called by those who were bold enough to do so. In the Millennium hierarchy, those in the upper echelons tended towards being known strictly by their titles. Most didn't even know Herr Major's surname, much less his given name.
The Major! It occurred to her that if there was to be an audience, then perhaps he would be here to observe. That was something she hadn't mentally prepared herself for, but really it would make sense. If today's plan was a success, it would be a breakthrough moment for Millennium in their artificial vampire creation techniques, a game changer in their plans for future war. Of course he would want to witness it firsthand; notwithstanding the event would certainly be recorded for posterity.
Rip realized that she had been standing at the door for several minutes, without a word of greeting from anyone. At least some indication of what she was supposed to do now that she had arrived would be appreciated. After all, wasn't she the star attraction today?
As if sensing her thoughts, a technician strolled to her directly.
"Here I am!" she enthused, noting his somewhat surly expression as he approached. Perhaps he wasn't a morning person. "What should I do first?"
"There's still some time before we're going to start. But you can undress when you're ready and go ahead and lie down."
"Yes, about that," Rip said evenly, her cheeks reddening just slightly. "How much do they need me to, uh, undress?"
"Well, completely." His voice took on a slightly condescending tone. "This is a very invasive procedure we'll be attempting today, as you know. We'll need access to all parts of your anatomy. Now if you'll excuse me."
Rip had more questions, but she didn't really like his attitude and he was already halfway across the room. No one else was looking her direction, so she ambled over to the collection of folding chairs and counted them. Twenty-one.
This was all so surreal. Soon she'd be either dead…or undead.
"Com licença, excuse me."
Rip was surprised to see the cleaning lady here of all places. Marcela was maybe 55, and had been around for nearly as long as Millennium had been hiding out in Brazil. No one, to Rip's knowledge, knew her story or how she came to work for Nazis, but one day she was seen scrubbing the greasy hallways and the rest was history.
She continued in somewhat broken speech, "Are you here for event?"
The event. How cute. "Well I…" Was it really worth trying to explain?
"Yes of course, the event" she finally spit out. This exchange felt surreal, given the circumstances, but Marcela was looking at her expectantly so she changed the subject. "Do you know where I could change? Uh…Minha roupa?" Rip pulled on her shirt sleeve for emphasis. It was worth a shot at this point.
At this, the older woman's face dawned in understanding and she responded animatedly in her native Portuguese, gesturing past Rip to a hallway out the back of the lab. Rip grimaced a bit as she tried to follow the speech, seeing as she only knew a few words of the language.
Finally, Marcela finished her speech and clarified, "Office, on left."
"Thank you. Obrigada!" Rip said, relieved. "See you later?"
Marcela grunted in the affirmative, then went back to her task of changing up the seating arrangement. She spoke to herself in Portuguese again, and all Rip could pick up was "…so sweet, so sweet." But Rip didn't have the time to stay and find out what was sweet. She needed to be alone.
It felt like an invasion going into the doctor's private office, which turned out to be unlocked and unoccupied. Rip only hoped that he would forgive her for needing a moment of solitude. "Even the greatest performers need time alone to prepare," she convinced herself aloud.
The smallish room was a mixture of disaster and orderliness. One wall contained nothing but bookcases and seemed on the surface to be functional and ordered, albeit dusty. The desk on the other side, however, was piled with papers and calculating machines and objects that could only be interesting to someone as morbidly curious as Dok. Rip Van Winkle dared herself to touch just one thing: a smooth obsidian stone which had intricate etchings all the way around it. For some reason, it reminded her of how thirsty she was.
"Probably just a paperweight," she chuckled hoarsely.
The last notable feature of the room was a wooden coat tree, with a single lab coat hanging from it. That brought her back to the reason she was here.
"Okay, I'm doing this," she encouraged herself and began to remove her civvies. There wasn't really room anywhere to set the clothes into a neat folded pile, so she hung them onto the coat tree. Rip debated for a while whether they truly needed her to be without socks before stuffing them inside her shoes and setting them on the floor. There was no way to avoid him knowing she had been in here. Oh well.
Just before removing her undergarments, she determined that she was not going to walk back out into the lab stark naked in front of all those people. Rip Van Winkle may have been a complete show-off, but she was not an exhibitionist.
"It's only fair," she told herself, slipping on the long white coat and sniffing under its collar. It smelled freshly laundered despite the suspicious stains that remained. "I'm letting him experiment on me. The least he can do is let me borrow this."
With her mission accomplished, there was no longer any legitimate reason to stay here further. She scrutinized the small square clock on the bookshelf. It had been many minutes since she had entered the office, but surprisingly no one had come looking for her or disturbed her solitude. No panicked commotion at her disappearance was to be heard from down the hall. What a pity, that could have been dramatic and exciting. Closing her eyes and blowing out her breath, Rip steeled herself for what lay ahead. She pulled the lab coat tighter around her thin frame, then headed out the door to her destiny.