Inevitable, Snyder/Davis

[NCPanthersgurl]

Phoenix frowned into her phone, annoyed.

"Biological huh?..." she hesitated, "But do you know the effects? I haven't seen anything, or heard anything..."

While she spoke Phoenix flipped the television on again. Better to have this on from now on, just in case.

[Shadowmaster762]

"That's where it gets ugly," Dex replied. "I managed to ingratiate myself to one of Vladimir's low level bodyguards. You know the type: not that important, but knows enough to keep his ears open and his mouth shut. Anyway, he'd been paying close attention to the goings on at Vladimir's personal estate. He said there was a huge increase in traffic at the Lycan leader's home starting about six months ago and it's consisted almost entirely of bespectacled, wiry, nerdy looking men in white lab coats."

"Scientists."

"Exactly. So this bodyguard was curious and started listening to Vladimir's conversations more and more carefully. He said that our friend and his band of scientists have been engineering a disease that will wipe out all vampires. It's a bit tricky, though. The disease will not actually be directly released on vampires. Rather, it'll be put into human food and then transmitted to vampires through human blood. It doesn't even effect the human, though. Not even a headache. This disease is specifically designed to attack and ultimately fry the predatory sensors in a vampire's brain, so it's worthless when applied to a human. It's the perfect disguise."

"And how do the Lycans intend to get this disease into every human in the world?"

Dex sighed. This whole notion would take some explaining and the vampire would doubtlessly demand every shred of information he had. "Well, their plan is to mix this virus in with water or a pesticide and drop it on wheat crops worldwide. Bread is a central part of any human diet; it wouldn't take long to infect the globe." There was a long pause on the other end of the line before Phoenix spoke again.

"How does it work?"

Ah, the gruesome part. "It slowly incites what the Lycans are calling Food Frenzy or Blood Frenzy. Basically, it's a condition where a vampire has to feed more frequently and for longer periods of time because their thirst isn't satiated."

"I'm a scientist, Mr. Ford. I know what Blood Frenzy is."

"Hey, don't get your panties in a twist," Dex snapped, a frown forming on his face. "You asked me to tell you about this and I'm just covering my bases. If I'd launched into some involved explanation of this disease and you didn't know what Blood Frenzy was, you'd complain." There was a sigh across the line.

"I apologize. Please continue." Dex snarled a little before continuing on. This woman was trying his patience.

"In any event, the disease incites Bloody Frenzy, which reaches full symptomatic potential within seventy-six hours. So you see it's a little different from the type of condition you're familiar with, Doctor. The infected vampire will become so desperate to feed in such a rapid manner that he will soon try to start feeding off himself, biting his own arms crazily and biting anything within reach, trying to drink anything he bites. Normally that stage of Blood Frenzy isn't too serious because of a vampire's physical regeneration, as you know, but this condition is so concentrated and so fast-moving that a vampire in that stage of the Frenzy is harming himself at such a rate that he won't have time to regenerate."

"And is all this just theory or has it been observed firsthand?"

"There were some tests done in secret, yes. The Lycans nabbed a couple of lone vamps and experimented on them. The tests concluded that the Frenzy was immediate and consuming, and that the sufferers have to be restrained and avoided. They were so rabid that they were inexplicably dangerous to anyone and everyone around them. No one could stop them from biting themselves, they couldn't feed because they had to be restrained, and they couldn't be fed because they'd likely had killed anyone who came close. Due to their increased need for blood and a lack of provided or hunted food, the test subjects either starved to death or ate themselves in less than three days."

There was another long silence followed by a whisper, almost too soft for Dex to make out: "Three days." He kept quiet for a moment, allowing his information to sink into the woman who'd hired him. It was certainly a plateful, probably more than she'd been expecting, and it would take her a while to digest it all. He admired her composure. If he'd just been told someone was trying to wipe out all zombies, he would have reacted in a louder, more violent way.

He could almost see her sitting at her desk, her eyes wide as she stared, her intelligent mind quickly filing all this away while simultaneously producing a hundred different ways to fix this little snag in her ten year plan. He smiled to himself.

What a ridiculous image.

"Mr. Ford?" He jerked as her voice startled him out of his daydream.

"Yes, doctor?" There was another pause. Was she really so unsure or did she do it for effect?

"I think you'd better come to my office. Immediately." Then the line promptly went dead. Dex took his phone from his ear and stared at it before flipping it shut. He sat on his bed in a moment of indecision before rising and grabbing his gear bag, choosing again to exit via the window instead of the door. If she wanted to see him, he saw no reason not to comply.

After all, three mil was a lot of money, and money got you places when it came to Dexter Ford.

[NCPanthersgurl]

Phoenix paced her office anxiously, twirling a lock of her hair around a finger. She was trying to let all the information sink in slowly, but her mental level said she'd already taken it all in. That she needed to take action rather than just sit there wondering. The TV was a low buzz in the background, and she glanced at it only momentarily before deciding that the anchor woman was again just blundering on.

"Phoenix Kelling to the ER immediately, Phoenix Kelling to the ER"

The page shook her from her thoughts, and she grabbed her white coat from beside the door. Her thoughts drifted to the flesh-eating disease effecting the elves, and she found herself running the ingredients to the temporary antidote over in her head. This disease was bad enough, a natural disease that was planted centuries ago by the dwarves. The plants that infected the elven populations had just matured, and it was more than keeping the scientists on their feet.

Phoenix pulled a mask from the cabinet beside the ER door, slipping it over her face. No point in risking infection herself. She hesitated as she pushed open the door, reconsidering her lack of gloves. But a nurse spotted her and begin waving frantically, so Phoenix shrugged it off and hurried in.

When she saw the figure laying on the bed though, she hesitated. That figure was definitely not elven, nor dwarfish, nor even a zombie. That figure was a pure out vampire.

"Restrain him!" she commanded swiftly, watching the vampire eye her staff. The restraints came quickly, and Phoenix demanded they be maxed out...and of several different kinds.

"Have you seen this Dr. Kelling?"

Phoenix looked into the nurse-intern's eyes. The girl was so curious, so eager to learn. She remembered that trait in herself, and sighed.

"I haven't seen it, but I have heard rumor." she glanced around at the staff. "I'm not sure how to treat this. From what I've heard it's not even treatable...but..." her hesitation made the others squirm. It wasn't like Phoenix to hesitate in a medical situation. "But we're going to try. First things first; this disease creates a feeding frenzy in vampires; look, you can see it in his eyes. We'll hook him up to an IV, run blood into him at all times. It might help it might not."

Phoenix glanced around as the staff rushed to her commands. They were good people, loyal, and the best staff she'd had. She hated the danger they were in around this patient...

"No one is to come in here alone. I mean no one. I demand that every person, no exceptions, has an aid with them. This is a very dangerous patient...I don't know what will happen or anything yet...I have to speak to someone who's more of an expert on this matter." she hesitated yet again, then looked up, "I want hourly checks on him. Refills of the IV. I want to know immediately if there's any change whatsoever in his condition. For now...that's all we can do."

Turning on her heel Phoenix went to the door, shrugging off her coat and mask as she went. Her urgency to see Dexter was now even greater.