—
As the both of them approached the lonesome building in the distance, Reya glanced around their surroundings.
For one, the lab was quite big due to it formerly being used as a center for other feral research— led by Evonie's father. However, with his death, it had long been left to be under Evonie's maintenance and care.
And so, she had been left with a large lab filled with research equipment, all for herself.
Quite a neat place…
Secondly, it was quite secure, with the chance of a feral getting inside being very unlikely. With multiple layers of gates and authorization needed to get past some areas, even a normal human wouldn't find it worthy to get through, let alone a feral.
"Ev, have you considered opening this place for other scientists again? Besides, aren't you barely one yourself?"
Evonie, busy with unlocking the gates and getting through the padlocks, shook her head and spoke with a flat tone.
"Nah, I only research here every other day. If I were to have other scientists, I'd need to come over more often, which I'd rather not."
Evonie paused for a moment, turning her head to stare at Reya directly.
"And for your information, I already have experience in researching. My father had trained me from the very moment I could do the basics."
Reya hummed in acknowledgement at Evonie's reply.
After a while, they had finally entered the lab. Reya glanced around, taking note of the areas they were walking by.
As they walked into a room, Reya saw Evonie drape a pristine-white lab coat over her clothes. She followed Evonie into a room, where she was asked to sit. While Evonie was setting up, Reya took the time to look around the place.
She often accompanied Evonie to the lab in order to fight off any ferals on the way there, but rarely had she actually watched Evonie at work, let alone be the one being researched.
Her eyes lingered on a shelf a few steps away. She walked over to it and scanned through some books.
They were mostly just reference books, of course. Pretty basic.
Biology, chemistry, research tools, old experiment data. Nothing really stood out.
However, as she snooped further, she saw an odd book. It didn't have a fancy cover, design, synopsis, or even a title. Despite that, it did seem like it was used quite regularly. It looked like a plain, empty journal. She pulled out the book and opened the first page to see familiar handwriting.
"Personal Observations of Atypical Infection Progression—"
Just as Reya was about to read the rest, Evonie grabbed the book from Reya's hands and tossed it into a drawer.
"Don't mess with the research data."
Reya, a bit startled, took a second to come down from her surprise. She couldn't help but flinch when Evonie had appeared and snatched the book from her hands…
What's with the defensiveness?
Still, Evonie impatiently pulled Reya back to sit on the chair. She had set down a small field with multiple little tools. Reya noticed the needles, vials, and sharp knives— so she raised an eyebrow.
"Are these sterile?"
Evonie, putting on some gloves, looked up calmly.
"Mhm. I know how to work with these."
"Tch. You better."
Evonie started first with the needle. After spending a moment to prep Reya's arm and find a suitable vein, she managed to get a blood draw going. Reya, absentmindedly staring at the needle, was called back to attention by Evonie.
"Can you not stare at your blood so intently? It's… off-putting."
Reya furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head up to look at Evonie.
"What's wrong with it? It's better than me being scared of the needle."
She saw Evonie pause for a few more moments as she thought carefully.
"Fair enough. I'd rather a peculiar but cooperative patient."
After filling up a small pouch, Evonie removed the attachments from Reya's arm and placed a band-aid on the small wound.
"I'm done with drawing out the blood, you can stay there while I fix some things up."
Reya nodded, leaning back on her chair as she watched Evonie move about.
Evonie had placed the pouch on a clean counter and began preparing some slides in order to use them in a microscope.
Reya stood up to go and walk around the lab. Leaving Evonie to work alone, she took an interest in the messy papers and books on another counter. A good chunk of the lab was a bit messy, probably the work of past scientists that will no longer will resume their work. At least, not in this specific lab.
She glanced at the newer papers. As she made her way to them, she noticed some sketches and handwritten notes. Picking up a page on top of the stack, she felt an interest in the contents as she began reading.
—
FERAL RESEARCH NO#10: GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
Origins
-While unknown, it is believed to have stemmed from a pathogen and works by infecting normal humans. The first cases of infection began mid-2032.
Appearance
-Ferals are almost indistinguishable from normal humans to a certain extent. However, an infected person's tendencies usually result in specific differences. Early stages of infection may include dark eye bags from lack of sleep, a malnourished or haggard appearance, and in later stages— mutilation from violent tendencies.
Symptoms
-Patients often complain of non-stop visions and hallucinations, as well as voices. While their hallucinations differ from one another, it is often in relation to personal trauma or fears. Most individuals are tormented by such thoughts, until their behavior resembles that of a person that has "lost their mind."
Behavior
-After an individual "gives up," their behavior completely changes. Now officially a feral, they often show unpredictable patterns in behavior. They are drawn to human populations and attack with extreme strength and speed at their target. Current studies show ferals completely unreceptive to pain at this stage, suggesting a similarity to a "zombie." Many survivors say that they had to incapacitate the feral through severing limbs or through other extreme methods.
Attacking
-Ferals attack humans by biting, inflicting severe scratches, and other such methods that use brute force. One report recounts a feral that had repeatedly bashed a victim's head into a wall, resulting in the victim's death.
Infection
-Ferals often kill humans with their ways of attack. However, a group of humans that encounter a feral have a higher chance of surviving the encounter versus those that are alone. In every few cases of survivors, while some manage to survive the initial attack, a small minority gets infected and thus may turn into a feral. This is due to having contact with a feral's blood. The victim either has infected blood make contact with their wounds, or directly ingesting the blood.
Final notes
-Many of this research is new and may have more information added in future studies.
This study is in courtesy of: Dr. Hugo Laurent
—
Reya sighed, her eyes lingering on the last few strokes of ink.
So, this study was conducted by Ev's father?
Regarding the other contents of the paper, she was quite familiar with them. All the information on this paper had been released to the public 3 years ago. The problem was— the most vital information that she was looking for hadn't been on this paper.
So what about individuals who were attacked and bitten, but survived? Would they get infected?
Reya paused, trying to think logically.
Well, if there was information about that, I guess Ev wouldn't be doing research about it right now.
She reached out a hand to flip through some other papers, trying to find some other information. However, her time was cut short when Evonie had called out for Reya.
Reya turned around slowly to see Evonie staring at her a few counters away.
"Hey, don't mess up the papers there too much. I still use those. Anyway, get over here. I'll tell you about a few of my finds."
Reya glanced one last time at the papers behind her, before walking over to Evonie. Evonie gestured for her to glance through the microscope, and so she did.
—