WWLD

Llidya Chapman · Amazon Lukoi

WWLD

Dr Malcolm Book · The Good Doctor

He wasn't in a nightmare of reliving having his heart ripped out again and again. But Malcolm's dreams were indeed strange. He was tied down to a bed with the double helix, and it kept splitting apart and joining with another double helix. At this time of change, he can almost escaped, for a half strand was surely not as strong as a double strand.

After a while he stopped struggling, and realized he could take control of his dreamstate, and the bands fell away. He was sitting at one of the tables in his lap, now both strands of the double helix floating in a nothingness in front of the table. They were just as wide as he, and constantly turning and rotating as they moved up. They looked decidedly different from one another, in such a way that Malcolm could not place.

"Homonus...lupine...homonus...lupine..." That wonderful sing song voice reached his ears, and he turned to see the lovely Bianca standing beside him, wearing nothing but a towel. Malcolm's eyes widened and he looked away even as her laughter spilled across the room. He chanced a peek back but the woman was gone, and he heaved a sigh.

"Homonus and lupine, you say?" He asked the nothingness that held the two strands. Then, just as before, they started splitting and rejoining. Ah! Werewolf dna. Interesting. Letters and numbers began to appear on the walls as he watched the interaction of the two.

"Really, the two shouldn't be interchangeable. It doesn't happen anywhere else in nature, does it?"

Malcolm turned to see himself standing there, clipboard in hand as he scribbled furiously. "What the bloody hell...?" He watched his other self look to him at the surprised statement.

"Now don't worry chap. We'll figure this out in no time. You and I, we're two of a kind." It was strange, as the sound of his voice sounded like his voice coming from his mouth, and not like he was actually listening to himself, which he had done before when giving lectures. But he knew he wasn't talking. "It's a disease, a virus. Or perhaps even a parasite hmm?"

"Well I've never thought of it-"

"Of course not. But I have you silly old fool." Malcolm watched his other self move to another table, still taking notes. "Now say the virus is individual to each strain, yes? The virus...or parasite. Hm, we'll call it virasite. At least until we know more-"

"A parasite is usually it's own multicell organism-"

"But, my dear boy, there's a first time for everything. Anything is possible."

"So the virasite-"

"Yes the virasite. Perhaps it's like rabies, but then rabies changes the chemical balance of the brain, so we'll scratch that off-"

"I've already been through all of this. It is entirely different, controlled by the lunar cycle, and there are ample other examples in nature of that sort. The base host is human, and the human DNA is still there even after the change to animal."

"You guys never think about the mitochondria." Malcolm looked from Malcolm #2 to see Bianca lying on his table, this time apparently covered in a silk sheet. His eyes widened once more, but then Chapman, Loke and Lexi were there, and all three picked her up to carry her off, like something out of a Three Stooges act. Loke glanced to him, a smile given. "Go ahead Mal. We'll get rid of the distraction for now."

"But-!"

"But nothing. She is a distraction." Malcolm looked sullen as he looked back to #2. "I wish Ryver were here."

"I'm always here." Mal turned to see him sitting on the stool next to him. "You'll figure something out. Maybe not a cure, but something. Did you know that at least ten percent of the population is immune to all forms of lycanthropy? And it's not just lycanthropy. It's all disease and virus. At least ten percent of the population will always have immunity to a certain disease. Perhaps you should find some of them."

"Brilliant suggestion! I say we should!" Malcolm looked back and forth between the two, wondering how they planned to do such a thing.

"And how do you plan to do such a thing mate?" Malcolm whirled to see Ash standing there, in his three peice suit, Boddington in hand. He lifted the beer for a drink, and Malcolm shrugged. His thoughts were still on what Bianca had said.

"Mitochondria."

"Yes, that's what she said."

"You d-don't think the virus saturates every single living cell in the body and the mitochondria flares up at every lunar cycle to m-mutate the individual c-cell, do you?" Now the good doctor was excited, as now, he thought he might be on to something.

"Why don't you come to bed?" Her voice floated through the air, but she was nowhere to be seen. But it didn't matter, she'd given him a splendid idea. "Not now!" He told the nothing, and then moved over to Malcolm #2's table to see his notes. Yes perhaps there was something to that!