Ryan felt his chest crushing inward as his torso began to reconform to the barrel shape of a wolf's torso. His
skin itched terribly as gray hairs began sprouting all over to cover him in fur. There was a popping sound as
vertebrae added to his spine and pushed a hole through his pants. He was growing a tail. He felt his teeth
aching as they were reabsorbed into his gums. His and nose thrust forward to form a snout. His hands clenched
in pain as the joints reconfigured themselves to form paws. Next the pain struck his feet. He shifted his feet
to his knees, and then spasmed as the knee joints changed. He was thrashing around on his back. His vision
blanked for a moment then everything was monochrome. In the end he emerged from behind the feeding station
leaving his shredded clothing, his long tongue was hanging out of his fanged mouth. His ears perked up. He
could hear voices and footsteps approaching.
He looked around, the two real wolves lay sleeping still. He was surprised. He sniffed the air, he could
smell Jeremy's scent mixed with wolf scent. He must be behind that concrete boulder still changing, thought
Ryan.
He could hear the word wolves spoken by the approaching voices, and he listened carefully.
"Dr. Ames, are you sure those wolves have to be put down?"
"I'm sorry, but rabid wolves must be put down. It can spread to other animals and the deaths due to rabies
are slow and painful. You're sure that there are only two rabid wolves? None of the other wolves are
infected?"
"No, sir. I tranquilized the two wolves that had been attacked and bitten by the rabid squirrel, and put them
in this enclosure away from the other wolves."
No wonder they did wake when we touched them thought Ryan.
"I thought you could give them rabies vaccine like for people?"
"It exists for humans, but we don't have any for wolves. We could experiment, but I doubt it would be worth
developing. How often does someone need to cure rabies in a wolf?"
"Ah, here we are," the attendant said opening a viewing window in the steel door. He saw Ryan standing and the
two other wolves still sleeping. He shouted, "Idiots! Someone put another wolf in the enclosure. Thank
goodness the rabid ones are still tranquilized."
"If there's more wolves in there, they will probably have to be destroyed too," the doctor said, "Do you have
a tranquilizer gun?"
Ryan turned and bolted for the boulder where Jeremy was.