The Claire Project

Chapter 13

The next morning, however, Dr. Weiss sent him in to record Claire's vitals. When he entered her room, she turned her head toward the motion, but this time she did not bring her eyes up to his face. Finding him of no apparent interest, she turned her head away from him again, staring at the wall in front of her as he recorded her blood pressure and pulse rate. He talked to her quietly anyway, explaining what he was doing as if she were an actual human patient, maybe only because he found this kind of talk comforting to himself. But he was relieved it seemed as if all had returned to normal with her because he still wasn't sure what to make of her strange behavior from the other night.

Dr. Weiss was prepping to give Claire the first injection of the serum they had prepared that afternoon. Will was in one of the rooms down the hall when Weiss went in to do it, and his attention was startled away from the notes he had been taking when he heard the commotion from the other room.

It sounded like an animalistic growl, high-pitched, but fiercely angry. Will could scarcely be sure of what he was hearing, it sounded so out of place in their laboratory. But then he heard Dr. Weiss's authoritative voice commanding, "Now, Claire!", as if she were speaking to a disobedient toddler.

Will got up from his spot immediately to see what the problem was. "Claire!" Weiss was saying, sounding even more distressed now, "Remain still! Stop that at once!"

Claire had backed herself against the wall of the small room, moving herself further away with each step Weiss took at her. She growled a warning, her angelic brow furrowed in anger and baring her teeth at Weiss, who took no heed of the warning. When Weiss had backed her into the corner of the room with nowhere else to go, Claire let out a true deafening scream, swinging her arms wildly in Weiss's direction in fight.

Weiss realized now what Will had come in behind her. She turned to him, looking rather exasperated, "This behavior, it's some sort of flaw in the model. Think nothing of it. We must subdue her."

He had never seen Dr. Weiss so perturbed, nervous even. She took another step toward Claire, syringe still in hand. Claire uttered a long, drawn-out high-pitched noise and then she leapt rather athletically over the cot in the room, crossing to the opposite corner. She eyed Will only briefly, as if considering whether or not to take her chances by moving at him instead as he blocked the only exit to the room, but she must have decided against it. Instead, she cowered in the corner like a scared animal, still issuing a low warning sound.

For a moment no one moved, and Will was surprised at the amount of anger that had now crept into the expression on Weiss's face, making her even more terrifying than usual. She looked now as if she were about to lunge at Claire with the needle at any moment. Will glanced between her and Claire, strongly feeling the need to intervene.

"Dr. Weiss?" he tried, "May I? Let me try to give her the injection."

Weiss took so long to consider this that at first Will thought she would say no, but then she wordlessly nodded and handed him the syringe. He took it and then, making up his mind, asked Weiss, "Would you try leaving the room for a moment?"

Weiss regarded him with a hint of suspicion, but decided to allow it. "As you wish," she said, and took leave.

Now Will looked at Claire, who locked eyes with him in a challenging stare, her chest heaving from exertion. "I don't want to hurt you, Claire," he said to her soothingly. Then he sunk down into the single vinyl-upholstered chair in the room and sighed.

He stared at the ground thoughtfully and began thinking out loud, talking as much for his own benefit as Claire's as he tried to make sense of what had just transpired, "You don't want this injection. But why? I've seen Veldin give you other injections, and you've never behaved this way," he pondered, looking down at the syringe in his hand, "So why reject this one now? I know this injection won't harm you. And this research, surely if you could understand what it means for all of humanity, how important it was, you would comply."

He looked up at her now, still feeling rather thoughtful, and found that Claire's expression had also softened. She tilted her head at him as if in question, but what was perhaps even more disturbing about this, as if she could understand him. And now, Will wondered. He wondered many things.

He glanced down at the syringe in his hand again, his mind whirling with several chains of thought simultaneously, but the most prominent one was about what the research meant to him. Claire seemed to have calmed down now, so he thought he'd take a chance with her. "Will you let me give you this injection?" he asked, very nicely, and then he waited patiently for her permission before making any movement.

Claire watched him for only a short moment longer and then she seemed to have decided, because she took a shuffling step toward him and held out her arm compliantly. Will injected her with the serum.