A Month with Werewolves by K Matthew Page B

confined shift yesterday. A bit later
today, the medical team will come collect him for further
processing before he is released into the reservation.” He raised
his voice then. “You came at a good time. You'll get to see Chris's
introduction into the Blackfoot pack tomorrow. That should give you
some good material.”
    I nodded, staring into the boy's nervous
looking blue eyes, which avoided us at all costs. He was
attractive, with shaggy sandy blonde hair and a tan complexion. The
longer I gazed upon him, the more I could feel my cheeks growing
warm, and I was never happier when John indicated that he was ready
to move on with the tour.
    The next building that he took me to was
right across from the first. It was about the same size, though it
was divided differently, with a viewing area in the front
separating an expansive room in the back. It looked like a typical
interrogation room that you would see in the movies except for that
the walls were marred with deep claw marks.
    “This is the shifting room. We bring the
detainees here during the full moon to monitor their shift. If they
turn, then we leave them here until the next morning, at which
point we continue with their processing. If they stay here all
night and do not shift, we release them back into the general
public the following day,” John explained.
    “How often have you detained someone by
mistake?” I asked curiously, imaging how ticked off the innocent
person would be to have been put through such a process.
    “It's only happened a handful of times. Most
of the time, the werewolves are easily enough to detain. The ones
that have been turned through a bite usually give themselves away
when they end up at the hospital or the doctor's office for it.
Werewolf bites are almost always severe enough for the person to be
forced to seek medical attention. For those that don't contract the
disease through a bite, after their first shift, they typically are
reported by a person who has either seen them shift or has
witnessed them in wolf form. Werewolves are about four times the
size of a normal wolf, so there's no question about the
difference.”
    “Interesting. Are more werewolves detained in
cities or in the country?”
    “Most of the ones we've detained have lived
in small country towns. There have been a couple we have detained
from the city. Most of those stories you've seen on the news. We
estimate that the majority of free roaming werewolves probably live
in rural areas however, secluded, and as far away from civilization
as possible to avoid detainment. Shall we go inside?” He gestured
to the door that led to the containment area, which was made of
thick steel.
    “Yes, please,” I replied before snapping a
few pictures of the viewing area.
    “As you can see, we use a one way mirror to
do our observations.” He pointed to the long panel that we had been
gazing through in the other room.
    There wasn't much to see. Just a table and a
chair, typical of a regular interrogation room. I imagined that it
must be horrible to be locked up inside, waiting for the full moon
to rise with no indication as to when it was coming. This must be
one of the scarier parts of the processing.
    When I was done taking pictures, we moved on
to the next building, which was a small medical facility. There
were two examination rooms, one used for staff and the other for
the detained werewolves. The two set ups were almost identical
except for that in the werewolf examination room, all the supplies
and tools were removed. John said that it was for the protection of
the medical staff.
    Behind the examination rooms was a much
larger surgery suite. It looked well equipped to handle most of
what the reservation had to throw at them. John stood behind the
operating table with his hand resting on the thick blue
cushion.
    “When someone is detained under the suspicion
of possessing the lycanthropy disease, they are brought to the
medical facility for a full-on evaluation of