Chapter 10: The Immunity Question
POV: Adam
Detection alerted him to an impossible signature approaching his clinic—a child's biology reading as infected yet functioning normally. Eight years old, heart rate elevated but steady, accompanied by an adult female whose anxiety practically radiated through his enhanced senses.
Adam's medical knowledge and game lore collided like opposing trains in his consciousness. Natural immunity existed—Ellie proved it would be possible. But that shouldn't manifest for years yet, not until the timeline reached its canonical progression.
Unless his presence had changed something fundamental.
The mother knocked with controlled desperation, the careful rhythm of someone who'd learned that survival depended on not attracting unwanted attention. When Adam opened the clinic door, he found a woman in her thirties holding the hand of a boy whose eyes held intelligence that should have been impossible.
"Are you the surgeon?" she asked quietly. "The one who can help when no one else can?"
"Depends what kind of help you need."
"My son Marcus was bitten three days ago." Her voice cracked despite obvious efforts at control. "He should be... he should be gone by now. But he's still here. Still himself."
Adam's hands shook as he gestured them inside, mind racing through implications that rewrote everything he thought he understood about this world's timeline.
Marcus Chen—Detection provided his full identity—sat on the examination table with the patience of a child who'd learned that adults' fear meant his cooperation was essential. The bite mark on his left arm was clearly visible: four puncture wounds where Runner teeth had penetrated skin and muscle.
Cordyceps growth patterns were obvious under medical examination—fungal threads spreading from the wound site in characteristic infection progression. But they were dormant, held in stalemate by immune responses that shouldn't exist.
"Tell me what happened," Adam said, activating Scan to examine the boy's cellular activity in real-time.
"We were scavenging in the outer sectors," Marcus's mother—Dr. Lisa Chen, also provided by Detection—explained. "Runner came out of nowhere. Bit him before I could react."
"But you're still you," Adam said to Marcus directly. "How do you feel?"
"Weird," the boy replied with eight-year-old honesty. "Like there's something in me that doesn't belong. But it's not fighting anymore."
Scan revealed the impossible truth: Marcus's immune system had achieved battlefield stalemate with cordyceps infection. Not Ellie's complete immunity that rejected the fungus entirely, but something new—coexistence between parasite and host that left both functioning.
The child's mutated immune cells had learned to contain cordyceps without destroying it. The infection remained present but controlled, like a permanent ceasefire between opposing armies. His body had discovered balance between human biology and fungal enhancement.
"This rewrites everything. If natural immunity is developing earlier than expected, if his presence is accelerating evolutionary pressures that create beneficial mutations..."
"And Fireflies would dissect him to understand it."
Adam's hands trembled as he completed the examination. Marcus Chen was living proof that immunity was possible, that cordyceps infection didn't have to mean death or transformation. But he was also an eight-year-old boy whose existence would make him the most valuable research subject in the world.
"Doctor?" Dr. Chen prompted, reading tension in his posture.
"He's stable," Adam said carefully. "The infection isn't progressing. But he's also not truly immune—more like the condition is being held in check."
"Can you cure him?"
The question that would define everything. Adam could remove the infection entirely with surgical precision, eliminating evidence of Marcus's immunity while preserving his life. Or he could leave the stalemate intact, preserving proof of immune response while making the boy a target for every faction seeking advantage.
"I need to think about this," Adam said finally. "There are... complications."
POV: Dr. Chen
She watched the surgeon's face cycle through expressions she recognized from her own medical training—excitement at discovering something impossible, horror at understanding implications, calculation weighing options that all carried terrible costs.
"What complications?" she pressed, though part of her already knew the answer.
"Your son represents hope. Proof that immunity is possible. But hope makes people do desperate things." His voice carried weight of experience dealing with desperate factions. "There are groups that would take him. Study him. Use him."
"Use him how?"
"To make vaccines. To understand immunity. To replicate his condition in others." Each word fell like stones into still water. "Medical research in the QZ isn't governed by ethics committees."
Dr. Chen's medical background filled in details he didn't say. Vivisection without anesthesia. Organ harvesting while conscious. Experiments that treated children like laboratory specimens instead of human beings.
"What do you recommend?"
The surgeon—Adam, though she sensed that wasn't his original name—studied Marcus with eyes that held centuries of exhaustion despite his apparent age.
"I can remove the infection completely. Your son lives normally, but evidence of his immunity disappears forever."
"And the alternative?"
"We hide him. Protect the secret while studying how his immunity works. Try to understand it without exploiting it."
She looked at Marcus, who was examining medical instruments with eight-year-old curiosity about how everything worked. Her son, who'd survived impossible odds through biological miracle that could save humanity or doom him to become humanity's test subject.
"If you remove it, no one else could benefit from studying his immunity."
"If I don't remove it, he becomes target for people who'd kill him to understand it."
The choice every parent in the apocalypse faced daily: protect your child or protect the future. Sacrifice the many for the few, or sacrifice the few for the many. Marcus deserved childhood, safety, the chance to grow up normal. But his immunity could lead to vaccines that saved millions.
"Remove it," she decided. "He's my son first. Scientific breakthrough second."
POV: Adam
ROOM erupted around Marcus in the blue sphere of surgical precision, thirty feet of space where reality bent to Adam's will. The boy's eyes widened with wonder rather than fear as medical instruments moved without hands touching them.
"This is gonna feel weird, not hurt," Adam warned, using the same phrase he'd developed for every impossible surgery. "Like something cold moving through your body."
Two hours of meticulous work followed. Scan revealed every cordyceps thread spreading through Marcus's bloodstream, every mutation in immune cells that had achieved the impossible balance. Amputate extracted fungal tissue with precision that left healthy cells untouched. Counter Shock sterilized infection sites while promoting healing.
But Adam preserved samples. Cordyceps tissue that showed signs of controlled coexistence. Immune cells that had learned to contain infection rather than destroy it. Evidence that could lead to vaccines—if studied carefully by researchers who understood ethics.
Technically, Marcus wasn't immune anymore. But his body remembered the fight, retained cellular patterns that had achieved victory through stalemate. Knowledge preserved even as immediate danger was eliminated.
"It's done," Adam said as ROOM collapsed and normal physics resumed. "The infection is gone. Your son is cured."
Dr. Chen wept gratitude while Marcus examined his arm where healthy skin had replaced infected tissue. Another medical miracle that would become whispered legend in Boston's underground.
"Tell no one about this," Adam extracted the promise from both of them. "Leave Boston if possible. Go somewhere people won't ask questions about miraculous recoveries."
They agreed, understanding that survival often depended on anonymity. Another family that would disappear into smuggling networks, carrying secrets that could change everything.
But as they departed through hidden passages, Adam wondered: had he saved one child or doomed humanity by hiding potential cure research? The preserved samples might lead to vaccines eventually. But immediate protection had taken priority over theoretical benefit.
POV: Tess
She noticed the changes first in small things—Adam hiding medical supplies, unusual tensions with Marlene, the way his Detection seemed more focused lately. Three weeks of growing suspicion crystallized into confrontation when she found lab equipment he couldn't explain.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Adam's attempt at deflection was transparently false. Partners knew each other's lies, especially after months of survival depending on mutual honesty.
"Some secrets keep people safe," he said finally, which wasn't denial but also wasn't explanation.
The phrase stung worse than outright deception. Tess had built their partnership on equal sharing—risks, rewards, information. Now he was rationing truth like medical supplies, deciding what she needed to know.
"I trust you," she said, though hurt leaked through despite efforts at control. "But secrets have shelf lives. Eventually they rot and poison everything around them."
She walked away before he could offer explanations that wouldn't satisfy anyway. Trust had been damaged, not destroyed, but relationships in the apocalypse operated on narrower margins than peacetime allowed.
Behind her, Detection probably tracked her elevated heart rate and stress responses. He'd know she was upset, know the partnership was strained. Whether he'd choose truth over protection remained to be seen.
Some secrets did keep people safe. But they also built walls between those who needed each other most.
POV: Adam
Marcus Chen and his mother vanished into Boston's underground network the same night, carried to safety by smuggling routes Tess had arranged despite their strained relationship. Her loyalty proved stronger than hurt feelings, though trust would need rebuilding.
Adam watched them disappear into tunnels that led to freedom, wondering whether he'd chosen correctly. The samples he'd preserved might lead to vaccines in controlled research environments. But immediate protection had taken priority over theoretical benefit.
"Did I save one child or doom humanity? There's no way to know until the future catches up with consequences."
Detection showed Marlene's growing suspicions in the way she studied his medical supplies, tracked his activities, calculated his usefulness versus the security risk he represented. Questions would come eventually—better to prepare answers that satisfied curiosity without revealing dangerous truths.
First immunity case hidden from those who'd weaponize it. But not the last he'd encounter, if his presence was accelerating beneficial mutations throughout the population. The timeline was changing in ways he couldn't predict or control.
Marcus Chen would grow up human, normal, safe. His immunity remained theoretical knowledge rather than practical target. Another child saved, another future changed, another butterfly effect spreading through the world like ripples from stones dropped in still water.
The Prophet's warnings echoed: "You weren't in Her plan."
No. But maybe that was the point. Maybe the plan needed changing.
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