Chapter 19: Messiah's Burden
POV: Adam
Adam's clinic stood besieged by desperate humanity that had transformed overnight into something resembling religious pilgrimage. Detection painted the nightmare in stark detail—two hundred signatures surrounding the building, thirty-seven infected among them in various stages of cordyceps progression. Hearts hammering with terror, hope, and the particular desperation that came from watching loved ones die slowly.
"His stamina could maybe handle five cures today. Two hundred demand miracles. Mathematics of triage becomes mathematics of choosing who dies."
The queue stretched three blocks, families clutching infected relatives like precious cargo that might save them from damnation. Children with runner bites less than six hours old. Adults with stalker infections spreading through their nervous systems. Elderly people whose bodies were already failing the fight against cordyceps that had learned to hunt specifically for Adam's enhanced abilities.
"I created this. Public demonstration of miracle cures. Now everyone believes I can save anyone, cure anything. Expectations that will kill me if I try to meet them."
Adam attempted systematic triage based on medical probability—early-stage infections first, where success rates remained highest. But families rioted at the implications of organized mercy.
"My daughter's dying too!" screamed Maria Santos, holding seven-year-old Ana whose bite had festered for three days. "Why does his kid go first?"
"We were here since dawn!" shouted Robert Chen, supporting his infected wife whose symptoms had progressed to aggressive episodes. "You can't just skip the line because someone's younger!"
Parents offered everything in voices that cracked with desperation: ration cards worth months of meals, weapons that meant protection in lawless world, sexual favors whispered through tears of shame, their own lives in exchange for their children's salvation.
Adam's horror at the desperation he'd created felt like nails driven into his enhanced consciousness. These people had built hope around abilities that couldn't sustain their collective need. He'd become false prophet promising resurrection to congregation too large for any mortal—or immortal—intervention.
Six cures over twelve hours pushed him past sustainable limits. ROOM encompassed patient after patient while Scan revealed infection progression and Amputate extracted cordyceps tissue with surgical precision. Counter Shock sterilized wounds. Each success built expectation while depleting stamina reserves that couldn't regenerate fast enough.
By evening, exhaustion hit like physical collapse. Stamina depleted, hands shaking, Detection flickering between accurate perception and hallucination born from overused enhancement. He had to turn away remaining patients whose infected relatives screamed accusations of betrayal that would haunt enhanced memory with perfect clarity.
"False messiah. Promising salvation I can't deliver to everyone who needs it."
Tess forced clinic closure at gunpoint, literally standing between Adam and desperate families who would have torn him apart for refusing to perform more miracles. Her protection came through violence threatened against people seeking help for dying loved ones.
"Enough," she said, voice carrying authority that brooked no argument. "He's done. Come back tomorrow."
"Tomorrow my son will be dead," Maria Santos replied, clutching Ana whose infection had progressed visibly during the long wait.
"Then I'm sorry for your loss. But killing the only person who might save others won't bring your son back."
The mathematics of compassion in apocalyptic world: save who you can, watch others die, live with choices that defined survival through selection rather than universal salvation.
POV: Captain Rodriguez
FEDRA surveillance reports escalated through military command with efficiency that prioritized valuable assets over individual privacy. Captain Rodriguez studied documentation that read like science fiction made manifest: miraculous healing, impossible combat abilities, spatial manipulation that violated physics.
"The miracle worker. Asset designation: Priority Alpha. Acquisition recommended through any means necessary."
Orders received through encrypted channels carried weight of military necessity: acquire the subject for biological research. Understanding his abilities could revolutionize medical treatment, enhance soldier capabilities, provide advantages that might tip balances in humanity's struggle against extinction.
But complications mounted with each intelligence report. Firefly protection meant military confrontation with terrorist organization that commanded significant local support. Public adoration created civilian unrest if subject was detained against will. Documented combat abilities suggested extraction would cost lives that military couldn't afford to lose.
"Soft approach first. Official recruitment. Make him want to cooperate before forcing compliance."
Rodriguez's genuine belief that Adam could help humanity mixed with zero regard for individual autonomy that might interfere with military objectives. Good intentions paved roads to places that enhanced abilities couldn't heal.
The invitation delivered through official channels carried weight of authority disguised as request: report to FEDRA medical research division for consultation. Voluntary cooperation appreciated. Mandatory compliance ensured.
POV: Adam
The summons arrived with morning ration delivery, official documentation that transformed request into veiled threat. Detection read the delivery soldier's elevated stress—orders received that no one wanted to enforce but couldn't safely refuse.
"Cooperate or be detained. Choice between willing participation and forced compliance."
Adam's enhanced senses painted Captain Rodriguez's intentions with clarity that left no room for misunderstanding: genuine belief that Adam's abilities could benefit humanity, combined with institutional mindset that viewed individual rights as obstacles to overcome rather than principles to respect.
"They see weapon. Tool. Asset. Not person with autonomy to choose how abilities are used."
POV: Werner
Hidden among crowd of desperate families, Werner observed with scientific fascination that transcended ethical considerations. Six successful cures before exhaustion suggested finite energy reserves. Enhanced abilities operated within biological parameters that could be measured, understood, potentially replicated.
"Blood samples insufficient for replication. Need fresh material during active ability use. Must plan acquisition strategy that captures subject at peak enhancement."
Watching from shadows, Werner documented everything: duration of procedures, visible signs of fatigue, recovery patterns between surgeries. The anomaly's biology held secrets that could transform human survival in post-outbreak world.
But time was running short. His own early-stage infection progressed despite attempts at self-medication. Cordyceps threaded through his system with patient inevitability, countdown to transformation that only the anomaly's abilities could prevent.
"Desperation makes monsters of everyone. Including scientists who once believed in ethical research."
Adam's Detection swept the crowd, enhanced senses searching for threats that might be hiding among desperate families. Werner ducked behind grieving mother, using her anguish as camouflage against supernatural perception that could expose carefully planned observation.
Malevolent signature lost in ocean of suffering. But plans continued developing in mind that ran calculations of survival versus morality, finding morality increasingly expendable.
POV: Adam
Night found Adam on clinic rooftop, Detection mapping Boston QZ's heartbeats like constellation of suffering that stretched beyond his ability to heal. Fifty thousand lives pulsing with need that exceeded any individual's capacity to address, no matter how enhanced their abilities.
"So many lives. So much suffering. I could save some but not all. Mathematics of impossible choice."
Tommy joined him, understanding burden through partnership that transcended factional loyalty or personal agenda. "Can't save everyone."
Adam's hollow laugh carried no humor, only recognition of truth that felt like admission of failure. "I know. Doesn't make it hurt less."
"Then save who you can and live with the rest. That's all anyone can do."
Tommy's hand on shoulder provided solidarity from someone who understood weight of choosing who lived through violence necessary for survival. But even acceptance felt inadequate against scale of need that surrounded them.
Down below, infected woman screamed for cure Adam couldn't provide without destroying himself through exhaustion that would prevent helping others. Her death would join hundreds in enhanced memory that catalogued every failure with perfect clarity.
"Crown of thorns. Marlene warned me. But thorns draw blood from everyone wearing them, not just messiah who accepts impossible expectations."
The burden of being unique in world that demanded uniqueness spread beyond individual suffering to encompass everyone whose hopes rested on abilities that couldn't sustain collective need. False prophet promising resurrection to congregation too large for any salvation.
But tomorrow would bring new patients, new desperate families, new impossible choices between competing needs for limited miracles. Mathematics of compassion continued despite personal cost that threatened to break enhanced psychology designed for different world.
Adam closed his eyes and tried to pretend the screaming would stop. It never did.
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