With a Taste of a Poison Paradise

Jayr POV - Earth, Georgia, Center for Disease Control and Prevention - 2010

I wake up and greet the second day of living in the C.D.C. by going through the usual routine of doing some "basic" physical exercises which are mostly composed of taking straining poses while forcefully vibrating all the muscles of my body that while not as effective as training in ultra-high gravity, it is at least good enough to warm up my body and improve slightly the strength and flexibility of my muscles. 

Once I'm done with my morning exercises, I have a cold shower to cool down my muscles and wash away the sweat and then, I quickly dress up and head toward the cafeteria to start preparing breakfast for the group on my own, at least until some other people arrive and start to give a hand.

During breakfast, I have some small talk with the people of the group, finally learning the names and a bit more of the lives of the 12 from Atlanta's survival camp who should have died in the nightly walker attack, but who survived thanks to my presence.

There are 12 people in total who survived that fateful night, 5 women, 5 men, and the remaining 2 are kids.

Their names are Sofya, Almast, Nina, Kim, Lauren, Daniel, Ruben, Robert, Rakesh, Paul, Stepan, and Ana.

Sofya is a Caucasican woman with graying hair and brown eyes in her 50s, she is the grandmother of Stepan, a young boy with blonde hair and hazel eyes that is only 7 years old, unfortunately they are the only ones left alive in their family. 

Meanwhile, Almast is a lot more fortunate, she is a Slavic woman in her early 30s with long blonde hair and blue eyes and she is together with her husband Ruben, a bald Slavic man in his mid 30s with equally blue eyes and their daughter Ana, a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that is only 8 years old, they are quite quiet but do not hesitate to lend an hand when needed.

After them, I got to know Daniel, a slim African American young man with black hair and brown eyes in his 20s, he is an orphan and dreamed of becoming a photographer before the end of the world, he is a bit of a coward and easily break apart under pressure, it was easy to see how he didn't survive in the original timeline, even so, he is a good person and tries to help however he can but I also notice that he is very focused on another person in the group and it is clear that he is very interested in her.

The one I'm talking about is Nina, a short young Caucasican woman with curly brown hair and green eyes in her early 20s, that while she isn't as beautiful as Amy, she is still quite charming and is definetily a timid person, but maybe the reason for that is because she lost all her family at the start of the outbreak and she is now alone with a group of mostly strangers to which she still has to warm-up to. 

Talking about Amy, she too has a not so secret admirer in the form of Paul, a Caucasican young man who appears to be in his late 20s, he has messy black hair, brown eyes, full beard and a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

He was a salesman for an electronics store before the apocalypse, and there is nothing that is particularly exceptional about him, the kind of guy you met on the street and forget about the very next moment, he is overall a very average guy, but at least he is a funny dude and is able to confront a walker if forced to.

Then there is Kim, she is a young Caucasian woman who appears to be in her late 20s, she has long natural red hair and blue eyes and she also worked as a saleswoman, only different from Paul, she worked in a cosmetic store and to put it bluntly and in plain terms, she is mostly useless at the moment.

Kim isn't able to cook, doesn't have the courage to fight, nor the capacity or patience to look after the more vulnerable people like the elderly or the kids, the only thing she can do at the moment is some menial jobs, on top of that, she easily panics when in a dangerous or difficult situation and very prone to crying, screaming, and complain.

Basically, she is the pig teammate in any survival situation and the only reason she is still alive is because of the goodwill of the group and the fact that she isn't really a Karen or an unpleasant person overall, she does want to help in any way she can it is just that her talents mostly lie in areas that are useless in the current setting, in shorts, she is a charisma based character.

The last woman of this group is Lauren, she is a short and chubby Caucasian woman in her late 30s with mid-length black hair, hazel eyes, and thick-rimmed, colorful glasses, she is mostly amicable and tries to help however she can, even with fighting the walkers, she also has a quite strong personality. 

I swear that I have seen her down a walker by hitting its face with a slipper and today I learned that she mastered the use of such technique from her mother who learned from her grandmother and so on generation after generation, this means she comes from a long line of masters of the legendary art of throwing slippers and as such she must be respected and feared.

Her husband is Robert, an equally short Caucasican man in his early 40s with a noticiable belly beer, short graying black hair, brown eyes, and a clean shaved face, he too wears a pair of glasses with thick rims, but, different from his wife, his are plain blue. 

He is also a nice normal guy that tries to help the group however he can and his personality is a lot meeker than his wife, but that doesn't means that he is a coward as he doesn't hesitate to fight the walkers to protect his wife, the kids, and the group.

The last of these people is Rakesh, an Indian man in his 30s with short, curly black hair and dark brown eyes who was a taxi driver before the apocalypse started.

He isn't very mature, which makes him insecure, meek, and somewhat gullible.

But he has a quite friendly demeanor, and is able to make fast friends with basically everyone, in fact, I surprisingly found out that even Daryl's boorish, racist elder brother Merle had an almost friendly relationship with him this can be inferred from the fact that he didn't pick on or insulted him which is quite an accomplishment considering just what kind of guy Merle is at this time.

Rakesh also likes to talk, a lot, for example, he told me about how he became obsessed with winning the heart of a woman he liked, but that despite his efforts, his cousin won her heart over instead and he felt very bad about it, until one day he drank away his sorrow and in that intoxicated state he decided to follow the advice of another drunk person he met at the bar and kidnap his romantic rival with plans of killing him and dumping his body on the doorstep of the woman he loved. 

But before he could actually act on that foolish plan, the chaos started to spread everywhere as the dead started walking and attacking the living, not that he knew what was actually happening at the time, and he was scared by the chaotic situation unfolding all around him.

Rakesh jumped in his taxi and drove back to his apartment to secure himself, but before he could reach it, he ran over someone, in shock he got out to check on the victim only to look at the mangled figure of his cousin with a bloody bite mark on his neck, not that he take notice at the time as he was more focused on the love rival groaning on the ground.

Then Rakesh told me that after staring at his cousin's figure for a few moments he snapped and jumped back into the car, turned on the engine, and repeatedly ran over his love rival again and again before he drove out of the city to hide, at least he did so until he met with other people and fully learned what was happening and realized that he didn't actually murder his cousin but simply run over his reanimated corpse. 

Sometime after I talked with the people I still didn't know very well and we had our breakfast, I and the other quickly rushed to check the solar panel system one last time before I finally turned it on and then we all returned back to the control room and waited with bated breath for the result.

After a few moments, Dr. Jenner finally asks, "Vi... how is the energy status?" which makes the virtual intelligence instantly reply with its monotone voice, "The energy levels are quickly rising. The new solar panel system is generating much more energy than previously calculated. At this pace, the structure will become fully operational in 2h:17m:34s." 

Hearing that, everyone let out a huge sigh of relief before they all started to loudly cheer and celebrate.

"Hell yeah!"

"We did it!!"

"Thank god...!"

After celebrating for some time, most of the group leaves the control room to relax, do a few chores, or spend time with their friend or family leaving behind me, Dr. Jenner, Rick, Shane, and Daryl.

At this point, Dr. Jenner focuses on me and asks, "Now that the C.D.C. is up and running again and we finally are no longer constrained by time, can you tell me your hypothesis on the possible cure for the Wildfire Virus?"

Hearing that, I think for a few seconds about how to exactly express my ideas before I look back at Dr. Jenner and say, "First of all, I want to inform you that the idea I came up with is pretty drastic, rushed, and even rough as I didn't have any equipment to carefully study the virus, but even if the treatment itself is without the finesse I'd like it to have, I'm pretty confident on the effectiveness of the treatment I came up with."

Dr. Jenner's expression turns much more serious while Rick can't help himself from asking, "What do you mean with "drastic," "rushed," and "rough" exactly?"

In response, I smile wryly and confess, "It's pretty simple, it means that by itself the cure is just as deadly as the disease if not even more. Luckily, I also came up with a way to make the cure viable but even with that, I still need to take a few tests to make sure that everything works as intended." 

My reply makes Shane exclaim out loud, "You're fucking kidding me!?" followed by Daryl who chuckles and comments in a sarcastic tone, "Heh! That's a fucking brilliant idea, Doc. Just freaking kill everyone else too! With no one left alive then there won't be no disease to cure too!" 

At this point, Dr. Jenner is unable to hold his curiosity back any longer and exclaims with clear impatience and frustration in his tone, "Come on! Stop running around the issue and tell me clearly what is your idea for the cure! Even if it is as deadly as you say, if you can prove that it works, it would still be a huge jump forward in finding an effective cure! That's already much, much better than everything I've done until now!" 

At the same time, Rick focuses on Daryl and Shane and says, "Shut up, you two! Give time to Jayr to fully explain himself. Until now he never disappointed us. I think he has proved that he has more than earned the benefit of the doubt on our part."

Hearing all that, I smile slightly before I reveal, "I won't hold it on you guys any longer. The answer I came up with to deal with the Wildfire Virus is... Radiations."

In response to my revelation, Rick and Shane look at Dr. Jenner, who seems deep in thought, waiting for his response, meanwhile, the more impulsive Daryl exclaims, "Radiations!? The things that come out when a nuke goes off? Those radiations!? So your idea of a cure for this Wildfire Virus is to nuke the shit out of it? Are you shitting me!?"

Before I can further explain, Dr. Jenner's eyes open wide as he realizes what I mean by that and mutters out loud, "Radiotherapy..." before he looks at me and asks in shock, "You want to use radiotherapy to "kill" the Wildfire Virus!?"

Seeing the confusion on Shane, Rick, and Daryl's face, and the shock on Dr. Jenner's face, I calmly start to explain, "The Wildfire Virus is a latent viral infection that spreads via airborne transmission. This means that at its most basic form, the Wildfire Virus is a microscopic organism, a small germ, that can only infect a specific type of host, in this case, humans. No matter what their effects are, in the end, viruses are small pieces of genetic information, either DNA or RNA, inside of a protective shell called capsid. Another important feature is that viruses aren't made up of cells, so they don't have all the equipment that cells do to make more copies of themselves. Instead, they carry instructions with them and use a host cell's equipment to make more copies of the virus."

At this point, Daryl interrupts me and asks, "Can you speak English? I didn't understand a single thing about what you just said." which makes me explain the concept once more but in clearer terms, "It's like someone breaking into your house to use your kitchen. The virus brought its own recipe, but it needs to use your dishes, measuring cups, mixer, and oven to make it. Unfortunately, they usually leave a big mess when you finally kick them out."

Hearing that, Daryl nods and says, "Now it is much clearer! Couldn't you have said in such a way from the start?" followed by Dr. Jenner who chuckles and comments, "Heh... A big mess... Indeed, that is the right way to describe it. Even more so if we use something as destructive as radiotherapy to kick the virus out of the body."

In response to that, Shane can't hold himself from asking, "What do you mean with that?" followed by Rick who comments, "Radiotherapy... I already heard something like that. Isn't the thing that it is used to treat cancer, isn't it?"

Dr. Jenner glances at Rick, Shane, and Daryl and explains, "Radiation can interact with DNA directly and cause damage by breaking bonds in the DNA. It can also harm DNA indirectly by breaking water molecules surrounding the DNA. When these water molecules are broken, they produce unstable ions and other molecules that can damage cells and organs. Radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells or slow their growth by damaging their DNA. Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair stop dividing or die. When the damaged cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body." 

Before Daryl can complain, Dr. Jenner then adds, "If we use the same example that Dr. Pucci used before, it is as if instead of kicking out the virus that broke into your house, you kill it by burning it together with your house and if you are lucky the only things that are left are the ashes of the intruder and the burnt ruins of your house... and in this case the house is your body." before he looks at me and asks, "This is why I find difficult that Dr. Pucci would chose to use something that aggressive and dangerous as treatment? After all, it isn't a real cure but just the lesser of two evils. The treated person would die shortly after the treatment no matter what as the level of radiation needed to eliminate the virus from the whole body would be just way too lethal for anyone."

Hearing that, I nod and honestly admit, "You are absolutely right. I'm sure that if we use radiation then we would be able to completely eliminate the virus from the body, maybe even negate the effect of a bite. But just like you said the level of radiation needed to accomplish this would easily kill the patient."

In response to my admission, Daryl, Shane, Rick, and Dr. Jenner are about to speak up once again, but before they can do it, I raise my hand to stop them and continue, "But that is only in the treatment I came up with consists of only a simple, deadly radiotherapy."

Shortly after saying that, I take a moment to look at Shane, Daryl, Rick, and Dr. Jenner's hopeful faces before I start to explain, "The truth is that radiotherapy is only one of the steps of treatments I devised to deal with the Wildfire Virus and to be honest is the one I favor the least. After all, even if by some lucky coincidence we are able to remove the virus from a patient using that method, nothing stops him or her from getting infected once again which in turn will make the whole gambling process of going through radiotherapy useless." 

In response to my words, Dr. Jenner quickly exclaims, "That's completely right! How could I forget about that!? Even if we are able to eradicate the virus from a patient we won't be able to protect the patient from further exposure to the virus. This is simply a case of treating the symptoms without taking care of the root of the illness!"

Hearing Dr. Jenner's words, I nod and explain, "Indeed. To tell you the truth, I think that we should only use radiotherapy with patients who have been recently bitten by a walker, because if my calculations are right as long as a person bit is subjected to radiotherapy then we should be able to prevent him or her from turning into a walker."

Dr. Jenner quickly claps his hands and exclaims, "The bite! Of course! With the right dosage of radiation, we can kill off the virus before it becomes fully active and kills its host! Why didn't I think of that!"

At the same time, I continue to explain, "Of course, before we subject a patient to radiotherapy I want to administer them a chemical compound I come up with that will surely raise their chances to survive the irradiation by at least 80%"

Hearing that, Dr. Jenner can't help himself from exclaiming in shock, "What!!? Are you telling me that you have created a medicine that helps a patient survive such a high dosage of radiation!? How the hell I have never heard of something like that before!?"

In response to his question, I smile wryly and reply, "Well, I just didn't have the time to reveal it to the world... This is another one of many successful results of my research for a cure for cancer. As you said before radiotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells or slow their growth but it is still very dangerous for the patient and at the start of my research for a cure, I wanted to help the patients who were forced to use such treatment have a better chance of survival."

While I'm saying that, I'm actually thinking, 'I feel a little bad lying to them like that, but it isn't like I can say that I came up with this chemical compound in these 3 days I spent in this universe and that in addition a game, of all the things, gave me the idea of creating such a compound in the first place...'

Shortly after thinking and thinking that, I continued to explain with a small smile on my face, "The name I came up with for this revolutionary chemical compound is Rad-X a potent anti-radiation medicine that bolsters the user's natural radiation resistance. It is a preventative medicine for those intending to be subjected to strong radiation or even for those intending to enter areas with a heightened risk of radiation exposure. A dose can help you resist the effects of radiation as it can greatly reduce irradiation. I also made sure that, unlike most other medicines, Rad-X is addiction-free, making it perfectly safe to use without risking the chance of addiction. Furthermore, the duration can be stacked if multiple doses are taken at once. Most of the components needed to produce it are pretty common and can be easily found, but it also needs a very specific kind of pitcher plant, luckily I have some seeds with me so we can still grow it." 

Hearing that, Dr. Jenner hopefully asks, "Did you already test this Rad-X?" which makes me nod and say without any shame as I'm pretty confident in the chemical compound I created, even more so as I used my Incarnation to quickly create it and test it, "Yes, I have already thoroughly tested the Rad-X and it safely works as intended with it the patient can be subjected to a much higher dosage of radiation than usual and for a longer time before being negatively affected." 

Shortly after saying that, Dr. Jenner exclaims, "Good, Good! If the Rad-X is truly as effective as you say then the radiotherapy treatment will become a much safer option!"

At this point, Daryl can't stop himself from asking, "So, if I understood your freaking scientific munbo jumbo speech... Does that means that we don't have to fear the bites as much as before?" which makes Dr. Jenner nod and say, "In a certain sense it is true... If radiation therapy is effective in nullifying the effects of a bite as Dr. Pucci says then as long the person bit receives the treatment quickly enough then the person in question can be saved."

Hearing that, Rick let out a sigh of relief before he comments, "That is already quite good news..." followed by Shane who adds, "Indeed, what makes the walkers particularly scary to face is that a single small distraction or mistake can become fatal as you can die with a single wound. Take that away and the walker becomes a much easier opponent to face."

Shortly after they said that I decided to inform them, "Moreover, I also came up with another chemical solution that is able to clear the body of remaining radiation making the recovery from the radiation treatment even faster. I called it RadAway and it is a chemical solution that bonds with radioactive particles and removes them from the user's system. It is an intravenous drug that purges radiation from the user's body, absorbing radiation as it circulates through the user's bloodstream. It's also a potent diuretic, expelling the radiation with the user's urine, so it's advisable to drink a lot of water shortly after taking a dose. But it isn't completely painless as purging the body of radiation takes some time to complete, and using it can cause side effects, including nausea, diarrhea, stomach pains, and headaches. Just like the Rad-X, most of the ingredients needed to produce it are pretty common and easy to find, all but a special kind of fungus which is quite rare but again, with the right condition it can easily be cultivated." 

At this point, Dr. Jenner can't help but comment in awe, "You are truly one of the most brilliant minds I had the pleasure of encountering... It's a true shame that we didn't meet in better times..."

Hearing that, I smile a little before I say, "It is still too soon to say that, after all, I still haven't told you my crazy plan to actually eradicate the Wildfire Virus once and for all."

In response to my words, Dr. Jenner focused back on me and said, "That's right! You said you had a few ideas to cure the Wildfire Virus..."

I don't waste any more time and directly admit, "Indeed... I have a really bold idea on how to actually eradicate this virus. You see, in traditional medicine, there is a saying that in a few words means fighting poison with poison. Basically, it is the idea that sometimes to cure a poisoned patient you have to administer a stronger poison that will actually kill the first one before taking care of the second one. My idea behind the cure is the same, it is a virus that is causing all these problems then only another virus can deal with it, a very specific kind of virus... a virophage."