Aberrant: Dead Rising - Doctor's Advice

[SalmonMax]

It wasn't long after the meeting Fox had to discuss relocation. A few days maybe. Myf hadn't counted. The confusion she'd felt then had gradually transformed to disbelief, and now a slowly spreading horror that numbed her fingers and toes. That tingling numbness felt like it was spreading now, up her arms and legs. As if her very soul were curling up into a tighter and tighter ball around her heart, abandoning the extremities to a world that it no longer wished to face.

She went to see Fox in the missile base, not even asking for an appointment this time.

When Fox and she were alone, she closed the door, then went to face Fox across his desk.

"I need to find some good news sometime," she remarked with a rueful smile. "Otherwise you're going to start hiding everytime I come visit. But the truth is that I've been meaning to talk to you about something for a little while now, but I keep finding excuses not to."

"I've been going over the notes Dr. Singh and I took as we treated the women from Paradise. Over five hundred women of fertile age, and all of them have suffered extensive physical and sexual abuse including rape. My first worry was not just seeing to their needs...which will be hard enough...but also that in three to six months we'll start seeing a lot of new births."

Myfwany grimaced and rubbed her chin. "What I discovered was much, much worse." Her expression turned bleak. "Of those five hundred women, only one got pregnant. That one is also a 'super.' Now, human fertility can be a tricky beast, but...that's statistically impossible under the circumstances, so I dug a little deeper."

She paused and shook her head. "I went over the records we've started to keep on patients from the Refuge. And...in the months since the Refuge began, with its swelling population of men and women sharing tents, there's been no pregnancies except among 'supers.' Not one."

When Myf looked up from Fox's desk to meet his eyes, her own eyes were red-rimmed. "It's not just soil and plants, Fox. It's us too. I'm not sure it matters where we go anymore. This may be the last generation of humanity."

[Mr Fox]

"Damn it!" Fox swore then quickly regained his composure. "I hadn't even thought of that possibility."

He stopped to think for a second then said, "So, do you think you can do the same thing for people that you do for plants? Because if not then the human race just went from thousands down to a couple dozen in a few years."

[SalmonMax]

"I don't know," Myf replied. "I don't think so. Plants are very simple, internally. I have a lot of power over them. A human body, even a human cell, is more complicated and more...controlled for want of a better word. Even when I heal, I'm more hurrying along a process that would take place on its own. I'm not really forcing anything to happen that normally wouldn't."

"But Fox, even if I can cause individual babies to be born, it's not enough. Not enough to save the species. I have my limits, and a few children born at a time just won't cut it."

She took a deep breath and plunged on. "I need a lab. I think the university that Gabrielle's set up in may be the best option. We haven't got time to wait for something like that to be custom built. Most major universities that have medical programs have at least the basics of what I need to start researching this."

"And we have to keep it quiet, Fox. As long as we can. Because the math is grim. Once people find out that normal men can impregnate 'super' women, but not the other way around, every female super will be at...well, they'll be at risk. Especially ones that don't have unusual strength like Violet." She didn't add or me, but it hung in the air anyway.

[Mr Fox]

It was grim alright. "Myf, I see that you are right. What I'm hoping though, and the reason I asked that question... I hope that once you've fixed a person then they will be fertile after that, so if you fix one woman a day every woman here in the refuge would be fertile again within a year. I'm also hoping that once you fix a woman her daughters in turn will be fertile, which would eliminate the issue." He didn't look as hopeful as he sounded, "That's a lot of hope on no evidence, but given your success with the crops, I have to hope that will be the case."

"Either way, we do need to find a better place and somewhere with a university is a damn good idea. I'm just not convinced yet that the town Gabrielle has settled is the right answer. One, people know where her enclave is and that Elijah sent out trojan horses in order to infect and destroy other enclaves. So we would always have to worry about reprisals if we settle there. Second, it is easily accessible for the RUS and we know they are hostile. It's also not very defensible. What I'd like to do is find another more defensible place a bit further from the RUS that has an equally good set up and University. Colorado Springs would be great, but I wouldn't be surprised to find an RUS enclave already in place given the Cheyenne Mountain Complex there. Bottom line is that there are great locations all over the former US that would meet our requirements and many of them would be much safer than Gabrielle's university, but you are absolutely right that we need someplace like that as a base. Hell, Jon's place would be great, there's a university right across the street from his lab, but of course it's just around the corner from where we are right now so that wouldn't buy us much for safety."

[SalmonMax]

"That's not even how the crops are working," Myfwany explained. "As it stands, I'm going to have to re-do what I did for every time we plant. I didn't fix the soil, I forced the seeds to grow. Given how human reproduction works, that's likely to be the case for this too. Whatever's wrong seems to be wrong with the female eggs...at least based on the very limited cases we have so far. But if I'm right then all the eggs would be affected the same way, meaning that just because one fertility was forced wouldn't mean anything else was fixed. But that's why I need a lab. To get more information."

"And...when I said the university Gabrielle's enclave has, I didn't necessarily mean for everyone here. I meant for me. At least temporarily. Until you've found a place. I'd take a radio, so if there was an emergency I could be 'on call.' But I can't drag my feet on this, Fox. When this news blows, and it will sooner or later, we need something to tell people or you'll have complete chaos on your hands."

[Mr Fox]

He considered for a second, "Yeah, sure, you could go there, but I still don't like it. The RUS knows about that place and you'd be an easy target all alone there or with just a handful of people. Losing you would spell doom for us for sure. The other thing though is we don't know about the plants yet. You coaxed the seeds to grow, but it hasn't been long enough to know if the seeds of those plants in turn will grow or not. I'm hoping that they will. Unless you've learned something since the last time we talked that is?"

"Wherever you go I'd like to seen someone to protect you, but can this wait one week? We'll know soon if the people of the refuge will move or not and then we could all go together. Besides it will take you a couple days to get a lab set up to do your work, why repeat that effort when we're likely going to be going someplace permanently where you could set up shop?"

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany hesitated, then nodded. A week more or less wouldn't matter. And Fox was right...even if she found a lab that was set up with everything she'd need in perfect working order, there'd be time necessary to get things under way. It was silly to repeat that.

And they'd need her here.

"All right. You're right. I was overreacting a bit...it's just...hard news to take with perspective." She gave Fox a guilty, wan smile.

[Mr Fox]

Fox smiled in return. "Believe me, I understand. The news is about as terrible as it can get, but we'll find a way. Life is nothing if not persistent." It wasn't easy, but a leader expressed confidence and inspired it in others even when he didn't feel it himself, especially when he didn't feel it.

[SalmonMax]

"I don't know," Myfwany answered. "Life is persistent, yes...but it can also be extremely judgmental. There's no room for sentiment at the heart of it. No compassion, or pity. I just...there's a sort of finality to this. The zombies and the crop failure and now this. Bit by bit, the world that humanity built is being stripped away."

She shook her head. "I'm starting to feel like I'm asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking how this is happening, I should be asking why. As if there was some...guiding intelligence behind it all. And I haven't been a religious person since I was eleven, so..." Myf chuckled nervously. "...that's a measure of how shook up I am right now."