Jayr POV - Earth, Geia, ter for Disease trol and Prevention - 2010

  I wake up and greet the sed day of living in the C.D.C. by going through the usual routine of doing some "basic" physical exercises which are mostly posed 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 doh my m exercises, I have a cold shower to cool down my muscles and wash away the sweat and then, I quickly dress up aoward 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 Atnta'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 Caucasi 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, unfortuhey are the only ones left alive in their family.

  Meanwhile, Almast is a lot more fortunate, she is a Svian in her early 30s with long blonde hair and blue eyes and she is together with her husband Ruben, a bald Svi 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 Afri Ameri young man with bck hair and brown eyes in his 20s, he is an orphan and dreamed of being 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 inal timeline, even so, he is a good person and tries to help however he but I also notice that he is very focused on another person in the group and it is clear that he is very ied in her.

  The one I'm talking about is Nina, a short young Caucasi 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 defiily 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 aloh a group of mostly strao 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 Caucasi young man ears to be in his te 20s, he has messy bck hair, brown eyes, full beard and a pair of bck-rimmed gsses.

  He was a salesman for aronics store before the apocalypse, and there is nothing that is particurly exceptional about him, the kind of guy you met oreet and fet about the very moment, he is overall a very average guy, but at least he is a funny dude and is able to front a walker if forced to.

  Then there is Kim, she is a young Caucasian woman ears to be ie 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 etic store and to put it bluntly and in pin terms, she is mostly useless at the moment.

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

  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 it is just that her talents mostly lie ihat are useless in the curreing, in shorts, she is a charisma based character.

  The st woman of this group is Lauren, she is a short and chubby Caucasian woman ie 30s with mid-length bck hair, hazel eyes, and thick-rimmed, colorful gsses, she is mostly amicable and tries to help however she , 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 learhat she mastered the use of such teique from her mother who learned from her grandmother and so on geion after geion, this means she es 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 Caucasi man in his early 40s with a noticiable belly beer, shraying bck hair, brown eyes, and a shaved face, he too wears a pair of gsses with thick rims, but, different from his wife, his are pin blue.

  He is also a nial guy that tries to help the group however he 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 st of these people is Rakesh, an Indian man in his 30s with short, curly bck 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 retionship with him this be inferred from the fact that he didn't pi or insulted him which is quite an aplishment sidering 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 perso at the bar and kidnap his romantic rival with pns of killing him and dumping his body on the doorstep of the woman he loved.

  But before he could actually a that foolish pn, the chaos started to spread everywhere as the dead started walking and attag 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 che the victim only to look at the mangled figure of his cousin with a bloody bite mark on his neot 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 bato the car, turned on the engine, aedly 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 sor panel system o time before I finally tur on and then we all returned back to the trol 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 intelligenstantly reply with its monotone voice, "The energy levels are quickly rising. The new sor panel system is geing much more energy than previously calcuted. At this pace, the structure will bee fully operational in 2h:17m:34s."

  Hearing that, everyo 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 trol room to rex, 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 strained by time, you tell me your hypothesis on the possible cure for the Wildfire Virus?"

  Hearing that, I think for a few seds 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 fident on the effectiveness of the treatment I came up with."

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

  In response, I smile wryly and fess, "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 o take a few tests to make sure that everything works as intended."

  My reply makes Shane excim out loud, "You're fug kidding me!?" followed by Daryl who chuckles and ents in a sarcastie, "Heh! That's a fug brilliant idea, Doc. Just freaking kill everyone else too! With no o alive then there won't be no disease to cure too!"

  At this point, Dr. Jenner is uo hold his curiosity bay longer and excims with clear impatiend frustration in his tone, "e 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 prove that it works, it would still be a huge jump forward in finding an effective cure! That's already much, much better thahing I've doil now!"

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

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

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

  Before I further expin, 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 fusion on Shane, Rick, and Daryl's face, and the sho Dr. Jenner's face, I calmly start to expin, "The Wildfire Virus is a tent viral iion that spreads via airborransmission. This means that at its most basi, the Wildfire Virus is a microscopic anism, a small germ, that only i a specific type of host, in this case, humans. No matter what their effects are, in the end, viruses are small pieces of geiformatioher DNA or RNA, inside of a protective shell called capsid. Another importaure 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 instrus with them and use a host cell's equipment to make more copies of the virus."

  At this point, Daryl interrupts me and asks, " you speak English? I didn't uand a sihing about what you just said." which makes me expin the cept once more but in clearer terms, "It's like someone breaking into your house to use your kit. The virus brought its own recipe, but it o 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 ents, "Heh... A big mess... Ihat 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 respoo that, Shane 't hold himself from asking, "What do you mean with that?" followed by Rick who ents, "Radiotherapy... I already heard something like that. Isn't the thing that it is used to treat cer, isn't it?"

  Dr. Jenner g Rick, Shane, and Daryl and expins, "Radiation i with DNA directly and cause damage by breaking bonds in the DNA. It also harm DNA ily by breaking water molecules surrounding the DNA. When these water molecules are broken, they produstable ions and other molecules that damage cells and ans. Radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, is a cer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cer cells or slow their growth by damaging their DNA. cer 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 pin, Dr. Jehen adds, "If we use the same example that Dr. Pucci used before, it is as if instead of kig 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 o elimihe virus from the whole body would be just way too lethal for anyone."

  Hearing that, I nod and holy admit, "You are absolutely right. I'm sure that if we use radiation then we would be able to pletely elimihe virus from the body, maybe evee the effect of a bite. But just like you said the level of radiation o aplish this would easily kill the patient."

  In respoo my admission, Daryl, Shane, Rick, and Dr. Jenner are about to speak up once again, but before they do it, I raise my hand to stop them and tinue, "But that is only ireatment I came up with sists 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 expin, "The truth is that radiotherapy is only one of the steps of treatments I devised to deal with the Wildfire Virus and to be ho is the one I favor the least. After all, even if by some lucky ce we are able to remove the virus from a patient using that method, nothing stops him or her from getting ied once again whi turn will make the whole gambling process of going through radiotherapy useless."

  In respoo my words, Dr. Jenner quickly excims, "That's pletely right! How could I fet 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 expin, "Io tell you the truth, I think that we should only use radiotherapy with patients who have beely bitten by a walker, because if my calcutions 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 cps his hands and excims, "The bite! Of course! With the right dosage of radiation, we kill off the virus before it bees fully active and kills its host! Why didn't I think of that!"

  At the same time, I tio expin, "Of course, before we subject a patient to radiotherapy I want to admihem a chemical pound I e up with that will surely raise their ces to survive the irradiation by at least 80%"

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

  In respoo 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 cer. As you said before radiotherapy is a cer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cer 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 wao help the patients who were forced to use such treatment have a better ce 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 say that I came up with this chemical pound 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 pound in the first pce...'

  Shortly after thinking and thinking that, I tio expin with a small smile on my face, "The name I came up with for this revolutionary chemical pound is Rad-X a potent anti-radiation medie that bolsters the user's natural radiatioa is a preventative medie for those intending to be subjected t radiation or even for those intending to enter areas with a heightened risk of radiation exposure. A dose help you resist the effects of radiation as it greatly reduce irradiation. I also made sure that, unlike most other medies, Rad-X is addi-free, making it perfectly safe to use without risking the ce of addi. Furthermore, the duration be stacked if multiple doses are taken at once. Most of the pos o produce it are pretty on and be easily found, but it also needs a very specifid of pitcher pnt, luckily I have some seeds with me so we 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 fident in the chemical pound I created, even more so as I used my Ination to quickly create it a it, "Yes, I have already thhly tested the Rad-X and it safely works as intended with it the patient be subjected to a much higher dosage of radiation than usual and for a loime before beiively affected."

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

  At this point, Daryl 't stop himself from asking, "So, if I uood your freaking stifibo 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 se 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 iion be saved."

  Hearing that, Rick let out a sigh of relief before he ents, "That is already quite good news..." followed by Shane who adds, "Indeed, what makes the walkers particurly scary to face is that a single small distra or mistake bee fatal as you die with a single wound. Take that away and the walker bees a much easier oppoo 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 radiatioment 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, abs radiation as it circutes 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 pletely painless as purging the body of radiation takes some time to plete, and using it cause side effects, including nausea, diarrhea, stomach pains, and headaches. Just like the Rad-X, most of the ingredients o produce it are pretty on and easy to find, all but a special kind of fungus which is quite rare but again, with the right dition it easily be cultivated."

  At this point, Dr. Jenner 't help but ent in awe, "You are truly one of the most brilliant minds I had the pleasure of entering... It's a true shame that we didn't meet ier 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 pn to actually eradicate the Wildfire Virus ond for all."

  In respoo my words, Dr. Jenner focused bae 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 medie, 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 sed one. My idea behind the cure is the same, it is a virus that is causing all these problems then only another virus deal with it, a very specifid of virus... a virophage."

  Odyin