Turned World (On Hiatus)

6 - Immunity...?

  Mr. Riverich sat in a chair, one hand stroking his beard as he looked at a holographic screen before him. Numbers, words and images were popping up and disappearing here and there on the screen.

  The room was a garage of sorts, with crates of junk here and there and dull lights illuminating it. Metal and plastic pipes and wires were strewn across the floor as well as some empty instant food containers. Some mechanical tools could be seen here and there. The center of the room was empty. A huge metal trapdoor of sorts was there, covered in dust. There were two windows which were sealed airtight. There was one door that led into the room.

  The door flew open as Jada ran through, followed by Trein. They both came to a shaky stop, him panting and her giggling.

 “I see you’ve gotten the hang of your prosthetic parts.” 

 “Yeah… a bit.”

 “That’s good. Come here I want to show you something.” Riverich beconed Trein to where he was, observing how he moved at the same time.

  Turning to an interactive panel on a desk beside him, he entered some code and a diagram of a human body missing some limbs appeared on the screen. It was a diagram of Trien’s body without the missing arm and hand. The image zoomed in and went into X-ray mode, showing the internal organs. At the same time, another image of a person showed up and went into X-ray mode as well. Above it was a label “Healthy”.

 “How does this look?” Riverich asked, meaning Trien’s image.

 “It looks normal… why?” Trien asked, confused as he looked from his image to the “Healthy” one.

 “Well this is how your insides look right now.”

 “Is something wrong?”

 “Under normal circumstances, no. But, remember what we had said, we found you outside being chewed on by turned dogs.”

 “Turned… dogs… oh… r-right… I remember… now.” Trien visibly shivered as the feelings and images flashed by in his mind.

 “And not only that. You were maskless. So in other words, this is your insides after being bitten by turned and inhaling litres upon litres of the toxic gas.”

 “Th-there’s no difference?” Trien was more confused than scared now as he looked from one image to the next.

 “Yes. That's the… issue.”

 “But how is that possible?”

 “Well… from the looks of it and after eliminating all other possibilities… it would seem that you have some form of genetic deviation which gives you extremely powerful resistance to the turning.” Riverich said, rubbing his face.

 “I see…”

 “Since this is unheard of I’m not sure how to even address this. I would probably need to conduct further study on this to be sure of anything.”

 “So what do I have to do?”

 “Help the doctor with whatever he asks.” Jada chimed in, stretching her arms and smiling. “While he’s dealing with you I can get to sleep.” With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

 “How do you like those prosthetics?”

 “They’re amazing. A little bit slower than normal limbs, but still great. Thanks.”

 “Don’t thank me. Thank Jada. She spent hours, without break, working to get them operational by the time you woke up.”

 “Woah, really? Damn. I’ll have to thank her for the trouble.”