Stories From VO1.2

Cody

Cody graduated from medical school and obtained his PhD in medicine and health sciences almost twenty years ago. It was the toughest time of his life. He wrote a lot of papers, drank a lot of coffees, and took a lot of caffeine pills. He spent tons of hours in the biology labs around campus, staring at cell samples until his eyes watered. By the time his final grades were posted he was a shaking, baggy eyed mess of a man. Cody slept four straight days after. The only time he opened his eyes or rose from his bed was when his girlfriend of the time brought in food and water or when he needed to relieve himself. During that time Cody dreamed of success, failure, glory, and anything in-between. It wasn't an easy rest but it was a rest all the same.

In the end it was worth it. Cody couldn't remember a time in his life where he didn't want to become a doctor. That includes those sleepless grad school nights. From his earliest memories he could recall running around with his toy stethoscopes, performing CPR on his teddies, and crying when their little plush hearts gave out. He was the best doctor in the city but Cody wouldn't say his losses were small. It was simply a part of life. His mother indulged him in the beginning but eventually she had to draw the line. She refused to buy new teddy bears for him because Cody had taken to throwing his patients in the garbage once they 'died'.

Once he had attempted cremation and his mother screamed at him so loud a neighbour called Child Services on them. She screamed at the neighbour next and an officer tried to calm her while another lectured him about the dangers of fire.

"But it was written right here in his will," Cody had argued, producing a piece of paper written and signed by himself on Mr. Thunker's behalf. At that point he couldn't tell if the policeman's laughter or his mother's screaming was louder but everyone in the neighbourhood heard one or the other and stood on their doorsteps to watch the spectacle.

Cody guessed his mother was relieved when he applied for medical school and she realised the stress he had caused her was about to have its payoff.

Cody wrote exclusively about VO1 throughout his entire college tenure. It wasn't something he always planned to do but he'd get behind the computer, begin typing away, and soon enough he'd be ranting about the virus' ability to halt bodily functions or its ability to eat away at brain matter. It was an extremely aggressive disease and it fascinated Cody. His teachers had tried to persuade him against it -

"VO1 again, Cody?"

"Mr. Morrison, please see me after class."

"Interesting, your third paper of the month on VO1, but what are you adding to the conversation Cody?"

- but none of their words could make him stop. The last comment especially fueled his fire to keep digging. He didn't want to be another fanatic scholar, studying the disease until his brain hurt.

Sure Cody was a fanatic scholar. He'd admit it within a heartbeat. He wanted to know how the disease worked in and out. He dreamed about its genetic makeup. He could sit down with a pen and paper and write out the effects of VO1, from contraction straight to death, from memory alone without a single mistake. But like his teacher said that wasn't enough. Cody wasn't adding to the conversation. So he sat and he studied and he wrote and he studied some more until something finally hit.

"Holy shit."

A lot of Cody's peers dropped med school deep into their second year, his girlfriend included, but a few of them held on to the very end. By the time final year rolled around it was him and five other kids losing their eyesight to micro-samples and sanity to course textbooks bigger than their backpacks. Those tons of hours Cody spent bent over microscopes in labs were shared with two or more of his yearmates. Patricia was there when he made his breakthrough.