Extend the Story - Add a Room

U.S.A. Documentarian: The date is February 4, 2041. We're in the United Survivors Association's Capital City of Belle Forshe, South Dakota...

Please state your name & age for the recording.

Chase Martin: Chase A. Martin. 21. Born October 24...Midnight... 2018, in the Hartford QZ.

USA D: You're immunity to the Cordyceps Brain Infection caused by Cordyceps Anthropos as a result of your mutated strain of Cordyceps Anthropos Militaris... The discovery of your unique strain being the primary basis of the Cordyceps Anthropos Research & Development(CARD) team's breakthrough with the first ever successful CBI treatments over five years ago, along with the recently developed Field Ready Single-Dose Cordyceps Brain Infection Treatment(FRSDCBIT) kits developed just last year.

If the press is to be believed, they have the capacity to help an exposed individual's overcome CBI with varied success rates depending on the stage of infected, or if an individual is infected via spores-

CM:[Interrupting] Emphasis on "Varied success rates"... You get bit by a Runner, you have a 73.2%, 54.8% for Stalkers, 32.5% for Clickers, 12.3% for Bloaters... And less than 5% for spore exposure... Not exactly the cure to Cordyceps Anthropos humanity has been looking for...

USA D: Still... If someone does get over CBI with the additional help of Plasma Therapy, the individual will also be immune to Cordyceps Anthropos on that level... Level 1 Immunity being the lowest, & Level S being the highest, yet rarest... You on the other hand, you are the only recorded case of total Symbiotic Immunity...

CM: Depends if you believe any of the whispers of an immune girl from Boston... Knowing the Fireflies, even if it was true, they'd have gotten her killed...

USA D: Statistically speaking, if a natural Sym were to exist, it'd be 1 in 1,000,000,000... Meaning, there would at least be another Sym somewhere in the world of our roughly 2 billion on planet Earth... Depending on how the rest of the world handled the Outbreak...

Tell me about this latest project in development.

CM: As many know, on top of my immunity, the Cordyceps Anthropos Militaris in me has used my Lymphatic System to utilize my sweat glands to emit mycoparasitic spores that are harmless to humans, but harmful to Cordyceps Anthropos... As a result, I make level 1&2 Infected either repulsed by me, or deter them from attacking me... However, level 3&4 Infected become more hostile & vigilant to track me down... Let's just say that I've learned how to fight Clickers, Bloaters & Shamblers... Perhaps better than anyone else...

Anyways, my mother & her colleagues are in the process of developing a possible repellent that would work on all levels of Infected.

USA D: How exactly does the repellent spores you make work by the way?

CM: According to Dr. Gloria Santos, the CARD Team's Head Mycologist, my spores scare off the lesser developed myconauts through the potential to kill them off from their host bodies... More developed myconauts appear to be more agitated than afraid, hence why they will try to attack me.

USA D: Myconauts? I've heard that before... What exactly does that mean?

CM: It's the scientific term for the fungal organisms that control the bodies of the Infected... One could argue that they are the Infected.

USA D: Do you have one? A myconaut, I mean...

CM: Yes & no... Yes, I have a fungal organism in my body, spread throughout the entirety of my body... But no, it doesn't hold control over me like the others... It actually provides both a physical protection from Cordyceps Anthropos, as well as an immunity protection...

Now... What else would you like to know?

John Lawson. The USA President & your uncle.