“Like I said, this should make you a bit groggy,” said Dr. Müller. “As we discussed earlier, this infusion will have a rather aggressive effect on the cancer-causing cells in your body, and we want to minimize your discomfort. You’ll be able to stay awake, but this is a four-hour procedure, so if you’d like to doze off… well, we won’t stop you.” He winked.

Dave blinked as he tried to focus on the doctor. The warmth from his arm spread across his chest and up his neck.

Unable to keep his eyes open, Dave felt as though he were floating in space while occasional voices penetrated the haze.

“Make sure you’re monitoring the video off the FLIR. We’ll need to keep track of any localized spikes in temperature. Frankly, I don’t expect we’ll see any immediate systemic temperature changes.”

Through the haze, Dave felt as if needles of hot pain were poking at him. Random voices spoke, and he had trouble following what they were saying as time elapsed.

“Did you see how for the first two hours, nothing happened and then suddenly we’re seeing the cancer sites glow with heat?”

“The virus is working. The immune system is reacting to the Darwin protocol. It’s being reprogrammed. It’s actually rather fantastic if you think about it. If this works, this man will have the immune system we’ll all eventually have evolved tens of thousands of years from now. Look at the monitor—the tumors are all glowing yellow under the immune system’s attack. And as more of the T-cells recognize the enemy, we should see those effects increase.”

Dave couldn’t move a muscle, the pain he was experiencing was unimaginable. Every square inch of his body felt as if it were being pierced with burning needles. If he could have spoken, he would have asked for more sedative. Just knock me out, he thought.

“Mr. Butler, we are three hours into the procedure and you’re doing fantastic. I can see in the thermal camera that even your lymph nodes are now being affected.”

The words held no meaning to Dave. There was a war raging in his body, and all he wanted was to find a way to surrender.

“Doctor, the core temperature has risen to 101.2.”

“His body is reacting to the systemic attack. Let’s push more saline through the IV. That should normalize his—”

“Heart rate is rising rapidly. He’s gone into V-tach!”

The cardiac monitor, which had been beeping regularly throughout the procedure, suddenly turned into a single non-stop tone.

“The patient is arresting!”

Dave sighed with relief as his pain, and all the chaos surrounding him, faded away.

###

The auditorium was full of students taking their midterm exams. Kathy was feeling pretty good about her test so far, and she was down to the last of her essay questions.