Dr. Shoji Chen's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Dr. Shoji Chen pressed the handheld sensor against the bark of a cypress tree and watched the screen flicker red. Positive again. She moved deeper into the swamp, boots sinking into mud with each step. The virus she had created was here, spreading through the wetlands faster than she could track it. Her life goal was simple now: find a cure before more people died like Ming had. But every test came back the same. Every sample showed the pathogen thriving in the humid air. She adjusted the pencil holding her bun in place and marked the location on her worn map. Somewhere in this maze of water and rot, a mutation might exist that could lead her to an answer. She needed a proper workspace. The swamp offered nothing but contamination and decay. Two miles back, she'd spotted an abandoned facility with sealed doors and thick concrete walls. The entrance looked fortified enough to contain her work. She could set up equipment there, run proper tests, maybe sleep for an hour without dreaming of infection patterns. The drone she'd launched that morning would collect air and water samples while she worked. Glass vials already hung from its frame, waiting to capture what killed in silence. The medical tent waited at the settlement's edge when she returned. Canvas walls sagged with moisture and brown water stains. Wooden tables inside held her basic screening tools. People would come soon, coughing and afraid. She would test them, mark their symptoms, send them away with nothing but confirmation of what they already knew. No cure yet. No treatment. Just data that led nowhere. Chen sealed the lab entrance behind her and set down her sensor. The concrete walls blocked out the wet air and the sound of dying. She laid out her samples on the metal counter. Tomorrow she would return to the swamp. Tomorrow she would test more trees, more water, more mud. She would search until her body gave out or until she found what she was looking for. The virus had no cure today. But somewhere in the mutations, in the way it changed and spread, an answer had to exist. She just had to find it before everyone else ended up like Ming.