407

I've been assigned to patient 407. She has an enormous, prodigiously strong right arm, but is otherwise normal. She told me to call her Amanda. My job is to test the limits of her afflicted arm, and to do various simple medical things, like drawing blood. I also have to observe muscle biopsies and other complex procedures.

407, Amanda, is stoical about her situation. She was military, stationed at one of the bases on the outskirts. She thinks she got affected by the mal after a single extraction mission that took her into the Green Zone. It's certainly possible. Sometimes, people do get struck down that quickly. But now that I know about fluctuations, and the rate of expansion, it's difficult to avoid speculating. It's quite possible that her base was inside the Green Zone and they never knew. I didn't mention my suspicions. I think she's better off believing it was just a terrible piece of luck, rather than a systematic failure by her employers to protect her.

Working with Amanda should be a lot less harrowing than working with 83. I hope so, anyway.