Breakthrough

I met with Smith, and we talked about G section. I asked her about the man I'd seen yesterday. Nothing more than that. I left the question open. She said he was a test subject, someone they'd purposefully manipulated with the mal. She told me his leg had been nothing but a rotting tube of flesh when he'd been brought in. They'd taken some of the samples from 83 and managed to implant them into the man's leg. 83's affliction had taken over, covering and repairing the putrid flesh, transforming the leg back into an appendage. She told me it was a breakthrough, the first instance where they'd managed to use the mal to do something good, to help somebody.

I asked her why his leg was so big. She said she didn't know, but they suspected it was some kind of interaction effect. I asked whether he was any better off now. She shrugged and said it was the first step. I held my hands up and said I didn't get it. I said I didn't get what the point of any of this was, how it was supposed to help us hold back The Sick Land. It felt like we were trying to stop the tide with sandcastles.

I didn't get an answer. Smith was paged. Her face went white when she got the message, and she told me we'd have to continue our talk tomorrow. She ran out in a hurry. I feel like I'm starting to lose whatever tentative grip I ever had on what's going on in this place.