A visit to the doctor’s might usually be a cause for concern, but it was a lucky chance for me. I bumped into Director Walker. Thanks to that, I was able to bend his ear about the goings on in the Wasteland! The white marbled walls of the Avalon meeting room give the place an austere feeling, the gentle spinning of an astrolabe the only movement.
Walker explained Avalon’s interest in the infection. “We heard there was some issues, something to do with an ex-Avalon facility that has been abandoned for some time.” Their investigations have yet to determine conclusively whether the facility itself is involved in the outbreak. However, Walker conceded that “a third party might have moved in, and been messing with the equipment.”
What exactly was this Avalon facility working on? Why was it abandoned? Walker remained tight-lipped. “That’s classified.” What he would share was Avalon’s findings. Whatever this infection was, it appears to be organic and “aggressively mutagenic”. Enlarged and highly aggressive beasts, dangerous even for the Wasteland, have been sighted in the vicinity of the former Avalon lab.
On a more sombre note, Walker confirmed that both of the patients who had been taken into Avalon’s care from the Wasteland had since died. However, they were able to learn a little about the disease from studying the pair. “It seems to increase aggression, as well as mutation.” This increased aggression, it seems, was the cause of the ultimate fate of the deceased patients. “They broke out of containment, and started injuring each other, and themselves…It wasn’t pretty.” The remains were released to the Wasteland for cremation. Walker assures me there is no biohazard risk from this.
The question becomes, how far is Avalon willing to go to see this issue dealt with? “If it ends up becoming prohibitively expensive for the corporation then we would need to see about some sort of payment but, given that this is related to an ex-Avalon facility, we’re hoping to work with them to get this sorted out.” I leaned in. What if that meant putting a stop to whomever has set up shop in that facility? What if that meant Wastelanders entering those classified labs? Would Avalon support that? “Absolutely. We will work with the people of the Wasteland to make sure that whatever is going on this facility is dealt with.”
Finally, he explained that Avalon had, in fact, synthesised a prototype cure which was in the hands of the Scraptown authorities. He poured cold water on the idea of a panacea, however. “Creating a cure is going to be difficult because by the time we have made a cure for a sample that we have of an infection, it could be something else. We may have to create cures for each individual.” Designer drugs for individual cases certainly sounds like the type of solution that might quickly become “prohibitively expensive”.
Avalon has shown a great deal of goodwill thus far in their handling of the mysterious disease. Spending resources on finding a cure and an openness to an expedition to the source of the virus are both to be welcomed. However, without binding commitments, the Wastelanders will have to hope that this goodwill doesn’t dry up before they get their cure. And their answers.
In other news, today saw the opening statements made in the case of Calcaterra v. Jereslimah. We heard the Calcaterra’s lawyer, Louis Thorne, give an emotive speech about the impact of death in the family. In it, he referred to Antonio Florentine as ‘Antonio Calcaterra’. By elevating their late employee to a member of the family, the Calcaterras were staking their reputation on the outcome of this case. Thorne, when I caught up to him after proceedings, expressed confidence in their victory. He called for Jereslimah to face punishment to “the standard called for by the law.”
Jereslimah gave little ground as he faced charges for the alleged escalation that led to the death of Florentine and the synthetics accompanying him. He stated under questioning that no escalation had occurred, and that Florentine’s placement of a gun facing the clerk on the counter at the GEB store where the shootout took place constituted a threat. No verdict has yet been reached, and the trial continues tomorrow.
No clean and easy resolutions for us today. From the sands outside the city to the courts halfway to the top, life doesn’t always tie things up in a nice little bow for us. What does a just outcome look like for the Wastelanders? For the trial? For this city? It’s a little early to call it, but we’ll keep following the stories, here on Down From the Heights.
