Today was an average working day for Drew. The paperwork was so high he had only little time for research.

After finding Earth at the edge of the universe and the extremely similar but primitive creatures called humans inhabiting it with his team, he thought he finally had the chance and suitable test subjects to prove that his theory was the best solution to their predicament.

Unfortunately, successful theories sometimes required a little lucky push and luck was something the current Drew was absolutely lacking.

It has been thirty years already since he started using some humans as test subjects under extreme conditions. Around forty years after founding ‘the farm’ in the most remote region of the planet, he had yet to get a single wholly satisfactory result even though their last test vials were currently all used up.

Amy and the others were becoming more and more frustrated while she was becoming even more distant than usual from him.

‘Damn planet.’ Drew anxiously cursed

The only good thing he got from Earth was this delicacy called lemon tea. Although a little sour, it had a somehow sweet fragrance that was enough to relax his tense nerves.

While taking a sip of his tea, he received a weird message from a distant unit.

“Subject 1203 in a dire situation. The assistance request has been refused by the farm’s HQ. Asking for reconfirmation in accordance to mission BHQ231.” A mechanical voice was heard.

‘Subject 1203?’ Drew was recalling the last events. ‘Isn’t that the last one? Not a week already and he almost died once and now this time?’ He thought as he recalled the weak looking boy.

“Send a video of the poor child’s misadventures.” Drew hypocritically requested.

Despite his unenviable state, he decided to save him, give him a second chance at life while according him the immense favor of being guarded by a unit.

‘This place is starting to make me kind and senile.’

Less than a second later, a video of a naked boy at the verge of death appeared. He looked pathetically weak from thirst and hunger while his suffocation made him look even more pitiful.

Drew was at a hand wave from letting him die before seeing something quite shocking. It wasn’t three days yet since he was left in ‘the farm’ but his control seemed better than the one of some that were already there for months.

At that moment, Drew had a profound insight. ‘If only he can continue with this rhythm.’

He knew it was pitiful of him to believe in such a great struck of luck but he had no more new chances.

With a fortified will he finally took a decision as the poor Eiron was writhing in pain. “Save him, definitely save him.”

Sited in the middle of an ardent desert, Eiron was analyzing his updated status window. The addition of (evolving) next to his specie aggravated his worries of turning into a living combat android.

His heat/cold/poison resistance went up from a mini-level while his average immune system almost went up by a whole level.

Eiron’s body control also seemed to have received quite the push.

‘Hallelujah!’ Eiron inwardly proclaimed. ‘All that torture had at least some beneficial effects.’ Eiron thought while folding his fingers in to a fist.

Contrarily to what Eiron previously thought, he didn’t lose his body control. Instead, it totally changed.

If moving an arm previously only required a simple order to move some articulations, it now needed a whole more focus. The previous concepts about the body he learnt were slowly fading as his body was becoming a whole more complex machine requiring a direct thought for each little and ever changing muscle.

Eiron’s fatigue was something he was long aware of while his new founded trust for Wilma was something he thought fully natural.

‘It should be the second time she saves my live… no third.’ ‘Right now, back at the ruined city and even when I almost lost myself after the old man’s death. Only the gods know what I would have done if she wasn’t there that day.’ Eiron shivered as he thought.

Actually, the first and second times Wilma saved Eiron were due to the orders she received from her superior and Eiron was well aware of it. Even the third time wasn’t that different.

Because of Drew’s late order, Wilma could only inject a high cell excitant into Eiron body, draining all his energy for one fight in hopes his immune system will evolve enough to adapt to that particular situation.

The biggest reason for the operation’s success and the more than atrocious pain was the fact that Eiron was very early exposed to nuclear radiations.

Contrarily to what he thought, most of the children of the community, the lost city and other touched lands had it harder than himself. The luckiest died early while the others either died slow and atrocious deaths or had grave permanent deformations. Compared to all that, Eiron’s eyes were a little problem that had already disappeared unbeknownst to him.

Something else that surprised Eiron was the new category: Abnormal condition.

Before, no matter how thirsty or hungry he felt, the system seemed to ignore it. If it was now present in his status, that meant it was starting to become worse, especially his thirst.

But what could he expect after sliding in the desert for as long as two days? Any other droneless person would have been death by now.

This made Eiron recall how urgent the situation was and he thus decided to set off early in the morning after a goood loong sleep.

What shocked Eiron even more in this abnormal status condition was his newly acquired dirty and smelly state. Dirty, he could understand after all the sod rolling but smelly?

Only after seeing the word ‘smelly’ in his status condition did Eiron realize how atrocious his wrecked body’s odor was.

Not only was he smelling like a man who slept in his own shit for some month, he actually had a shit like substance all over his body. After seeing it, Eiron instantly realized that this was part of the dirt that was liberated from his spores during his ‘express’ treatment.

At that moment a conflicting thought started assaulting Eiron’s mind. ‘Bathing or drinking? What should I do if I find some good old water?’ ‘Drinking should be obvious but damn this shit! And its smell!’

Eiron could now understand why ‘take a good bath and dress up’ where now suddenly added to his assessment.

He was neither surprised by his now low-low survival chances and the increase in the genic mutation gauge even though the sharp increase wasn’t something that was usually seen.

After some more thoughts, Eiron finally fell asleep on the spot while being guarded by Wilma.

Sadly, a deep sleep wasn’t something easily achieved especially with such a body odor.

That night, Eiron sometimes woke up as he tried to breath by his mouth but was only able to sleep lightly after an hour of training. Other times after achieving a somehow better control, he choked himself as he forgot about breathing during the sleep.

His sleep aside, something abnormal he saw was Wilma constantly emitting a warm light towards him as she was both speechless and motionless. He still felt the cold but was somehow thankful to Wilma.

The first morning lights coming, Eiron had yet to get a proper sleep. The only good thing or so he hoped about the night was the increase of 0.15 in the genic mutation’s gauge.

Understanding of how Pandora [1] felt, Eiron continued his long and arduous slide in the desert, hoping to find at least a good drink before his pilgrimage ended in a deathly talk with the devil.

[1] Pandora is a woman in Greek mythology said to have opened the box containing the ‘all of mankind’s problems’.