“The thing is, just because the odds were 50-50, that doesn’t make it fair,” Steve says into the heavy silence of the room. “Believe me, I feel that the same way anyone else does.”
The support group is sparsely attended today. There’s a lot of sickness going around in the tail-end of winter, and not enough doctors, and leaving home is a risk. But Steve is one of the few that can’t catch or carry the flu, or chicken pox, or scarlet fever, or anything. He remembers winters laid up in the tenement bedroom, the scent of his own fever sweat making him want to throw up, or scream, or peel off his skin and run away from it, as he choked on his own lungs. He can’t get sick. He heals from most injuries. Starvation and thirst could still kill him, but chances are he’ll be the last man standing no matter what.
So this is where he’s standing.
( Fighting may not be worth much now, but that doesn’t mean he gets to lay down on the job. )
The support group is sparsely attended today. There’s a lot of sickness going around in the tail-end of winter, and not enough doctors, and leaving home is a risk. But Steve is one of the few that can’t catch or carry the flu, or chicken pox, or scarlet fever, or anything. He remembers winters laid up in the tenement bedroom, the scent of his own fever sweat making him want to throw up, or scream, or peel off his skin and run away from it, as he choked on his own lungs. He can’t get sick. He heals from most injuries. Starvation and thirst could still kill him, but chances are he’ll be the last man standing no matter what.
So this is where he’s standing.