Chapter 115: Brain Damage

Jimmy and Zik approached the four kids that survived the large boulder. Zik joined because he was the only one who cared enough about these kids to save them.

The two of them put masks on, as to seem familiar to the kids. This way, they believed that they could approach the kids without spooking them off, or worse, without triggering their senses in such a way where they become defensive, and try to stab the life out of the two of them.

It was smart to do so, because as soon as they approached the kids, they saw them crying over the flattened bodies of their parents. If they saw unfamiliar faces, there was a chance that they’d react violently.

This place was a blood bath. The flattened bodies were barely recognizable, and the scene was so gross, so gut wrenching, that Jimmy started puking seconds later.

He puked on his mask a couple of times, letting out all the meat he ate this morning, and yet he couldn’t afford to take his mask off. He had to work with a stinky, vomit-covered mask just so he wouldn’t scare the kids away.

“Looks bad, huh?” Zik added, and he sounded unbothered, but he was holding in so much pent up anger that he could cut steel with it if anger had a physical form. “I’m counting over forty dead people, Jimmy, there could be more, but their bodies are a mushy mess.”

Afterwards, he said, “If I was you, I’d check your lady’s head too. Nothing would make me kill people like this. Nothing.”

“Not even if they hurt Rampage?” Jimmy asked, trying to protect Anna, and her actions. “You saw what state Bonita was in when she almost died in front of us. Wouldn’t that force you to rampage, much like your pet does, but for fun?”

“No one can hurt Rampage, it’s impossible.” Zik countered, “But no, even if someone killed him, I wouldn’t flatten my enemies, and the children of my enemies. That’s just evil, and cruel.”

Jimmy lost the argument there. He didn’t know how to protect what Anna did, it was impossible to excuse her act rationally. Some of these cannibals deserved to die, yes, but there could have been better ways to kill them, where she could at least spare the children.

Jimmy was aware of that, and started considering checking Anna’s brain out. He was no psychiatrist, but he started suspecting that she was a cold-blooded psychopath. Her mental health was worth checking, before she found herself in another, unrectifiable blood bath.

Anyway, the two of them weren’t supposed to talk, because their language was foreign to these kids. They risked scaring them off, but after they got here, they later discovered that the kids were so shaken, so traumatized by the flattened body of their parents, that they didn’t care about what was around them.

Their cries were like daggers in their hearts. Zik shed a few tears behind his mask, silently, and Jimmy did the same. He did not expect to have such a soft stomach, in fact, he had barely even thought about it until now. Their cries made him anxious to treat them as quickly as possible, just so he could soften, or even get rid of their pain.

From a distance of a couple of meters, Jimmy tapped into one of the kid’s heartbeats. The first kid he wanted to heal was a little blonde girl, six years old at most.

Before he had the chance to tap into the kid’s brain, he noticed that there were a surprising amount of parasitic worms in her bloodstream. He was no doctor, but he guessed that this had something to do with her diet.

The only reason why these worms haven’t killed her yet, was because kids were born with a more reactive immune system that adapted quickly to new threats. She may die soon enough if these parasites were left untreated, so he increased her white blood cell count, to fight the parasites quicker. It might take a while for her to dispose of all the worms, but it was better to start treating her sooner, rather than later.

Afterwards, he tapped into her brain, and was shocked to discover how damaged it was. A fifth of her brain was missing!

Medically, this was called atrophy. It was a severe case of brain damage, where parts of the brains were missing. The only reason why she could walk, and talk, was because the brain’s neuroplasticity was very adaptive, and reconnects with the functional lobes, desperately looking to keep the brain alive, and functional.

Jimmy didn’t know the official terms for these cognitive events, but the little girl’s brain was painted in his mind in a rather three dimensional way. He could see how her brain worked, which lobes reacted and when, and this was how he tried to figure out how to help her. The official medical names were irrelevant to him.

If he dug too deep into her brain, he had a feeling that his mana would deplete quickly, so he had to be accurate with his efforts, perhaps even more accurate than the greatest brain surgeons from back on Earth. He wasn’t nearly educated to make informed decisions, so he was forced to take things slow. Much like a brain surgeon, he could not afford mistakes of any kind.

“One problem at a time,” He mumbled.

Afterwards, he tried to locate the part of her brain that made cannibalism seem like a good thing to her. He wanted to erase that part entirely, which of course would cause even more brain damage as a result, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

Jimmy did not find a specific part of her brain that encouraged cannibalism, so he started to fear the worst. Two minutes later, his fears were confirmed.

“Her entire brain is conditioned to be cannibalistic, Zik.” He announced. “She’s young, but she’s too far gone already.”

“You gotta fix it somehow,” Zik insisted. “It’s not her fault that she’s this way. She’s a kid, damn it!”

“I know that,” He said, “But I can’t build an entirely new brain for her. Human brains are not like dinosaur brains, they’re a lot more complicated. I could kill her on the spot if I tried anything remotely close to what I did with dinosaur brains.”

Zik barely understood what Jimmy said, but nevertheless, he pitched an idea that wasn’t entirely terrible. He did not want to give up.

“What if you make her forget about the people eating and such?” He insisted, desperate. “Would that work?”

“Maybe,” He grunted, “It’s gonna take a while though, but yes, that’s easier.”

Jimmy could not believe that he hadn’t thought of that idea first. It sounded stupid at first, yes, but when he thought about it, he made this sub-informed guess. If the brain can adapt, and work despite severe brain damage, it can also adapt towards part of its memories being erased.

Erasing memories wasn’t as invasive as building a new brain all together. It was a lot safer.

Jimmy guessed that this idea might drain most of his mana as he tried to heal this one, single kid, but he was willing to give it a shot nonetheless. He even went in with a tactical approach, he tried to help her in two ways.

The first way was more subtle, but it was bound to be effective. He wanted to heal her brain slowly, passively encouraging it to grow more brain tissue, then brain cells, and have those brain cells connect. This was as simple as slightly aging the brain, and convincing it that it was in a calm, happy place, and not in a blood bath, looking at dead friends, and family.

Jimmy had to make the girl see illusions for this part, but it was necessary. If the girl kept crying and screaming, the brain would get stressed out beyond measure, and he would risk killing her. Not to mention, the brain won’t heal regardless of how much effort he put in.

After essentially putting her in his version of anesthesia, he started looking through her memories. This was where he feared that all of his mana would get depleted in minutes, so he had to be quick with it!

“Come on…” He winced, “Work with me here, little girl.”

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