Entry 06 – 

Supplément Observational et Expérimental 
Jennie “The Scalpel” Deadlander, anciennement de Techport Date : 47th day after my escape from the Black Caravan, local hour gauged by my pocket chronometer at approximately 14h17, beneath a sun that, alas, sterilises nothing any more. I still sign thus, for the name “Deadlander” has been riveted upon me like a badge of rusted iron, and “formerly of Techport” remains the sole truth I refuse to surrender. Let the brutes of the field, those trophy-hunters of fungal horrors who strut with notebooks smeared in blood and spores, keep their tales of the “great chase.” I dissect. I measure. I weigh. And today, I am in ecstasy.Protocol of the day: Longitudinal observation of the progression of a fungal bite upon a living, captive, conscious (for the moment), and, let us say, most uncooperative human subject. 
Subject code: Bandit-09 (the eight previous having already served to establish the reference curve). 
Estimated age: 34 years. Mass: 78 kg (weighed on the spring-balance salvaged from a pre-Collapse butcher’s stall). Body-mass index: 24.2 (calculated with slide rule). Self-declared medical history: “nothing but bullets and blades, doc.” 
Site of bite: antero-lateral face of the left forearm, depth 1.8 cm (measured with brass callipers), V-shaped laceration with partial avulsion of the flexor carpi radialis. 
Infecting agent: Runner α-7 (specimen captured by the gentleman Reign “The Wolf”, at my express request). 
Estimated hyphal transfer: ≥ 4.2 × 10⁶ active filaments (counted by haemocytometer under a brass compound microscope, ×400, stained with lactophenol cotton-blue mixed in my field laboratory’s spirit lamp).  
Phase 0 – T+00:00 (immediate post-bite) 

• Local skin temperature: 36.8 °C → 38.1 °C in 4 minutes (recorded with a mercury-in-glass clinical thermometer).  

• Circumscribed erythema, sheet-like oedema.  

• Serosanguinous exudate containing 92 % viable spores (culture on potato-dextrose agar poured into salvaged Petri dishes, incubated in my steam-jacketed box at 28 °C for 48 h).  

• First peripheral venous blood draw (V0) via glass syringe and steel needle:  

• Plasma salinity: 0.91 % (estimated by specific-gravity bead hydrometer).  

• pH: 7.39 (litmus paper calibrated against known buffers).  

• Lactate: 1.8 mmol/L (colorimetric assay with Fehling’s solution, read against hand-drawn standard curve). 

Marginal note: the bandit spat in my direction. I replied with a polite smile. Science demands courtesy, even before barbarism. 
Phase 1 – Incubation (T+00:15 → T+04:30)T+00:15, Appearance of intense pruritus localised. The subject scratches until bleeding. I was obliged to reinforce the leather straps (my thanks to Reign for the tempered-steel clasps forged in Iron Hollow). 
T+00:45, First shivering. Core temperature: 39.2 °C (axillary mercury thermometer). 
T+01:30, Local colonisation confirmed: biopsy of wound margin (taken with a sharpened spoon-curette, fixed in 10 % formalin in a screw-cap jar) → branched intradermal hyphae, septate, right-angle branching, typical of Cordyceps mortis filamentous phase, observed under my brass microscope with oil-immersion lens. No vascular invasion yet. 
T+02:00, Local colonisation threshold attained: fungal mass forms a pseudo-mycelial tissue, pearly white, faintly pulsing beneath the beam of my bullseye condenser lantern filtered through cobalt glass. I harvested 0.3 g with sterilised forceps for in vitro culture; radial growth 3.1 mm/h at 37 °C in my steam-heated incubator (thermostat: bimetallic strip). 
T+03:10, First vascular breach: punctate micro-haemorrhages at periphery. The fungus smells blood. Literally. Under phase-contrast (achieved by oblique illumination with a concave mirror) I observed positive chemotaxis of hyphae toward ruptured capillaries. Magnifique. Re-formulated hypothesis: the infection does not “travel” passively in the blood; it digs. The hyphae secrete a fungal hyaluronidase (activity inferred from tissue-clearing rate in test tube digestion of salvaged umbilical cord). Blood is merely the highway afterward. 
Phase 2 – Systemic migration (T+04:30 → T+08:00)T+04:30, Lymphatic invasion: left axillary node swollen, tender. I aspirated 2 mL of cloudy lymph with a glass-barrel syringe → encysted spores in suspension, already germinating when examined wet-mount. 
T+05:15, First focal seizure (left hand). Improvised galvanometer (copper wire coil, magnet, mirror) → deflection spikes corresponding to cortical discharge. The fungus touches the contralateral motor cortex via the corticospinal tract. 
T+06:00, Fall in plasma salinity (hydrometer readings):  

• V1 (T+06:00): 0.67 %  

• V2 (T+07:00): 0.41 %  

• V3 (T+08:00): 0.28 % 

Explanation: extracellular mycelium actively pumps sodium; plasma becomes hypo-osmolar → cerebral oedema → intracranial hypertension. The subject screams. I note with fountain pen. I measure with spring balance and mercury column. I am enraptured.T+07:30, Subcutaneous ripples visible to the naked eye: hyphae migrate along the median and radial nerves, forming mycelial cords beneath the skin like white worms in soil. I filmed 42 seconds on my hand-crank 35 mm cine camera (Eastman stock, 16 fps). The bandit weeps. I offer water from my canteen. He refuses. Pity. 
Phase 3 – Cerebral takeover (T+08:00 → T+11:30)T+08:15, Iridian greying: sclerae injected, irises shifting from brown to ash-grey in 18 minutes (timed with pocket chronometer). I sampled one drop of aqueous humour with a glass pipette → 98 % viable spores under the microscope. 
T+09:00, Loss of coherent speech. The subject alternates between Dunmere-dialect curses and moans. I record on wax cylinder with my Edison-style phonograph:  

“…cold… inside my head… it itches… it grows…”  

T+10:00, Second generalised convulsion. Duration: 94 seconds (stopwatch). White foam at the mouth, tinged grey with spores. Post-ictal: vigil coma. Pupillary reflexes abolished (tested with focused lantern beam). 
T+10:30, Makeshift cranial window (trephine from field surgical kit, 12 mm diameter, under local cocaine) → direct observation of dura pulsing with mycelial threads. The fungus fills the perivascular spaces. It builds a network. Theory: the mycelium does not “replace” the brain; it parasitises in parallel. Human neurons remain functional, yet short-circuited by fungal synapses. The subject becomes a puppet with dual controls. 
Phase 4 – Reanimation (T+11:45 → T+12:00)T+11:45, Clinical death: cardiorespiratory arrest. Pulse: 0 (stethoscope). Respiration: 0. Galvanometer: flat line. 
T+11:52, Spontaneous restart. Heart rate: 42 bpm, irregular (counted by pocket watch). Respiration: 8/min, jerky. 
T+11:55, Eye opening. Pupils dilated, fixed, silver-grey. Empty stare. 
T+11:58, First movement: head pivots slowly toward me. No recognition. No fear. Only… hunger. 
T+12:00, Classification: Shuffler β-3. Walking speed: 0.8 m/s (measured against chalk marks on the ground). Estimated bite force: 420 N (spring gauge clamped on pork bone). I severed the spinal cord at C3 with a ceramic scalpel forged by Calderon smiths. The body collapsed. Hyphae continued to extrude from the cervical wound for 11 minutes. I incinerated the whole with the portable naphtha flamethrower. Smell of toasted bread and charred flesh. Delicious. 
Synthesis and New Hypotheses 

1. Depth & hyphal load dictate timeline: < 1 × 10⁶ filaments → local rot only (survivable with early penicillin). ≥ 3 × 10⁶ → systemic takeover in < 12 h.  

2. Salinity collapse is the kill-switch: fungus hijacks ion pumps to induce cerebral oedema; death is osmotic, not toxic.  

3. Parallel nervous system: post-mortem animation is mycelial motor override. The meat is driven like a steam engine, the brain merely the boiler.  

4. Environmental modulation: sunlight UV degrades extracellular enzymes (half-life ~7 min, measured by spore viability plates exposed on the dune); deserts safe by day, lethal by night. Damp ruins = exponential growth. 

Tomorrow: I test intravenous penicillin G (salvaged 1942 ampoules) at T+30 min on Bandit-10, delivered via glass gravity drip. If I can halt the hyaluronidase before vascular breach… mon Dieu, the possibilities. Addendum personnel: Reign brought coffee beans roasted over mesquite from Iron Hollow. I traded him two vials of tetracycline (1941 expiry, still potent). He called me “madame la doctoresse.” I did not correct him. The world may burn, but civility endures. Jennie “The Scalpel” 
Deadlander, anciennement de Techport