Summary: Me being a nerd and trying to figure out how to use a mutation that could happen when one is exposed to some stuff for a long while. Or at least what I think could happen in this world. Don't ask me shit because I'm not a doctor nor a scientist. So this may be a bit far stretched. I did seek some stuff up. So like... Have fun I guess!

Amount of words in this chapter: 2301

It had been almost 20 years since the apocalypse started and so far nobody really had found a cure. Some people would think they could be their cure because they were just birthed into the world but they would never be bitten and they would never know for sure.

What people however would never know is that sometimes it would happen that a new mutation would come for the infected. But also for the people. This could happen sometimes when there would be an exposure of mutagens. This could mean that when people would be affected by some stuff from the infected and they would birth a kid, this would mean that they could be immune to getting infected or that the infected part of their body and the not infected part could live in harmony.

However this almost never happened because people would be afraid of the fact that their kid would be infected so they never would have children. Ellie and some of the kids of the newer generation however were different. Because it had been a few years since the infected began to roam around this could mean that mutations would occur without people knowing.

This could mean that even if you were bitten, the chances were pretty big that you wouldn't mutate into an infected. However because people were afraid to wait and see what would happen they would shoot themselves faster than even looking at the place they had been bitten. Riley had been something else because her parents hadn't really been in infected places and because of this she had been so unfortunate to become part of the infected army.

Ellie however had been lucky with it all because she basically lived in harmony with the infected part. Yes sometimes she would go feral but that was just a part of her infected brain that became normal. Some people would think she was infected but some people would see it as something good.

When Joel had first seen it happen after Tess. He had been fascinated with it all. Because of the fact that she was always so quiet around other people. But after that he began to observe and he began to see some things that bothered him a little bit. Not the infected part. But how she would sometimes stay still and push him somewhere else and he would later find out that they would miss some of the infected.

When he had learned this he had asked Ellie to explain the bite to him. She had explained that she could sometimes feel like a part of the infected like she had sort of gotten an upgrade. But at the same time she also felt like it had been something that had awakened back into her when she was bitten. Like it had been dormant for a while. He had nodded because it had sounded like she had been bitten or something happened to her mum before her birth and that it had been a part of her for a while.

When they figured this out they began to observe people they would find and began to try and figure out what was different for some people. Until Ellie had a thought. She had suggested that maybe that the people who have been exposed longer and get a kid will have the mutated gene and it will be given to the kid and thus the kid will be immune. However they will never be sure because they are a bit trigger happy to kids and people that have been bitten.

When they learned this they decided that if someone would be bitten around them that they would wait before doing something. This happened to be when Sam was bitten. Ellie had been the first to discover it and had wanted to tell Joel right away. But Sam hadn't wanted her to do that. So because of this she had waited for them to fall asleep and then tell Joel about it. They both wouldn't know what would happen at all. They also wouldn't have known that their mother hadn't been infected before she had Sam. Because of this Sam did in fact turn and even Ellie hadn't been able to tell them that this would have happened.

After that they began to make plans that if Joel would ever get bitten that Ellie would know what the frick she should do. But they also wanted to know more if she would bite someone if they would turn. So they began to make questions for when they would end up finding the fireflies. These questions were hard to remember sometimes but when they had finally found some paper and pens that worked they began to write them down.

It would begin to get full at some point with the amount of questions. Sure but at the same time they wanted to be careful with it all. But they also began to make plans that if the fireflies didn't want to test at first and wouldn't listen to them at all. Ellie basically gave Joel the permission to leave there as fast as possible and he shouldn't listen to her. Because he was basically her guardian right now and he could make the choices for what was the best for her.

However before they even had the chance to go to the fireflies they came across a new town. Here they found Tommy. Joel's brother. Or in Joel's words he was sort of his first kid because their mother didn't really look after Tommy. So he had to step up for him and he had been really protective of Tommy for a long time.

So when they got there of course he had been happy to be around Tommy again but he had also been worried that Tommy wouldn't trust him after what had happened. So because of this he decided to do a different technique. He told Ellie to come with him and he didn't really listen to Maria because he sort of half adopted Ellie already at this point and she was beginning to be his kid. He had not been really angry about it but at the same time he felt like they got off on the wrong food just because he wanted to protect his only living family he had left.

So to hear that they have been expecting was an even bigger shock. Because maybe Tommy would get it. But they also needed to act fast. So he turned to Ellie and they began to explain their theory and pointed out that it was still a theory and they didn't want to test it out. However if he could get Maria on a patrol to some spores so she would have been around them for a while but not to harm her. But more so that her kid could maybe get the mutated gen.

When Tommy heard this he was against it and if it had been his wife he would have also been against it. But before an argument began Ellie had rolled up her sleeve to let him see the bite. Joel hadn't really expected her to do this because he had wanted it to be more of a secret but he couldn't do shit about it now.

They however didn't stay that long because they wanted to find the fireflies. However it took longer than they expected to end up by the fireflies. They did end up finding them but they had to fight tooth and nail to let them believe them about their theory. However, one of the doctors that had studied genes and other things and had been a doctor after that for a long time sort of believed them and they had begun testing.

Mostly on people that had betrayed them. But they also began to figure out that older people could get the gene easily if they would get bitten by someone that had the gene. However when Joel and Ellie heard this they decided to see if maybe something could be made to make the transfer easier and less weird. The doctor had been okay with this and had begun to do this with some of her blood.

However the other people had not been happy about it. Especially Marlene when she had figured out why they did it. She had wanted to study Ellie's brain but this was so much worse. However before they could even try and do a procedure Ellie had kidnapped one of the doctors that wanted to do it and had brought them with her. She had already bitten the doctor.

Her front teeth had some sort of weird mutation in them since birth and she had loads of difficulties with them since the beginning and since they began to grow. However, maybe this could be the way. So she had brought the doctor with her and she had brought the doctor to a place where there were spores.

When they got there Joel and Marlene had followed her. Joel mostly to protect her if something were to go wrong and Marlene mostly because she had been pushed by the doctors. They had wanted to see the result. What they didn't know was that the result would be successful. And that the mutation could be given through a bite but they also had to be exposed to the virus almost immediately. Otherwise it wouldn't really work.

When they figured this out they also began to test if someone that had been bitten could transfer the mutation to someone else. Here they had to sadly inform someone that this was in fact not the case. However they did test it out with a kid. Yes, that kid had been exposed to it when they had been in the belly of the mother. But they did not fully expose the kid. They did however begin to analyze the blood cells of Ellie and the kid to see if maybe they had the same mutation or the same gene.

When they started to do that however Ellie had really wanted to just go back to Tommy because she felt like Maria should know more about it and if they had to be more cautious if the kid was younger or older.

When they did figure out that some of the genes were the same they began to test some other things on the kid to see what could happen if they would be exposed. However they also began to test some more stuff on Ellie. Joel had been happy to be there for her and just help her through it. He did have a beef battle with Marlene because of the fact that she had wanted to use Ellie's brain instead of looking for another cure. Or not even thinking about some other ways.

However what they did find out is that if the kid wouldn't be bitten by an infected person that it would turn if it would come across spores. However if they would get bitten then that would mean that they wouldn't turn. This could also be the case for other kids that had been exposed to the virus when they had still been connected to their mother.

When they figured this out Ellie and Joel began to pack the stuff they had but also some more. But the night they wanted to leave they had a reason to stay so they had stayed one night more. However what they had not expected was that Ellie would be brought to look at her brain because some doctors thought there could still be a cure.

Marlene on the other hand had caught wind of this and had gone to Joel and together they had saved Ellie. Only for Joel to shoot her because of the fact that they wouldn't be left alone if she would still be alive to live the tale and that she could maybe find them. they would always be on the run. However they did bring some doctors with them that could help them.

When they got back to Jackson they found out that Maria had in fact not yet given birth and the doctors had begun their tests to see if the kid would be immune only to find out that the kid would not be immune at all. Maybe if Ellie would bite Maria it could happen but otherwise it would not.

They also had found out that Ellie's bite would not turn someone and Dina should have been happy with this after they got together otherwise she would have turned loads of times. However what resulted out of this was that JJ would be immune. They however would not find this out until he would be 16 and he would be bitten. But if he would be bitten they had changed some protocols to be sure if the kids would turn or not. JJ ended up with a nice scar.

Joel in the end did survive because Abby had found out what had happened. Sure she had been angry but she had also seen that it had been a father's rage. She however would never go after Joel. If she would come across him she would make herself clear that she had been angry at him.