The Forgotten Research

Side Story

Four years before the outbreak.

The rain had been falling for nearly six hours.

At the northern edge of the city stood an old private medical research facility that had been closed for years.

But one room was still occupied.

A young researcher sat alone at a desk surrounded by medical journals, laboratory reports, handwritten notes, and old patient records.

His name was Vaelric.

He was twenty-seven years old.

In front of him was a medical report.

He had read it seventeen times.

He read it again.

Vaelric: No…

He turned the page.

Vaelric: There has to be another option.

The report belonged to his grandmother, Elyra.

Her condition had become irreversible. Approved treatments had failed.

Vaelric: You can't just write a word like "terminal" and expect someone to accept it.

His phone rang.

Doctor: Vaelric, it's me.

Vaelric: How is she?

Doctor: Her condition has worsened.

Vaelric: Can you stabilize her?

Doctor: We're trying.

Vaelric: That's not what I asked.

A pause.

Doctor: For now.

Vaelric: There has to be a treatment.

Doctor: We've already gone through the available options.

Vaelric: Then I'll find another one.

The call ended.

Vaelric searched medical databases: modern clinical trials, experimental therapies, archived studies, failed treatments.

Every promising result eventually led to the same conclusion.

Insufficient evidence.

Unsafe.

Discontinued.

Unsuccessful.

Vaelric: Nothing.

He closed the laptop.

Vaelric: There isn't a medicine.

He looked toward the old archive.

Vaelric: There isn't a vaccine.

He stood.

Vaelric: Then I'll stop looking for something new.

Vaelric: I'll look for something forgotten.

2:13 AM.

Vaelric entered the basement archive.

Rows of old cabinets stretched into the darkness.

He searched through decades of records until he found a faded label:

HUMAN COLD RESPONSE — ARCHIVED

He opened the drawer.

Inside were studies of abnormal cold sensations despite normal environmental temperatures.

The patients did not simply feel cold. Their bodies were responding as though exposed to a colder environment.

Blood vessels changed their behavior.

Muscle activity increased.

Metabolic processes became abnormal.

Inflammatory signals appeared.

Vaelric: So the sensation wasn't the beginning.

He continued reading.

Another folder was marked:

PROJECT ASTERION

The research concerned cellular survival under extreme physiological stress.

Cells could enter protective states under certain conditions. Their activity could change and energy consumption could decrease.

It was not resurrection.

It was not regeneration.

It was survival.

The project had never produced a usable treatment. Results were inconsistent and unpredictable.

A handwritten note appeared:

"The system cannot be controlled without affecting the entire organism."

Vaelric stared at it.

Vaelric: That's why they stopped.

He returned upstairs and spread the documents across the laboratory.

Temperature regulation.

Cellular metabolism.

Inflammation.

Neurological signaling.

Tissue response.

He connected them.

Vaelric: Different researchers. Different decades. Different theories.

He stepped back.

Vaelric: But they were all studying pieces of the same problem.

His phone vibrated.

A message from the hospital:

Grandmother's condition has deteriorated.

Vaelric looked at the research.

Vaelric: I'm coming.

Before leaving, he noticed a page inserted between two reports.

It was not part of the original document.

There was no official stamp.

No researcher's name.

Only a handwritten title:

THE ZERO-STATE HYPOTHESIS

Vaelric opened it.

The first sentence suggested that biological activity might be reduced without destroying cellular function.

Vaelric stopped reading.

Vaelric: Zero-State…

The next pages were missing.

Vaelric placed the document into a folder.

Vaelric: I'll find the rest.

He switched off the laboratory lights.

Four years later, the name Dryvoid would become known across the world.

But almost nobody would remember the forgotten research that came before it.

And almost nobody would remember the researcher who first opened the file.

Vaelric.