Note: Written for Gramarye in the 2020 Parallels exchange.
Whatever They May Be
by EstiRose
Eosinophil looked over to where her friends were waiting for her. They were about the same age - or maybe a little older - and had spent enough time together in their duties that they’d formed a sort of bond. The Macrophage and the White Blood Cell, U-2048, had already gotten their tea. She quickly grabbed hers and joined where they were sitting at a table.
“Have to return to duty soon,” U-2048 rumbled. Truly, none of them really had time to sit and chat. They were always on duty, in some ways. But they still made time for one another, no matter how brief. Sometimes it was to compare notes. Sometimes it was just to relax after a particularly violent attack. No matter what, they found each other every so often and they always took the opportunity to just sit down for a little bit.
A set of red blood cells walked by, chattering at each other. U-2048 watched them go by. She knew why; danger could come at any moment and in any form. Not likely with red blood cells, since they were more likely to be attacked rather than infected, but it never hurt to be cautious. It wasn’t at all odd or unusual for red blood cells and white blood cells to be at least friendly to one another. Some were even fast friends, like U-1146 and AE3803. The two of them had been leaving just as she’d come in and both of them had given her a friendly wave.
One or two normal cells, taking an obvious break from replicating, waved at her, or maybe Macrophage, or maybe U-2048. “Your friends?” she asked U-2048.
He nodded. “Acquaintances. I don’t know them, just protected them once or twice. They’re in my usual patrol area, so….”
Eosinophil nodded. She didn’t get to know the normal cells, didn’t really have an assigned patrol area. She didn’t know a huge amount of people outside of her colleagues. Maybe a red blood cell or two and some of the platelets, but that was about it, and it was rare that she encountered even someone she recognized. Sometimes she swore that they had become faceless beings that just existed to be protected than anything else.
Macrophage giggled a little. “They aren’t mine! I never get to know any of them. How would you tell them apart, anyway?”
Of course, she would only really know her Erythroblast charges and anybody that her older sisters would ask her to pay attention to. Which made a kind of sense; they were all charged with defending this body, and emotions could get in the way.
“Gotta go back on patrol,” U-2048 said. “Good to see you both. Thanks for the tea.”
The two of them watched him go. “That reminds me!” Macrophage said. “I heard this scary story while I was interviewing those new red blood cells from the other body. Want to hear it?”
“Sure.” She had a few more minutes to rest, and Macrophage looked excited to tell this one. Being a junior Macrophage, she’d been assigned to learn from the new arrivals, and Eosinophil knew she’d loved that duty.
“A long time and a few bodies ago, one day a bunch of Neutrophils suddenly converged in the lower intestine. They started attacking the villi for no reason! A bunch of other cells rushed up to them and suddenly they stopped before they had to be killed! Their receptors were all up, too.”
Eosinophil shuddered. She wouldn’t want to just go crazy like that, even momentarily. Fighting bacteria and parasites was one thing. Attacking innocents was another.
“When they were interviewed later, they couldn’t explain why they were doing what they were doing. They’d had no orders and there was no reason for them to attack either structures or innocent cells.” She paused. “Some of the stories say that the attackers were Killer-T cells instead. Either way, it’s not really a story you can tell Erythroblasts, you know? We want them to be wary, but we don’t want them too scared to mature and do their duty.”
“Or even Myelocytes.” Even if they had to be tougher, she would have been scared of the whole story as well.
“Or even Myelocytes,” Macrophage acknowledged. “Anyway, thanks for listening! I have my charges to get back to.”
“And I have patrol to get back to,” Eosinophil replied. They would meet again. They knew how. Clutching her tea, she headed back to work.