Yet in this kind of conditions , the sickly child was able to find a way to survive , the radiation and the remedies having mutated his cells into something a little bit more than human . And he thrived strangely enough without the guidance or support of human contact . He spent several years out in the wilds , learning from the wreckage of ships and honing those abilities that his mutations gave him . It is possible that he ran into Knives at one of those buried ships .

Question: What may have happened if the mutation did not occur ?
Answer: He may have learned more from the ships wreckage .He may have needed guidance and support .He may not have survived .He may have needed more radiation .