Chapter 20. Patriot (16)
I pretended not to notice and moved calmly. I sent a hand signal to Camilla. Camilla, who was stuck on the wall, moved slowly and stuck next to the door. She took a deep breath and kicked the door open. Bang!
“Kyeah!”
It was a zombie wearing a doctor’s gown over everyday clothes. He had been starving for so long that he was so thin that he was dressed like a scarecrow. He seemed almost like a wooden doll, with almost no life in him.
“Hike. Hike. Hike.”
Still, the guy frowned arrogantly and waved his arms in the air. He had just fallen and broken a bone in his leg, so he crawled to his feet, holding on to the wall, even though his leg was twisted at an odd angle. Camilla aimed her pistol.
“Wait a minute. I’ll do it. “Can you prepare some spray?”
“What should I do?”
“To send it out.”
I walked out, pushing an office chair with wheels. When I tapped it, it opened its mouth and roared. At that moment, Cassandra sprayed her mouth.
“Kyaaa!”
His posture collapsed due to the luminescence. He quickly sat down in a chair and ran excitedly down the slope.
I turned the corner and pushed back. The chair glided like a sleigh and flew across the first floor lobby and out the open door. Soon, neither the zombie nor the chair were visible.
Camilla was looking down from above as if it was absurd. I shrugged my shoulders.
“If you shoot it, it’s a hassle to clean it.”
“… “That is correct.”
She was about to close the door on the first floor, but then she just placed a chair and a fragile jar on top. So that if someone breaks in, the sound of a jar breaking will be heard.
“Where on earth did you come from?”
When I went up to the second floor, I immediately saw the answer. The last room was a place with a name on it: the lounge.
“I made a mistake. I had to open every room first and check for risk factors. I’m so distracted….”
Have I lost my senses that much?
No, no. Usually, at this level, the zombies crawled out on their own. But before, that guy even had a faint presence. Because she was on the verge of starvation.
I opened the doors one by one. There was nothing alive or moving. There wasn’t even a body. Eventually, we entered the final lounge in question.
The window was closed tightly, and the curtains were neatly arranged to the side. As the lightning struck, the room became clearly visible.
“John.”
Camilla hugged my arm.
The wall was full of graffiti. It was in terrible cursive and written with a bright red pen. It was a prayer. Prayer to the Goddess of Hunger.
『Hunger is equal for everyone. Hunger is fair to everyone. We were originally born from hunger, so we return to hunger.”
『Goddess, please accept my offering to satisfy your hunger. Abundance is yours. Share your hunger with us, and as a child, give her what her mother deserves.』
The note attached to the wall fluttered.
From Noble mtl dot com
It said ‘To-do list – daily report, weekly report, monthly report’ and it was full of things to do. The text was barely visible because the ink had flown away, but the words ‘We will write and deliver the report thoroughly and maintain the stream so that it does not stop’ were clearly visible.
At the end, an email address was written.
I opened my smartphone and accessed the Internet. I wrote my email address in the search bar. Several search results appeared. But the content was the same.
『Professor Joanna Mustaine, Elsa National University. Email Address… 』
“Joanna Mustaine.”
The person who watched the streaming and received the report was none other than Joanna Mustaine.
I tapped something on the tip of my toe. It was a trash can. Crumpled paper was thrown away. He took it out without thinking and unfolded it.
『Ritual Order』
“What is that?”
Camila asked, but I couldn’t answer her. She read from top to bottom as if fascinated. I couldn’t possibly explain it with my mouth. At the end, there was even a note written in fancy handwriting saying – Completed.
“Crazy nonsense. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“I want to see it.”
“I think it’s better not to watch. Seriously.”
Camila dared to unfold the paper. Sure enough, she read the first three lines and threw it away.
“Crazy bastards.”
Camila tried to cover her mouth, forgetting that she was wearing a helmet.
“You crazy bastards. Did I see this correctly?”
On the paper was written the order of human sacrifice. They even kindly added a footnote saying, “Based on Elsa’s ancient documents and ritual order.” I felt like I knew why the leadership of the 284th National Military Police was quietly dead here.
They were ‘offered’.
284 The headquarters of the National Military Police had fallen into the hands of fanatics.
* * * * *
I was very busy for a while.
While one person stood guard on the rooftop, the other three strengthened the exterior fence and repaired the hanger door. The task was made easy thanks to the soldiers of the headquarters leaving spare building materials here and there.
The hanger door was large enough for vehicles to come and go, but it took quite a bit of effort to open and close, so I felt like I needed to install a fully automatic product.
Next is disinfection. We all wore protective clothing and disinfected the entire building with bleach. We mopped the hallways and rooms, got paint, repainted the interior walls, changed the curtains, and replaced the mattress. The bad smell that had been hanging around the building disappeared, but instead the smell of paint lingered.
“Good.”
The generator on the power generation vehicle was filled with oil and turned on. It seemed like it was gurgling and emitting black smoke, but then the generator started spinning, making a rather dull sound. “Pajit,” The light bulb turned on and the ventilation fan whirred.
“It’s electricity.”
When the ventilator turned on, miscellaneous smells disappeared in an instant. The once gloomy public health center became bright as heaven.
“Yes, the medical devices, blood analyzer, and centrifuge all work without problem. I’m sorry, but is it okay if Cassandra takes a break from work for a bit? “I think I need to use some equipment.”
Me, Camilla, and Leticia all stopped our hands. Because we all three knew what Cassandra meant. For the rest of my life, I’ve been telling other people, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re infected.’ The doctor who had said, ‘It’s not that far before I completely turn into a zombie’ was now in a situation where he might have to make the same judgment about himself.
“… “Would you like me to stay next to you?”
Camilla even took a step forward. Cassandra shook her head.
“No. Cassandra wasn’t that weak to fall in. “She said it before, if anything happens, I’ll make a file out of what you guys can do.”
Leticia, who was leaning against the wall, asked a question bluntly.
“How much does it cost?”
“What do you mean?”
“How likely is it that you will suddenly turn into a zombie?”
“You have to analyze it to find out. Because acute mutations require numerical analysis and tracking, they cannot be clearly identified by color like a litmus test. So it’s a bit difficult to ask you. Instead, if you think Cassandra is going to turn into a zombie, shoot her in the head right away.”
It wasn’t a joke. Cassandra was giving a clear warning.
“Cassandra may not be able to shoot a gun better than you, but she is confident that her strength will not be defeated by anyone. If Cassandra turns into a zombie, she’ll rip the lion’s jaw off with the strength of her arms. So kill her before then.”
“Don’t say that. “Because that can never happen.”
Camilla spoke emphatically.
“If something like that happens, I will suffocate her in one fell swoop. “Before I even thought I was sick.”
Leticia declared as if she was making a promise.
I quietly took off my gloves, set them down next to me, and entered the building. Cassandra followed behind.
“John, where are you going?”
“Blood Laboratory.”
“Cassandra can do it alone?”
“I’m not coming to help you. I’m going because I want to be there. “It has nothing to do with you.”
Cassandra’s expression did not change at all. I opened the door to the blood lab and entered. Noisy machines were whirring and running. Cassandra came in after her and, without looking at me, walked over her arm and drew her own blood with her syringe.
“Wait a minute.”
I don’t know anything else, but I know how to disinfect the needle site with an alcohol swab and apply Cybele first aid medication. Cassandra meekly took her action and put her own blood into the centrifuge.
The blood lab door opened. Camilla came in, taking off her gloves.
“What about Leticia?”
“I went up to the roof. To be on guard around the surroundings. “It’s unlikely, but if something jumps over the fence, it’ll be difficult.”
Humanoid zombies were not a big problem, but animal zombies were a problem. People can’t climb that smooth cement fence, but zombie monkeys can infiltrate buildings and telegraph pole wires.
“So, how long should I wait for the analysis?”
“Approximately 30 minutes.”
“I have some time.”
There was quite an awkward silence for a moment. I wanted to change the subject.
“This public health center. “What on earth happened?”
In the meantime, while we were working on strengthening the public health center, we analyzed the data on the laptop from time to time.
The fact that CCTV monitors were installed in the public health center itself was not a problem.
This is Silver Town, where seniors come to enjoy a comfortable retirement. They said that because they don’t know when or where the elderly will collapse, they have installed CCTV throughout Silver Town. Of course, there were no photos of the inside of the building, but most of the photos were of the exterior, roads, intersections, or yards.
The problem was that the CCTV connection had been switched after the 284 National Military Police took over. What was created to monitor Silver Town was connected to CCTVs throughout the central district and then remotely streamed to the outside.
“The central district is very large, but it is a space cut off from the outside world. It was also home to one of the largest zoos in Elsa. “I don’t know if this was used as a kind of test bed.”
Camilla frowned at Cassandra’s guess.
“What test bed?”
“A prediction of what will happen in the world in the future when all humans turn into zombies and become the weakest members of the natural ecosystem.”
It was not difficult to see what was going to happen. What made humans the apex predators were intelligence, cooperation, and tools. However, humans who have become zombies cannot utilize any of them.
The flesh is soft, the nails fall off easily, and the fangs are so short that they cannot even suffocate the animal. Even giving birth to offspring is not easy. Other animals can walk less than a day after birth. This is not the case with human babies.
“The human species will be the weakest species that can be easily eaten. Carnivores will thrive more. “Only beasts with tumors all over their bodies would travel to and from the abandoned city.”
Cassandra’s words were not a prophecy. It was a calm truth that would almost certainly happen. But how?
“Why do humans and animals behave differently? In fact, until I came here, I had never seen an animal copulate. This is my first time seeing it here. Human zombies were also different. A zombie pretending to be dead….”
I also agree with what Camilla said. Although there are zombies that have entered a kind of dormant state, I have never seen one that pretends to be dead and then jumps up and attacks me. Cassandra was deeply troubled.
“I’ve heard about how mice avoid cats.”
“Are you running away quickly?”
“If you’re lucky, it’s possible, but the success rate is actually low. When I see a cat, my instinct is to become paralyzed with fear. That has nothing to do with courage. It’s just that the species itself was designed that way. And when a cat sees a mouse, it wants to play with it. Unless you’re really hungry. So, the rats pretend to be dead.”
A dead, limp mouse is a boring toy, and a cat will just leave it alone if it tries to play with it and doesn’t respond. Of course, it doesn’t always succeed. A hungry cat will eat it right away.
“But?”
“Didn’t the humanoid zombies here come to a similar conclusion? Think of the zombies trapped here in the health center. Even though there were six bodies on the first floor, they were not touched. Perhaps corruption was already in progress at that time. The important thing is that rotting things don’t even get eaten by zombies. “Even zombies try to eat healthy food in their own way.”
The phrase “I was trapped” Is actually inaccurate.
This guy volunteered to stay. The fanatics of 284 used this place as a fortress and a base for data collection. It is difficult to know for sure why he volunteered to remain, but it is probably correct to say that ‘the infection progressed slowly’.
Quite a lot of canned food was found in his room. It lasted quite a long time before becoming a zombie, and by the time it completely transformed into a zombie… It is reasonable to assume that the body on the first floor would have already become difficult to eat.
Then where did the rest of the headquarters go? Would he pretend not to know and rejoin the unit, or would he become a bandit somewhere? I didn’t know.
“But, Cassandra is worried.”
“What is it?”
“We know that zombies also have the ability to learn. Just like we trained the military police zombies with candy. But even though they rested in the shade, they never pretended to be dead and attacked people. Moreover, the zombies here and the zombies in other areas “I don’t think it’s fundamentally different. So, rationally speaking, we can conclude that zombies are influenced by their environment. In other words…”
At that time, an alarm beeped from the centrifuge. The computer read the data, and the printer spit out the analysis results. Cassandra paused. He seemed to be wondering whether he should continue talking or look at the results sheet. But soon I approached the printer.
But I thought I knew what Cassandra was trying to say.
Adaptation.
Zombies adapt to their surroundings.
Slowly, slowly. But definitely.
The animals may have already adapted. That’s why you give birth to offspring.
Humanoid zombies are not like that. A weak creature with no ability, power, weapons, or even intelligence to fight back will simply die in front of starving nature.
So, they cannot produce offspring.
“Cassandra?”
Camilla’s voice cracked. Cassandra was staring at her result sheet. To me, it seemed like I was watching it three times from top to bottom. Then.
All right.
I tore it roughly.