Chapter 20. Patriot (19)
* * * * *
Cassandra was waiting in the blood analysis room on the first floor. She seemed to be wearing more clothes than usual.
Aside from the sanitary latex gloves and doctor’s gown on her hands, she was also wearing a shirt buttoned up to the neck, a dust mask, safety glasses, jeans, and shoes.
“Isn’t it hot?”
“It’s okay.”
Maybe because of the mask, my voice was a little muffled.
“Aren’t you too conscious of being bitten by a zombie last time? “I said it was okay.”
Other than that, it was difficult to explain why it was wrapped so tightly. But Cassandra shook her head lightly.
“That’s okay, right? Dressing like this is also an unavoidable procedure to increase the purity of the spray. “I’ll draw some blood first.”
Well, it was usual, so she rolled up her arms and sat down on the examination chair as usual. One blood draw from her arm, and then, well. Our routine was to drain fluid from the other side.
But Cassandra scurried away to the other side of her room. As she was pulling back the curtains, she came pushing a large machine.
“John, do you know what this is?”
“Isn’t this the device you use to donate blood?”
“Yes. I did a test run and it worked well. Now I’m going to draw blood with this. Instead, we will minimize the burden on your body by leaving a sufficient gap of two to three months.”
I tilted my head because the words I expected didn’t come out.
“Is that all?”
It was only for a moment, but Cassandra seemed to be thinking, ‘What’s the problem?’ Then he made a small “Ah” Sound and nodded.
“Oh, the explanation was insufficient. Before that, you had to hold a syringe and draw your blood from time to time, but now that inconvenience will no longer exist. The facilities here are good and the electricity supply is stable, so we can produce much more spray than we could in the lab. Also, there is no need to extract semen.”
Sare stopped by because the words came out so naturally. It would have been quite troublesome to have had a needle stuck in her arm.
“Cold, cold. What?”
“If you really have to give it to me, I won’t refuse. But Cassandra won’t help you like she used to. Because you weren’t injured. Fortunately, there are a lot of plastic containers here that can hold semen. “You can comfort yourself well on your own, right?”
Why is it a bit chilly? I said there was no need to say anything, but I didn’t have anything to say. Moreover, Cassandra even bothered to button the front of the doctor’s gown.
When the moment of blood collection arrived, the subtle sense of distance became concrete. Cassandra sat right against the opposite wall. Her mask’s breath fogged up her safety glasses, but she didn’t even bother to clean them.
“Do we really have to sit that far away? “It’s so hard to talk about.”
Cassandra herself said that she couldn’t make a sound, so she brought a walkie-talkie from outside. Her memories flashed back to her of how she had communicated with Camilla in this way before, before she became close to her. However, this time her opponent was Cassandra, and she was fully armed and pressed up against her wall.
“As far as Cassandra is concerned, I want to build her bulkhead entirely out of glass. This is because this central district is a place where infected people were confined, and it is highly likely that critically ill patients among them came to the public health center. “Of course we disinfected the building, but it’s not 100% perfect.”
I don’t know much about medicine, but sterilizing a room and wrapping your ankles tightly as if you don’t want to expose them seem like two different things. Now Cassandra looks more like a European doctor from the early modern era. These are the doctors who worked wearing crow masks, safety goggles, and full body suits.
But the inconvenience is temporary. Tiredness came over me.
“John. You can’t sleep. “When you sleep, blood circulation slows down, making blood collection difficult.”
Immediately the reprimand came.
“Then why don’t you do it quickly?”
“Hmm.”
After thinking deeply, Cassandra stood up from her seat and brought her papers. She was printing out a file from a laptop on the second floor. As she looked at the frantic report, her blood circulated faster, but instead her head started pounding.
What happens when infected animals and humans are left in a ‘confined space’? This observation report contained all of those things. It also included hunting animals that mate and produce infected offspring, as well as humans, who were the weakest in the food chain, by pretending to be dead and then attacking them.
“What on earth is going on here?”
“Cassandra is curious about that too. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has analyzed that Cro virus has almost the same effect on animals and humans. Hardening skin, extraordinary regenerative power, increase in muscle strength and breathing rate, improvement in athletic ability… And even irreversible mutations.
The story of the hunger problem itself is a bit different because it is related to the concentration of contamination from the Limos virus, not the Cro virus, but the general consensus is that the animals are suffering from endless hunger, so they do not reproduce.”
According to the author of the report, the animals running wild here were originally raised in zoos. Therefore, far from not knowing humans, he said that he knew them very well. It was even said that some of them had almost died out because they had been kept in zoos for generations.
But still, a beast is a beast.
The saying ‘You cannot chain a wolf’ did not come out for nothing. No matter how friendly a wolf is to people, its wild side shows itself as it gets older. In the end, these guys couldn’t have disobeyed the call of their instincts, no matter how many times they were handled by humans.
Furthermore, animals are very good at the logic of superior-subordinate relationships and the logic of the law of the fittest.
The report vividly describes the process by which animals gradually stop being afraid of humans and harass and eat them. Humanoid zombies have far worse hunting abilities than beasts. So their choice is to eat other humanoid zombies or corpses. Just like the weakest carnivore does.
『It is difficult to predict the future of herbivores in Central Earth, but it is not difficult to guess that carnivores will thrive and prosper more than ever before. As evidence, unlike humanoid zombies or herbivores, carnivores are giving birth to children.』
『… A pride of lions and a pack of leopards encountered each other on Smeaton Street. Carnivores with overlapping territories eliminate competitors by killing each other’s young, but these did not do this. Rather, they were observed on CCTV cooperatively hunting down humanoid zombies and sharing the loot among themselves.』
The end of the report became increasingly filled with incomprehensible sentences. Words such as ‘high fever’, ‘groaning’, ‘vain’, and ‘delusional symptoms’ appeared periodically. Some of the typing was strange. Perhaps, the zombie in the doctor’s gown was the author of this report, and he seemed to have lost his mind little by little as the moment of turning into a zombie approached.
『Therefore, this author believes that if the zombie crisis continues for a long time, all humanoid zombies on Earth will disappear』
The report sent to Joanna Mustaine ends like this. The researcher was unable to complete the last sentence. But I thought I knew.
“We will become extinct.”
Cassandra nodded her head after hearing what I said.
All humans will eventually die or become zombies. Humans who become zombies can never survive in a competition for survival with other zombie species. That future may not be that far away.
“But why do carnivores have children? “I don’t understand this the most.”
“Actually, Cassandra is also most curious about that point. That’s why I wanted to talk to you, Johan.”
From Noble mtl dot com
“Wrapped up like that?”
“It’s important not to be influenced. Johan, I’m asking this from a researcher’s perspective. And since researchers are neither police officers nor prosecutors, there is no need to unconditionally answer all the questions, nor do they need to feel any obligation or responsibility to do so. “Just give me a natural, unadorned answer.”
What does it mean that you have to bundle up your clothes to avoid being affected? And what on earth are you asking so much about? I didn’t understand at all. On the other side of the wall, Cassandra whispered into her walkie-talkie.
“John. “You enjoy s*x with Leticia and similar s*xual activities with Camilla.”
She couldn’t answer because he bit her tongue slightly. Cassandra’s whispers were even more explicit. No, she felt more of a sour feeling.
“But it seems like he always wears a condom with Leticia and avoids s*x on ovulation days. I don’t do any positions with Camilla that could lead to pregnancy. John. “Why don’t you have s*x for the purpose of producing children?”
“How can I give birth and raise a child in this current situation? And I’m not ready to raise a child yet.”
No, I understand that they are trying to wake you up because you look sleepy and lethargic, but isn’t this a bit extreme?
“That’s right. Usually animals judge that way. If they think the environment is unsuitable for raising children, they postpone reproduction. But when those conditions are met, animals copulate and give birth to children.
The author of the report seems to have realized that the ecology of carnivores has now reached an ‘ideal environment’. This is like an enclosed place, and there is plenty of prey. But Cassandra thinks a little differently.”
“Huh, how is it different?”
“Crovirus acts equally on both animals and humans. I don’t know if there was a mutation, but the results of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s experiments were always the same. Besides, this is an unprotected area. Animals will experience chronic hunger, and hunger is the biggest stressor for living creatures. If hunger is not satisfied, animals will not copulate. As a rule.”
“I told you that story earlier.”
“That’s right. But, that doesn’t mean you have to have s*x.”
Cassandra finally took off her safety glasses. Her face was bright red. She must have been quite hot if she was wrapped up like that. But even for a moment. As soon as our eyes met, she quickly wrote again. She let out a sigh.
“… “What do you think?”
“Do you remember what happened in the warehouse?”
“Of course I remember.”
“Cassandra accepted John’s semen. For therapeutic purposes only. Know?”
“But?”
“But animals are much more sensitive to pheromones than humans. “To the point where you can tell your health status by smell.”
It was a bit of a random story. I didn’t know why she moved on to talking about pheromones. Suddenly it occurred to me that Cassandra would not have told this story openly. Cassandra wasn’t the type of person to talk things out like this.
What on earth are you afraid of? .
“Then what are those beasts…?” .”
“Just like us.”
Cassandra seemed to be looking straight at me.
“Just like us, John. The four of us tried to find a way to coexist by mixing our bodies directly and indirectly. Those beasts are now walking the same path as us. And those animals are trying to produce healthy male and female offspring that can coexist with the virus. “They have already adapted to a changed world.”
Her hair seemed to be burning white. I thought I knew what Cassandra was trying to say. She is a timid person. She is strong in some ways, but afraid in others. Because she is too smart. Because he is a person who can see a very large picture. You don’t want to believe what you see.
“The reason why fanatics bothered to write and leave this observation diary….”
Cassandra’s head seemed to drop slightly.
“Yes. “I think they already knew this was going to happen.”