Ch.112Chapter 15. Dead Man Blues (3)

I had a question.

According to Cassandra, this virus alone is enough to turn people into zombies. But the virus was inserted long before the zombie outbreak. The accident should have happened much earlier.

Camilla seems to share my thoughts.

“I’ve eaten Cybele canned food straight out of the can sometimes, and so have others. People did say they still felt hungry after eating it because the portions were small, but not hungry enough to want to eat the person next to them.”

In response to our question, Cassandra typed on the keyboard. She compared and contrasted two similar-looking viruses, then showed us the results.

“Simply put, Cybele modified the Limos virus. They knew the original was too dangerous. They greatly reduced the hunger-inducing effect, but it seems they created several variants instead.”

Cassandra scrolled down and showed us a video. On the surface, it just looked like a beaker full of water, but when accelerated 10x, we could see a soft mass of flesh growing inside.

“This is footage from cultured meat research. Remember how they said they grow stem cells in nutrient solution to create meat? This is that process. But Cybele manipulated the nutrient solution. Here, in this droplet being added with the pipette, is the modified Limos virus.”

“What are they doing? Trying to make the stem cells ‘hungry’?”

Cassandra nodded at my question.

“Exactly. Cybele wanted to significantly reduce meat growth time. Longer production periods mean increased costs.

They needed to artificially increase the stem cell division rate while supplying enough nutrients to prevent the cellular structure from collapsing. That meant they had to feed the stem cells a lot.”

The implication was that they wanted the stem cells to absorb plenty of nutrients and grow quickly.

“That’s zombie-like.”

Both Cassandra and Camilla looked at me. I gathered my thoughts and explained carefully.

“Think about the zombies we’ve encountered. Some had large wounds, and some even had half their heads blown off. But the Chro virus kept them all moving.

It stimulated their appetite to make them move around and devour anything. If their bodies were injured, it caused cells to divide to the point of being indistinguishable from tumors, filling in the missing flesh.

As long as the host could move, it didn’t matter whether the brain was functioning properly or not. Right?”

Cassandra silently nodded.

“Before the situation escalated to what it is now, the Disease Control Bureau secured zombies for various experiments. They stopped after several researchers and guards turned into zombies.

Yes. The Chro virus enhances the body’s recovery ability and constantly commands it to search for food. It will do anything to keep its host alive.

The longer the host lives, the longer the Chro virus itself can survive. And in that process, it tries to destroy anything that interferes with the host’s survival.”

“…For example?”

Camilla asked with a voice that sounded appalled, as if she was afraid to even hear the answer.

“Rational judgment. Pain detection ability. Zombies become numb to pain and lose their ability to think. Humans can control their actions through thought, but the virus simply erases that. So that…”

“So that?”

“So they stop seeing people next to them as people and start seeing them as food. Survival of itself and its host. That’s all the Chro virus wants.”

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at the absurdity.

“What kind of company is Cybele? And what were the researchers thinking?”

Cassandra, who had been a Cybele researcher herself, lowered her head.

“Cybele had many researchers from Elsa. Some were unpleasant, some were morally bankrupt, but they were all smart and had a strong sense of responsibility and mission.

A mission to free Elsa from hunger. To ensure everyone could live equally, without hunger, at least when it came to food.

Elsa is vast, and despite livestock and agriculture being the main industries, too many people go hungry. Too much land has been devastated by war, and everyone is too poor to buy enough food.

That’s all it was. To provide affordable food so many people could survive. That’s all. But neither Cassandra nor any of the researchers there wanted their wish to end hunger in Elsa to be fulfilled in such a cruel and horrific way.”

Wasn’t it Camilla who said that Cybele’s food was practically a gift for the poor in Elsa?

It was true that Elsa was vast and agricultural and meat prices were low, but the reality was that most Elsa people couldn’t even earn that much.

It wasn’t because Elsa people were poor or lazy. They were simply being robbed of what they had by Römer in the east and Minsk in the west.

Now people from Elsa, Römer, Minsk, and other countries will gradually turn into zombies. All suffering from the curse of hunger that Elsa people experienced.

“Where did this monstrous virus come from? Cassandra, you said we could find out who entered information about this virus if we searched the data.”

Camilla, unable to contain herself, pointed at the laptop. Cassandra shook her head, seeming confused.

“The input itself was done in this lab. The problem is the source of where this virus came from.”

“And?”

“There’s no data. I don’t know if it was entered and then deleted, or if it was never entered at all.”

I examined the laptop monitor. As Cassandra said, the relevant information had been cleanly erased.

“Can’t it be recovered?”

Camilla pressed, but Cassandra shook her head helplessly.

“The chances are slim. It’s too long ago. Even if it were possible, it wouldn’t be feasible with just this laptop, and it would be difficult even if we turned on the generator and used all the computers here.

The algorithm I’ve written works only because Cassandra once worked at Cybele and knows how their data systems are structured. Finding and recovering deleted data is a different domain, and even Cassandra isn’t confident about that.”

Then it seems difficult.

But somehow, I felt like I knew where this Limos virus came from.

“Cassandra. I need to talk with Camilla for a moment.”

“Huh? Um, okay…”

I took Camilla to my room.

“Let’s show Cassandra too.”

“Show what?”

“The video from Hoot’s phone. The one where the phone’s owner bit someone else, saying he was hungry after blood was sprayed on the Goddess of Hunger statue.”

“…Huh?”

Camilla covered her mouth with the back of her hand, looking perplexed.

“Camilla, Cassandra also said this virus is persistent. What if the virus was on the goddess statue dug up from the ground, and it was activated when blood was sprayed on it…”

“Wait. Wait, Johan. Do you understand what you’re saying?”

I do.

The Goddess of Hunger is the spiritual pillar that unites the people of Elsa. Camilla still prays in a small voice when she eats dinner, when she needs to concentrate to pull a trigger, when making love, and at dawn when light breaks through.

But if the Goddess of Hunger statue contained a virus that could bring about the world’s destruction, then the people of Elsa, including Camilla, were essentially worshipping and depending on a destroyer of the world.

It means the deity they believed in and relied on was actually trying to devour everyone.

But.

“No. Camilla. That might not be it. Someone could have contaminated the statue. Cassandra mentioned anthrax. Anthrax is often used as a tool for terrorism. The goddess statue might have been used for the same purpose.”

“Who would do that?”

“The person who excavated it would know the whole story. If they’re still alive. And if we can meet them.”

Joanna Mustein. An archaeologist and paleontologist, and the youngest tenured professor at Elsa National University.

She led the excavation project commissioned by the Elsa government and was the hidden card of the Elsa Liberation Corps, known as ‘Fulcrum.’

Camilla sat down on the bed. She clutched the sheets with her fist.

“…My heart hurts so much.”

I lifted her up and hugged her as tightly as I could. Everything she had believed in and relied on was slipping away one by one.

Swimming, which was her past, present, and future. The liberation struggle, which was just an excuse to use people. And now even the goddess who was her faith.

“What am I supposed to live for now?… Why is everything that was certain in my life leaving me? Why?”

Camilla didn’t cry. She seemed to lack even the energy for that. I gently patted her back.

“One truly good thing will remain.”

Camilla looked at me with reddened eyes. I smiled as if making a promise.

“The truly good things will remain. In the end, only the most solid and strong things endure.”

“What’s with the sudden profound statement?”

Camilla laughed as she wiped her eyes with her palm.

“It’s something I heard. From a… teacher I know. I don’t really understand what it means either, but I’ve lived taking comfort in those words. Even when everything seems to have collapsed, something definitely remains, and that’s… something precious that remains with me despite going through such terrible things.”

“Johan, you’ll stay with me, right? By my side?”

“Yes.”

Camilla hugged me so tightly it hurt my back.

* * * * *

Cassandra seemed quite shocked after watching the video.

“What am I looking at? How is this possible?”

But before rewinding the video, I gently took Cassandra’s hand. Camilla slightly bowed her head, said she was sorry, and went upstairs.

“I’m sorry. Camilla is having a really hard time.”

Cassandra didn’t say anything else.

We examined the video again, coldly, mechanically, to the point of nausea. We watched it in small segments and amplified specific sounds to hear better.

“What do you think?”

“This boy, the one who bit the medical staff in the ambulance. It’s a case of acute infection. There were many cases like this in the early stages.”

But this video is from four years ago. And the zombie outbreak didn’t fully spread until much later.

“Acute infection symptoms appear almost immediately. And no one would sit idle after seeing something like this. That’s why suppression was very quick in the early stages. After the Disease Control Bureau issued aggressive guidelines, quarantine measures were also effective. But… huh? What?”

Suddenly, Cassandra started typing.