Ch.139Chapter 18. Trust (9)

The zombies readily accepted the food we distributed. I’m not sure if they liked it, but they scraped their plates clean with their usual angry-looking faces.

On the third day, the zombies started showing strange behavior. They all had difficulty moving, suffering from coughs and chills. Despite how hot the weather was.

“Look at the back alley. They’re all sitting in the shade, resting. Surprisingly, they’re not fighting each other.”

I examined them through the binoculars Camilla handed me. I could see zombies sitting down, struggling. Looking closer, they were even sweating profusely.

“It looks similar to our symptoms when we got infected. No, maybe worse? We weren’t that bad. Interesting.”

‘The viruses are fighting each other for control of the body.’

That’s how Cassandra had explained it. But as I listened, something didn’t make sense.

‘Cassandra, these guys must have eaten virus-contaminated food before. They might have even eaten other zombie corpses depending on the situation?’

‘They probably went through this “dormant period” each time. Zombies that roam around 24/7 are likely just starving specimens that would die if they didn’t eat something immediately. Most spend time digesting what they’ve eaten while dealing with newly introduced viruses.’

According to Cassandra, one theory explaining ‘why zombies are so obsessed with food’ was that ‘it takes too many calories to maintain their bodies.’ If they get stomach problems after each meal and need to recover, it’s no wonder they never gain weight.

“Looking on the bright side, it means the virus in your body, Johan, is that powerful. An ordinary virus would have been defeated quickly.”

It was a strange compliment, but it was good that the experiment was progressing well.

Two more days passed. Now there were more zombies wandering around than lying sick. Perhaps from not eating while ill, their eyes were wide, teeth bared, and bodies overflowing with energy.

Had they adapted? If those creatures were truly infected with my virus, could I expect changes?

“We’ll find out when we confront them.”

I was about to head outside with an M1911 pistol and a handful of candy. If only Leticia hadn’t looked at me so strangely.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, just going to train some zombies.”

Leticia couldn’t continue speaking. Well, every day must be a series of shocks for her. She said she entered military academy before becoming an adult. She’s spent more than half her life in the military.

For someone like her, a person who exercises daily to build muscle, or a woman who lies naked on a sunbed claiming she needs to make food for zombies and get sun-disinfected, must have been quite shocking.

So I should be well within the bounds of common sense by comparison.

“Want to come along?”

“No. I came to stop you because it’s too dangerous.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that.”

I pointed to the rooftop.

“Camilla agreed to provide covering fire from up there. She’s an excellent sniper. And those guys outside, while not exactly my best friends, are acquaintances, so they won’t just rush to bite me.”

Leticia just stood with her mouth open, looking back and forth between me and the ceiling.

“…It seems like this isn’t the first time you’ve done this with this Camilla woman. You look very comfortable with it.”

“Yeah. We work pretty well together. After doing this for so long…”

“I want to come too.”

Leticia cut me off. Realizing she might have been too abrupt, she hastily added:

“You said it’s training, right? I know how to train. Before I was in intelligence, I was a platoon leader.”

“But we’re training zombies, not people.”

“That’s even better. We don’t have to teach them gun proficiency. Do you know how annoying that is?”

Before I could say anything, Leticia went upstairs to change clothes.

She wore cargo pants with no exposed skin and an olive-colored shirt. Charitably, it was a military look; bluntly, it was just standard military casual wear. She had a Beretta semi-automatic shotgun slung over her shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

Leticia walked ahead proudly. It seemed like she was deliberately showing off for Camilla. Well, she might have unexpected qualities.

– Johan, can you hear me?

Camilla’s voice came through my earpiece.

“Yes. Loud and clear.”

– The zombies are approaching you. And why is that woman swinging her hips in front of you?

“Leticia has experience training soldiers in the military. I thought she might have some advice. Our training wasn’t exactly successful, was it?”

– Well, that’s true. But Johan, honestly, I think you can do this perfectly well on your own.

What’s with Camilla today? She’s not usually one to give encouraging words.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Zombies coming. Leticia, don’t take out the shotgun yet. No need to provoke them unnecessarily.”

I holstered my pistol and took out the candy from my pocket.

“Here. You know this, right? You’ve had it before. Stand still. If you do, I’ll give you this.”

The zombie approached, drooling. One knee was slightly bent inward, making its gait look uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to care.

I threw the candy hard. There was a smack as it hit the zombie’s forehead and shattered.

“I thought you said not to provoke them?”

Leticia questioned incredulously, but she was even more surprised by what happened next. The zombie didn’t even look at us. It just picked up the candy from the ground. Then it tore open the wrapper along the perforation and emptied the contents into its mouth.

“That’s how it is. Some things work really easily, while others don’t work no matter how much we repeat them.”

Food training has been very successful. Now they can even open cans that don’t have pull-tabs. They’ve realized it’s better to stab them with a sharp iron bar than to smash them against brick walls or bite them until their teeth break.

The same goes for candy. At first, Camilla tried to tear it open forcefully like ripping pantyhose. But after I slowly demonstrated in front of them, they followed, albeit clumsily.

Everything else doesn’t work. It seems as meaningless as teaching a zombie cat to ‘sit’ or ‘shake.’ Commands like ‘guard this car’ or ‘eat that zombie’ don’t work at all.

More zombies approached. Leticia held her shotgun with both hands. She was holding it loosely, but ready to load and fire if trouble arose.

“Want some too?”

Whether they understood my words or it was just a reflexive response, the zombies stretched out their arms and moaned “wooo,” as if asking for candy.

I tossed candies at them. Forehead. Nose. Shoulder. They were hit in various places, but showed no sign of pain as they picked them up. Leticia shook her head as if she didn’t even want to comment anymore.

“Huh?”

Leticia tilted her head.

“What?”

“Wait a minute.”

Leticia observed the zombies for a while.

“Johan, can you throw more candy? I want to check something.”

Two candies a day makes them spoiled. Well, can’t be helped. I threw a few more since we were running low. Fortunately, they were all still crunching away, so they didn’t seem to mind the shortage.

“I see.”

Leticia came closer to me.

“I get it.”

“Get what?”

“Well, you know.”

Suddenly, a mischievous look appeared on Leticia’s face.

“Let’s back away first, and I’ll tell you. I don’t like discussing this in the middle of candy-eating zombies.”

“Really?”

Well, it’s not that difficult. We backed away with backward and sideways steps to avoid provoking the zombies. Running away at full speed might reawaken their pursuit instinct.

* * * * *

We returned to the lab. Leticia gulped down water. Though she tried not to show it, she must have been very tense.

“You’re more scared than you look, city girl?”

Camilla, who had come down from the roof, teased Leticia.

“I wasn’t scared of the zombies. I was worried about what would happen if a jealousy-blinded woman fired her equally blind gun.”

“Jealousy requires someone of matching caliber. I’m not worried about you.”

But both women became solemn when Cassandra entered.

“How were the zombies? Any differences?”

Her eyes were sparkling with expectation, but unfortunately, our observation time wasn’t long.

“They were similar to usual. Not particularly more friendly or hostile.”

“Cassandra thinks so too. To get meaningful data, we’d need to spend more time with them. Or maybe analyze the virus from their clothes or belongings… though I’m not sure if we have time.”

If it’s necessary, we’ll do it. I focused on Leticia.

“So, what did you discover?”

“There are followers among them.”

This is the first I’ve heard of this.

“Zombies follow cues? Really?”

“Yes. Almost all of them follow the ones who act first. It’s similar to military trainees. If there’s one sharp recruit, the average ones will follow their lead. If that person makes a mistake, everyone gets messed up. Anyway, zombies don’t seem much different.”