Ch.165Chapter 20. Patriot (17)

Camilla’s eyes quickly welled up with tears.

“What’s wrong? What is it? What happened? Are the results bad? Are they really bad? That’s not it, right, Cassandra? Right?”

“No, everything’s fine.”

Hmm. I see.

Cassandra’s strength and weakness was that she didn’t get easily swept up in the atmosphere around her. So when she showed joy or surprise, it meant something truly significant had happened. So it wasn’t Camilla’s fault that she felt both embarrassed and bewildered.

“Are you sure everything’s fine? For someone saying that, you tore up that paper pretty seriously.”

“Th-that’s right! I was so shocked!”

Camilla and I repeated several times something along the lines of, “After all the time we’ve spent together, we’d appreciate it if you could convince us that we can relax.” Eventually, Cassandra conceded.

“Fine. It’s better if I show you directly.”

Cassandra prepared several petri dishes and added drops of liquid with a pipette. After busily moving her hands around the lab shelves, she turned on the computer connected to the microscope.

“Here, the one labeled B on the right side of the monitor is the virus extracted from the zombie sample. A on the left is the Kro virus in Johan’s body.”

The virus extracted from “my body” looked round and plump, while the virus on the right looked like a skinny tadpole.

Cassandra placed the petri dish containing the mixed viruses under the microscope. The plump one from my body eagerly devoured the skinny tadpole. It felt like watching a slime that dissolves even adventurers’ bones.

“Johan’s virus is not only more contagious but also much more toxic. See how easily it infects the zombie virus that bit Cassandra? Now let’s see what these are doing in Cassandra’s body.”

Cassandra took out a cotton swab and scraped the inside of her mouth. She put it in a petri dish and added a drop of each virus.

Looking at the monitor felt like viewing a military operation map. The two viruses occupied a large space, trying to squeeze their way in but failing to break through.

“As I’ve said many times, Cassandra’s body received very special treatment in the past. That’s why her immunity is much stronger than others. You all know that even when she was directly injected with the weakened Kro virus, nothing happened. Plus, it seems she already had antibodies for this virus. So, there’s no need to worry too much.”

“So your body is fighting off the virus, right? Am I right? You’re not turning into a zombie?”

Only after checking two, three times did Camilla shed tears of joy. Cassandra looked like she couldn’t understand why Camilla was crying, but she couldn’t say anything as Camilla hugged her and spun around excitedly.

“I thought I was going to lose you!”

But I couldn’t be as happy as Camilla.

“Hey, Cassandra. About this.”

I pointed at the monitor.

“What are these black things? They look like clumps of particles floating around. They weren’t there when we mixed the two viruses, but they’re in the sample from your mouth?”

For a brief moment, Cassandra’s expression turned cold. Camilla didn’t notice because she was hugging her tightly.

Did I see wrong?

When I blinked and looked again, Cassandra’s face appeared completely composed.

“Oh, that’s just inflammation. When viruses invade the human body, the immune system doesn’t just sit idle. It fights hard, and then dies off. Nothing to worry about.”

“See, Johan? Everything’s fine!”

This time Camilla glared at me. Feeling awkward, I just scratched the back of my head. Cassandra added an explanation as if it really was nothing.

“Cassandra might have a slight fever for a while, but if she drinks plenty of water and rests adequately, it will pass without major issues. Vitamin supplements would help a lot, and since this is Silver Town, they should be easy to find.”

“Really? Then we shouldn’t be standing around! Johan, let’s go! If we search each house, we’ll find vitamin C somewhere!”

Camilla, seemingly overjoyed, grabbed both Cassandra and me and dragged us along. But I couldn’t be as happy as she was.

I had definitely seen Cassandra’s cold expression before.

It was quite similar to her expression when she first synthesized the spray and caused that poisoning accident.

Well, what could go wrong? If she says it’s fine, then it must be fine.

* * * * *

It’s been a week since we settled in this health center.

Though not yet the full rainy season, it had rained quite a bit, allowing us to secure enough drinking and living water. Fortunately, the rain came after we cleaned the water tank on the roof.

“Electricity. Electricity.”

Leticia gulped down a bottle of beer under the bright lights. According to her, it was “an unavoidable choice to save precious water,” but it really seemed like she just wanted to drink. Well, considering her usual tolerance, a 6% fruit-flavored beer was practically water to her.

“I think we need a new barrel. And more parts too…”

Camilla was maintaining weapons. She disassembled each one, cleaned them, oiled them, and examined each part. She wrapped electrical tape around the pistol grip and sharpened her hunting knife on a whetstone to remove rust.

Cassandra was sleeping in her room. She really did develop a mild fever as she predicted. Since there was no need to push herself, we told her to rest as much as she wanted.

“How long have we been lazing around like this?”

“Two days now.”

Leticia raised her beer bottle and grinned. Painting, disinfecting, assigning rooms, unloading supplies from the truck… everyone was exhausted.

In a way, we were also resting sufficiently in preparation for what we needed to do next.

We’re currently short on bullets and food. Three boxes of ammunition and about three weeks’ worth of food remain. On the other hand, we have plenty of medical supplies and fuel.

“Looking at it positively, there should still be many resources left in the central district. Since it was isolated from the outside. Though I doubt things will be in their original places.”

Leticia hummed as if singing.

“What do you mean, not in their original places?”

“This place was practically lawless. There weren’t even gangs, and the fanatics didn’t seem to have influence over the entire central district. If that’s the case, everyone probably had to fend for themselves, so… if we check residential areas or apartments, we should find everything we want.”

She meant people would have already stockpiled ammunition and food in their homes. But we can’t know what happened to them. Considering that everyone trapped in the central district was “infected,” they all either became zombies or took their own lives not long after.

“Sounds great. Boldly walking into apartments where hungry zombies are waiting… seems a bit dangerous.”

In a way, Cassandra was lucky. If the three of us got bitten by zombies, could our immune systems fight it off like Cassandra’s? I can’t guarantee that. Even if the virus in my body is strong, there’s always that slim chance. And the Kro virus is notorious for mutating quickly.

But at least infiltrating apartments wouldn’t be dangerous.

“We can go safely.”

“How, Johan?”

“We don’t have to go through the front door, right? We can just infiltrate through the balcony or break a window and enter.”

“Wow.”

Leticia, her face flushed, clapped her hands softly.

“I like that. Thieves breaking into zombie homes.”

Leticia, who had been blowing on her beer bottle, spilled some. The beer trickled down her chin and neck, moistening the cleavage between her breasts. She didn’t seem drunk enough for that to happen.

“If you’re drunk, drink moderately.”

Camilla snapped and went back to examining the map. Leticia stuck out her tongue and seductively licked around the bottle’s mouth. Then she repeatedly placed her rounded tongue on the edge of the bottle opening and pulled it back. Somehow, she seemed to be stealing glances at me.

“That’s good, but the zombie density here is too high. If we cause any commotion, all the surrounding zombies will come running. What do we do about that?”

When Camilla looked up, Leticia pretended nothing had happened. She went even further by pointing to a spot with her finger.

“We’ll have to, hic, raid it by dividing the area. Just do the same as we’ve done so far. Create a distraction to draw their attention, infiltrate during that time, gather what we need, and zoom away in the car, hic. Simple, right?”

“Well said. What if the roads get blocked? Remember how close we cut it last time?”

This is actually the biggest problem.

The places we’ve stayed until now had no road constraints. If something was blocked, we could just take a detour. But not here. There are many zombies, and if we take a wrong turn, we’ll be trapped.

“Actually, there is a way.”

Camilla and Leticia looked at me.

“It’s just a bit troublesome.”

It’s safe, but honestly, it’s an extremely annoying method.