Ch.167Chapter 20. Patriot (19)

Cassandra was waiting in the blood analysis lab on the first floor. She seemed to be wearing more layers than usual.

The latex gloves and doctor’s coat were one thing, but she also had on a shirt buttoned all the way to the neck, a dust mask, safety goggles, jeans, and dress shoes.

“Aren’t you hot?”

“I’m fine.”

Her voice sounded slightly muffled because of the mask.

“Aren’t you being too conscious about getting bitten by that zombie last time? I told you it was fine.”

It was hard to explain why else she would be bundled up like this. But Cassandra simply shook her head.

“That is fine, yes. Dressing like this is also an unavoidable procedure to increase the purity of the spray. Let me draw some blood first.”

Since this was routine, I rolled up my sleeve and sat in the examination chair as usual. First drawing blood from my arm, and then… extracting fluid from another part was our routine.

But Cassandra quickly moved to the other side of the room. She pulled back a curtain and wheeled over a large machine.

“Johan, do you know what this is?”

“Isn’t that the machine they use for blood donations?”

“Yes. I did a test run, and it works well. From now on, we’ll draw blood with this. We’ll space it out every two to three months to minimize the strain on your body.”

I tilted my head in confusion when the words I was expecting didn’t come.

“Is that all?”

For a brief moment, Cassandra seemed to be thinking, ‘What’s the problem?’ Then she made a small ‘ah’ sound and nodded.

“Oh, my explanation was insufficient. Before, I had to constantly draw your blood with syringes, but now that inconvenience will be gone. The facilities here are decent, and the electricity supply is stable, so we can produce much more spray than we did at the research center. Also, we don’t need to extract semen anymore.”

I choked at her matter-of-fact statement. If I’d had a needle in my arm, it would have been quite problematic.

“Cough, cough. What?”

“If you insist on providing it, I won’t refuse. But Cassandra won’t help like before. It’s not like you’re injured, Johan. Fortunately, there are plenty of plastic containers here that can hold semen. You can take care of self-pleasure on your own, right?”

She seemed a bit cold. Well, I had nothing to say if she said it wasn’t necessary. Plus, Cassandra had even buttoned up the front of her doctor’s coat.

When the moment for blood collection came, the subtle distance became more concrete. Cassandra sat pressed against the opposite wall. Her safety goggles were fogging up from her breath behind the mask, but she made no attempt to wipe them.

“Do you really need to sit that far away? It’s too hard to talk.”

Cassandra made some “ah, ah” sounds, but finding it impossible, she went outside to get a walkie-talkie. It reminded me of how we used to communicate before getting close to Camilla. Except this time, it was with Cassandra, who was fully armored and pressed against the wall.

“Cassandra would prefer to set up a glass partition if possible. Because this central district was where confirmed infected people were confined, and the health center in particular was likely visited by the severely ill among them. Of course, we disinfected the building, but it’s not 100% perfect.”

I don’t know much about medicine, but sterilizing a room seems quite different from wrapping yourself up as if you don’t want to expose even an ankle. Right now, Cassandra looked more like a medieval European doctor. You know, those who worked wearing crow masks, goggles, and full-body clothing.

But the discomfort was temporary. Drowsiness washed over me.

“Johan. Don’t fall asleep. When you sleep, blood circulation slows down, making it difficult to draw blood.”

The reprimand came immediately.

“Then do it faster.”

“Hmm.”

After pondering for a moment, Cassandra got up and brought me some documents. They were files printed from the laptop on the second floor. Reading the insane content of the report increased my blood circulation, but gave me a throbbing headache in exchange.

What happens when infected animals and humans are left in ‘confined spaces’? This observation report contained all of that. It included everything from animals mating and giving birth to infected offspring, to humans who had fallen to the bottom of the food chain hunting by pretending to be dead before pouncing.

“What on earth is happening here?”

“Cassandra wonders that too. The Disease Control Bureau analyzed that the Kro virus has almost identical effects on both animals and humans. Hardening skin, strange regenerative abilities, increased muscle strength and respiratory capacity, enhanced motor skills… and irreversible mutations.

The hunger issue itself is related to the contamination concentration of the Limos virus rather than the Kro virus, so that’s a different story, but anyway, since animals are also suffering from endless hunger, the consensus is that they don’t reproduce.”

According to the report’s author, the creatures running wild here were originally from the zoo. Therefore, far from not knowing humans, they knew them very well. Some had even been bred in captivity for generations, almost completely losing their wildness.

But still, beasts are beasts.

The saying ‘a wolf cannot be tethered’ didn’t come from nowhere. No matter how friendly a wolf is with humans, its wild nature emerges as it ages. In the end, no matter how much human contact these creatures had, they couldn’t defy the call of instinct.

Moreover, animals are very attuned to hierarchies and the law of the jungle.

The report vividly described the process of beasts gradually losing fear of humans, tormenting them, and eating them. Human-form zombies have much poorer hunting abilities than beasts. So their choice is to tear apart other human-form zombies or corpses. Just like the weakest carnivores do.

“While the future of herbivores in the central district is difficult to predict, it’s not hard to guess that carnivores will thrive and prosper more than ever. As evidence, unlike human-form zombies or herbivores, carnivores are having offspring.”

“…A pride of lions and a group of leopards encountered each other on Smithton Street. Carnivores with overlapping territories typically eliminate competitors by killing each other’s young, but these didn’t. Instead, they cooperated to drive-hunt human-form zombies and were observed on CCTV amicably sharing the spoils.”

The end of the report was filled with increasingly incomprehensible sentences. Words like ‘high fever,’ ‘groaning,’ ‘hallucination,’ and ‘delusion symptoms’ appeared periodically. Some typing was strange. Probably, that zombie in the doctor’s coat was the author of this report, and was gradually losing his mind as the moment of turning into a zombie approached.

“Therefore, this author believes that if the zombie situation becomes prolonged, all human-form zombies on Earth will”

The report sent to Joanna Mustein ends there. The researcher never completed the final sentence. But I thought I knew.

“They’ll go extinct.”

Cassandra nodded at my words.

All humans will eventually die or become zombies. Humans who become zombies can never survive in the competition with other zombie species. That future might not be too far away.

“But why are carnivores having offspring? That’s what I understand the least.”

“Actually, Cassandra is most curious about that point too. That’s why I wanted to talk with you, Johan.”

“While all bundled up like that?”

“It’s important to avoid being influenced. Johan, this is strictly from a researcher’s perspective. And as a researcher, not a police officer or prosecutor, you don’t need to answer every question unconditionally, nor should you feel obligated or responsible to do so. Just give me natural, unembellished answers.”

What does she mean by bundling up to avoid influence? And why is she being so serious about whatever she’s going to ask? I couldn’t understand at all. From across the wall, Cassandra whispered into the walkie-talkie.

“Johan. You have sex with Leticia and enjoy pseudo-sexual activities with Camilla.”

I bit my tongue slightly, making it impossible to answer. Cassandra’s whispers became more explicit. No, they felt more scathing.

“But you always wear a condom with Leticia and avoid relations during ovulation. With Camilla, you don’t engage in any positions that could result in pregnancy. Johan, why don’t you have sex for the purpose of having children?”

“How could I have and raise a child in this situation! And I’m not ready to raise a child yet.”

I mean, I understand trying to keep me awake because I look drowsy, but isn’t this a bit extreme?

“That’s right. Most animals make that judgment. If they think they can’t raise offspring, they postpone breeding. But when those conditions are met, animals mate and have offspring.

The report’s author seems to believe that the carnivores’ ecology has reached an ‘ideal environment.’ This place is essentially sealed off, and prey is abundant. But Cassandra’s thoughts are a bit different.”

“H-how are they different?”

“The Kro virus affects both animals and humans the same way. There might be mutations, but the Disease Control Bureau’s experimental results were always consistent. Plus, this is an unprotected zone. Animals will feel chronic hunger, and hunger is the greatest stress for living beings. When hunger isn’t satisfied, beasts don’t mate. Generally speaking.”

“You already mentioned that earlier.”

“Right. But that’s not the only reason they mate.”

Cassandra finally took off her safety goggles. Her face was bright red. Well, being all bundled up like that must be quite hot. But it was only for a moment. As soon as our eyes met, she quickly put them back on. I couldn’t help but sigh.

“…What do you think?”

“Remember what happened in the warehouse?”

“Of course I remember.”

“Cassandra accepted Johan’s semen. Purely for therapeutic purposes. You know that, right?”

“And?”

“But beasts are much more sensitive to pheromones than humans. To the point where they can detect health status by smell.”

It was a bit out of the blue. I couldn’t understand why she was shifting to talk about pheromones. Suddenly, it occurred to me that Cassandra wouldn’t bring this up without reason. She wasn’t the type to speak indirectly.

What was she so afraid of…?

“So what, those beasts…”

“They’re like us.”

Cassandra seemed to be looking straight at me.

“They’re like us, Johan. The four of us have been trying to find a way to coexist by directly and indirectly mixing our bodies. Those beasts are now walking the same path as us. And those beasts are trying to have offspring from healthy males and females who can coexist with the virus. They’ve already adapted to the changed world.”

My head felt like it was burning white-hot. I think I understood what Cassandra was trying to say. She’s a fearful person. Strong in some aspects, but fearful in others. Because she’s excessively intelligent. Because she can see the big picture. She doesn’t want to believe what she’s seeing.

“The reason the fanatics wrote and left this observation diary…”

Cassandra’s head seemed to drop slightly.

“Yes. They seemed to already know this would happen.”