Ch.89Chapter 12. New Life (4)

“Cassandra. Didn’t I throw that when I was scattering jewels?”

“The people of Hampton are far more lewd than Johan thinks. There are many things inside that are even more vicious and hideous. If you don’t believe me…”

“No, don’t get up! Camilla, stop laughing!”

It seems like Hampton deserves a bolt of lightning. Unable to watch any longer, Camilla offered a compromise.

“Let’s do this. When we move, Johan and I will take separate cars, and Cassandra can ride in whichever car she wants. How about that? Would that put your mind at ease?”

“I don’t see any reason to refuse.”

Surprisingly, Cassandra accepted it readily.

* * * * *

We didn’t pack all the belongings from the safe house. We left behind three months’ worth of long-term preserved food and water, along with some clothes.

Everything else—ammunition, jewels, alcohol, and what little electronic equipment we had—was divided between the 2.5-ton truck we had kept in the fire station garage and the pickup truck we’d brought from Hampton.

Still, we managed to finish all the camouflage work by 9 AM. Cassandra and I would ride in the 2.5-ton truck, while Camilla would drive the pickup truck.

“Got a map?”

The destination was clear: the cultured meat research facility located in the outskirts of Samarano. It was the place Cassandra had mentioned. It was half a day’s journey from Hampton, so we wouldn’t be too far from Leticia.

The problem was the route.

When I say “half a day,” that’s assuming we pass through the small city of Schützern and two more small villages. Naturally, these are also human non-protected zones. In other words, they’re crawling with either zombies or gangs. Too dangerous.

“If we take a detour, we’re looking at two to three days. And considering we’ll need to refuel along the way, we can’t go too far out of our way.”

Camilla’s observation. I agreed with her assessment.

“I think it’s worth taking more time to scout it out. We’ll probably need to stay there for quite a while anyway. By the way, Cassandra, you said the research facility doesn’t necessarily have to be this specific one, right?”

She had said there was no particular reason it had to be that place. Any facility where she could observe cells and analyze blood would do.

However, the cultured meat research facility was the most secretly hidden place she knew of, and it was located near large farms where human population density was low, which is why she recommended it.

“Let’s do this.”

Camilla pointed to another spot on the map. It appeared to be next to a fairly large lake. There was a forest nearby and a small yacht dock—a quiet, secluded place.

“How about using this as a temporary base? It’s only an hour and a half from the cultured meat facility. We can stay here while we scout the area around the research facility, and if it seems safe, we can relocate there permanently. Even if someone finds our trail, it won’t matter since we’ll have moved on by then.”

I’m a bit worried. It’s a place I have no information about. The Samarano I remember was flattened by indiscriminate bombing.

“What’s there?”

“It’s a small supply depot built during the war, which was later used as a Central Liberation Corps training center. I heard it was discovered and abandoned long before the zombie outbreak, but it wasn’t destroyed. It was used as something like a bunker, so it should be quite sturdy.”

It sounded a bit strange at first, but thinking about it again, it made some sense. Under normal circumstances it might be different, but here we are in the middle of a human non-protected zone. Neither the Elza National Gendarmerie nor the Liberation Corps would set foot here. Camilla added:

“Besides, I was briefly an instructor there. When I taught combat swimming. So I know the surrounding geography to some extent. At least which routes are key points.”

Being somewhat familiar with the terrain is definitely an advantage.

“Camilla, by the way, were there any bombings in this area?”

“Bombings? Hmm? There probably wasn’t much during the war ten years ago, though there might have been some in the previous war. There wouldn’t have been any reason to drop bombs after that. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing.”

Camilla looked curious but simply shrugged her shoulders.

* * * * *

Camilla departed first in the pickup truck. Cassandra and I followed at a distance in the 2.5-ton truck. Since Cassandra said she couldn’t drive the 2.5-ton truck, I took the wheel.

The sunlight was brilliant, the sky was blue, and the dead forest was a yellowish, dark brown. Against the backdrop of the vast wilderness, a zombie was leisurely tearing at a corpse. It was early summer.

Though it was early summer, it wasn’t particularly hot. Cassandra and I had the windows half open. Our sense of smell had long since gone numb to the warm breeze mixed with the scent of blood and decay, but it wasn’t hot enough to turn on the air conditioning.

It was a pastoral journey.

Cassandra rested her chin on her hand, staring blankly out the window. She hadn’t said a word since getting in the car. I hadn’t either, but the awkwardness was unbearable.

Awkward, huh? I guess I’ve changed quite a bit since traveling with Camilla.

Before, I was never bored being alone. That was normal for me. But when riding with Camilla, we would talk about useless things or share a bit of body heat. It was always fun.

But Cassandra was completely silent. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or just naturally quiet.

“Um. Ahem. Cassandra?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t abandon you. You were shot in the back. I didn’t have any medicine then. But there were your doctor colleagues behind us, right? So I thought handing you over to them was the rational decision.”

“Right.”

“…How’s your previous injury?”

“Fine.”

She seems uninterested in anything beyond what she wants to say. I suddenly wondered if Camilla was playing the radio in her truck. Or maybe humming to herself. This is just too awkward. I need to say something, anything.

“Why do plants grow so randomly?”

As soon as I said it, I realized how random it sounded. Cassandra didn’t react. Feeling embarrassed, I added an explanation.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Some are withered and dead, but right next to them, others are lush and green. And some grow too quickly.”

“It’s manipulation.”

“Ah, manipulation… huh?”

Setting aside the fact that this was the first real answer I’d gotten, the content was strange. Manipulation?

“What kind of manipulation?”

“Rapid plant growth experiments. Artificially induced progeria, you could say. Take corn as an example. In southern Elza, corn typically takes about 110 days from planting to harvest. But what if you could harvest it in just 50 days?”

“Well, simply thinking about it, that would reduce cultivation costs. Assuming sufficient nutrients are supplied, of course. But is that possible?”

“You’re seeing it right now.”

The forest of power lines. Vines had definitely grown from zombie corpses that hadn’t been dead for long.

Weeds are known to grow quickly, but I questioned whether they could grow enough to nearly cover a two-lane road. Especially when they weren’t even growing from the ground.

“They wouldn’t have experimented on weeds, would they?”

“No. They tried it on all plants they could. They needed to gather as many cases as possible.”

It was hard to understand. Above all, I wondered if there was really a need to force plants to grow.

“Was there really a need to artificially accelerate growth like that?”

“Yes. They needed to artificially increase production.”

The more I listened, the more chills ran down my spine. The Cassandra I knew was a researcher at the Disease Control Agency. That means she was a doctor. But now she was saying “they needed to,” as if she were an employee of Kybele.

“Cassandra. How do you know all this? No, I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I just want to know how you know all this.”

“How is that different from not believing me?”

“Because I want to understand.”

Cassandra’s empty green eyes stared blankly at me. I couldn’t help but sigh.

“I want to understand what you’re saying. I’m not asking because I don’t trust you, but because I want to know why things are the way they are, how they could have happened.”

Cassandra twisted her lips. After a moment’s thought, she reluctantly began to speak.

“…Alright. But please don’t ask any more than this. It’s painful. Cassandra was a researcher at Kybele before becoming a doctor.”

That seemed odd to just accept. Cassandra looked no older than her mid-twenties.

“You must have been busy. Graduating from medical school while working as a researcher…”

“It was before medical school.”

“…What?”

“I was a researcher at Kybele before becoming an adult. For almost six years. From age thirteen to eighteen.”

“Was that even possible?”

“Cassandra was smart.”

No, that seems completely separate from being smart. But she didn’t seem to be joking. She was dead serious.

“They told Cassandra that if she could finish all this research quickly, it would reduce the number of starving people in Elza.

They explained that increasing food production would naturally lower prices, and with lower prices, Elza’s workers could eat their fill at affordable prices.

That was true. Too much of Elza’s land had been devastated by long wars. The land itself is good, but there are few places suitable for large-scale agriculture. Yet there are many mouths to feed.

And Cassandra found a formula. But since the world can’t be predicted by formulas alone, she had to apply it to each plant. Observing mutations, identifying unforeseen problems in the growth process.

Sounds plausible, doesn’t it? If plant growth cycles accelerate, processing cycles must accelerate accordingly. More jobs would be created in Elza. Because more work needs to be done in less time.

More jobs, cheaper food prices, and the people of Elza would enjoy greater prosperity. Cassandra naively believed that.”

At first glance, it sounds plausible, but thinking about it carefully, the story doesn’t add up.

First, whether it’s people, animals, or plants, there’s clearly a limit to how much they can consume. If we could eat indefinitely, problems like overeating and indigestion wouldn’t exist.

When people are poor, they might inevitably skip a meal. But even if they’re wealthy, they don’t eat ten meals a day.

Who would eat all that food?

– Kybele’s food contains ingredients that stimulate hunger.

Cassandra had said.

– Not just me, but all Elza people live on Kybele their whole lives! It tastes terrible, but it’s the cheapest! Poor kids would starve without Kybele! You think it’s just kids? Adults, poor laborers, they all absolutely depend on Kybele!

Camilla had said.

“…Why? Why go to all the trouble of increasing food production, only to add hunger-stimulating ingredients to the processed food? Why go to such extremes?”

“Because Kybele makes money.”

“Would they support a mere corporation to that extent?”

“It’s not just any corporation. Kybele’s major shareholders and board members are all from noble Roman families. More precisely, they’re ambitious individuals who broke away from Roman power struggles and set foot in the ‘colony’.”

Cassandra added grimly:

“…The Elza government is the same. People say the Elza government is Rome’s puppet. That’s half right. More accurately, it’s the puppet of corporations established by Rome’s abandoned children.

Materially subjugating all Elza people to Kybele, while politically being controlled by Kybele’s puppets… that was the future Kybele envisioned. And nothing chokes people like food. But it failed.”

“Not succeeded?”

“It failed.”

Cassandra stated firmly.

“…Kybele was arrogant. They believed without doubt they would become even more prosperous, but they didn’t know that within the blessing lay the goddess’s curse. They’re blind, unable to see properly, but Cassandra isn’t. That’s… why I’m here now. To stop the Erisichthon Protocol from proceeding.”

The title of this game. Erisichthon Protocol.

“You mentioned earlier that you needed to find a counterexample. What is the Erisichthon Protocol?”

“It’s simple. Just the ultimate containment protocol preparing for the final hour.”

Cassandra’s hands trembled. The convulsions that started in her hands spread throughout her body. With her jaw quivering, she struggled to continue speaking.

“All of Elza will become a human non-protected zone. All borders will be closed. Like they did on the outskirts of Hampton. Everyone thinks this will contain the zombie outbreak. Isolate and eliminate. That’s the essence.

But that’s not it. Everyone is thinking too one-dimensionally. No one wants to accept that the virus mutates. But mutations are already occurring too rapidly across all biological groups.

The ecosystem’s cycle will disappear, and all species will be desperate to devour each other. Just as beasts graze on grass, building-sized flytraps will dissolve and consume humans.

In this confined space, they’ll exchange mutations until finally only the most dominant one survives to devour the world. Until it finally has nothing left to eat but itself. Until there’s nothing, nothing left to protect.”

Cassandra leaned back in her seat, her body still trembling. She seemed to be trying to stabilize herself somehow. With difficulty, she finished her words.

“The Erisichthon Protocol must not be implemented. Mutations are already occurring severely, and if survival competition is added, biological mutations will accelerate. They’ll compete to survive, evolve, and finally… something unstoppable will emerge. Cassandra emphasized, proved, and explained this two, three times…”

“But no one believed you?”

Cassandra nodded two, three times.

“…No one.”

“I believe you.”

No. It would be more accurate to say I know. Because I’ve seen what the world becomes afterward. Bizarre creatures. A broken world. Humans wandering the cracks of the world for amusement. Even as Cassandra trembled, she smiled.

“Liar.”