Ch.92Chapter 12. New Life (7)

As soon as we crossed the bridge, I stopped the car. Camilla opened the window and shouted.

“Why did you stop so suddenly!”

“Abandoned cars here! Let’s use them to block the bridge! Cover me!”

There were zombies on the other side of the bridge too. With groaning sounds, they crawled out, and Camilla shot each one in the head.

“Cassandra, when I signal, start the car slowly!”

I ran toward the abandoned cars with my MP 45 submachine gun. A four-door sedan. It seemed to have been abandoned for quite some time.

I could see someone who had taken their own life in the back seat. Anyway, no ordinary person would sleep on such dried blood.

But somehow, it raised one arm, so I shot it in the head. The man’s arm went limp again.

I broke the sedan’s driver’s side window with my gun stock and opened the door. I released all the brakes. Then I ran to the back of our pickup truck.

When Fernando handed over the vehicle and explained it to me, he mentioned that there were vehicle towing winches installed on both the front and back of the pickup truck.

I pulled out the steel wire and properly hooked it to the towing ring under the sedan. “Go!” Cassandra, seeming to understand my intention, started the pickup truck.

One sedan blocked half the bridge. The zombie horde was getting quite close. Camilla carefully fired one shot at a time.

“Johan! They’re not stopping!”

“We’ll talk later!”

The windows of the next sedan were all broken, making it easy to check. I was a bit annoyed by the broken glass scattered on the seat, but I quickly released the brakes anyway.

More zombies rushed out from the nearby fields, drawn by the gunshots. I could see their eyes rolling back as they smelled blood. I was about to carefully aim for their heads, but changed my mind and shattered the knees of the closest one.

“Kyahaak!”

Of the three zombies following behind, two began to devour the fallen one, but one didn’t.

It paused briefly to examine the fallen zombie, then glared at Camilla who was firing from the truck, before approaching me with bared teeth.

The zombie was identifying which target posed the greatest threat.

Bang!

It was Cassandra. She blew the zombie’s head off with her 1911 pistol. It was a fairly close distance, but she aimed carefully.

“Hurry up with the hook! What are you doing!”

She was right. As soon as I hastily attached the hook, Cassandra started the car with a roar. We didn’t need to block it completely. Just enough to obstruct passage.

Eventually, the bridge was completely blocked. Of course, it wasn’t 100% sealed. The zombies we’d seen so far would likely jump over these cars without much difficulty.

“Camilla! Let’s shoot the ones coming onto the bridge from about 100 meters away! Just the ones slipping through the cars for now!”

“Got it!”

When one zombie falls, others rush in to devour it. That alone creates a ‘zombie breakwater.’ It would be even more effective in narrow places like bridges.

Just as expected.

The zombies easily slipped through the gaps between vehicles and tried to jump over by stepping on top of them. Camilla and I shot the ones coming over. Since we didn’t necessarily need to hit the head, there was no pressure.

A natural breakwater formed. Meanwhile, we shot the legs of those who managed to squeeze through the gaps, making them collapse.

Soon, conflicts arose between the zombies rushing forward from behind and those feeding in front.

The zombies bit and fought each other. They didn’t seem to consider the option of retreating back across the bridge.

* * * * *

After driving for quite a while, we stopped at a new gas station. There were quite a few zombies that needed to be lured away, but they just stood there stupidly, not following us.

– Help me! Help me!

When I played the recording from my phone, they finally approached with bared teeth. Camilla took out her Glock 9 pistol with a silencer and carefully shot each one in the head.

The last zombie collapsed. I felt like I was going to pass out from hunger and exhaustion. Cassandra was trembling all over.

“I-I’m fine. I’m fine. Just h-hungry… yeah…”

Still, yesterday, Camilla and I managed to sleep for about three hours. Cassandra didn’t. Unfortunately, trouble broke out right before her watch shift was supposed to end, so she hadn’t gotten any proper sleep.

Looking worriedly at Cassandra, Camilla reloaded her magazine. While I filled the pickup truck and the 2.5-ton truck with fuel, she checked the convenience store at the gas station. She examined the interior from outside the window, confirmed it was safe, and went in.

“Johan! Help me carry these!”

A box of energy drink cans, a tin bucket full of lollipops, two bundles of bottled water, and a box of cup noodles. I put a lollipop in Cassandra’s mouth and handed her some water.

“Slurp. Sluuurp… mmm…”

I couldn’t tell if she was sucking on the candy or sucking in her cheeks. I handed her another lollipop. Camilla, apparently tired too, leaned against the car and pressed her fingers between her eyebrows.

“Where are we now?”

“Just a moment, let me check the map. We’ve gone in circles a bit… a little more than halfway. But we can’t go any further like this. Not just because of Cassandra’s condition, but we need to rest too.”

We each drank a can of energy drink. It made my head feel clearer, if only for a moment. Of course, when the stimulant effect wears off, we’ll feel twice as drowsy.

“Don’t the zombies seem strange?”

Camilla looked at the fallen corpses in confusion. Flies were already swarming.

Now we might have to worry about insects like flies too. Looking at them reminds me of the zombies in the city.

“The city ones were like that too. They didn’t even glance at the fallen ones. I thought maybe they were less affected by hunger. But this is an unprotected zone too, right?”

“…I think it’s because of the contamination concentration.”

It was Cassandra’s voice. She threw away the two lollipop sticks she had finished. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her front was wet as if she had spilled water while drinking, but she looked much better than before.

“Concentration? What do you mean?”

Camilla’s eyes widened.

“The food from Cybele Inc., the one they said had hunger-inducing components in it, it’s actually bacteria. To be precise, it’s not the bacteria itself that infects the brain, but when it consumes nutrients in the human body, the byproduct…”

“Excuse me, professor. I’m sorry, but I haven’t eaten and my brain isn’t working well. So they deliberately put bacteria in food people eat?”

When Camilla growled as if she might devour her, Cassandra shrank her shoulders.

“…It wasn’t just in food.”

Cassandra trembled. She looked terrified. This time I asked.

“Then where?”

“They sprayed it on fields too. They promoted it as liquid fertilizer and dispersed it from light aircraft water tanks. Vegetables. Fruits… That’s why agricultural and livestock areas became human unprotected zones… hic!”

Camilla seemed half ready to shoot her and half unsure how to react.

I stepped between them. Cassandra raised her arms.

“D-don’t hit me!…”

“I’m not going to hit you.”

“I-I didn’t know the hunger-inducing virus would survive so long! Nobody knew! And, and there are many places with high contamination concentrations even without pesticides! It doesn’t completely match…!”

“I said I won’t hit you.”

“R-really?”

Since she clearly didn’t believe my words, I gave her a light hug. I felt a burning sensation on the back of my head, but I focused only on Cassandra.

It would be more peaceful if Cassandra, who had tucked herself into my arms, wasn’t constantly checking Camilla’s expression over my shoulder.

“So what happens when you spray that? No, more importantly, did those bacteria contaminate this entire area?”

“P-probably? Eek!”

Camilla approached with large strides. I blocked her path, standing in front of Cassandra. Camilla placed her hand lightly on my waist.

“Johan, wait. This isn’t something to take out on Cassandra.”

“And it’s not something for you to shield her from either. Who’s going to shoot? I just want to talk. You scientists really…”

“Cassandra. Wait. How long does that bacteria survive? I mean, when mixed with water and sprayed?”

“…It doesn’t die.”

This time I turned around. Cassandra trembled just like before. Worried about what Camilla and I might do, she kept swallowing nervously.

“What do you mean it doesn’t die?”

“If the temperature gets too low or too high, it suspends activity. Even if you put it in boiling water, it doesn’t completely disappear. It dies in disinfectant, but in soil like this…”

“Where the hell did you get such bacteria!”

Camilla, unable to contain herself any longer, burst out in anger. Cassandra looked like she was about to cry.

“C-Cassandra doesn’t know! Just… just… Cassandra happened to discover one of many cell combination methods!

I-I really don’t know where the sample came from! How could Cassandra know where tens or hundreds of millions of bacteria came from…”

“Are you lying?”

Camilla stomped the ground, unable to control her anger. But I thought it was a plausible story.

When I was studying current affairs for job applications, I learned that scientists in St. Petersburg had revived nematodes that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years. Once awakened, they continued their ‘worm’ lives as if nothing had happened.

Not just worms. Bacteria could do the same. A French research team had awakened viruses that had been dormant in Siberian permafrost for 48,500 years. Not just one species, but 13. They still infected amoebas and moved actively.

But if that were the case, someone would have discovered, named, and recorded that virus.

“Who recorded it? There must be records.”

“…Well… the place we were going to… that cultured meat research facility was listed. But I don’t know the experimenter’s name. It was classified.

So… I thought if we went there, we might find out who did it. If we knew the origin of this virus.”

“And what difference would that make?”

Camilla growled. Cassandra, clinging tightly to my back, answered. It was almost a whisper.

“If we know the exact origin… we might find a vaccine.”

Camilla stepped aside in disgust and aimed her gun. “Eek!” Cassandra collapsed. The muzzle flashed.

Thud.

A zombie approaching from behind fell.

“…Johan. Can you drive?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll drive the pickup truck. I’m tired of driving the truck.”

Sweat had also formed on Camilla’s forehead. I approached and wiped it with my sleeve. Camilla flinched in surprise but soon accepted it.

“Thanks, Camilla. For being patient.”

“…It’s nothing. I was too emotional. Hey, send Cassandra over to me.”

I briefly wondered if she might shoot her on the way, or abandon her. Camilla winked.

“Cassandra needs to sleep too. I’ll tell her to sleep in the back seat of the pickup truck. The truck was a bit uncomfortable. What’s this?”

I unwrapped a lollipop and handed it to Camilla. She flicked her tongue, then smiled faintly as she sucked on it.