Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Chuni
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"No."
A voice like a strangled throat leaked out.
"No!"
With that, Gamal suddenly rolled back his eyes and fainted. The doctor beside him hurriedly tried to catch the collapsing body, but lacking strength, they tumbled backward together.
Thud.
As Gamal slumped, his black hair scattered messily across the floor.
"Gamal!"
Yeonha rushed to the fainted Gamal. The doctor who followed checked Gamal's consciousness and said,
"It seems like he fainted from shock. He's unconscious."
"Could you carry him out?"
There was a flurry of movement to take Gamal outside. Meanwhile, Yeonha looked at Doyoung. She gritted her teeth.
"You said you wouldn't die."
Even though all the other team members who had made such bold promises had died, Doyoung had believed it. Because he was the kind of person who would carry the ferryman of hell on his back and return no matter what.
"That was the worst lie ever."
Her voice trembled.
She had resolved never to cry if something happened to Doyoung. Because she had definitely tried to stop him.
But deep in her heart, it seemed she had truly believed nothing would happen to Doyoung.
Because it was Doyoung Defer. The guy who would survive any near-death crisis and joke, "Whoa, I really almost died this time."
Yeonha let out a long breath. The surroundings were noisy.
"Don't die on your own."
Everyone froze.
Some looked at Doyoung. Even though it clearly sounded like Gamal's voice, they couldn't help it because it was perfect French. With a slight Montpellier accent.
When they turned, Gamal, still lying on the floor with his eyes rolled back, moved only his mouth and said,
"My heart hasn't stopped yet."
It was Doyoung's way of speaking. Even stretching certain words a bit.
But Doyoung, whose breath had already stopped, said nothing.
Yeonha looked at the doctor with inexplicable eyes. The doctor stammered in confusion.
"There's no... consciousness. None, but..."
He glanced at Gamal. Then Gamal moved his mouth again and said,
"I want it to beat, but my heart is too heavy. I don't know what to do."
Everyone was so shocked that silence flowed. Gamal clicked his tongue.
"Damn it, are you all just going to stand there?"
"C... CPR."
One doctor stammered. Then he jumped up, ran to Doyoung, and shouted,
"Commencing CPR!"
Following the CPR sounds, he reflexively attached the defibrillator pads handed by a nurse to Doyoung's chest.
"Watch the neck! 100J!"
Electricity surged in, shaking Doyoung's body violently.
"200J!"
Electricity struck Doyoung again. The bed creaked.
"300J!"
Still, the heart rate monitor showed no signs of life.
The doctor attached the cardiac massage machine's pads and activated it. But unsatisfied, he climbed onto Doyoung and began manual massage like in the old days.
A rib-breaking sound came from the strong pressure.
At that moment, Gamal took a huge breath, bending his body, and opened his eyes. Yeonha hurriedly asked,
"Are you okay?"
Gamal was drenched in cold sweat in an instant. He barely propped himself up on his elbows and looked at Doyoung.
Then, a watching doctor thunderously shouted,
"What the hell are you doctors doing, swayed by one person's words! It's an act! Mimicking the speech pattern! Can't you even tell that!"
He grabbed the collar of the doctor straddling Doyoung and dragged him off.
"You're planning to send the Major's body out like a rag? Show respect to a soldier who's fulfilled his duty!"
But the doctor whose collar was grabbed shook off the hand and yelled,
"That's just giving up!"
"Then you're going to crush his chest into mush? Sometimes you have to accept death. There are things we can't do anything about!"
The doctors here were all researchers at the forefront of modern medicine and science, where the only frontier left was the unknown wilderness.
They had the hardest time accepting project failures. That's why their disappointment fueled heightened emotions.
Ivan could only watch all this.
Infection ultimately had to be overcome by oneself; there was no way for outsiders to help. Even if he tried to pull the collar, it was something only the infected person could do...
Wait. Collar?
'Dragging by the collar...'
Crack.
Suddenly, Ivan grabbed a packaged syringe from the cart. He approached Gamal, knelt on one knee in front of him, and tore open the seal.
"Ivan?"
Gamal didn't resist since it was Ivan doing it, but looked puzzled. Yeonha did the same.
"What are you doing?"
Even as Yeonha asked, Ivan didn't answer and grabbed Gamal's arm.
"Don't move."
He felt along the inside of Gamal's arm, following the skin texture, and pushed in the syringe. Then, blood filled the syringe's barrel.
Ivan stood up without filling it halfway and approached Doyoung. He stabbed the syringe into Doyoung's femoral artery.
"Even Mr. Ivanov, what...!"
The doctor freaked out. Ivan looked at the utterly wrecked Doyoung. There was no sign of survival.
Doyoung, whom he hadn't liked since they first met and had shown considerable hostility until their relationship improved, looked so docile for the first time.
Ivan said,
"Ruas has strong territorial instincts over its domain. It's violent and quick to anger. The virus must be the same. If another infectious agent invades its body, it'll get mad. Very."
As he spoke, he firmly pressed the plunger. Gamal's blood swirled in the syringe and poured into Doyoung's thigh.
"Especially since the host isn't exactly good-tempered either."
Silence fell. But nothing happened.
The doctor frowned at Ivan.
"I get that you're thinking of it like a vaccine... but Ruas Virus is different. It's too strong, so infectious agents just clash and mutually destroy each other."
"Doctor."
Ivan suddenly said.
"We are Ivanov."
"Yes, that's... right?"
The doctor looked confused about why he was stating the obvious. Ivan said firmly,
"Don't underestimate the Ivanovs."
Suddenly, light spread across the monitor. Like wildfire.
The monitor flashed with light. It was like eyes blazing with rage, or the twinkling of countless stars. It flickered, dimmed, then flared again like igniting flames.
The doctor looked at the monitor in surprise.
"Activation has begun."
It started activating rapidly, just like getting angry.
Thump.
A heartbeat rang out like thunder.
Everyone looked at Doyoung. Still unconscious, but in his shattered ribs like a battlefield, his heart began to beat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The fierce beats seemed to echo in everyone's ears. Then, as the heart pumped blood, it flooded the blood vessels throughout his body, which had been as still as a dried river.
Roooar...
For a moment, it surged so fiercely that the blood vessels swelled.
Then, a scaly sheen slid over Doyoung's entire body, like scales flipping. It was evidence of the skin's "texture" forming—something humans didn't have—meaning reorganization of the body had begun.
"The infection..."
One doctor murmured like a groan.
"He overcame the infection."
It was a voice filled with awe, as if witnessing the birth of an infected for the first time.
"I told you."
Gamal quietly said, looking at the still unconscious Doyoung.
"Doyoung doesn't give up."
***
Gamal paced in front of the glass. Just as he thought the doctors were tidying up Doyoung and taking him to another room, the glass turned opaque like a wall.
Then Yeonha approached.
"He's entered the reorganization process. You won't be able to see him until reorganization finishes."
Gamal turned and asked,
"What's reorganization?"
"It's when the body changes due to Ruas. Didn't you go through it?"
Gamal shook his head.
"No idea. When I woke up, it was like this."
"You get taller and bulkier, but it's subtle. And for someone like the Major whose body is already fully formed, the difference won't be that noticeable."
He asked because he didn't care much about that.
"Is Doyoung alive?"
Yeonha faced him, her face quietly overwhelming with gratitude that she could say this.
"He's alive."
Gamal looked at the glass. Nothing was visible, but he could feel Doyoung beyond it.
Yeonha stayed for a moment, then casually asked what she'd been curious about.
"But you were really acting, right? Earlier."
"Yeah."
Gamal answered immediately.
"For real?"
Yeonha asked back, surprised instead. Gamal nodded and said calmly,
"I was mimicking his speech."
"Then the fainting was...?"
"Not real."
"Impressive."
Yeonha murmured unconsciously. Gamal said, looking at the opaque glass,
"Since Doyoung won't give up, I couldn't either."
Yeonha suddenly thought of something and asked,
"Then you can really speak French properly?"
"I can mimic Doyoung's speech."
Then Gamal spoke in exactly Doyoung's manner.
"So, can I say I speak French properly?"
Yeonha's eyes widened round, then she burst out laughing.
"I thought you were really the Major."
"But if I talk like Doyoung, it's funny."
"Yeah, it is."
Then Yeonha looked at Gamal with affectionate eyes.
"Thanks."
"Matty."
Tora approached then. Jain was beside her.
"Tora. You okay?"
Gamal asked. Tora jerked her head toward the glass and said,
"More than Ta, who's as unconscious as frozen fish."
Looking at the opaque glass, Tora murmured,
"Sometimes I don't get you, Matty. Waiting for someone to come back alive—how do you keep doing this over and over."
Jain thought of Rato.
And Nika, who killed him...
Still, these two would have waited for Nika to return alive. She was sure of it. No matter what, they would have wanted to face them.
"It's hope."
Gamal said, looking at the opaque glass.
"Hope keeps us going. I almost gave up once too."
Others might not know, but Tora had plenty of reasons to blame her.
For not more actively resolving things between Rato and Nika, leading to Rato's death and inevitable vampirism, and forcing Tora into vampirism too...
But...
"But you opened your eyes and said it."
"Thanks, Matty."
Tora, who overcame infection and awoke, had said that.
Hurt by people, but in the end, the son of man saved her.
Gamal turned to Tora. And quietly smiled.
"I can do it as much as needed. As long as there's hope."