Walker, Alone (2)
The two guys holding the handcuffs shackled one arm behind their backs, then locked the other end to their own wrists. "Turn around." Perhaps because the muzzle of the gun that killed their friends was still pointed at them, they complied and cuffed themselves properly. They were the type to decide that having their freedom restricted was better than dying. People who valued their lives too much. They would surely regret this choice. They would endlessly berate themselves, thinking, I should have just attacked him back then... right up until the moment they turned into zombies.
"Well. It wouldn't be fair if only you two were miserable, would it? So, this is your chance. Do you have other companions? If you tell me, I'll go catch them for you, too. It wouldn't be fair for only you guys to end up like this."
At my words, the two of them looked at me with expressions of utter disbelief. Hmm. Was that too much of a stretch? I thought it was a perfectly reasonable offer.
"Is there no one? Or are you just keeping your loyalty?"
The two didn't answer. Well, I hadn't expected them to anyway. Besides, I didn't have the time to be standing around like this. I’d fired two shots. And gunshots are louder than you’d think. I couldn't stay here; I had to leave this spot quickly. You never know what might show up. Plus, the gas mask I was wearing was getting a bit stuffy.
I rummaged through their belongings. Nothing particularly suspicious. No communication devices or anything of the sort. So, I tied their legs as well. They were cuffed, but I bound their bodies once more for good measure. I gagged them, too. Then, grunting with the effort, I loaded them into the back of the truck. Ugh. They were heavy because of their size. Should I start working out harder?
The guys, now in the back of the truck, seemed thrilled. They were making quite a racket. I guess they liked their new ride-along companions. "I've gagged you, so you won't be able to bite. Just stay still." With that, I climbed into the driver's seat. Time to head back. Nothing had appeared yet, but I couldn't rule out the possibility that something was watching from somewhere.
I drove the truck in a wide circle. I deviated from my usual route and took a slightly longer way back. But I was a little worried. If I left them in there with the zombies, wouldn't those two turn into zombies themselves? I arrived back at the main base. I pulled the truck into the decontamination room, got out, and checked the back of the truck first. And sure enough, both of them had already succumbed to the infection. They had turned into zombies.
Hmm. Can't be helped. I couldn't exactly have let them sit in the back seat on the way here. The harvest was bountiful. Twelve zombies. And they were all neatly tied up, too. It was a bit of a shame that the last two had turned. There had to be other members in their group. Four men roaming around like that with no companions? That didn't make sense. At the very least, they would have had some women they’d captured, or maybe family.
I stacked the zombies neatly to one side for now. I should have prepared more experimental tables. Well, it couldn't be helped. It wasn't like I caught this many every time. After putting all the test subjects into the lab, I scrubbed myself down thoroughly. Once I finished cleaning up, I immediately launched a drone. I took a wide detour to observe the area where I’d shot the two guys earlier.
The corpses were still there. No one had come to clear them away. It was unlikely anyone was still watching, but since a gunshot had gone off, they could have pinpointed my location. Did I go too far? Far enough that the gunshot wouldn't have been heard? Or did they really have no companions?
I flew the drone back and forth several times, keeping a watch from a distance. But until the sun went down, no one approached the bodies. If that was the case, there was nothing more I could do. Time to stop worrying about it. I headed to the lab. After taking thorough precautions against the spores, I stood before our test subjects. The zombies were piled up in one corner like luggage. Since I had more participants, I had more experiments to conduct. So, I got to work diligently.
I smashed the heads of three zombies with an axe. I put the three lymph nodes I obtained into separate airtight containers. One was sealed completely with nothing else inside. Another was submerged in physiological saline and sealed; it would prevent them from drying out. The last one was put in cooking oil and sealed, to prevent oxidation. Theoretically, lymph nodes kept in airtight containers should have a longer duration. Furthermore, preventing dehydration or oxidation should keep the spores inside effective for longer. At least, that was my hypothesis... well, I’d find out once I saw the results. For now, I just needed to check them in four hours.
I set an alarm and grabbed a decent meal. A warehouse full of groceries—the luxury of those who prepare in advance. Considering all the supplies, I could easily survive for at least four to five years. If I rationed them, I could probably make it even longer, but that was the baseline. To think I’d prepared all that, and it was only five years. It really went to show that without production, you’re doomed. If I could at least grow potatoes, the food supply would be much more stable. The problem was, was it even right to grow plants? The plant growth promoter that the IBRA had sprayed. It had been sprayed in some regions, but it had spread globally. That’s why, even now that the world had ended, plants grew like crazy. Of course, here, winter was coming, so they would all die off soon.
Besides, I wondered if it was safe to eat plants affected by the promoter. It definitely had to have some effect on the body. Furthermore, humans are apex predators. If I grew plants and ate them, or ate animals that had grown up eating those plants, the effects would be inevitable. And on this point, even P couldn't give a clear answer. Because they hadn't tried it. They couldn't experiment on it in advance, either. In the end, you only know if you experiment. And that, too, over the long term. There was no way to confirm what kind of problems there were other than by doing it myself.
Zombies have their limits. If you keep killing them, they eventually disappear. Zombies can't increase beyond the population, right? Even at this very moment, they are constantly dying. So, thinking about a long-term plan, it’s only right to prepare for what comes after. I would need to recruit normal test subjects. Participants who would work together to kill zombies, find and rescue survivors, build greenhouses or vegetable gardens to produce food, and raise animals. But after thinking that far, I let out a dry laugh without realizing it. Me? In the outside world, teeming with spores? That was nonsense. It was impossible.
There was no reason to do that out there when I had supplies piled high in my main base and my multi-bunker. So, I discarded that method from the start. If it were a different approach, maybe. Above all, I can't trust people. It’s impossible to fully trust people based solely on goodwill and credit. Especially for someone like me who has a lot to lose. Of course, most people would be similar to me, I thought. That’s what I had believed. But no. Not everyone in the world lives with the same obsessive-compulsive disorder as I do. The four-man group I saw earlier was proof of that. What on earth were they thinking? Did they think they could stop me like that and loot what I had?
I know not everyone is smart. There are so many people in the world who live their lives in such an incredibly careless way. There are also many who are oblivious to things that I take for granted as common knowledge. So, I just need to lower my level to match theirs to some extent. Then, I might be able to trust people to a certain degree. It’s absolutely impossible right now, though. I don't know. I'll have to think about that slowly. If the opportunity arises, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try it. Of course, it’s doubtful such an opportunity will ever come.
While I was idling away the time, four hours passed. Time to go. To check the state of the lymph nodes. The effect of the sealed lymph node was, of course, still present. The same went for the one in the physiological saline. The spores could have been diluted in the water, but that wasn't the case. The effect was still certain, and the zombies ignored me. The oil was the same. I should keep testing them. At least I had confirmed that those things didn't negate the effect.
Two hours later—six hours after extraction. All three lymph nodes functioned normally. So, this is where it starts. I need to see how much longer they last. Eight hours after extraction. All three reacted normally. Ten hours after extraction, the effect of the oil wore off first. When I held the lymph node that had been in the oil, the zombies tried to attack me. That’s unexpected. I thought the one in the simple airtight container would be the first to lose its effect.
Thirteen hours after extraction, the one in the simple airtight container also lost its effect. It held out longer than I thought. It lasted almost twice as long. And the one in the physiological saline lasted much longer. Twenty-three hours. The effect lasted for almost a full day. I like this conclusion. If it lasts for about a day, its utility increases several times over. Furthermore, the fact that the duration increases depending on the environment means other experiments are worth trying. For example, zombie body fluids? I thought about human blood, but it probably wouldn't mean anything. Blood clots quickly. Besides, lymph nodes aren't related to blood. If it were lymph fluid, maybe.
The problem is, it’s hard to extract lymph fluid from the body, right? So, the only thing that comes to mind right now is zombie body fluid. I'll try it. I can just try it. How hard could it be? Extracting the fluid is annoying, but it’s an act I can do as much as I want for the sake of the experiment. Ah. I should add one more thing. I should definitely check the relationship between size and duration. I caught three more zombies. And I got three more lymph nodes. One is the lymph node of a child zombie. The other two are the lymph nodes of a woman and a man. The size of the lymph nodes is adult male > adult female > child. This is natural, I suppose. I'll put those lymph nodes in zombie body fluid and wait. Will it last more than a day? At least in my opinion, I thought it would last longer than the physiological saline.
And my prediction was correct. All three lasted longer than the physiological saline. The child's lasted 34 hours. The adult woman's lasted 37 hours, and the adult male's lasted 40 hours. It’s enjoyable when the results come out as I thought. Because it means I’m grasping things correctly. But it doesn't increase dramatically. It would have been nice if it increased two or three times more than the physiological saline. Still, I’m satisfied with this level. I shouldn't be too greedy. However, extracting the fluid one by one for storage is a bit ambiguous. It’s quite cumbersome. There’s also a risk of spoilage. So, for now, I’ll use physiological saline. That alone should be enough to extract and use a single lymph node.