The Experiment Continues
The experiment continues. Since it’s become certain that zombies sense something in our breath, it’s time to verify other possibilities. I know something comes out of human breath. I don’t know what it is, but zombies detect it. And they are convinced it’s human. So, is it really just the breath? Could it be something else?
When I wrapped the body in plastic wrap, the zombie didn’t recognize it. So, it’s certain that something also emanates from the body. However, that could also be due to the breath. Therefore, I have to exclude the breath. Unfortunately, humans die if they don’t breathe. Weak humans. Why can’t they hold their breath for long? Still, couldn’t they hold it for about five minutes? If they don’t want to die, wouldn’t they hold it that long? But I don’t want to be rushed by time while experimenting. So, I’ll find a sure-fire way. I’ll have to go out for a moment. Can’t be helped. I check once more to make sure everyone is securely tied to the experimental tables. If these guys escape while I’m out, there’s no solution. So, I must be cautious. I tie them up so tightly it’s almost excessive, then head outside. I head to the mart first to find what I need.
Bam! Thud! Whack! Bam! I make my way to the mart, diligently bashing zombies along the way. Holding the lymph node, I kill a new zombie outside the mart to refill my supply. I don’t know when the effect might wear off, so I have to keep replacing it with fresh ones. Lymph node resetting is a crucial matter. I can’t be negligent, not even by mistake. Searching the mart, I quickly found what I wanted. Scuba gear for water play. And a long hose. I also grab plenty of tape and other things. Then, I return to the base.
Even though I was only out for a moment, quite a bit of time passed because I took a winding path and had to go through decontamination. Still, I have to do it. If I don’t do it because it’s a hassle, everything will get contaminated. Fortunately, the subjects were exactly as I left them. They hadn’t even defecated or urinated. So, I resume the experiment immediately. I grab the tape covering the man’s mouth and speak to him quietly.
"If you make noise or talk nonsense, I’ll ravage those women right in front of you. And after I kill them, I’ll pile them on top of your body. So don’t open your mouth trying to be brave. You look stupid. Just do as you’re told."
The sound was muffled by my gas mask, but well... he must have understood. When I peeled the tape off his mouth, he just opened and closed it, letting out a deep sigh without making any unnecessary noise. "Bite." I force him to bite down on the scuba hose. Then, I wrap his head tightly with plastic wrap. I wrap it so excessively, leaving not a single gap, and connect the other hose I brought from the mart to the end of the scuba hose. I stretch that hose out and place it in the far corner of the lab. Touching the end of the hose, I can feel air coming out. I suppose he’s breathing hard. That relieves the worry of him suffocating. Now, I bring in a zombie. I place it close to his head. The zombie showed no particular reaction. It was the same even when I held it close to his head. But after staying like that for a moment, it suddenly revealed aggression, snapping its teeth. As if it wanted to chew him up. Is there a leak somewhere? Ah. Did it sense the body odor or something?
I moved the zombie toward his body. The zombie showed a reaction similar to the one before. This means something is coming out of the body, too. Well, I can just verify that. I pull the zombie away and wrap the man’s body in plastic wrap as well. After wrapping him up, he looked a bit bizarre. Like a love doll in a delivery box. The problem is that there’s a real person inside. I bring the zombie up to the guy who has become a plastic-wrap cocoon. The zombie showed no reaction. Even when I held it right up against the plastic, the zombie didn’t show the slightest aggression. Good. The experiment is a success. It seems the sense of smell is the key. It’s correct that the zombie recognizes the body odor, or some substance emanating from the body, judges it as human, and then attacks. I’m not sure what it is, but I have one clue. Zombies don’t show aggression toward human corpses. So, the answer must be something that isn’t in a corpse but is in a living person. If so, couldn’t I exclude simple body odor? If anything, a dead corpse would smell worse. It’s not like a living person would have a stronger odor, right? In the end, it’s the breath. To be precise, it’s something that comes out with the breath. So, I’ll conduct a definitive experiment. Then... I have to kill one. I can’t kill one yet. I can’t just kill a precious experimental participant like that. So, I’ll go out again and catch a zombie. Damn it. I should have brought one when I went out earlier. Why do I have to do things twice? So stupid.
I bring back a fresh zombie and tie it to the experimental table. Since I have the lymph node, these guys just stay calm no matter what I do. They don’t even resist or twitch. I leave the zombie there and attach a filter to the end of the hose of the guy I wrapped in plastic earlier. I wonder if this will be okay. I hope he doesn’t mutate immediately from inhaling too many spores. Thinking that, I slit the zombie’s throat with a scalpel. Then I extract the lymph node and jam the end of the plastic-wrapped guy’s hose into its throat. Now, this zombie has no lymph node emanations and is a human-like thing exhaling human breath. Now, will other zombies show aggression toward this zombie? They did. The zombie hesitated a bit, but it showed aggression toward the zombie with the hose jammed into its throat. It’s a joy when results come out just as I thought. I don’t have to waste effort doing things twice. In the end, the answer is certain. I don’t know what it is, but it’s certain that they recognize people by something that comes out of their breath. It’s probably not just the breath, but a combination of things. Something else that only comes out of a living person’s body. Things like that. Anyway, that’s enough. At least for now, the first experiment is a success. I unwrapped the man who participated in the experiment and tied the zombie up well for a while. I leave the lab and look through the medical books I have. I also search the information I saved on the computer. About the components of breath. About what human exhalations contain. About 75 percent nitrogen, about 15 percent oxygen, about 5 percent carbon dioxide, and a significant amount of water vapor. It won’t be nitrogen. Nitrogen is present in the atmosphere in similar amounts. So, it makes no sense for them to detect nitrogen. In the end, the answer must be the components that change after going into the body and coming back out. And that’s easy to find. Carbon dioxide. Humans absorb oxygen while inhaling air and exhale it as carbon dioxide. The proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is low. It’s about 0.04 percent. That’s at the 400ppm level. But the proportion of carbon dioxide in human exhalation is about 5 percent. So, it’s correct to see that zombies recognize carbon dioxide. And I check other things, too. About the things a living human releases from their body, things that can be called body odor. Among them, one stood out. Ammonia. I know what that is. It’s the smell responsible for the stench of urine. Of course, it’s what remains after bacteria decompose the urea in urine. So, I experiment again. Will zombies react if I only use carbon dioxide and ammonia? Getting carbon dioxide isn’t difficult. Things like dry ice probably don’t exist in the world anymore. They’ve already sublimated and are gone. However, there’s no need to go out of my way to find dry ice. There are plenty of places to get it more simply and easily. The carbonated drink dispensers in restaurants and such. If I just open those up, there will be carbon dioxide cylinders. Because those drinks are made by mixing syrup, water, and carbon dioxide. Ammonia is... hmm. I’ll just have to use something like detergent. There should be cleaners that contain ammonia water. For now, I’ll have to use that. Then I have to go get it again. At times like this, I wish I could make someone else do it. But there’s no one capable of that. I can’t even have anyone. So, I have to do it all myself, even if it’s a hassle. If I want to monopolize everything, I have to do it all alone. Without grumbling or complaining.
By the time I returned with the carbon dioxide cylinder and the detergents containing ammonia, it was already evening. The day really goes by fast. Time flies. But time always flies when you’re doing something fun. That’s how I am right now. I force the zombie’s mouth open. Then I fix the nozzle connected to the end of the carbon dioxide cylinder into the zombie’s mouth. And I spray the detergent containing ammonia onto the zombie’s body. Now, that’s it, right? Will the zombie really be fooled by something this simple? I turned the carbon dioxide cylinder on weakly. Very weakly. It shouldn’t be too much. Carbon dioxide is heavy. So, if I leave it on for a long time in a sealed place like this, it will settle on the floor. If it goes above my height, I’ll suffocate. Of course, since the air conditioning is running here, it won’t be to that extent, but I still have to be careful. A zombie exhaling carbon dioxide and covered in ammonia all over its body—and this zombie doesn’t even have a lymph node. So, if we only consider the conditions, it’s no different from a human, even if it’s clumsy. I take the zombie out of the fish tank and bring it near the set-up zombie. Then, the zombie reacted to the set-up zombie. But how should I put it? It’s aggressive, but it’s not the reaction it shows when it sees a real person. A bit confused? Still, it shows aggression. Well, if it showed it, that’s enough. It’s important that it reacted to something. This means I can lure zombies. But I’ll have to research this part a bit more. I can’t do anything with just this. Anyway, I’m happy because I got results. All these experiments will be used usefully for me. Perhaps, I might not have to go through the trouble of pulling out lymph nodes and carrying them around? Now... the first experiment is finished. But there’s still a ton left to do. Ideas are popping up in my head, aren’t they? So, at least for the time being, I won’t have any time to be bored. I hope those participants stay safe without mutating in the meantime. So I don’t have to go catch them again.