Yes, It's A Miracle (2)
The first snow has fallen. The zombies and plants that had occupied the city were completely buried, swallowed by the pure white snow. The zombies didn't dodge or avoid the snow. They didn't retreat into buildings or put on layers of clothing. They simply stood there, motionless, minimizing their movements. Do they not die? Is the cold not enough to take their lives? Surely something must be going wrong with them. At the very least, their bodies must be weakening. Thinking about it, zombies aren't all that threatening. Perhaps, after this winter passes, zombies might vanish from this city entirely? Well, unless they are being continuously created somewhere, there must be an end to them. The number of zombies can't exceed the number of humans, can it?
Anyway, the fact that it snowed was a good thing for me. Snow leaves traces. You can't erase footprints. Zombies don't move until they see a human. In other words, if there’s a trace in the snow, it’s either a human or a zombie that spotted one and moved. Either way, it’s a perfect state for discovering humans. That’s why I’ve been scouting more diligently than usual. I’ve checked Dongtan and Osan several times already, and now I’m checking even further north—toward Suwon. I hope it snows a bit more. It would be a waste to miss this opportunity. And if I happen to discover something, even better. So, I keep circling the Suwon area.
And exactly two days later, it snowed again. Snow falling in thick, heavy flakes. I don't know why the snow looks so beautiful. How great would it be if it kept snowing like this every two or three days? And ridiculously enough, my words came true. It kept snowing. Strangely, a lot. Constantly. Ah, I guess it’s not strange. It’s only natural. Right now, this world has extremely high humidity. There are quite a few plants that have stubbornly survived here and there. Since there’s also the water vapor that was churned out like crazy throughout last summer, all of that is bound to come down as snow. Come to think of it, it snowed a lot last year and the year before, too. I didn't really feel it back then because people were still living normal lives. I spent a lot of time holed up in various places, too.
While scouting every day like that, I prepared the rats one by one. I cleared out the creepy rats I’d caught before and selected only the newly born ones to prepare for experiments. They’re creepy, but it can’t be helped. I have to do at least this much. The newborn rats also had a spore concentration of about 20 percent. But that 20 percent figure is a bit puzzling. The mother is over 90 percent, so why are the pups only at 20? This seems like something worth researching... Unfortunately, I don't have the capacity for that. It would be great if I could get in touch with P or the Doctor. Why is there no response from that side? Did they really just get wiped out so pointlessly?
With the snow continuing to fall, it’s becoming difficult to move around. No one is clearing the snow. More is piling up than is melting. I’ve installed heating wires on the solar panels so they don't get covered, but I’m starting to wonder if even that will be enough. Moreover, the handicap of the snow applies to me, too. If I drive a car out in the open and return to my base, it’s basically announcing that there’s something here. It would mean all the hell I went through to hide this place was for nothing. So, I parked the car in a tunnel quite far from the base. Then I walked from the tunnel’s emergency exit to my base. This is just as risky, but it’s still better than leaving obvious tire tracks everywhere. Actually, not going out at all would be best, but anyway, I keep scouting. And eventually, I found what I wanted.
A trace. A trace of snow being cleared. A trace of a person having manually cleared the snow. And there were no zombies there. It wasn't that they were hidden by the snow; they were simply absent. The Seonyang Electronics Suwon facility. Seeing that, I reflexively thought of that bastard, Baek Jin-ho. Right. I had thought it might be possible. Suwon and Dongtan are practically the front yard of the Seonyang Group. A strange sense of excitement welled up. Does this trace really have anything to do with Baek Jin-ho? Is that guy still alive?
I operate the drone with extra caution. Making sure the propeller noise isn't heard, ensuring that if they happen to look at the sky, they won't spot the flying drone. I use the buildings as cover to confirm the snow-cleared Suwon facility. As much as possible. Everything I can find out. Watching the Suwon facility like that, another year passes before I know it. I’ve aged another year, which is pretty useless. It doesn't even fill my stomach. Anyway, as I continued scouting, I learned a few things. First, there were quite a lot of humans at the Suwon facility. Just the people clearing the snow numbered over ten. But why are the people clearing the snow all men? Are there still "sweet" guys left even though the world has ended like this? It’s one of two things. Either they’re still "sweet" guys who haven't come to their senses, or it’s a situation where women can't come out. When the world is ruined like this, the dignity of women doesn't mean anything, does it? If that place is a peaceful community, it would be the former, and if it’s a bit of a rough place, it would be the latter. Well, I can find that out slowly. There are many ways to find out.
For now, since I know there are survivors there, I’ll take a break from scouting. I should scout only after it stops snowing. That way I can actually do something. So, I changed the scouting schedule to once a week and diverted that time to experiments. And so, winter passes. Traces of people continue to appear at the Suwon facility. They don't seem to think at all that there are survivors other than themselves. They look so carefree. They don't even consider the possibility of being attacked or raided. That bothers me a little. Do they have some kind of defense? Are there people standing guard separately? Do they have something they trust? That must be why they’re so relaxed. They wouldn't be like that for no reason. So, I’m being cautious, too. The drone scouting is careful, just enough to confirm they’re still doing fine. Meanwhile, just in case, I try using the satellite phone Baek Jin-ho gave me. But still, there’s no response from the satellite phone. It won't connect. I should just give up on this. It doesn't mean much at this point anyway.
The experiment using the young rats hasn't made much progress. Ah. They aren't young rats anymore. They’re fully grown. I inject zombie body fluid into the rats to induce forced mutation, and I try various things at the moment of mutation. The most frequent method is injecting drugs with a syringe. I can’t feed anything to something that’s mutating. The best way would be to spray something like an aerosol, but the chances of that working seem slim. The most certain way is to shove it directly into their bodies. I roughly know the mechanism of mutation. A lot of spores accumulate in the body, and when stress or emotional changes occur, that acts as a trigger, causing the body to mutate. That’s as far as I know for now. I don't know the principle behind how it mutates. So, I have to experiment based on my imagination.
There seem to be two ways to stop mutation. One is to lower the spore concentration, which is the cause of the mutation, and the other is to remove the trigger. What if the spore concentration drops rapidly when mutation starts due to the trigger? That’s what I experimented with first. What happens if a large amount of drugs—drugs packed with lymph nodes and antihistamines—is injected into the body when mutation begins? At first, the theory seemed plausible. Mutation should only happen if the spore concentration is high, so if the concentration suddenly drops, the mutation should fail. So I experimented, but... the problem was that the rats were too weak. When I injected a large amount of lymph nodes and antihistamines, the rats just trembled and died on the spot. Pointlessly. Well, I suppose that makes sense. Even humans get fevers up to 38.5 degrees, so it’s unlikely the rats would be fine. If I injected fewer lymph nodes, it had no effect. They just mutated. Well, since their whole bodies were tied up, they weren't much of a threat, but a mutated rat is still creepy. Rats are creepy enough as it is. This rat bastard, if only I could do something about the tail, it would be better. The tail is just too creepy. Squirrels or rats, they’re both rodents. It’s the tail that determines whether they’re cute or creepy.
Anyway, I didn't get much results from lowering the spore concentration. So this time, I’ll try a different method. Forcibly turning off the trigger itself. I used several drugs. Things like sleep inducers, anesthetics like ketamine, or beta-blockers. Simply put, they’re all drugs that can suppress excitement. Since the trigger itself is stress and emotional escalation, the concept is to forcibly turn it off when the switch is flipped and the onset of the disease begins. And that seemed to have some effect. The mutation was slightly delayed. Even if not completely, the body would squirm and the mutation would stop for a moment. That means my theory was somewhat correct. The trigger isn't something that ends once activated; it has to be maintained until the mutation is completely finished. If you forcibly turn it off, the mutation stops midway.
I experiment a few more times. Now that I know the method, I need to get more certain results. So I tried all sorts of methods. Until the winter was almost over. And by the time February was almost gone, I was able to get plausible results. The method I used was just using both. Mixing lymph nodes and antihistamines with anesthetics. Then, the rat would tremble at the moment of mutation and then faint as if it had been turned off. After that, it would wake up completely and squeak again. However, if the timing was late, it wouldn't be normal. It was like... it had lost its mind? I guess that’s because the mutation had already partially progressed. So, I’ll have to stick the syringe in the moment the mutation starts. If I’m even a little late, something gets broken. That’s how the animal experiments yielded successful results. So now, I should experiment on humans, right? Once animal experiments are done, you naturally have to do clinical trials. That’s the natural order of things.