"Is that all?" I asked Four Eyes, who was collecting samples from the zombie carriers and the insects themselves—just in case. Yes, I remembered that her laboratory had "died a brave death," but the syringe guns and ampoules for them had survived. So, as she told me, this unfortunate scientist hopes to use the laboratory equipment for analysis.
"Yes, the samples have been collected. I can't wait for us to finally get to the lab itself," the girl replied, straightening up and slipping another ampoule into her belt pouch.
I nodded silently and moved a little farther ahead, gun and knife at the ready. Precautions would not be superfluous here, even if you are a Bio Organic Weapon. So we continued on our way in tense silence, slowly—more precisely, cautiously—advancing with our weapons raised. After about fifty meters, we reached an intersection where our tunnel crossed another.
"Which way now? Still straight ahead?" I asked. As I'd already said, I didn't really know myself, and Vector was more focused on monitoring the situation, relying on his teammates for navigation. Because of that, I had almost no memory of the route through the sewers.
"To the left," Four Eyes replied, pointing her rifle in that direction.
"Got it," I smirked, once again mimicking Vector.
We turned and came face to face with a few ordinary zombies. As expected, they didn't pay us any attention, so none of our small but proud company saw any reason to waste ammunition on them. After passing by relatively calmly, we found ourselves in front of a new door—thicker than the last—which, just like the first one, lay torn out along with its frame and sprawled across the floor.
I tried to remember whether Birkin had gone outside according to canon, and what exactly he'd gone out there for. Somehow, I couldn't recall anything clearly—only a vague image of a police station surfaced, and I had no desire whatsoever to go there. So, leaving that as a last resort, I decided to squeeze as much as possible out of this place for now. Maybe I'd even get the virus here.
"Shall we go in?" Four Eyes asked, pulling me out of my light reverie.
"Ladies first," I said, making an inviting gesture. Who knew what might be waiting in the very first room? I really wanted to keep living— even if in this form… or especially in this form? It was hard to say whether I would have agreed to remain just human now, having assessed my new capabilities.
"Ugh, damn gentleman," the girl muttered under her breath, but she still entered the passage first, and nothing fatal seemed to happen to her. I followed and looked around the fairly large hangar, which now stood empty. And more importantly—it was clean! Well, more accurately, there was no filth underfoot. There were bloodstains and traces, not too many but enough, yet the floor was dry!
"Hey! What are you doing?!" I snapped my fingers in front of Four Eyes's face, because she had frozen strangely, staring at the nearest bloodstain, her nostrils flaring predatorily… Oh! What an idiot I was. One person clearly hadn't been enough for her, and she apparently disdained feeding on zombies—especially sewer zombies—even though her hunger must have intensified considerably by now.
"I'll be right back!" I said to the girl, who had already come to her senses from my actions. I jumped back into the sewer and grabbed the nearest zombie, which was standing there like a statue.
"What are you doing?" Yamata asked in surprise when I dragged the unresisting infected into the room, where Four Eyes once again cast interested, hungry glances at the bloodstains.
"Eat. And don't argue—you need it. I can already see how hunger is getting the better of you, and to endure it... I don't want to discover at some wonderful moment that you've lost control and are trying to bite me with relish!" No, I understood that she was unlikely to attack me—but that was still unconfirmed information, and I definitely had no desire to expose myself to unnecessary danger.
With a quick motion, I chopped off the zombie's head—not cleanly enough for it to fall off, but enough for blood to gush out. A pity they weren't fresh, of course, but I knew from experience that even such a "dish" was quite edible.
Four Eyes either couldn't fight her instincts and thirst for long—or simply didn't want to. After all, she'd accepted her new condition even more easily than I had at first. Within ten seconds, she was bent over the zombie, which didn't even react until it was far too late. A biological weapon that reacted only to the living… thank God for that. Otherwise, Yamata and I would have stood no chance at all—neither in our plan nor in the city as a whole.
While my partner satisfied her thirst for blood, I found myself pondering an interesting question. Why, immediately after my evolution, had I still not felt even a hint of this thirst? Had the interval I could go without a fresh blood supply increased, or had my body finally stopped its constant restructuring? Oh, how useful a "pocket lab" would be right now. But because of my decision to fight Nemesis, it had been lost forever.
Then again, if not for that decision, I would still be lugging around a weak human on my shoulders—in every sense—stuck at the first stage of evolution and plagued by constant bloodlust. In other words, even if I had the chance to replay everything, I would still choose the same path. No, I might tweak a few minor details, but overall, I was satisfied with the outcome.
(End of Chapter)
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