"Is this what I think it is? Then why am I not like that?" Yamata asked in a trembling voice, clearly startled. But to her credit, despite her emotional state, the rifle she had trained on the two of them didn't waver. Ah, right—we're undead. She wouldn't tremble in principle, unless the subconscious or conditioned reflexes decided to have their say.
"Yes. It is what you think. But… not exactly. I drained them completely, but in return gave them already altered blood—mine. You can see the result for yourself." I snorted. "I'll call this species a ghoul. And now, the most important thing—checking obedience."
"Attention!"
No reaction. Bad—but they weren't showing aggression either, which meant the experiment wasn't a total failure. Maybe I should try a different approach?
"Sit!"
And would you look at that—they sat!
"Stand!"
They sprang up from the sitting position instantly, in a way the living never could.
"Give me your paw!"
They did… all four of them, both ghouls—and promptly collapsed onto the floor. Yes, their intelligence is now at the level of a dog, if not lower. A pity—but they'll do as cannon fodder.
"Bravo," Yamata's mocking voice rang out, accompanied by her half-hearted applause.
"Now explain to me why we need these two burdens—especially ones that are valuable to Umbrella," my partner said with clear displeasure.
"Oh, believe me, we need them. Just not right now. So while we're gone, they'll guard our section of the lab. And I'll turn the rest—those whose blood served as the catalyst for my final transition into the third stage. It's a shame we'll have to wait until they're turned and only then move out. We've already delayed far too long."
"What are you even talking about?" Yamata didn't understand me.
"An army—or rather, a squad—of ghouls with high physical parameters. What's more, made from former military personnel (who knows what their bodies might pull off on reflex alone in combat?) will be useful to me for obtaining the Progenitor Virus DNA from its direct carrier. We won't be able to defeat her, even with our current strength—but drawing a little blood? That, yes. And the game is worth the candle!
"And I've already told you about my reasoning. I want to see how the civilians' turning will play out, and I've chosen a very fitting target—but it may already be too late. By now, we might have missed our chance. Ideally, we should already be there. And yet, there's still the turning to carry out, and the order for the ghouls to hole up in that room. Pity there's no guarantee they'll stay put if living humans show up. They seem obedient, but if bloodlust applies to them, they're unlikely to follow the command (and then I'll lose Claire and Leon, completely derailing the canon). Still, giving the order is better than not trying."
As I said this, I was already on the first level, once again forcing myself—again and again—to make shallow cuts and pour small amounts of blood into the corpses through the wounds, having first made sure there was no trace of their own crimson fluid left inside them. I don't need vampires or anything like that here. And how reluctantly the skin yields even to my claws, which are unquestionably stronger than knives! That, too, increased the time cost of my plan.
Fate once again adjusted my plans. The ghouls I'd left unattended lost interest in the corpses that had already received a dose of my blood and began enthusiastically devouring the bodies that hadn't yet undergone transformation. As a result, by the end of the operation I had two and a half dozen "puppies" instead of more than three dozen. On the plus side, the changes in the corpses that had already cooled down progressed faster. Either I'd gotten the hang of it and refined my interaction with the bodies, or the time elapsed since death somehow affects the incubation period in the victims. I processed the first two almost immediately, while they were still "warm," whereas those in this room had been dead for nearly an hour. There's also a third possibility: when I worked on the first ones, I myself was still in an unfinished stage of the new evolutionary tier, whereas now I've (supposedly) completed it, and that's why the process goes faster—after all, I'm changing them using my own blood.
Some time later, the Four Eyes and I were already emerging from the sewers. Fortunately, the route had been cleared earlier by the mercenaries who'd passed through. Once on the surface, we moved across the rooftops—I was wary of taking any other route, given my blood absorption. At last, the ravaged street came into view. Wasting no time on detouring through the buildings, I dashed straight across the rooftop and reached the spot… where the helicopter had nearly crashed down onto the floor below. Yes, it had been one hell of an explosion, and this section of wall and floor/ceiling had already taken a beating. Carefully crawling along the wall, I ended up in the corridor and dashed straight for the police chief's office.
(End of Chapter)
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