kingnovel Chapter 88 Infection
Chapter 88 Infection
The gunshot rang out and Howard froze in place.
He didn't think Arabelle would hurt him, not even now.
So after the gunshot, he did not choose to check if he was injured, but chose to look back.
Arabelle still had her back to him, but she raised her gun again, pointing it forward.
At the end of the gun's trajectory, a worker was knocked to the ground by Arabelle.
This gun has been modified to be loaded with explosive rounds.
The explosive bomb fired from the gun hit the soft flesh of the human body, and the impact feedback could not detonate the fuse, so the explosive bomb directly penetrated the human body and exploded at the back.
However, the powerful kinetic energy of the bomb still tore half of the worker's body into pieces, and broken human tissue splattered everywhere.
Howard's heart was in his throat. He knew that Arabelle couldn't be the kind of person who would kill people indiscriminately. So why did she pull the trigger at the worker?
The worker soon gave the answer.
Nearly a quarter of the worker's body tissue from his right leg to his waist and abdomen had disappeared, and his internal organs had flowed out of the body, with hot steam constantly rising.
But not a drop of blood came out.
At this moment, the worker's fingers suddenly trembled, and then Howard heard a low laugh, like the cough of an asthmatic patient.
"Hey Hey……"
Transparent green mucus oozed from the worker's torn wounds, and the tissues and muscles at the worker's wounds began to wriggle and proliferate at a speed visible to the naked eye. The new granulations and tentacles entangled and fused with each other, resealing the wounds torn by the bomb.
But no one helped the worker stuff his internal organs back in, so in addition to the new and still wriggling pink muscles, there was also a string of intestines and half a stomach.
The worker slowly raised his head. His eyes were a murky gray-green, but his expression was a hazy smile, as if he were indulging in the joy and happiness brought by a slight intoxication. Excessive saliva flowed from the corners of his slightly upturned mouth, forming long strands.
Then he began to move. He used his arms and legs to support his body, and then crawled towards Howard step by step. In the process of crawling, his body further changed. More granulations grew out of the sores, and the skin on other parts of his body churned like boiling water. Many tiny pustules swelled like bubbles and then burst.
More mucus began to be secreted, leaving a transparent, shiny trail behind him as he crawled, like a giant snail.
A scorching laser shone on the worker, and his body melted quickly like a snowman thrown into magma. The flesh and blood tissues were vaporized first, revealing the skeleton, which was completely carbonized in an instant. When the laser stopped irradiating, only a wisp of ash remained where the worker had been.
"What...what is this?" Even Arabelle was shocked by this strange situation.
Char just raised his hand that had fired the laser device, with a serious expression, and said nothing.
Soon they discovered the second anomaly: from the moment Arabel pulled the trigger to the moment Char fired the laser to vaporize the worker, the entire process took only about ten seconds.
Although this process was not very long, there was no disturbance or noise at the exit of the space elevator, which was full of people.
Not only that, the sounds of normal working, such as the sound of vehicles running, the sound of access control prompts, and the sound of workers communicating, all disappeared, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
All the workers put down their work and stood upright with their heads down.
"Hey Hey……"
Then, from all directions came the kind of asthmatic laughter that sounded as if the throat was stuck with phlegm.
Seeing this scene, Howard felt his blood rushing up and his forehead exploded.
If he guessed correctly, this thing should be... Plague Zombie? !
Plague zombies are cannon fodders under the evil god Nurgle. When mortals are infected by Nurgle's plague, those who can survive the plague can retain their will and receive Nurgle's blessing, while those who cannot survive will become walking corpses like the worker just now, indulging in the quagmire of drowsy joy and losing their independent consciousness, and then continue to spread the plague to the outside world.
"Hey Hey……"
The remaining workers at the space elevator exit laughed foolishly and slowly approached the only three healthy people left.
Char kept firing lasers. In order to save energy, he used low-power lasers, but low-power lasers could only leave a burnt hole in the infected workers, which was soon filled with new tissue or pus.
Char also tried to use lasers to cut these workers in half, but after the workers were cut in half, flesh granulations continued to grow out of the broken parts, and the lower and upper limbs were divided into two parts and continued to approach the two men.
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" At this time, the space elevator issued a warning, which was a sign that the elevator door was about to close.
Howard swallowed hard and shouted to Char and Arabelle, "Come in too!"
Char and Arabelle exchanged a glance and began to slowly retreat towards the elevator, with Char continuing to shoot to delay the zombie tide.
In the end, the two of them managed to get into the elevator before the door was completely locked. The zombies who had lost their intelligence did not understand the escape route they chose at all, so they were still walking slowly until the end.
It wasn't until the elevator door closed that a dull thud and a teeth-grinding scraping sound came from the other side.
The elevator began to rise. This elevator was a small passenger elevator that Howard had specially asked Ohm Messiah to choose, so the acceleration was much slower than the industrial elevator Howard had taken before. During the acceleration, Howard just felt that he seemed to have gained twice the weight, but it was still within an acceptable range.
"Just now...what was that just now?" Arabelle asked with lingering fear.
"I guess these are zombies created after humans were infected by some virus." Although Char looked to be somewhat shocked, he had the emotional feedback area of his brain removed after all, so he appeared much calmer.
"The entrance and exit of the elevator are where goods and people flow most frequently. If there is any plague, it should break out here first." As he said this, Char began to contact his subordinates.
"Seal off the space elevator! Isolate the infected! Transfer all the doctors and medicines!"
After giving simple instructions to his men, Char began to contact other leaders.
"Hey Hey……"
But at this moment, that creepy laughter suddenly came from the elevator.
Howard got goosebumps instantly. He jumped back and looked vigilantly in the direction of the sound, wondering if an infected person was coming up.
But there was no one there except...
Except for Arabelle who looked stunned.
"I... I just..." Arabelle also looked panicked. First, she took two steps towards Howard and Char, wanting to seek help from her companions, but she immediately restrained her impulse and began to slowly back away from the two of them.
But after taking a few steps back, she began to cough violently, as if she was going to cough out her entire lungs. When the coughing stopped, Arabelle raised her head, and the bottom of her eye sockets had turned gray-green.