TWP 8: Time and Prison

“Shit!” Lin You cursed, trying to press down on his subtly aching abdomen, unable to distinguish whether it was stomach pain or the wound that hurt. He was slightly caught in a state of tinnitus, irritably muttering, “Xia Zuo, you’re a bit late.”

“I’m sorry,” Xia Zuo said weakly, his deep brown eyes anxiously cast down to the floor. “Do you want to get up first?”

Xia Zuo squatted in front of Lin You, his light brown sweater fitting well over his broad frame. Perhaps due to his South American mixed heritage, his skin was a beautiful amber color, and with his clean-shaven head, he looked more like a soldier or bodyguard than a biological researcher.

One stood, the other sat on the floor, silently gazing at each other.

“Just because you’re looking at me like that doesn’t mean I’ll kiss you.”

“Cough.” Xia Zuo frowned and lightly coughed. After hesitating for a moment, he still reached out, embracing Lin You and helping him to his feet.

“Where’s the Restraint Muzzle?” Lin You took a deep breath. “Let’s put it on Cole while we can.”

Xia Zuo’s gaze swept over the fallen Cole a few times before he quickly fitted the Restraint Muzzle on him and picked up the radio to say a few words.

“The guards will soon take Cole back to the confinement room,” Xia Zuo said, then seemed to hesitate again, looking at Lin You.

Lin You leaned against the wall, pulling out a cigarette from his chest pocket, putting it in his mouth, and lighting it.

“What do you want to say?”

Xia Zuo hesitated for a moment, then helplessly spoke up, “Gowei City has completely fallen; the military has sealed off that area.”

“It’s not even five o’clock yet.”

Right, it was still before five in the afternoon.

Lin You absentmindedly thought, then slowly responded, “…Is that so?”

The spread of the virus was faster than he had imagined. He had thought that with the involvement of the mercenary team from Reid’s research institute and the American military, it would take at least two to three days for the entire city to fall.

Xia Zuo took out his phone from his pocket, gestured a few times, and handed it to Lin You.

Lin You took it and looked; the New World City Daily, CNN, and many other news outlets he couldn’t name were reporting, along with numerous videos and photos circulating. Lin You casually clicked on a live segment, where a panicked cameraman was running and shouting in a frenzy, the shaky camera capturing the chaotic escape of people from the city, the bloody spread and the terrifying trampling of the crowd. Within the yellow cordon, monsters with gaping, foul-smelling mouths and sharp teeth lunged at the camera.

…

He hadn’t expected that in less than a day, a second-tier city would completely become a cannibal paradise for those zombies, turning into a hell for people.

Lin You paused for a moment, then rewound the video and zoomed in. The cameraman wasn’t killed by a zombie; he was shot dead by a sniper not far away…

Though blurry, the insignia briefly revealed by the sniper had a red mark with a white cross, which was Reid’s trademark.

“…Silencing witnesses really does seem like Reid Pharmaceutical’s style, doesn’t it?” Lin You sneered. “Reid has no flaws, so the victims in Gowei City will be silenced, just like something Reid would do. This evidence is quite good.”

“Save that video.”

Xia Zuo’s face turned a bit pale, and he nodded tightly.

With a population of 300,000 in Gowei City, and now in the age of online media, this evidence would spread… This was the first step in Reid’s destruction. They were too naive; humans were not such foolish and easily manipulated creatures.

However, he needed to get to Gowei City as soon as possible. Before that, he had to convince Matthew to let him take Cole—

Lin You sighed and asked, “Besides telling me this, is there anything else you want to say?”

Xia Zuo nodded, bit his lip, and fell silent for a while before speaking.

“Has Cole shown ‘Assimilation’ symptoms towards you?”

“But if he really has ‘Assimilation’ symptoms towards you, why hasn’t he…”

“Does this have anything to do with our plan?”

Lin You interrupted Xia Zuo, lazily stretching his stiff shoulders and neck. “So what if it does? So what if it doesn’t? Even though he’s a variable, I won’t let him ruin our plan. In the end, he’ll willingly go to Gowei City with me; having one more bargaining chip to negotiate with Matthew is quite good.”

“You guys…” Xia Zuo initially wanted to ask what their relationship was, but seeing the look Lin You gave him, he silently held his tongue.

Assimilation Symptoms appear in subjects injected with the E-Virus.

The E-Virus was created to allow the human body to continue evolving. Once it parasitizes a host, its only purpose is to ensure that this flesh continues to evolve at all costs and to parasitize more hosts, finding better genes among different hosts to make the viral sequence stronger.

Although the power of genes and evolution is undeniable, humans have, to some extent, transcended the power of genes, establishing rules and developing rationality and emotions.

For example, marriage and the birth of children are good examples. Genetically, females will continuously seek high-quality males for reproduction, while males have the desire to spread their genes to multiple females. However, the existence of marriage limits people’s genetic desires, and the birth of children also introduces a planned nature due to human social rules, which would be impossible in primitive societies.

Assimilation Symptoms are the manifestations of the E-Virus adapting to human rationality and emotions, and they appear to strengthen itself.

Subjects injected with the E-Virus will react similarly when encountering humans with whom they have a familial relationship or those who evoke strong emotions.

Assimilation Symptoms cause the host to produce dopamine when encountering these two types of people, and when smelling that person’s flesh and blood, an indescribable aroma triggers a heightened desire to infect them.

The E-Virus is sensitive, able to recognize memories and emotions through neural fibers, understanding the importance of the human in front of the host. The more important that person is, the stronger the host’s craving for that person’s flesh becomes, thus inducing the host to bite and infect that human.

Once enough virus allows that person to be Assimilated as well, the Assimilators will no longer be attracted to each other’s flesh, preventing mutual consumption. This not only achieves the goal of infecting more people but also prevents humans from killing each other.

However, to better control the infected, the E-Virus destroys memory neurons, causing the infected to lose related memories and act on instinct.

The discovery of this symptom came about when Reid once bound a group of humans and injected them with the E-Virus. Adults exhibited symptoms quickly, but many parents would deliberately choose to first consume their own children among a group of children of the same age.

When the child’s screaming throat was bitten through, Lin You discovered this anomaly. After multiple experimental comparisons, he ultimately confirmed the existence of the ‘Assimilation’ symptoms.

The original intention of Assimilation Symptoms may have been good, but sadly, failed subjects would end up killing their closest loved ones.

So, perhaps this is why Gowei City fell so quickly?

Zombies that failed to transform and lost their self-awareness, their soft-hearted and confused loved ones unwilling to deliver the killing blow, only to be bitten in the neck by their former lovers…

And Assimilation Symptoms also inspired Lin You to make future E-Virus Assimilators crave his flesh.

However, the virus injected into Cole had not been tampered with by Lin You. He first added the gene sequence that made the Assimilators recognize Lin You as the creator in the first batch of viruses, and only later integrated the Assimilation Symptoms targeting him in the new batches of viruses.

Currently, the only infected individuals who would show Assimilation Symptoms towards Lin You were those in Gowei City.

Lin You took a puff from the cigarette in his mouth, touched the silver pendant hidden in his turtleneck sweater, and chuckled softly.

This was indeed a cruel virus, just like its master.

“Although I don’t know why Cole has Assimilation Symptoms towards you, the muzzle should ensure your safety.”

“And Lin You,” Xia Zuo frowned, “you… should smoke less.”

Xia Zuo reluctantly glanced at Lin You’s obviously pale face and continued helplessly, “Without a healthy body, it’s hard to achieve our goals.”

“Cough.” Lin You removed the cigarette from his mouth and said softly, “Don’t worry about that; I’m not dying just yet.”

After saying that, Lin You covered his mouth and began to cough uncontrollably.

“How much time do we have left?” Xia Zuo still felt a pang of sympathy.

“Guess?” Lin You wanted to take a few more puffs, but found himself increasingly wanting to cough. It was quite disappointing, so he frowned and extinguished the cigarette. “As long as they cut out part of my duodenum and I take some targeted medication or undergo radiation therapy, I could probably have another two years. But the surgery is too troublesome; it would remove too many organs, and having the surgery would alert Reid to my illness, so I declined. I’m taking medication, and I think that’s about enough.”

Hearing him treat his life as if it were nothing, Xia Zuo looked like the one who was suffering the most.

Lin You really couldn’t spare the mental energy to care about him, as a sharp pain suddenly shot through his abdomen, as if a demon was stomping on his belly, grinning and taunting him.

“Are you okay?”

Xia Zuo caught Lin You, who was about to faint, his expression tense as he watched Lin You’s face.

Lin You merely lowered his brows and shook his head, and Xia Zuo couldn’t see his expression clearly.

It wasn’t until Lin You felt the pain that was about to crush his insides ease a bit that the craving for a cigarette returned.

Ignoring the tissues Xia Zuo nervously offered, he wiped the cold sweat pooling at his temples with the back of his hand.

The cigarette was gone; he directly stepped on it on the marble floor.

He had pancreatic cancer, and by the time it was discovered, it had already spread throughout his body—there was no saving it. Fortunately, the internal organs, which usually don’t have much sensation, meant that after diagnosis, he would take a large amount of painkillers and morphine to maintain a pain-free daily life. It had already been over three months, and knowing that his time was limited, he wanted to quickly unite with Xia Zuo to take revenge on Reid.

Lin You smacked his lips and pulled out another cigarette to put back in his mouth. “What’s there to be sad about? Our plan is about to officially launch; be excited.”

“Everyone eventually dies; no life can escape death and the pursuit of time. But foolish wisdom makes humans think they have the ability to change,” Lin You said vaguely with the cigarette in his mouth. “You, who co-created the E-Virus with me, should understand this best.”

“Humans pride themselves on being superior beings, believing that having the ability to think places them at the top of the food chain, but they overlook the greatest limitation of life: limited time. Reid is the best example representing this group of people.”

“Because of the fear of being trapped in the cage of limited time, since ancient times, there have always been those who sought immortality, relying on mysticism or attempting to break the physical and biological limits, trying to touch the end of time.”

“But what happens when time reaches its end? No one knows, because only the dead understand the meaning of time, but at the same time, they have stepped out of time.”

“So, does Cole Martinez, who has stepped out of the limitations of time, count as a dead person?” Lin You said, raising the corners of his mouth as he looked at the fallen Cole’s back, chuckling.

“Perhaps there really is the existence of spirits? Or do you Christians not believe in that?” Lin You chuckled. “Maybe I’ll find out in the future; who knows? Unfortunately, I won’t tell you, because the dead don’t speak.”

Xia Zuo’s expression was obscure, and he didn’t respond to Lin You. He silently stood up, took the cigarette from Lin You’s hand, threw it on the ground, and stomped it out hard.

Lin You coldly watched the cigarette butt on the ground. “I’ll go rest first; you can handle things with Matthew.”