Rebirth Online World

Zombie master chapter 30,1: interlude 3

In the room of the institute, Nakagawa Sarah and Kuroda Sakura sat face to face across a large desk. Nakagawa Sarah was a well-known person, even Sakura knew about her so, sitting alone with her was giving Sakura lots of pressure.

“Kuroda-san, don’t be nervous.”
“Yes, doctor Nakagawa.”
“You can just call me Sarah and can I just call you Sakura?”
“Yes, doctor Sarah.”

In front of Sarah, there was a cup green tea served on the desk and in the middle of the table, there was a recorder to record her conversation with Sakura.

“Sakura, you have survived the outside world. I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. However, we’re in a zombie apocalypse time, I need to know as much as I can about the outside world state. I have checked the TV, the net, and shared some with the overseas researchers, the JSDF personnel also came to give me updates but I think your reference, Sakura’s story will be one of the key points that’s why I want to record this.”

Sakura now looked Sarah with a serious expression. Because based on what she told her, this info might be shared to the world.

“…Okay…”

Sakura then tried to explain what she saw in the outside world. Of course, she hid the fact that she isn’t attacked by zombies. She also explained that zombie movement at the day was duller compared when they are at night. She also knew where the zombies were located. Knowing that they are concentrated indoor on commercial facilities other than outdoors. To the parts that they can’t move too far and actually walking up the main road was fairly safe.

That said, she has been coming here from the center of Tokyo and it was a miracle because even the JSDF personnel wasn’t able to move that far. In fact, Sakura was there when some of the humans were attacked by zombies too but she could care less.

“Hmm… I see.”
Sarah listened till the very end and turned off the recorder switch.

“Alright, the recording is done. We’re now going to use this as our reference about the zombie in daytime.”

“yes.”

Sarah however still staring at Sakura. Under that intensive gaze, Sakura can’t help but rolling her eyes left and right. Of course, Sakura was hiding some story and she hesitated to tell her because the result might be undesirable.

(if doctor noticed it… what should I do?) – Sakura

She thought so as she steals a glance at Sarah then Sarah began to laugh uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to scare you.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s alright. I’m also the same as you.”

“yes.”

After deducting what Sarah meant, Sakura let out a big breath. As if a big burden has been released from her shoulder.

“I’m the same as you after all. It’s good, we also able to recognized each other immediately.”
After that, Sarah handed out some sweets for Sakura while apologizing.

“We must keep this as our little secret. It goes without saying that we have to carefully think about the future and what we’re going to deal with.”

Sarah then stood behind Sakura and hugged her gently.

“What is it doctor?”

“It’s just, it feels good that knowing that I’m not alone.”

The words that Sarah said can be reflected back on Sakura. Outside, she kept on seeing zombies and humans and realized that she was different from them. Maybe it was fear, fear that she might be killed one day. Sakura then enjoyed the hug from Sarah. The two people now were immersed in their thoughts as they fell into silence for a while.

“Well, for the sake of the future let’s discuss our current situation just the two of us.”

Sarah then sat in front of her again and start to talk. Sakura provided some information but before proceed further she want to know that she can call Sarah as comrades. Because at the current state of the world, she doesn’t want to divulge information carelessly.

“Our researchers so far worried that the crisis in human history unprecedented and in our era, it will be the zombie apocalypse that we discovered to be caused by unknown viruses.”

“Oh, it was what the government announced right? But in the end, aside from the virus theory, there has been some people saying that it was aliens or even hell risen up.”

“I don’t know what is the thing that is possible to alter human beings into zombies, so it might be virus because the mechanism is quite similar.”

However, in the first place, this situation doesn’t really make sense. Because no one can confirm the phenomenon. Previously there have been some experiments tied to animals but the animals didn’t show any distinct changes. Because of that, they started to experiment using human.

It was inevitable that a few sacrifices were needed because it is in the end tied to the fate of the whole humanity race. Before one day it is too late, human experimentation needed to be done. It was easy, since they have sacrificial pawns, for example prisoners because they also don’t know how long the law can stand on earth. Even some of the situations need to be controlled by the army which isn’t working perfectly.

In fact, when the human experimentation started, human rights has been neglected little by little and the situation has occurred in nearby countries too.

The human experimentation started when a healthy human body is injected with a virus that was gathered from the zombie. However, it doesn’t seem to show any changes in the host or any changes in the virus shape, that is why Sarah wanted some more experiment that will bear more visible results.

“notably, we know that the zombie apocalypse happened and occurred at the same time all over the world. There is no error and only in a few days the whole world has been infected. We only don’t know what is the situation in remote areas. Whether the process is reversible or not, we also don’t know.”

Since the process is happening at the same time all around the world, it will be very hard to find the source of the infection. Because it is happening all around the world, it happened at the same time, there is no telling how long is the incubation period before the virus started to show its effect. It may be easier to consider that the world has been infected by the virus before the virus finally matured and show it’s effect.

However, for the victim that was bitten by a zombie, the effect was only in a few short minutes. The incubation period of the virus can be said to be equal to none. Although, there is another opinion that it was transmitted by blood, however it still needed to be tested more since at the present situation there is a lack of data.

“When someone is infected by the virus, the biggest noticeable things is when they fall into a state called zombie. It is just like something that came out from the movie.”

After that, Sarah looked at Sakura with a serious expression.

“Sakura-san, what kind of zombie you’ve encountered when you are on your way to come here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you see any other changes on the zombie? I mean, there are different types of zombies. There has been lots of sighting reported and there are lots of video about it. Have you look at it? Look, this one, don’t you think that they are different?”

Sakura then nodded after a while.

“Yes, that’s what I thought too. like me, and doctor, we too are different.”

“Yes, when I first saw Sakura, I also know that there was a link between us. Sakura, on the way here perhaps you’ve seen more than hundreds or thousands of zombie and from all of them, did you notice some that were clearly different from the others?”

After thinking that Sarah was expecting some answer, Sakura tried to think of more details. All from the way where she starts till she arrived here.

“two, no maybe three different zombies from what I’ve encounter so far.”

Sarah brows slowly raised hearing Sakura’s remarks.

“yeah, I was thinking two but then I remember another one. The three variations giving me a feeling that it was a zombie monster. They looked very macho and their muscles are bloated but at the same time, their movement is very quick. When I look at them, my breath will stop, I am truly scared.”

“Oh, there are some people that encountered it too. they have high aggression, sturdy and dangerous. But you are safe?”

“Yes, the look different but giving off the same vibe as other zombie. However, it seems like it doesn’t want to recognize me as one of them. It just doesn’t give off that kind of feeling.”

“I kind of understand the feeling you said because I feel that when we met. So, is there any other zombie that you notice that is different from the others?”

Sakura then moved her right hand trying to cover her mouth unconsciously.
“Well, if you put it that way, it wasn’t clear and it was based on my impression. But there are around ten zombies that giving me a different vibe.”

“Oh, is there a distinctive feature? Something that can differentiate them?”

“hmm, it was when I saw a zombie girl, an elementary school zombie. I wonder if it was my mistake but I clearly hear her saying mother. I was surprised and I instinctively grabbed the child’s shoulder but in the end I realized that she has turned into a zombie. She no longer speaks and let out small meaningless growl. At one time in another place I heard another zombie saying “don’t look at me”. That zombie spoke longer than the others but other than that I don’t see any other zombies.”

“words… I don’t have any confidence and it could be your mistake when hearing it. But now I can confirm that there are different types of zombie that are giving you different feelings of impression. Because a little while ago I can clearly felt our connection.”

Sarah explained it again and Sakura nodded several times as she is convinced.

“Actually, I never seen a real live zombie and not to mention those that can speak. In others countries’ too like here, we only work with the zombie remains that were caught and sent to the laboratory. So the image that we talk about today, I can only imagine. But I feel a strong presence, near us.”
Sarah fell into silence and Sakura then stare at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“From now on, we’re going to keep talking about very important things. Because this is a top secret, can you promise me that you won’t tell it to the others?”

“Eh, such important things, are you sure you want to tell it to me?”

“Of course. Rather, I can only start talking about it now because you’re the same.”
Sarah used her right hand to hold Sakura’s hand/ Sakura then nodded a little while blushing.

“I understand. Of course, I won’t tell anyone else.”

After that Sarah gave a satisfied nod and started to talk while slowly letting go of Sakura’s hand.

“Sakura-san, for you what is a zombie?”

“well, a walking dead?”

“yes, that is what we know or at least we imagine from the movie. The zombie then started to move and attack living human. A walking dead.”
Sakura didn’t even know Sarah intention by asking that question. However, what she explained was only a normal definition of zombie, is there really a need to talk about this?

“I think… something can only be determined as zombie when their breathing and heart has stopped but the brain is still alive. It is weak but we can still have a respond of brain waves which making sure that the brain is still alive.”
When the heart stops flowing, it can be said that the blood stops flowing and oxygen can’t be delivered to the brain as the breathing stopped too. with a lack of oxygen, the brain cell definitely undergoes a necrosis process. However, the brain of the zombies doesn’t undergo a necrosis despite no oxygen. So the theory is that the virus must be doing something and has entered the brain cells. Whether they prevented the brain to be completely dead or something else, it was something that hasn’t been found out.

“Yes, the zombies brain still emitting brain waves. It was almost the same as the brain waves that was detected during rem sleep.”

“Rem sleep?”

“yes, there are several stages of sleep and rem is one of those type. The current state maybe similar to rem sleep or eeg. There is a high probability that those zombies are having a dream.”

“that is…”

“there is a possibility that the brain is still working normally.”

That thing was too unexpected and Sakura is at a loss for words. Only the sound of the clock on the wall can be heard strangely loud.