Chapter 111 – Rapid Quarantine
While Jinsu was under stress from the exchange transfusion, a woman who had been sentenced to one week of deportation returned to the entrance of the shelter.
Her clothes were all stained yellow and covered in dirt. Her hair looks like it was set on firecrackers and her eyes are wide open.
However, once the huge exterior door to the shelter was opened, life gradually returned.
Artificial light visible beyond the door. In that light, which never reached the brilliance of the sun, the woman felt an indescribable comfort.
Tears flow from her eyes. Her one week in the wild completely changed her outlook.
To her, her sun is no longer a symbol of Mother Nature’s benevolence.
She is just a bystander who can only watch herself shivering miserably from the cold and the fear of death.
Now she has to go through two places. The first is a purification room, and the second is a solitary confinement room.
Once she is dealt with in both places, she can finally be forgiven for her sins and return to life in the city.
[Move.]
A nearby security robot said. This is a platoon of guards dispatched in accordance with the security protocol when opening the external entrance.
A rifle with a scary face and a fear that it might burst into flames at any moment. How reassuring a being that was once thought of as a nuisance was actually…
[Take off your clothing and shoes and place them in the recycling bin.]
A medical robot painted green gave instructions in front of the purification room.
She became naked in an instant and stood at attention, waiting for her next command.
Goosebumps appeared on her naked body due to the cold, but since her whole body was covered in scum and dust, it was not noticeable.
The first night of exile was the worst.
She couldn’t sleep at all.
He was able to escape the walker who was following him, but as night fell, the cries of wild animals and monsters could be heard from all directions.
It may seem like it came from far away, or it may feel like it’s not far away.
When everything was normal, there was always a light like a lighthouse somewhere even in the middle of the night, but now everything is pitch black.
The darkness was like the wind blowing on the sea. Her darkness itself was nothing, but the fear it brought upon her in waves crushed her to the point of suffocation.
Cries that seemed to attack her at any moment while her vision, hearing, and sense of direction were disturbed.
Afraid that they would notice her frantically beating heart, she clutched her chest with both hands and crouched.
She dozes off, then wakes up with a loud noise, hits her butt, and then dozes off again, only to be startled by the sound of rustling and stepping on tree branches.
A few times she ran away like that and fell in the dark. I became a beggar in just one day.
‘I need to find a place to hide.’
This one thing was stuck in her mind. The option of searching for food was ruled out from the beginning. From the beginning, the plan was to hide somewhere and starve for a week.
Day 2.
She couldn’t sleep and was desperate for rest and sleep.
Then I found a commercial building on the side of the road and couldn’t enter it.
The moment I saw the darkness beyond the open shutter door, my instincts rang a fierce alarm.
Infectious agents like the dark and are very patient.
Even in a seemingly empty building, there may be infectious agents lying dead behind the counter, hibernating for months.
A seemingly safe house could turn into a hell of ants in an instant.
I learned enough about this through screen broadcasts while staying at the shelter.
“Keeeeek!”
I remember the sight of robot soldiers on an expedition entering an empty car center and being ambushed by four walkers.
The robots tore the walker to pieces in an instant, but in the same situation, it would have been him who was torn to pieces.
Eventually she gave up on entering the building. Entering a building in the dark is an act of suicide.
As evening fell, I came across another building, but saw a blurry shape swaying through a broken window. It was too big and writhing to be human.
Night came, and she hid in an agricultural ditch. She seemed to feel the gaze of a monster watching her from somewhere.
I feel like the monster is gradually closing the distance between me and myself. It seemed like she would be caught up before a week had passed.
Day 3.
As night fell, she was on the verge of despair.
She tried not to fall asleep, using the pain of her blistered and throbbing feet as a stimulant, but she soon fell asleep as if she had fainted.
Day 4.
She found herself completely alone in the outside world.
There are no people anywhere to be seen. Even traces of people were almost erased.
All that is visible is the silhouettes of grotesquely twisted beings.
She found the elk’s body on the road. Every part of her had been eaten away, exposing her bones, with only the top of her chin remaining intact.
Her tongue, which had been pulled out, was black and rotten, and only skin remained on her eyeballs, as if they had been eaten by a bird.
And then the cries of walkers were heard.
It was her loudest cry yet, and the direction of the sound was clearly directed at her.
She ran until her lungs burned, and her knees creaked.
I can’t walk anymore.
Day 5.
Her world had finally shown her mercy. She found an 8-ton truck abandoned on the road.
The truck, which was badly damaged and had its door torn off, became her refuge.
After carefully checking that the driver’s seat and luggage compartment were empty, she quickly climbed into the luggage compartment and lay down.
“Bye.”
The moment she turned her head, she almost screamed, but she held on by tightly covering her mouth and whimpering.
When she turned her head, a white, clothed skeleton was lying right next to her. A skeleton with empty eye sockets stares at itself.
I didn’t even dare to touch it, and I was afraid to attract attention by throwing it outside.
She crawled and lay down as far away from the skull as possible. Since she was tall, if she hid here, she would not be noticed by the infected body.
Two calorie bars in her driver’s seat gave her a little hope. So she spent the rest of her time lying down.
It was worth it.
Her hunger and thirst were still the same, but the fear of someone watching her had subsided, and her legs and soles could rest.
She spent the time lying motionless, forgetting everything.
Regardless of whether my lower body was wet or not, I had to pee while lying down. Fortunately, I didn’t have a stomachache, perhaps because I was extremely nervous.
At any moment her monster might push her face into her luggage compartment and roar at her, but then she decided to go.
Now… I’m exhausted.
Day 7.
[Shelter security. Show yourself.]
When the APC of the security guard came to visit, she cried, looking for Jesus and Buddha, whom she had never seen before in her life.
Her guard robot did not rush her to her tears, hanging on her own legs.
I kept a close watch on her and waited until she calmed down.
That was the journey so far.
Now that she is inside the shelter, all she has to do is rapid quarantine and solitary confinement and her nightmare is over.
[This is a necessary medicine for the quarantine process.]
The medical robot handed me a paper cup half filled with blue liquid. She swallowed it in one go without even asking what it was.
[We will implement rapid quarantine measures. Please follow.]
I was happy that someone was talking to me even though it was a brief command from a robot.
As I entered the white purification room, the aperture-shaped door closed with a hissing sound.
And classical music that brought peace to the mind was played.
[Stand as a large figure.]
As she took her stance, intense streams of water shot from all sides of her for several seconds.
That alone caused black water to run down her back, her buttocks, her legs, and her ankles.
Chwiik!
There was a sound similar to that made when dozens of sprays were sprayed at the same time.
Her whole body was covered in light green foam. It was a mixture of various disinfectants and cleaners.
And then a stream of water shot out again. This was repeated several times. In an instant, clean, apricot-colored flesh appeared.
The drain installed on the floor seemed to be connected to a motor and immediately sucked up the waste. The soles of my feet tingle from the intense vibration.
The process that followed was extremely painful, befitting the word ‘rapid’. As Jinsu put it, it was a procedure no different from human laundry.
[Fecal test, saliva test, blood test, and body tissue test all completed. No hazards detected. Pattern all green.]
After completing her full body wash, she was so exhausted that she could not even stand properly.
The little bit of air left in her colon from the invasive cleansing was extremely bloating, but she didn’t even have the strength left to blow it out with her farts.
After she collapsed, her medical robot carried her out.
The door to the cell opened, and the robot placed the woman inside.
As her final punishment and quarantine waiting period, she can finally return to city life after serving her sentence.
Finally, everything is over.
Her hopes, which had been buried deep in her heart, slowly began to rise.
Hope reached out to the bottom and pulled Happy, and the two gradually swam together to the surface.
* * *
“If that’s the case, I’ll be doing well from now on.”
Even at a glance, she was a different person in solitary confinement.
She had an accident and her eyes look different from when she stood in court. Now it has become a gentle sheep.
[She has a saying that she won’t stop crying until the child grants her wish.]
Some types of people act like children even when they are adults.
[There are only two ways to stop crying. Either do what you want, or leave it until there are no more tears. Because someday the tears will run out.]
Artemis’ position was that she should be permanently exiled. Realistically, it would be impossible to maintain this kind of tolerance.
She was the type of person who valued a single 12.7 mm bullet more than metaphysical resources like compassion.
[Well, looking at it like that, I don’t think it will cause any more problems.]
The woman seen on the camera inside the cell has a face as peaceful as a kitten in a glass cup.
“She will be quiet. If we don’t, the fate that awaits us next time will be permanent banishment.”
I looked at Artemis.
“I have no intention of stopping even that.”
She said, bending her arms and waist. It was yesterday that the tube for exchange transfusion was removed from her body.
Because of the tube, she had to maintain an uncomfortable position while sleeping, so her whole body felt dizzy.
There is still some adjustment period left, but now we have reached a situation where my body can resolve the problem on its own without an exchange transfusion.
[Full adaptation will be completed in two days.]
Said Artemis, who was checking my physical condition in real time.
“Send me the flight plan and area map. Be aware of it starting today.”
After recovery, we will go on our fourth expedition to the Baekdudaegan Global Seed Vault.
Thanks to the three factors of deserted mountainous areas, closed facilities, and a few permanent residents, the level of difficulty seems to be easy despite the distance.
However, this is an expedition to a distant region called Gyeongsang-do. We must be fully prepared for all situations.
[I already sent it.]
The data had arrived via PDA. She had already completed it.
* * *
Two more days passed.
[Scanning.]
Artemis said.
[Blood oxygen concentration 98%.]
[Blood rejection 0.01%. 20 hours to 0%.]
[Heart rate and blood pressure normal range.]
[Reinforced red blood cells function normally.]
[Normal operation of enhanced white blood cells.]
[100% of the painkiller capacity inside the Nectar implant.]
Artemis checked her physical condition one by one, but I already knew that my body was in top condition. Power overflows from her whole body.
[How do you feel?]
Her voice was full of pride, as if she had already guessed the answer.
She is the one who upgraded her blood enhancement skills to several levels superior. She deserves to be proud.
[If purity were pursued through human flesh, there would not have been a man with a body as clean and neat as yours now. The blood that soaks every inch of your body is truly Ichor. It’s no different from the blood of God. Congratulations on being reborn with a purified body.]
Correct.
It seems that the object of Artemis’ pride was not her own skills, but my body itself, which she completed.
“It’s in excellent condition. “I can’t believe what you were begging for not too long ago?”
I posed like bodybuilders and pumped up my muscles.
In the past, if you did it this way, you could only feel the load on your muscles, but now it’s different.
I could feel the blood penetrating between the muscle fibers as if it had its own will, pouring energy into the surroundings.
It was like a stream of water rising from the middle of the desert by a miracle of God.
Every piece of sand covered by the water stream turns into fertile soil and sprouts.
My body before was well-muscled, but compared to what I am now, it would be like barren land.
“I wonder how Steve Rogers felt when he first became a super soldier.”
He bends and straightens his fingers, clenches his fists. Even such a small movement felt like a powerful movement of power.
It feels like tens of thousands of Hercules transformed into red blood cells attaching themselves to my muscle fibers, giving me super strength.
[Where are you going?]
Artemis asked me as I left the central control room.
“The quick way to get used to your body or equipment is to use it a lot, right?”
I clenched my fist and shook it like a martial artist.
[Is it possible to do it in a more sophisticated way?]
What Artemis displayed on the screen was a military training program.
“Practical training should be conducted like actual combat.”
I did shadow-boxing in my spot. Drunk! Hook! Hook! Spouting nonsense with your mouth.
[I can’t stop you.]
Artemis opened all the remaining entrances, as if she couldn’t bear to see that bullshit any longer.
After leaving the central control room, the place I visited was the gym belonging to the headquarters of the security forces.
Surprisingly, I didn’t feel out of breath at all even though I kept running all the way here. Every time I try to catch my breath, it feels like something in my body is taking away my shortness of breath.
Power overflows. If my blood before was cars, my blood now is trains. Oxygen poured into the muscles of the whole body like a train carrying coal.
The improved blood cells removed oxygen radicals generated from the enormous amount of exercise and maintained them at an appropriate level.
Tung!
“Hmph!”
“Inhale!”
The sound of exercise equipment colliding, the combination of energy that pushes the muscles to their limit.
Police force trainees were strengthening their muscles throughout the gym.
All of them were wearing crop tops with ‘Shelter Security’ printed on them, and the white fabric was soaked with sweat.
Twisting muscles rippled here and there, and beads of sweat continuously flowed from their necks, collarbones, armpits, and navels.
Everyone’s skin color was different, but the light reflected by their sweat was equally brilliant.
Hwaak-.
The smell of women’s flesh and sweat hits me like a tidal wave.
But it wasn’t a sticky or unpleasant kind of smell. It was the scent of noble training.
