"Technically?" The young girl asked in quivered voice.
William was silent for a moment. It would be hard for him to explain everything, but he knew what happened. Several other countries were trying to develop powerful biological weapon like that and as the result, several deadly viruses were born.
The scariest one was Virus R.
"Do you know Virus R?"
"I don't," the young girl answered truthfully.
"It's one of the viruses that a country developed for the world war," William said slowly. "It's not known which country this virus actually come from, but this virus is what caused those monster to be born."
He was not a researched and his result in biology in the past was one of the worst, so William couldn't explain fully. However, he had heard that this virus didn't kill the subject. It would only infect their nerve, causing them to be unable to think clearly and acted like an animal.
"The name… is it from Rabies?" The young girl asked.
William thought for a moment before nodding. "I think so since the symptoms are similar, but it will not kill them directly."
Those who were infected with rabies and not treated in time usually died not long afterwards because their nerve was destroyed and their body function couldn't work properly. William didn't know the details, but he knew that many of them didn't live long.
The young girl fell silent. She glanced below and noticed that the infected were roaming around the area. It wouldn't take long before they reached this place and possibly tried to climb up.
William narrowed his eyes and scanned the surroundings. He chose to go to a high place because he wanted to see everything around this area. The destruction was really big, and he was not sure how many hospitals that contained these patients were located near this place.
Ever since the battle of virus started, there were already numerous casualties occurring all over the world. The doctors were trying to hide it by saying that they were only sick because of the radiation since most of the areas where these people let loose were those that were bombed.
While in truth, they were already kept in secret for the scientist to study for a long time. As long as they were given food, they would be able to stay alive just like normal human.
It was scary.
They couldn't think, but they still knew how to eat and preserve their lives.
"The capital city."
After their silent, the young girl suddenly spoke out.
"Yes?" William asked back.
The young girl was looking at the north, at the location that was supposedly to be the capital city. Right now, there was nothing there but pile of blackened and burnt buildings. The previously majestic capital city was nothing more than black ruins now. There was no sign of life there too.
"Is it destroyed?" The young girl asked with quivered voice.
William's mind blanked for a moment. It was then he recalled that the train was heading to the capital city not long ago, which mean that the young girl was actually going to go to the capital city. If only the train was a bit faster, she would have ended up within the range of the bomb and ended up dying.
"Yes."
The young girl looked up at William with watery eyes. "How can you be so calm?"
Calm?
William didn't think that he was that calm, but he knew that this would happen sooner or later. Besides, this was not the first time he saw the wretched state of a destroyed place. He had already seen them a few times ever since he entered the military.
"I'm a soldier."
That one sentence was the only explanation he could give to the young girl. She looked so small and vulnerable before, totally unlike the image she showed just now when she tried to help everyone got out of the destroyed train.
"I want to go there," the young girl said after a while. Her black eyes were staring at the direction of the capital city.
"And die."
"But…"
"There's no way anyone could possibly survive from the explosion," William said unhurriedly. "Unless one stays in the bunker, there's no way they can stay safe."
The young girl was silent and continued to look at the north. There was nothing but ruins there, but she didn't want to avert her eyes.
William sighed and scratched his head. Should he leave her alone here? Looking at the row of infected coming here and the degree of the destruction in this city, he shook his head. If he left her here, she would end up dying.
"We should go to the south."
"We?"
"Do you want to stay here and die?" William asked.
The young girl shook her head. Her hand was still holding the same glass breaker while her backpack was on her back. Looking at her, she looked like a little kid that was lost in a middle of unknown location.
"Gather some food, water, and put them on your backpack as fast as possible. Afterwards, we'll go to the next building."
William pointed to the building nearby. There were several tall buildings in this area that was going for a long line. While the structure was no longer intact completely, they were still standing and should be fine with several kilos addition of weight when the two of them passed by.
"You'll bring me along."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I'm a soldier."
Even though the young girl showed an expression of disbelief, William chose not to bother with it too much. In any case, he didn't have any plan to leave a little kid in this place. At the very least, he should find a better place if he wanted to leave her.
He went down and took two large bags from the nearby store. It was unlikely that anyone would return here after those infected people coming here, so he better made use what he could before it was too late.
Food, medicine, rope, and some other necessities were put into his large bags. One was a backpack while the other one was a large pouch. Afterwards, William walked around, trying to find weapon store but he didn't manage to find one.
In the first place, it was impossible to find weapon store in a place like this.
'I'll make a stop in weapon store later.'
William returned back and noticed that the young girl already filled her bag. It looked a bit bigger and nearly half of her body size.
"You're small," William remarked.
The young girl was startled and looked at William with a frown. "I'm 5 feet tall."
"Really?"
"…"
Seeing that the young girl's face turned even darker, William chose not to pursue the matter anymore. "My name is William."
"Gloria."
William could see that the young girl, Gloria, was not used to talk a lot. She was still looking at a distance while holding a hammer on her hand. It seemed that she chose to change her weapon after a while.
"I'll make way so that we could go to the other side."
"Yes?"
There were several broken pieces of woods there. William conveniently picked a block of wood and then pulled it to the other buildings. It created an unstable bridge, but it should be doable for them to pass it.
"Can you walk on top of small block?"
Gloria looked at the block, which would cover her feet more than necessary to step. While it was not that hard, the height was a bit scary. She glanced to William. "Rope?"
"Sure."
William took out the shorter rope and tied it around the young woman's hips. Afterwards, he tied it to himself before he walked across the unstable bridge. Looking downwards, William could see that the infected were getting closer.
He pursed his lips. It would be faster if they used the ground, but the chance of meeting the infected would be bigger. His superiors had told him that they were not allowed to get close to the infected because if they were bitten, they would also get infected. After that, they would turn into something like that.
Well, it was obviously something that William didn't want to happen.
"Come on."
"Ok…"
Looking at the small woman, William wondered why he chose to bring her along in the first place. It was obvious that she was much slower than him and might even hinder his movement. However, he couldn't possibly leave her alone to die in this place.
Probably he should just leave her when they reached a settlement or bunker or somewhere save.
The two of them made their way across the buildings using this way. Fortunately, most of the buildings were not far from each other because of the breach of law. Based on the law, every building has to be at least 2 meters or so distance from each other for safety measure. But since the government in this place was corrupt, the distance was only between one to two meters. Even without the block, William could jump across the buildings easily.
As they passed by the buildings, they finally reached a hotel. The roof was flat, thankfully, and they would be able to stay there for the day. It was a long journey, but the infected didn't even managed to come. After all, the roof was locked most of the times and since they were moving around, the infected couldn't sense them properly to chase after them.
"We'll need to get down from here," William said unhurriedly. He glanced around and noticed that there was chaos below him. There were many cars trying to get away from the location because of the infected. At the same time, there were several explosions here and there.
It had turned into chaos.
With the situation worsening and people had no trust in the government since the capital city was practically destroyed, they tried to do everything possible by themselves.
The world they used to know would be no more.