The rain had stopped, but the moonlight nowhere to be seen. Fogs smeared our visions while the hazy cloud polluted the celestial sphere. Quite cynical as it depicted a complete darkness, but semantically related with the reeking humid air.
On a misty road, Ghost's armored vehicle uttered a hideous shriek when he applied the brake. We slid off a few inches before it fully stopped. I wouldn't say it's a swimming pool, but there's a build up of heavy rainfall on the road.
"Great. A fucking Soviet quality on the display!"
"The tarmac is uneven, Sir. Maybe just a puddle."
Jerry's right. It just a puddle of water. We passed it through smoothly and easily.
It was quite and serene, but as we entered the city, i would say we just knocked on the hell's door. Many more to come. I witnessed something that i couldn't unsee. A woman just jumped from the top of an office building. She crushed on an unforgiving pavement. Poor woman. The impact was more than just a blunt trauma. I was not a doctor, but i boldly pronounced if she was dead. Deep inside, i hoped it was an instant death. Because if not, it would be the most painful way to die. Bleeding, fracture, laceration, they're just a few medical terminologies that popped inside my head.
It driven me crazy. Even worse, a group of people for some reason huddle around her disfigured, porridge-like crushed body and tucked in her flesh like it's a delicate sashimi from a rusty distinguished Japanese restaurant. They dragged her feet on a puddle of blood while the other took her guts out and smacked their face on it like vultures.
The madman's party i would say. Now i got it why Jerry brought a Resident Evil movie as a reference to answer my question.
I was at a point where my sanity gradually declined. Not again. How many times should i pictured the burning buildings or houses on fire inside my partisan mind? It'll become cliche eventually. Overused dictions and scenes. I just couldn't think of any snarky vocabularies just to say, "What the fuck is going on here!"
This was a madness. Was it normal for a human to eat another human's flesh or internal organs? They're not a some kind of a tribal people who're practicing their ritualistic behavior. These people were not from a primitive societies. They were from a modern city. They ate toasted bread every morning and had a family dinner at a fancy restaurant every weekend. Sometimes drank bottles of vodka and wasted on a billiards table or their neighbors' secret garden packed with pot of weeds.
"Goddayyuumm, this looks ugly. The fuck is happening?"
"I thought you'd knew everything, Jerry? You told me it was a Resident Evil something."
"I mean why did this happen, Mrs. Hope."
"You said, it's because of a virus?"
"Yea, yea, i know, i know. But how? That's what i mean."
"Listen, Jerry. We haven't known for sure what's really happening to these people. All we did these whole times were assuming if somehow they were infected by some kind of horror movie-like viruses. Unless i got one of them inside my lab, we won't know for sure what's got inside them."
"Ait, i got it, Mrs. Hope. You don't really know how a virus can make people sick or turned them into these dorky zombies."
This kid won't listening.
"Fine. I know nothing about zombie or something like that because the notion of a living corpse walking around while carrying viruses and somehow always hungry all the time, was a fictional work from movies. It's medically absurd and unlikely. That's not how a virus work or make people sick."
"I'm listening, Mrs. Hope."
I took a deep breath. "Okay, viruses just like bad guys, evil, pernicious, tiny little monsters. They invade our cells and use those cells to multiply other viruses just like themselves. The damage on the cells will make you sick. If your liver, for example, are swarming with the viruses, that means the cells on your liver are mostly damaged or died. The damaged and died cells will cause the liver to failure or shut down. Without a proper working vital organ, you'll get sick eventually."
"Interesting explanation. If the vital organs were died by the viruses, why did these people still move around like nothing happened to them?" Ghost chimed in.
"Like i said, we haven't known for sure what was really happened to them. Without any further examination, i couldn't make any assessments."
"You sound just like book, Mrs. Hope. I won't asking again," said Jerry.
We stopped at the outskirt of Alvedatov. If the outskirt was this bad, i couldn't imagine how it looked like in the downtown. Could be better or worse.
"Where the hell is he?" asked Ghost.
Jerry shrugged.
He seemed expecting someone here. A walkie-talkie that attached on the dashboard suddenly sissed a static sound. It was inaudible at first, but bit by bit got clearer. The first thing that came to my ear was a blasting sound of gunfire.
"Ghost! Just take the woman away and leave. I need more time down here."
"Copy," he opened the door. "Take her to Cross-X, Kid. Whatever happen, you have to prioritize her life over anything."
"Yes, Sir!"
"W, w, wait. What do you mean, Ghost? You don't come with us?"
Ghost left the car and went into an empty building. Jerry took over the driver seat and drove the car away. I was confused at the moment. Why did he left? Those zombies probably still lurking around here. What was he thinking?
"Don't worry Mrs. Hope. He'll be fine."
"I don't understand. What's actually going on, Jerry?"
"Uhmm, well, what's matter, everything is going as planned, Mrs. Hope. Don't worry."
"No! You tell me, right now!"
"Ayyooo, chill, Mrs. Hope. Okay, okay, we need you to fixed the problem we made."
"Huh? We? I've never made any problem with anybody or anything else that involves Apex Predator."
"Are you sure, Mrs. Hope? How about something that stolen from you?"
"Something that stolen from me? Do you mean, Phalleo-4?"
"Yea, yea, that nerdy ass thingy was responsible for the death of the innocent people in a small village a week ago. If only you didn't bring that thing into this island, Mrs. Hope, they probably still alive."
"Nope. It didn't kill anybody, Jerry. Phalleo-4 is a non biological substance. It's not a virus or a biological pathogens. Wait a minute, there's something wrong."
"Yea, good to to know you admitted that you're wrong Mrs. Hope. You're surely have a big heart."
"No! That's not what i meant. What i was trying to say, it's anachronistically inexplicable."
"Dayyumm, what's that even mean? Please, speak English, Mrs. Hope. Stop sounds like a book."
"I mean your story was chronologically wrong. I wasn't even on this island a week ago. I came here two or three days ago. So, something is wrong with your story."
"If it wasn't you, Mrs. Hope, then who?"
We passed an empty road and turned left leaving the city outskirt. I had no idea where're we going to. Ghost said something about Cross-X. What was that? And who's that person behind the walkie-talkie before? Where did Ghost go? What's actually happened on the outskirt? Why did that woman willingly jumped from a tall building? What happened to those people who feasted on her corpse? Why did they behave like a braindead maniac? Was it really because of a virus? I didn't understand. The mysteries just getting more and more complicated to me. There're still tons of unrequited puzzles, but it kept coming like no end. This island somehow turned into a big bubble of enigma.
If the bubble exploded, what would happen to us all?