Things were getting worse.
Zombie Spider-Man, lying in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special protection ward, burning with fever, and in pain as though beaten to a pulp, distractedly observed the chaos outside the window and thought, things were getting more complicated.
Zombie Spider-Man knew it had been three days since the Corrupted Hound bit him. The pain was so intense, as though intent on killing him, that he lost consciousness right away.
When he woke up, he found himself in S.H.I.E.L.D. On one hand, his cries of agony made the superheroes fear for his life, so they had to move him to the back. On the other hand, Nick, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., had many questions for Zombie Spider-Man.
This morning, when he woke up, Zombie Spider-Man laid out all that he knew and proposed a solution to Nick. But Nick just silently shook his head and passed him a newspaper.
Returning to his ward, Zombie Spider-Man hadn't had time to look at the newspaper when his body temperature spiked to 42 degrees. He was rushed to the emergency room, where S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best doctors exhausted all their knowledge to save him. But as soon as he regained consciousness, his temperature again shot up to 39.6 degrees.
This time, however, no doctors could come to his rescue because, after him, Coulson, who had been monitoring the virus's spread in New York, Natasha, who had accompanied The Avengers to subdue the Hulk, and several other essential S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were all infected.
The symptoms varied among those infected. Coulson got bitten and had rotten lips, while Natasha had an unrelenting fever and was always hungry. The few doctors at S.H.I.E.L.D. nearly expired on the operating table trying to save their lives.
After regaining consciousness, Spider-Man found his fever had somewhat retreated, and his senses had returned. Despite feeling like he'd been run over by a truck, he could manage to move a bit.
Consequently, he picked up the newspaper Nick had provided him earlier. Upon seeing the headline on the front page, he closed his eyes in despair.
In just two days, all members of The Avengers had been infected.
This was practically inevitable. The first to become infected was the Hulk, and only The Avengers could stop this behemoth. If The Avengers did not intervene, and let the Hulk rampage unchecked in the city, many people would die. And the superheroes couldn't stand idly by in such circumstances.
But their intervention inevitably led to fights with the Hulk. No one could guarantee that they would avoid injuries entirely. Once one of them was hurt, they would invariably attack the others, and the end result would be a full-scale virus contagion.
Why was it happening all over again? Zombie Spider-Man thought in despair. How many times has it been? Exactly how many times? Why was it always the same ending despite his best efforts to prevent it?
Zombie Spider-Man stared blankly at the ceiling, uncertain whether it was still meaningful to go on. Just then, the voice of a news anchor reporting came from the TV in the ward.
"So, Doctor Moson, you mentioned in yesterday's news that two viruses had simultaneously erupted in New York City. Could you justify what you said?"
"Certainly. Look here. This is an infected person from the Bronx. His orbicularis oris muscle has almost completely decayed, and his gums are exposed. He mainly bites others to infect them."
"On this picture, on the other hand, which was taken at a coffee shop in Manhattan, a customer was infected once bitten by his pet dog, but his lips did not decay. His oral muscles are intact, but his skin has turned grey-green, and his nails have grown longer, and he used his fingers to scratch others."
"Clearly, the outcomes after becoming infected with the two viruses are totally different, and no evidence could prove that they are two variants of the same virus."
"If these proofs do not suffice, then take a look at this. This is the pet dog that infected the customer previously. Its skin is grey-green, and every infected animal appearing in these dozens of pictures is infected with the second virus."
"This shows that the first virus, which rots the lips, cannot infect animals, but the second one can. This difference completely proves that these are two completely different viruses…"
Zombie Spider-Man's attention was entirely absorbed by the news on the TV. Gritting his teeth against his aching body, he sat up and stared at the screen intently.
He vaguely remembered the medical expert. He seemed to have encountered this doctor while struggling to save himself. A doctor who could appear at S.H.I.E.L.D. was definitely an expert in his field, and his judgements were highly credible.
If the first virus that rotted the lips was the virus known by Zombie Spider-Man, then where did the second virus that turned the skin grey-green come from?
Zombie Spider-Man suddenly remembered that the green-grey hunting dog that bit him yesterday seemed to be infected with the second virus. Could it be that his current grim scenario was due to the two viruses fighting inside his body?
At this thought, Zombie Spider-Man suddenly realised that the sense of hunger lingering in his mind had somewhat alleviated.
Although not entirely gone, it had weakened so much that Spider-Man could hardly feel it if he didn't make a conscious effort to notice. At the same time, symptoms of the second infection, such as the skin turning grey-green and feeling hungry, hadn't surfaced.