Chapter 40: Surgery
The three trucks tore through the final stretch of road and slowed before the chain-link gate on the power station's outer perimeter.
The electric gate slid open in advance, and the battered trucks, covered in scrapes and dents, filed through one after another.
Seven or eight zombies still trailed the last truck. They had chased the exhaust fumes and engine noise all the way here, ending up less than fifty meters from the gate.
The moment the last truck was through, the gate slammed shut. The three zombies in front crashed headfirst into it, then were shot dead from behind.
"Outer perimeter security group, begin cleanup." gave the order curtly.
There weren't many zombies outside the gate—only a dozen or so stragglers that had followed the trucks.
After a few sustained bursts of gunfire, silence had returned outside the gate in less than three minutes.
***
In the square, the doors opened, and the survivors, unsteady after the violent ride, climbed down from the trucks.
"Everyone, listen to my orders!" 's voice was steady and forceful.
" , take one squad and escort the survivors to the registration center! Second squad, reinforce the power station's internal defenses! Third squad, with me!"
"Sir!"
led the hundred-plus new survivors, escorted by several team members, to the registration center in the .
Meanwhile, took another group and led the thirty-four "swollen-belly patients," including , to the 's newly opened .
***
of the —the temporary .
The 's only three doctors and one nurse were already prepared and standing by in full readiness.
had also urgently materialized this temporary while the convoy was on its way back.
[Emergency Medical Care (Lv1)]
A full set of advanced diagnostic equipment, an operating room meeting the highest sterility standards, and several isolation wards.
And it had cost only 300 —for the sake of the 's overall medical health, that wasn't expensive.
They began with medical-history questions, followed by a series of examinations. Fortunately, there weren't many patients, and the equipment was fairly advanced, so the results came back quickly.
After confirming that none of the patients had any additional conditions that would affect the surgery, they prepared to begin.
The shadowless lamp cast a stark white light across the operating table. Three doctors and one nurse took their positions.
, who had heard the news, was also in the operating room, a box of inhibitors at her side as she stood quietly in the corner.
Beside her, a sterilized stood just as silently. They were both there for the parasite.
Everyone understood that this surgery was not going to be easy.
was first on the table—his condition was relatively worse.
Under the shadowless lamp, lay on the operating table, his belly swollen high, blue veins winding visibly beneath skin as thin as paper.
He was fully conscious. He even turned his head to glance at the that didn't seem to belong in an operating room. The thing stood beside the table, its mechanical arm's claw grippers replaced with precision clamps, like a not-very-friendly orderly.
The lead surgeon, Doctor , had been the deputy chief of surgery at a top-tier hospital before the disaster.
But in all his years of practice, he had never seen a condition like this. Watching something squirm beneath the skin as if it were alive, even he couldn't help but feel his scalp crawl.
But the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. At this point, there was nothing to do but steel himself and begin.
The male doctor beside him switched on the anesthesia machine, adjusted the dosage, and began administering the anesthetic.
Thirty seconds later, everyone frowned. was still perfectly awake.
Doctor Liu looked down at him. "Are you feeling all right?"
"I'm fine. What's wrong, Doctor?" asked, a little confused.
was silent for a moment before finally saying, "You should have lost consciousness by now."
"Then let's skip the anesthesia," said, his tone remarkably calm. "I haven't felt any pain for days now."
"Just cut me open. I can hold on."
Doctor Liu hesitated for two seconds, then looked at the .
[Go ahead. I'm right here watching.]
The scalpel came down.
The moment his skin was cut, 's body gave only a slight twitch, then settled.
He turned his head and stared at the ceiling, his breathing steady.
Doctor Liu separated the tissue layer by layer, his movements quick and steady.
The moment the abdominal cavity was opened, his hand stopped.
"What the hell is this..."
Attached to the surface of 's stomach was a clump of dark red biological tissue.
It was about twice the size of an adult fist, an irregular ellipsoid overall, its surface covered in dense, tiny villous protrusions.
At the tip of every "villus" was a black opening the size of a needlepoint. The openings opened and closed rhythmically, as if breathing.
At the same time, a dozen or so translucent tubular structures extended from its base, plunging deep into the stomach wall. The stomach wall around their roots had already turned an abnormal gray-purple.
There was also a longitudinal fissure in the center of the thing. Inside the fissure was moist pink tissue that squirmed irregularly.
"It's moving." The male doctor's voice went tight.
The moment the words left his mouth, the parasite seemed to sense the gaze upon it, and the villi covering its entire surface suddenly stood on end.
The next second, the upper half exposed to the air began to change at a visible rate. The soft tissue rapidly hardened and deformed, its color shifting from red to black.
In just three or four seconds, several flat black plates with razor-sharp edges formed across the surface of the upper hemisphere, gleaming coldly under the shadowless lamp.
Then it suddenly sprang outward, those blade-thin plates shooting straight at the doctor.
[Get back!] warned just in time.
Almost at the same instant, 's body convulsed violently.
The monitor let out a piercing alarm. The whites of his eyes were turning red, and black, bloody foam welled up from his mouth—the precursor to zombification.
reacted extremely fast. Her left hand had already snatched up a prefilled syringe and plunged it precisely into his arm.
The agent went in, and 's convulsions began to ease within seconds. The red in the whites of his eyes slowly receded.
But the situation on the operating table had gotten worse.
Half of the parasite's structure was still buried in 's stomach. The exposed part had already fully hardened, its bony blades spread open like a deadly flower.
And its "roots" were still firmly anchored in the stomach wall. If they forcibly tore it free now, that clearly wouldn't be very kind to the patient.
But if they left it alone, the hardening would continue spreading downward.
Once it finished hardening completely, those blade-like structures could easily lacerate 's internal organs and cause massive bleeding.
naturally wasn't going to sit by and let that happen. In a flash, the 's mechanical arm clamped precisely onto the already-hardened upper half of the parasite, fixing the "menacing" monster in place.
At the same time, following 's instructions, the female doctor picked up an , leaned in, and, avoiding the hardened area, worked the needle into the still-unhardened translucent tubular roots at the parasite's base.
The agent went in, and the effect was obvious.
The parasite's writhing began to slow.
The roots buried in the stomach wall went from taut to slack, as if their strength had been drained away.
The villous pores on its surface closed more slowly, and the central fissure stopped squirming.
"Doctor Liu, now!"
's reminder wasn't even necessary— had already started the moment the parasite's activity dropped, beginning to peel away the roots.
Each time a root was separated, the parasite shuddered, but under the 's clamped arm and the 's double restraint, it couldn't break loose.
The final root came free.
lifted the entire parasite along with the clamp and transferred it into the specially sealed container had prepared.
The instant the lid clicked shut, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Then began reexamining the damage to the stomach wall.
But to everyone's surprise, the holes left by the detached roots were healing at a visible rate.
"This isn't normal." frowned and glanced up at , but the latter showed no strange changes or any sign of zombification.
Just then, the male doctor seemed to notice something and spoke up. "Doctor Liu, look here. What's this? A tumor?"
looked over, and then he saw something incredible.
On the right side of 's abdominal cavity grew a mass of dark red tissue about the size of an egg.
It pulsed rhythmically, looking just like a small heart.
And what made even more uneasy was that it seemed to have many blood vessels twined around it, as if the whole thing had become part of 's circulatory system.
Was it a congenital malformation, or had it been caused by the parasite?
That question could be answered later, when they operated on the other patients. But there was another question that had to be decided right now.
Namely, should this thing be removed now?
was momentarily unsure.
He asked , "Mr. , should we try to remove it?"
[What do you think?]
"I'd like to try."
[Go ahead, but be careful.]
"Understood."
But he had barely begun separating it when 's heart rate on the monitor jumped straight from sixty-eight beats per minute to one hundred forty, and his blood pressure began to plummet.
Within three seconds, blood sprayed from the clamping point in an astonishing volume.
Startled, he stopped immediately and began emergency hemostasis.
Fortunately, after a flurry of work, the bleeding was successfully stopped.
But everyone present fell silent. This meant the thing probably couldn't be removed so easily for now.
"How about we take a sample first, then close him up and observe for a while?" Doctor Liu suggested.
[You're the doctor. I trust your judgment.]
So after taking a biopsy sample, they closed the abdomen and sutured him up.
On the operating table, had remained conscious the whole time. He had heard every word.
"What have I become?" His voice was very soft.
[Nothing has changed. According to my scans, you are still human.]
[Don't overthink it. Once you've recovered a bit, head over to the registration center to sign in, and you'll be a new member of Dawn.]
[You'll like it here. I promise.]
was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah."
***
Night. Surface, the power station's outer perimeter defense line.
Twenty minutes after the surgery began, things started going wrong.
was the first to notice the anomaly. On the surveillance feed, thermal signals were increasing on the road north of the power station.
Not a sudden flood rushing in, but groups of three and five approaching the power station from every direction.
[ , there's new activity on the north road. The numbers are growing.]
was tallying ammunition consumption by the gate. At his words, she looked north.
Nothing was visible in the darkness, but she chose to trust the data.
"How many?"
[Forty-seven right now, still increasing. Probably scattered groups drawn in by the convoy on its way back.]
"It's been this long, and they're still not done?"
frowned, then stood up, hefted her rifle, and looked toward the nearby sentry post.
"Got it. I'll take some people over to check."
[Wait.]
called her back. [Let's try something first.]
paused. "What?"
[I recently analyzed and generated a set of sound wave data. Theoretically, sound waves at specific frequencies have a repelling effect on zombies.]
"You mean this kind of sound won't attract them—it'll drive them away?"
[That's the theory. Move the external speakers from the backup broadcast system in to the north fence, and I'll tune the frequency.]
didn't hesitate. She turned and picked two people. "Got it."
So led a group of her team members to haul over the idle sound equipment.
By the time they had the equipment set up, the zombies had already appeared in view.
[Seventy-three of them, still gathering, less than 100 meters from the defense line.]
plugged in the cables and slapped the speaker casing. "Done."
[Received. Starting it up.]
A rather grating sound came out of the speakers. Fortunately, and the others had come prepared with earplugs, so they weren't affected by it as well.
The sound waves worked excellently. On the surveillance feed, the zombies moving toward the power station all stopped in their tracks almost simultaneously.
Their movements became more chaotic and disordered. Some started spinning in place, while others even clutched their heads and collapsed to the ground.
A few seconds later, the zombies at the very front turned and ran.
Like cats whose tails had been stepped on, they lost all sense of direction and simply sprinted away from the sound source.
This panic-like state spread rapidly, and the zombies farther back quickly joined the mad dash out of the sound coverage.
In less than a minute, the thermal signal on the north road dropped from seventy-three to eleven.
The ones that remained were those that had accidentally slammed into the chain-link fence while running and were twitching on the spot.
and her people dispatched them with ease. "North side is clear. The sound waves are effective."
[Excellent.] 's tone carried a hint of satisfaction. [Even better than I estimated. The effective range covers at least a five-hundred-meter radius, and it works on first-stage mutants too.]
"This way, the base's defense line finally has a defensive measure with broad enough coverage!"
also grasped what this data meant. With this, the danger of a horde crashing into them could be reduced considerably.
[Mm. Once we set up broadcast equipment around the perimeter and loop it twenty-four hours a day, it'll be like adding an invisible barrier.]
nodded, for once letting a relaxed expression show.
"Right. Let's get the rest of the equipment set up now."
[Then I'll leave it to you all.]