Chapter 48: Smell
Youxi came out to investigate the situation of the parasites. She had left the hotel for two days.
In her opinion, the reason why zombies can maintain their mobility and not weaken is that zombies are living corpses. Their body functions have been damaged, but their motor nerves are controlled by some unknown virus.
Secondly, zombies are bloodthirsty and eat the flesh of their own kind. In a sense, this can be regarded as a kind of energy supplement.
But the situation of parasites is different. After the attack, the parasites lose their reason and self-control, become crazy and only know how to fight. But in terms of body functions, they are still human beings, and human beings must eat to maintain their mobility.
But they don't bite human flesh like zombies, and they don't know how to cook and eat like normal people, so how do they maintain their mobility and keep themselves from getting weaker?
Normal humans will die if they don't drink water for three days. If they don't eat for about seven days, their organs will slowly fail, and they will die in about a month.
How long can these parasites last?
Can she assume that these parasitized people will die automatically after a month at the latest?
Or... will there be some other changes?
After the three-day incubation period, the hotel also became chaotic. Her hearing can cover several floors up and down. She can't deal with the chaos outside the hotel, but she can still deal with the inside of the hotel.
Most of the people hiding in the hotel were employees here. They knew each other, so they gathered in the rooms on the floors not far apart.
The hotel had a lot of supplies, and there was no shortage of water for the time being. They thought they were lucky. But on this day, several of them went crazy at the same time, holding down their companions and beating them up like crazy. So many of them went forward to drag and pull them, but they couldn't stop them.
When the room was in chaos, someone pushed the door open and shouted "get out of the way".
After that, they only saw a man in protective clothing holding a fire extinguisher and rushing over a few steps, and then sprayed the crazy people, spraying them so hard that they turned around and couldn't see anything.
Then the man took out the stun gun and shocked them one by one.
"Find the rope, if you don't have any, tear the sheets and tie the people up first!" The man spoke again, and this time everyone heard it clearly, it was a cold female voice.
Some people were terrified and shocked, and before they could recover, some people came over anyway, dragging their weak legs to find the rope.
Finally, they followed her instructions and locked the three crazy people in three chess and card rooms without windows but with surveillance cameras.
The whole chess and card room is very large, and these three rooms are small suites inside, each with a camera, and the shooting angle is very clear.
Youxi asked the hotel staff to go to the back kitchen to get some unpackaged food that they couldn't eat: vegetables, raw meat, cakes, fruits, cooked rice, and a few prepared dishes. She divided all the food into three portions and put them in several cabinets in the chess and card room.
The parasites couldn't see them at a glance, but as long as they looked for them, they would definitely find them.
The temperature was not high these days, and the food would not go bad in two or three days.
Afterwards, a bucket of water was placed next to each cabinet.
She shocked the awakened parasites tied to the chairs again, making them unconscious, then untied their ropes, stepped out, locked the door, and asked the hotel's helpers to reinforce the door with wooden boards to ensure that they would not break the door and get out on their own.
After that, Youxi has been observing these locked-up parasites.
After the parasites woke up, they were not as emotional as before because there were no other parasites inside and no living people could be seen.
Youxi observed for a few days. They could not get out, but they seemed to have no desire to eat.
During this period, a parasite accidentally opened the cabinet and saw the food inside. He went forward to grab a few, but did not eat. Finally, he buried his head in the bucket beside him and drank a lot of water.
She originally thought that if the parasites had the characteristics of insects, they might start to eat raw food.
But they only drink water, and they don’t eat raw or cooked food.
Not eating?
Youxi wondered.
If so, after a month, these parasitized people will die of physical failure.
When they die, what will happen to the black worms that originally parasitized them? Leave again to find the next host? Or die with this parasite?
But no matter what type of creature, human or animal, or like this weird insect of unknown type, survival is essentially an instinct.
Just like they suck blood, it is an instinct.
But if they die soon after parasitizing, then what is the purpose of their parasitism?
Parasitizing and then letting the host die, this process made her feel very unreasonable.
One problem has not been solved yet, and another problem soon arises.
**
That was another parasite that was locked up in the kitchen behind the restaurant on the fifth floor by others a few days ago. They came here to get boxed water, but they didn't expect that there was someone hiding inside. When they saw them, they directly raised the kitchen knife and shouted to chop them.
In a panic, they quickly locked the door of the back kitchen, and then blocked the door with heavy objects, locking the parasite inside.
Two days later, when they came to the restaurant again to carry water, they smelled a strange fishy smell.
In the end, they concluded that the fishy smell came from the back kitchen. Those people didn't dare to open the door, so they went upstairs to find You Xi and reported the situation to her.
You Xi's sense of smell was too sensitive. She had just stepped into the restaurant on the fifth floor when she smelled the disgusting fishy smell. It was like kitchen waste that had been stored for several days in the summer, and the smell gave You Xi a headache.
She turned around and asked those people, "Is there any surveillance in there?"
"Yes!" Someone slapped his head, "Look at my pig head, I forgot everything just now because I was nervous!"
The back kitchen is naturally also monitored in the work area, so several people went to the monitoring room and called up the surveillance of the back kitchen of the restaurant on the fifth floor.
The light inside seemed to be broken, and the whole screen was flickering, and it was not very clear.
You Xi approached the screen, and with his superior eyesight, he quickly saw the situation inside on the screen with flickering lights. The parasite probably lay motionless on the ground because there was no external stimulation, as if he was asleep.
Because he was lying behind the kitchen counter, only the upper half of his body was exposed.
Can parasites sleep?
When Youxi was wondering, the parasite's eyes opened again. He was not sleeping, but just lying there, as if... resting?
But no matter whether the parasite was sleeping or resting, from the picture, there was nothing wrong with him, so why was there a foul smell coming from inside?
"Is there anything else in the kitchen?" She asked the people around her.
Those people kept looking at one of them. That person worked in the kitchen and knew more about the situation inside than they did.
He thought for a while and said that the restaurant on the fifth floor was a seafood restaurant. There was a small room next to the back kitchen with many glass tanks and many seafood fish.
But that room had windows, and because it was not a guest room, it did not have double-glazed windows. On the day of the hail, several windows were broken, and the water tank was also hit by hail, and the seafood and fish were contaminated by insect eggs.
Later, the hotel staff drained the water and piled the seafood together, intending to deal with them all at once, but before they could do so, a series of things happened.
"So, could that stench be the smell of rotting seafood?" the man asked speculatively.
Others asked back, "Can rotting seafood smell so bad?"
"Maybe if it takes a long time?"
Youxi recalled the smell she had just smelled, and she always felt that it was not quite like that.
But other than that, there seemed to be no other explanation.
She looked at the screen again, and the parasite was still lying there motionless. When she was about to look away, she suddenly caught a glimpse of his stomach seemed to bulge.
What was that just now?
Youxi stared at the screen again. In the bright and dark images, the parasite lying on the ground was normal. The change she just glimpsed seemed to be just her illusion.
Two days later, she checked the surveillance several times. The parasite in the chess and card room was still the same. Sometimes he sat still, and sometimes he walked around. When he heard some noises, he started to make trouble inside, yelling and cursing fiercely, and even smashed the tables and chairs and used the broken table legs and chair legs to hit the wall.
But judging from the situation, he should not have eaten.
The fishy smell from the back kitchen on the fifth floor was always there. From the surveillance, it can be seen that the parasite has returned to normal. Sometimes he walks, sometimes he sits or lies, and sometimes he even talks to himself. He is not as fierce and yelling as the parasite in the chess and card room.
After two days of observation, Youxi had some doubts about the parasite in the back kitchen, and she decided to go and check the situation in person.
When several hotel employees found out, they all looked unhappy. It was not that they did not believe in her ability, but the smell coming from there was too bad. Even with the door closed and things piled up, this fishy and disgusting smell could still come out. They really didn't want to get close.
"No need to open the door. Didn't you say before that there is a window in the small room next to the back kitchen? I'll go down directly from above." Her plan was to tie a rope and climb down directly from the sixth floor, use the sound to lure the other party over, and observe through the undamaged glass window - just like in an isolation room.
This idea is indeed good, but you have to climb out from the sixth floor. Ordinary people may not have the courage to do it, but Youxi is not afraid.
She had professional mountaineering equipment in her Star House warehouse. Using her backpack as a cover, she took out the rope and secured it on the sixth-floor window sill. Then she fastened the safety lock on herself and put on professional climbing gloves to prevent her fingers from getting rubbed and skinned.
She fell directly from the sixth floor, only using the outer wall to push once in the middle, and then she landed smoothly at the window below, with her feet just reaching the top of the window frame.
She looked down at the six windows lined up side by side. The three on the left had varying degrees of damage, while the three on the right were intact. She immediately moved to the right and then descended again.
However, when she stepped on the window sill with her toes to steady herself, one of the three intact glass sliding windows was suddenly opened.
A face suddenly popped out, waved at her, and grinned: "Hello, little girl!"
Youxi: ... ! !
If it weren't for the slightly abrupt red eyes, the black dirt sticking to his mouth and teeth, and the fishy smell that could still be smelled even through the N95 mask, she would almost think that this was a normal middle-aged man.
But the door of the back kitchen has been locked for four days. Apart from a parasite, where can there be a normal person inside?
The more brilliant the other person's smile, the colder she felt in her heart. For a moment, her body's reaction was faster than her brain. She raised her foot and kicked the other person's shoulder directly, kicking him into the window.
The middle-aged man who was kicked in still had a smile on his face when he got up again, but the smile had become cold and eerie. He stared at her intently, chuckled, and suddenly climbed onto the windowsill, holding the window with one hand and grabbing her with the other.
You Xi immediately kicked the window sill and swung herself away, landing on the outer wall on the other side of the window when she fell back.
The parasite missed the first grab and suddenly became furious, and rushed directly towards her, but seemed to have forgotten that he was on the windowsill, so he fell directly from the fifth floor. With
a bang, he fell on the concrete floor below, his hands and feet twitched a few times, and then he completely lost his breath.
Dead?
You Xi hung there and looked down to see that the other party was indeed dead, which means that even after being parasitized by insects, the body functions are still the same as before, and falling from a building will still die.
She stared at the parasite below, still feeling uneasy.
Obviously, after being parasitized, all parasites will lose their minds and act crazy, so why did this parasite actually laugh and even greet her on purpose?
Is this an isolated case, or is it common?
Something was wrong with this, and You Xi felt that there must be something she had overlooked.
This feeling made it impossible for her to stay in the hotel any longer, as she was afraid that she would miss some important information and changes.
There were still a full twenty days until the end of the mission, and she didn't want to sit and wait for death, so she finally packed up and left the hotel. The reason
why she was entangled by the parasite just now was because she smelled the same fishy smell as before when she passed by a private house. But before she could get close to the direction where the stench came from, she ran into several parasites who were fighting.
As soon as they saw her, they immediately changed their target, and the sound of shouting and killing was a little loud, which attracted several more parasites.
The surrounding area was full of residential houses, and it was dark everywhere. Who knew how many parasites were hiding inside. She was afraid of attracting more, so she retreated a street and then fought with the parasites who followed her all the way.
What she didn't expect was that she would meet the young man on the subway again.
What shocked her even more was that the opponent was Lin Wu! ?
**
So, Lin Wu is also a tasker?
You Xi looked at the other person, and vigilance gradually emerged in her eyes. She did not shake his hand.
In the apocalyptic world, the help given by ordinary people and the help given by a tasker are completely different in nature.
Ordinary people don’t know her origins, and even if they have malicious threats to her, they only stay within the scope of ordinary people.
But the tasker is not an ordinary person. She doesn’t know what special tools and special abilities the other party has, nor does she know the content of the other party’s mission.
She traveled through the world several times, using her own face, but the other party can change into different looks. This alone makes people wary.
One is in the light, and the other is in the dark.
It is simply hard to guard against.
Not sure if it was because of the vigilance in her eyes, Lin Wu slowly retracted his outstretched hand, and smiled somewhat self-loathedly: "Don't worry, I mean no harm."
"Sorry, it's not directed at you, it's just..." What she was wary of was the identity of the tasker.
"I understand, some... will really fight to the death." So, this is why they change their faces every time they enter a mission. Such "identity masks" are not expensive, 10 points can be exchanged for one.
Usually they will change one or two as spares before entering the mission world. So when he saw You Xi on the subway before, he was so surprised and kept staring at her face.
He didn't understand, she had obviously changed her age, why didn't she just use the "identity mask"? She wouldn't be reluctant to use even 10 points, right?
Lin Wu wanted to show his goodwill and exchange information with her, but now was not a good place to talk.
The people on the side had finished exterminating the insects, and out of habit, they began to look for edible water on the second floor.
This was a beauty salon, and they didn't have much hope when they came, and they didn't check first. So, when someone broke the lock of a cabinet under the counter in the lobby and found a box of bottled water (24 bottles), more than 20 packs of instant noodles and a pile of unopened spicy strips and spicy slices, everyone was excited and gathered there, whispering excitedly.
"Have you shared it?"
"Of course it has!"
"Don't share it with Glasses, it was all him just now! He almost killed everyone!"
"But if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have moved overnight, and you wouldn't have found these foods..."
"Shut up, you pig teammate."
"Sorry, I, I will definitely control my mouth next time!"
"Don't talk about Glasses, I'm so hungry. I didn't eat enough at night. I want to eat instant noodles!"
"Me too!"
"I do bring a small pot for camping..."
"Then what are you waiting for, cook noodles!"
"But I forgot to bring fuel..."
"..."
Lin Wu glanced at them, took out a bag of solid alcohol blocks and a folding alcohol stove from his backpack, and handed them over: "There's only one bag, share it among you."
This was like timely help, the students were all excited, and everyone was smiling happily.
Zhou Yun glanced at You Xi standing beside her and asked enthusiastically: "Auntie, shall we eat noodles together? There are plenty, enough for everyone!"
You Xi:...
"Zhou Yun, you are done, you call me auntie, I will be mad at you and leave later!"
"Oh my God, isn't one pig teammate enough?"
"You are the pig!"
"It's obviously a beautiful sister, sister, shall we eat noodles together?"
...
The optimistic look of the crowd attracted You Xi to look at them a few more times. She opened her backpack and took out a bag of solid alcohol blocks and an alcohol stove from it (Xingwu warehouse). Just when she was about to pass it over, she suddenly realized something.
"Did they just expel the insects?" You Xi turned around and asked Lin Wu.
"Yes, the blood has attracted all the bugs on the second floor. This area is clean now, and you can eat without worry."
You Xi frowned, and her eyes swept over those people one by one.
There was a damp fishy smell among them.
She even vaguely smelled the same fishy smell as the kitchen on the fifth floor of the hotel. It
was very light and faint.
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