Chapter 143 Zombie Research
One day later.
There are many armed forces stationed outside the Nanhua Biological Research Institute, and unauthorized personnel are not allowed to enter or leave at will.
All staff members inside signed confidentiality agreements yesterday, promising to keep the details of the three special "cases," or rather, the three moving corpses, completely confidential.
The lights in Song Heng's laboratory had been on all night. The research team, which had been urgently formed, was now exhausted, and they took turns taking off their protective suits to rest.
This temporary working group consisted of outstanding researchers trained by Song Heng. Among them, Lin Xi was the least experienced, and had not even graduated yet. She cherished this opportunity and thus made it to the second-to-last place.
When her eyelids could no longer hold on for fifteen hours, Lin Xi had to leave the stage to rest.
Song Heng was still immersed in virus research.
Compared to real professors, Lin Xi felt that he lacked not only knowledge and intelligence, but also this kind of fervent passion for research.
Li XX's mother has been in the isolation room for a day. After observation, all her vital signs are normal, and no zombie virus has been detected in her blood. In principle, she can go home now.
But she refused to leave. When she saw Lin Xi come out, she grabbed her hand and pleaded repeatedly, "Please, you must save him... What disease does he have? Can I see him...?"
Although the three "patients" had stopped breathing for a whole day, they had not yet been officially declared dead.
This situation was relatively unfamiliar to Lin Xi. When she was an ordinary citizen, she had only seen large-scale outbreaks of zombies, with the zombies directly attacking people.
By then, zombies had become a terrifying enemy in sheer numbers, and everyone's focus was on escaping and eliminating them.
This was the first time Lin Xi had ever seen a situation where zombies were being studied as patients.
Lin Xi, whose eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, was dizzy from being shaken by her and couldn't bear to tell her that, based on her many years of experience, the process of zombification was irreversible.
All she could do was pat the mother's hand out of humanitarian concern: "We are trying."
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Even during his meal break, Song Heng didn't rest. He arranged for Lin Xi and two other young staff members to make observation records about the zombies.
In the bright, cube-shaped room, a robot untied the ropes from the "patient" numbered NHSS-001.
As soon as the restraints were released, Patient No. 001 twisted and stood up strangely, lunging at the glass wall with a ferocious expression. Sometimes he would bite the air with a ferocious expression, and sometimes he would stick out his tongue to lick the glass, leaving a trail of sticky liquid.
Then the lights inside and outside the room were turned off, and Number 001 suddenly went blind, wandering aimlessly and unconsciously, walking in a strange posture and occasionally twitching.
Lin Xi observed its legs and noted down the phrase "O-shaped standing posture".
Lin Xi took the initiative to lead the team to the next test: "Play sound."
The robot in the room made a noise, and 001 immediately pounced on the source of the sound, scratching and biting.
The robot was knocked to the ground, but it did not fall apart, and its hard metal shell was not damaged by 001.
Everyone looked on in surprise at 001's performance—a "person" without a heartbeat, breathing, or blood pressure could actually perform so many actions.
The staff members outside the glass window shared their opinions:
"Its behavior is very similar to that of an animal experiencing a rabies attack."
"If there were people standing inside, they would definitely have been attacked by him."
“He exhibits aggressive behavior toward people,” Lin Xi said while taking notes.
Another staff member, seeing that Lin Xi had just conducted a sound experiment, came up and suggested putting in objects with irritating odors to test the "patients'" olfactory response.
Lin Xi said in a voice only the clerk and Song Heng could hear, "No response. He's not breathing, so he can't detect any smells."
Song Heng gave her an approving look, but still carried out the experiment. Just as Lin Xi had predicted, 001 did not react to the smell.
Some people cast questioning or curious glances at Lin Xi, the youngest member of the group: This young graduate student not only participated in yesterday's case isolation operation, but also quickly grasped the information about the special case.
Lin Xi thought to himself: It's just based on my experience as a zombie.
She wasn't there to show off; she just wanted to do something to raise awareness about the three zombies.
Under the watchful eyes of the senior colleagues, Lin Xi calmly stated, "Actually, their basic vital signs have been absent for more than 12 hours, but they still have the ability to move like 'people,' so they haven't been declared dead yet. This situation is very rare, but they do fit the characteristics of 'zombies' in movies."
For medical students, the existence of "zombies" is a paradox. Even if they actually appeared in front of them, most people would still find it hard to believe because they couldn't see the attacks and infectiousness of "zombies" through a glass barrier.
Song Heng seemed thoughtful: "Where did the term 'zombie' come from? What movie are you talking about?"
A pathologist who has dedicated his life to rigorous research has never seen this kind of science fiction movie.
Lin Xi: "Teacher, I'll give you a brief explanation later when I have time, but for now, let's study 'zombies' first, okay?"
In his previous life, Lin Xi stopped a zombie outbreak at Hongwen Hospital and was imprisoned. About a month later, before the trial even started, zombies had spread all over the country.
A month is a precious time.
The elderly man, who had originally planned to rest and recover his strength, regained his energy and quickly led his team to the next step: sending the "zombie" for image scanning.
But how to get the 001 out of the lab is a problem.
Some suggested sending the bound 002 for inspection, while others suggested asking the military to send someone to tie up 001.
After all, 001 had demonstrated its destructive power, and most of the researchers here had no martial arts training and were unable to deal with it.
Lin Xi took out protective gloves from her pocket: "No need to bother, I can tie them on."
Song Heng: "Xiao Lin, don't be impulsive. These symptoms are very similar to rabies. The virus can be transmitted through blood. Getting bitten or scratched could be very serious."
Some of the younger, stronger senior students stepped forward and said, "I'll go instead."
Lin Xi shook her head and took out a rope: "It's okay. I tied 001 back yesterday too. Now that there's no light inside, the zombies' mobility is reduced. I can handle it."
Not to brag, but in her previous life she had single-handedly fought nine zombies, albeit with the help of Xiang Xin's voice.
But now, with the help of that robot inside, tying up a zombie will take at most 2 minutes; there's no need for such a complicated process.
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Outsiders learn about zombies by fighting and war, knowing their fatal points, but doctors do so through scientific instruments.
Wearing a mask on her face and gloves on her hands, she was tightly bound and sent into the testing machine.
The scan revealed that the only active organ in 001's body was the brain.
With the brain controlling the nerves to drive muscle activity, all other organs are in a "dormant state," and even the blood has stopped flowing. Therefore, the body temperature of the three "cases" remained almost stable at around 22 degrees Celsius, which is similar to the indoor temperature in the laboratory.
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