Chapter 444 - 385: The Strange 17
When Sepherdine saw the bodies of Jed Holden and the others, his expression turned ugly.
But what was done was done. No matter how unwilling he was to accept it, there was nothing he could do.
Among the bodies discovered this time, aside from the men under Sepherdine and Shawn Hale, there were also corpses of members from some of the base’s smaller teams.
Most of them were superpower users.
Whether someone had abducted and murdered all these people, or if some powerful creature was preying on humans, remained unanswered. The only four survivors had yet to wake up.
Shawn Hale brought Rita back, only to discover with shock that she was no longer breathing.
Clutching Rita’s gradually cooling body, he ran back to the Villa 3 district to see Flora Bloom. By the time Flora Bloom let him in, Rita’s body temperature was slowly starting to rise again.
Robin Grant was woken in the middle of the night to diagnose Rita. He first furrowed his brow, then took out silver needles and inserted them into several acupoints on her body.
Like a drowning person just pulled ashore, the petite Rita suddenly took a sharp, deep breath and opened her eyes.
Seeing Rita come back to life, Shawn Hale let out a massive sigh of relief. His current elation was as immense as the panic and helplessness he had felt when her body went cold. Drenched in sweat, he moved to pull his dear Rita close but was frozen in place by the glare she shot him.
His Rita was pure and adorable, her eyes always filled with a wild, fearless spirit. He knew such recklessness wasn’t good in the apocalypse, but he had always indulged her out of love.
But this Rita was different. She seemed incredibly wary of him, snatching her hand back. The way she stared at him was filled with cold assessment and loathing.
"Rita, what’s wrong? Don’t you recognize me? It’s me, Shawn!" Shawn Hale gripped Rita’s shoulders, trying to get her to see his face clearly.
"Shawn?" Rita murmured, her confused gaze sharpening. She scanned her surroundings.
Shawn Hale, Flora Bloom, Robin Grant, Cynthia Grant, Lex Cross...
Rita’s gaze lingered on Lex Cross for a long moment. "Lex Cross..."
The sudden look of anticipation in her eyes made the perceptive Lex Cross frown. He did not like the intense possessiveness in her gaze.
Rita’s eyes swept over Lex Cross and Flora Bloom. Slowly, the clear and willful glint that was characteristic of her returned to her gaze.
"Shawn, I... my head hurts so much."
Shawn Hale looked at Rita with a pained expression, then swept her up into his arms. "Dr. Grant, Captain Bloom, thank you for saving Rita. I’ll take her home for now. I’ll bring her back to thank you properly once she’s recovered a little!"
Shawn Hale quickly departed with Rita in his arms. Just as Flora Bloom and the others, overcome with drowsiness, were about to head back to rest, Robin Grant stopped them all with a solemn expression.
Everyone was present except for the two children, Caleb and Lisa. Robin Grant made no attempt to be discreet. He glanced at Five before turning to Lex Cross and Flora Bloom.
"There’s something wrong with that Rita."
Hearing Robin Grant say this, Lex Cross’s brow furrowed in seriousness.
He also felt something was off about Rita, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. There had been a profound familiarity in the way she had looked at him, yet he couldn’t be certain.
’If it really is her,’ he thought, ’with her personality, she would never have left so easily.’
So he said, "Mr. Grant, please speak freely."
"I once took Five’s pulse when he was young and on the verge of death. I found it very strange at the time. His life force was completely gone, yet in an instant, it was restored."
Even Flora Bloom didn’t quite understand this phenomenon, let alone the others present.
Only Lex Cross and his twelve companions understood.
When they first arrived on Earth, they couldn’t withstand the pressure of the planet’s laws. Their original bodies were damaged, so they transferred their souls and consciousness into the bodies of several people who were on the brink of death.
The pulse of a dying person would naturally show a complete absence of life force, just as Robin Grant had described.
But after the original host died, the souls and consciousness of Lex Cross and his people took over, fusing with the deceased body and generating a new life force and pulse.
This was why Robin Grant had detected such a strange pulse when treating Five back then.
"However, there is one difference. This girl’s body is in much better condition than Five’s was back then."
Flora Bloom and the others didn’t understand the implication of Robin Grant’s words. But upon hearing them, the expressions of Lex Cross and his companions turned grim.
They thought of the numerous bodies in the forest, and their brows knitted so tightly they couldn’t relax.
Not all outsiders were like them, willing to use time to recover their physical functions. A faster method was to use the life force of others to restore one’s own body.
"Dr. Grant, are you sure you didn’t misread it?" Five asked with utmost seriousness.
Robin Grant shot Five a glare. "If I couldn’t even figure that much out, I would have sent you to the Thorne family for experiments years ago!"
Lex Cross sighed. "It seems there are some things I can no longer keep from you all. Incidents like this may happen more and more in the future, and I hope everyone remains vigilant to avoid disaster."
Lex Cross took Flora Bloom’s hand. "That Rita... is no longer the original Rita."
Everyone except for Flora Bloom and Lex Cross’s group of thirteen wore looks of utter disbelief. Caleb Bloom was especially shocked. "Rita isn’t Rita? Then who is she?"
Cynthia Grant, Sherman Lynch, Mark Sterling, and the others all stared at Lex Cross, who had opened this can of worms.
"As you all know, the world has changed. Anything is possible now. The current Rita... her body has likely been taken over by some life form from beyond our universe, which is now using her body to live on Earth."
"Young Thorne, you’re not joking, are you?"
"Sir, I... am not from Earth either."
Lex Cross’s words were like a stone tossed into a calm pond, sending out infinite ripples.
In truth, even Flora Bloom rarely heard Lex Cross speak of his own past, especially about the events surrounding his arrival on Earth.
In stark contrast to everyone else’s shock, Robin Grant’s face showed only a flicker of surprise, while his eyes held a look of relief.
"I’ve studied traditional medicine my entire life, and I never believed in bringing the dead back to life. For the longest time, Five’s case has weighed on my mind. Now, hearing you say this, it can finally be explained."
Caleb Bloom, Sherman Lynch, and Cynthia Grant stared at Lex Cross and his twelve companions, their faces still frozen in astonishment.
"So, Young Thorne, you’re... you’re an alien?"
Caleb Bloom looked from Lex Cross to his daughter Flora’s stomach. "Then my granddaughter is..."
He couldn’t bring himself to say the word "hybrid."
Lex Cross shook his head, amused, and looked at his future father-in-law. "Sir, please rest assured, I am also human. It’s just that compared to the humans of Earth, our group’s biological classification is of a higher order."
"It’s like how Earth has countless life forms, with humans being the most complex creatures at the top of the food chain. When a species cultivates to a certain level, its very classification of life changes."
"This apocalypse on Earth, with the evolution and mutation of various species, is also a form of life evolution. Humans gaining superpowers is, in fact, an elevation of their biological classification."
"In essence, we are the same. So, you can entrust Flora to me without any worry."