Chapter 467: Infiltration
"There are people at the base entrance causing trouble. A man and his wife and two children showed up to join the base. They have the required crystal cores and supplies to join, but the soldiers at the entrance took control of his wife. The man is causing a ruckus and threatening the soldiers with reporting them to the government. I can’t believe almost a year into the apocalypse, there are still some people who haven’t realized that there is no government anymore. How naive!" Lu Tao explained while lamenting at the end.
"Why was the man’s wife taken into custody?" Leng Pan was more concerned about the reason soldiers would take down a survivor at the entrance.
"Oh, they didn’t tell the man directly in front of everyone to avoid panic and have been trying to convince him to talk somewhere private, but he just keeps causing trouble. It seems that the light on the alien detector turned red when the woman passed through. They believe she is an alien in disguise and has probably killed and replaced the man’s wife, but the stupid guy won’t listen." Lu Tao gave the details of the matter.
"Keep following and let me know how it goes. I want to see how Ouyang Jin’s people will handle this situation without direct guidance." Leng Pan instructed him and went back to eating.
She wasn’t very worried. That alien was probably not strong and was sent here to gather intelligence. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been caught so easily.
However, it didn’t make sense for the man to keep causing trouble when the soldiers already explained that they suspected something was wrong with his wife.
He should have corporated to have her released soon instead of causing a ruckus. Unless, he knew about her situation, or he was being controlled.
Unfortunately, they still didn’t have a gadget to determine something so complex.
However, it was better to isolate him as well in case he caused more trouble to the base, especially since they were about to enter the underground city.
"Go and tell the soldiers to isolate the man and the kids as well. We can’t take a risk when so many lives are involved." Lu Zhen instructed his youngest brother.
It seemed that he was on the same wavelength as his wife and he thought of the same problem.
"Okay. Okay." Lu Tao grabbed a steamed bun and ran out the door while eating.
When he arrived at the gate, the man had been put in an isolation room alone and his children were in a different room.
It seemed even without being instructed, the soldiers had already thought of many possibilities.
The other people who were registering were told that the detector had picked up a slight possibility of infection, which was why the woman had to be isolated yet the man kept causing trouble.
The family was isolated to protect everyone. No one doubted what the soldiers said. Their uniform was that deceptive. But they couldn’t possibly tell everyone that there was an alien in their midst. That would cause panic.
Once the man was a distance away from the woman and was alone, he seemed to calm down a lot. In fact, he seemed like a completely different person.
He also seemed to have little recollection of the trouble he caused at the gate.
Just as suspected, he was being controlled by that alien. As such a doctor and several researchers were invited to examine him.
Luckily, they found that the control exerted by the alien was direct and not something planted in him.
The two had to be at a specific distance for it to be effective. After being separated for a while all the residue effects disappeared as well.
Luckily, the alien hadn’t deemed controlling the children too useful, so they were not affected.
After the man heard that his wife had been replaced by an alien and that he caused trouble after being controlled by her, he cried himself red.
He and his wife loved each other very much and the two children were the fruits of their love. They had struggled since the apocalypse arrived and had finally seen light at the end of the tunnel. Yet, he was told that his wife was already gone and in her place, a strange alien had been following along.
The man felt as if a basin of ice water had been dumped on him.
"Try to remember. Even though the alien can imitate your wife, it can’t be perfect since it’s not her in the end. So, you must have noticed some discrepancies before." Ouyang Jin who had arrived at some point together with Lu Tao said.
The man was still in denial about losing his wife, but he knew that if he didn’t step up, his children would be in danger.
This time, that alien controlled him to cause trouble, what if next time it controlled his son or daughter?
He had to figure it out.
He thought for a moment, then finally, his eyes brightened as if he had thought of something.
"Two days ago when we decided to come here for refuge. We used to live in a small base in an old community. Even though the people there didn’t outright rob others, it was no different since we had to submit eighty percentage of all the supplies we collected everytime we went out." The man began to explain.
After taking a long breath, he continued, "Do, when my wife and I heard that there was a base here accepting survivors and that most of the residents were soldiers, we decided to come. My wife went out to the neighboring building to take back some things she had lent to others. When she came back, she was empty-handed. I asked why she didn’t bring back the pressure cooker she went to pick up and she said that it wasn’t that important anymore and we could just let them use it." He thought that he should have seen the signs.