Zombie Master

Sakura took some time to break the meaning of Sarah's words.

What you can think of from it is too unbelievable.

"Well, that means that humans who have become zombies are alive !?"

Sarah shook her hand lightly from side to side, asking her awkwardly if it was true.

"Most non-speaking infected people, when dissected and examined, had most of their body eroded by the virus, including brain cells. Death is pretty difficult to define, but the heart stops, Anything that loses its temperature homeostasis and doesn't seem to take any voluntary action except when it attacks humans can at least be considered a living human. "

However, considering the fact that it moves as if it were alive, the amazing speed of healing of wounds, and the way it gradually becomes natural as if it were learning, it is considered dead. It's also difficult.Because everything is out of the ordinary, it is almost impossible to understand even if the brains of the world cooperate in the time of about a month after the zombie apocalypse occurred and in a poor research environment.

"So what about language-speaking zombies?"

"I can't say anything because there are few captured cases yet, but the autopsy results show that the body is the same as an infected person who does not speak words, but only the brain cells are more than half normal. However, the heart is reported. It's the same thing that it doesn't seem to take any voluntary action except when it stops, loses body temperature homeostasis, and attacks humans. "

However, because brain waves are almost normal, views on this vary widely from researcher to researcher.

In addition, not a few researchers consider them to be living human beings, and some even regret having taken the means of dissection.

"Unfortunately, the infected person with abnormally developed muscles has not been captured. The brain waves in the moving state are unknown, but considering the anatomical results, it is no different from the non-speaking type. Research has begun on three types of infected individuals, but we know the existence of a fourth type. "

Sara leans forward there and looks towards Sakura.

Sakura didn't really like the exchange of these questions and answers in the seminar at university.It is quite common for students to be ashamed or afraid to give the wrong answer.

However, this time it is deeply related to me and I always have to think for myself.

"... Is that about us?"

Sakura was silent for a while, but she said she couldn't stand watching Sarah.

I instinctively realize that I am different from humans, but I know that zombies are also different from me, so it is a little difficult to call them the fourth type in the same way as zombies. There was resistance and I couldn't give an immediate answer.

"Yes, we think it's probably a good example."

"Compatible example?"

"It's not possible to examine the brain at the moment, but I think most of the brain cells are normal. Sakura-san has a good memory from an early age and is acting on his own initiative, right? "

When asked again, I feel a little uneasy, but I have no doubt that I am myself, so I nod clearly.

"All right. So, could you listen to me here?"

Initially, the mainstream theory was that rabies was a terrifyingly evolved virus.It was natural to think from a close case in reality, not from a dubious theory such as a zombie.

However, he soon becomes suffocated.It was necessary to cut into the virus that causes symptoms that are too out of the ordinary from various perspectives.

What was noticed there was what caused a phenomenon that could be compared to a zombie in the biological world.

Zombies are not the zombies that became famous in the movie as a resurrection of the dead, but the voodoo zombies that became the source of those movies.Rather than the corpse starting to move, it is a magic that manipulates a human who has been put into a suspended state using a poison called zombie powder, and the victim being manipulated is called a zombie.

And I wonder if the infected person who is just wandering outside is the voodoo zombie in a suspended state.

This also seems absurd, but there are actually similar cases in nature.They are parasite-parasitized creatures such as snails, mantis, ants, and spiders that behave in a mysterious way that is convenient for them, as if they were being manipulated by them.The principle has not yet been elucidated.

"Are you parasitic?"

"Yes. However, the researchers who said that the virus only returned to the beginning because it parasitizes cells and proliferates, were shrugging. The rabies virus that I mentioned earlier is that. It ’s the best example. ”

And it settles down to the virus theory again.It wasn't just a return to the beginning, but the characteristics of the parasite that manipulated the host came to be considered.

Considering that it is much more ferocious than the rabies that is the center of the story, and that it is possible to move around regardless of whether it is physically dead, the virus is unparalleledly aggressive. It shouldn't be weird that it seems to be focusing on self-proliferation.Self-propagation is a natural act of a virus, but when you witness an overly efficient spread of infection, you even feel as if the virus itself has a clear intention.

"And when we think of parasites, the big question arises because they are unknown parasites. Is human being a definitive host or just an intermediate host?"

"... Is there any difference?"

I've heard the word host, but I've never heard of Sakura in the middle of it.

"Roughly speaking, the intermediate host is the parasite's juvenile parasite, and the definitive host is the parasite's adult parasite."

"What would happen if you were an intermediate host?"

"The virus we know now isn't what it really is, it's just a waypoint to the next stage. Then the life and death of the intermediate host isn't a big deal for the parasite. It's a premise for abandonment. "

Looking at the current situation of human beings, it is considered more appropriate to think of human beings as intermediate hosts.If it is a definitive host in the first place, it should have been damaged by this virus for a long time.Of course, it is possible that there was another definitive host and that humans happened to be an alternative.

And the worst assumption is that the infected person is just a nursery for the virus to multiply.If so, it's a fact too unfortunate for humans and a nightmare you don't want to think about.Also, given that the virus has only been known for a month, there is no guarantee that the infected will remain as it is, and that it may take actions that are even more detrimental to humans. It is also assumed.

Of course, no matter how much you argue on the desk, nothing will be revealed, and researchers are eagerly continuing their research to see if there will be any material that is bright for humankind.

"Well, that's the situation. We may be parasitized, but we have our own will. Of course, we may have the idea that that intention is also manipulated."

Sakura turns pale to the words of Sarah.It's scary to think that your will is being manipulated.

"That shouldn't be the case. I'm me, and of course the doctor is a doctor."

"Huh, I was surprised too much. I'm kidding."

Sakura stroked her chest at the words, but Sarah's idea was different.For a while after being bitten by an infected person and waking up, I had no doubts about the various thoughts that arose within me.

However, after exchanging opinions with researchers about the cases of infected people and looking at themselves as objectively as possible, the virus inevitably fills me with the idea that I must increase the number of friends. I had no choice but to consider the intervention of.

When I concluded that, I remembered the fear for a moment, but soon I felt that it was my intention to cancel the fear.

Over the course of fear and its counteracting, Sarah was able to calmly think about the possibility that something else was intervening in her will.It may be safe to say that this is the victory of the will of the life form called Sara Nakagawa.

However, Sarah no longer cares about what she considers to be parasite intervention.Another idea was born after it was discovered that infected people had different degrees of invasion of brain cells.

If the parasite makes humans just a nursery, make everyone like a non-speaking zombie.However, if there are infected people who speak only one word, others are as conscious as they are.I thought it was a difference in innate resistance to this virus, but then the body should be almost unaffected by the virus.

"What did Sakura think when she was like now?"

"Um ... I thought I was probably different from humans from the beginning."

Upon hearing that, Sara puts her hand on her chin and thinks.Sakura's idea is crazy, but Sakura doesn't think it's crazy.In the first place, it seems that I had lost my calm judgment when it became like this.

With that in mind, it seemed certain that there was some kind of mental intervention, but I thought it wasn't a bad thing.

Sarah didn't realize that it was strange to think so.

"That's not a bad idea, but I think. We were able to establish a close symbiotic relationship with this virus."

"Are you symbiotic?"

Sakura knows that word too.Parasitism is a relationship in which a parasite benefits unilaterally and the parasitized organism suffers a disadvantage.However, symbiosis can benefit both parties.

"I'm disqualified as a researcher, but I intuitively think so. Maybe Sakura hasn't noticed yet, but our bodies are stronger than they used to be. Even if you get injured, it will heal quickly, so be careful not to injure yourself in public. "

"What !? Is it true !?"

"The wound you were bitten when you got infected, have you healed?"

Since Sakura's memory before and after the current state is ambiguous, I thought that the bite itself was a mess of my memory that there was no damage, but if it was cured, it would be cured. It turns out that the speed is abnormal.

"You should be much stronger. Maybe an adult man can throw it lightly. That's a benefit."

"But to live together, we also have to do something, right?"

"It's probably reproductive."

"……e?"

Sakura turns her face red and makes a stupid voice.

"Mr. Sakura knows that too, doesn't she?"

"... Yes, that's right."

When Sarah and Sakura woke up after being bitten by an infected person, what Sarah and Sakura felt most strongly was to increase the number of friends.

"Oh yeah, my symbiotic theory is just intuitive. Maybe it's completely different."

Sarah had the feeling that symbiosis was too much.

In the first place, leaving the most important gene as an organism as the price of symbiosis is too different in weight.If we can no longer leave human offspring because we are no longer human, we can say that it is close to parasitism.

Given that the infection has created a new species, one might think that leaving offspring is the right thing to do as an organism.However, if it is not her voluntary intention, it may be more correct to say that she is making offspring rather than leaving offspring.

No one yet knows what the actual relationship between the host and the virus is, as even Sarah herself is already vague about how much of her will remains as a host.

"But who is the other person? Looking at a human man, I think it's different, and of course, the zombie man outside."

"Don't you really feel anything? Why did Sakura aim here?"

Yes, there is a reason why Sakura aimed for the 23 wards of Tokyo.I thought that the probability would be higher if I went to a place with a large population to find a companion in the same situation as myself, but there was something like an urge from within.

Sakura closes her eyes and feels the urge in herself.I still feel something that drives me.

"... Oh yeah, I can't say it well, but I know. There are people I need to get more friends ... and maybe not too far away ..."

Sarah nodded loudly to the words.The word was the same as I was feeling.

"There must be a man who is infected and has the same intention as us. I think he is at the center of us."

It's also something I feel instinctively.It's not logical, but it's close to conviction.

"That's why I want to ask Sakura-san."

"Maybe ..."

"Yes. I want you to find the man infected."