Zombie Master

After a little trouble, Takumi decided to borrow Sakura's smartphone instead of his own and contact Sarah.Even though he seems to be the same as himself, he was wondering if it would be okay for someone who was doing research with government support to know his contact information.

"Nice to meet you, King. My name is Sara Nakagawa."

The voice certainly felt like I had heard it on TV.Takumi was a little deeply moved because he hadn't expected until a while ago that he would have the opportunity to talk on the phone with a celebrity that many Japanese people would know, unlike himself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Takumi Hiiragi."

"I'm honored to be able to talk to the King in this way. However, I'm sorry that I'm using a smartphone. Since smartphones and mobile phones use synthetic voice, it's slightly different from the actual voice. Ah, I envy Sakura-san ...! I have something to talk about and ask about right now, but I can't get out of this facility right now, so I'm really sick. "

"Hah ..."

Takumi is taken aback by the flowing tongue twister.She had a quiet impression on TV, but that impression quickly collapsed.

"Oh, please call me Sarah ..."

"Oh, Dr. Nakagawa ... No, Dr. Sara, please calm down."

"……Excuse me"

I hear a light throat clearing.

To tell the truth, Sarah was a little nervous about her first conversation with Takumi, but Takumi is not so familiar with the subtleties of the human heart that she notices it.

"I can't talk for a long time because I have a meeting an hour later, but if you have any questions, I'd like to answer as far as I can tell."

Takumi thinks about what he should ask, thinking that it is a luxury story to be able to freely ask a doctor of medicine who is a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize.

"I agree……"

If it is true, the question that considers the future should be the first question, but more than that, there is something I really want to ask out of curiosity.I've heard a certain amount from Sakura earlier, but I still want to hear from an expert.

"After all, what is the cause of the zombie movie-like situation that is happening in the world now? Dr. Sarah and others seem to think that the virus is the cause ..."

"I'm sure it's caused by a virus."

Sara answered in no time.

"We tentatively call the virus a zombie virus. Within our common sense, zombie transformation means that the zombie virus enters the body and becomes a disease called zombie disease. It's a state. There is almost no life reaction in the body, but it is difficult to identify a human who has become a zombie as dead because the activity of the brain is not stopped and the body does not rot. , I think it's better to think of it as something different from zombies as monsters that appear in so-called zombie movies. "

"Wait a minute!"

I had never heard of Takumi that the activity of the brain had not stopped, so I instinctively called out to him about the significance of the information.

"What does it mean that brain activity is not stopped?"

"If you explain it in detail, it will be specialized, so roughly speaking, as a result of examining the brain waves of zombies, it has been confirmed that it is close to the brain waves when sleeping."

Then Sara thinks a little and spins the words.

"... Well, I think we need to talk about the process we were investigating about this zombie transformation, so I'll talk a bit."

Sara started talking, trying to put together only the necessary parts.

As a result of dissecting and examining zombies, an unknown virus was discovered, the virus changes its shape to thousands according to the attached organs, etc., and if an antiviral drug is completed, this zombie apocalypse Although there is a possibility to strike an end to, the prospect is going indifferently talk that it is not at all standing.

"... Do you know that much? It's a movie-like event like this, and it may be a situation where you still don't know what to start with."

"It's just too limited to be touched. In reality, it's just like nothing is done."

"The government doesn't provide any information on TV. When I look online, there is a theory that the government has abandoned the people because of the lack of information."

"There is nothing that can reassure the public by disclosing what we know now, and if we know that the zombie brain is alive, we could get nervous opinions about attacks on zombies. As a government Can't be announced

"So that's it……"

It would be convenient for Takumi to have a sense of repulsion against attacks on zombies, but I have to think that the current government response is reasonably convincing.

"I was surprised that I knew that much, but medical professionals were always in danger of such emerging viruses. It's easy to deal with because there is a certain manual. There was a face. "

"Emerging virus?"

Takumi frowned at the unfamiliar words for a moment.

However, I remember something that was barely stuck in a corner of my memory.

"Oh, it seems that the word was used at the time of SARS ..."

"That's right. SARS coronavirus is a typical emerging virus."

Emerging viruses are viruses that have been newly recognized since 1970 and cause infectious diseases.The sudden appearance of an infectious disease that was unknown until now was named after Emerging, which means that it appears in English.HIV, Ebola, and SARS are probably the most well-known emerging virus infections.

SARS is an infectious disease that was confirmed to have developed in China in 2002 and issued a strong warning called a global alert for the first time since the WHO was established in 2003.Without a doctor named Carlo Urbani, it could have caused the tragedy of the former Spanish flu.With such a risk, I was reminded of the danger of emerging virus infections.

"We were confused by the fact that something like a zombie movie was happening, but when we realized that the virus was likely the cause, we decided to treat it as an emerging virus. However, in the current situation, there are few possible methods that can be taken when an emerging virus infection occurs. "

The first thing to do is to try all kinds of treatments for the infected person, but for this time, the infected person is a living zombie (which can only be expressed strangely), not defeating the zombie. Difficulty jumps up just by capturing it as it is.Even so, although the number is small, many research institutes in each country have succeeded in capturing zombies with the cooperation of the military and others.

"Usually, the first affected person is identified immediately and the past behavior of the affected person is investigated to identify the source of infection, and the past behavior of other affected individuals is investigated to identify the infection route at the same time. It is necessary to identify them as soon as possible in order to control the spread of the infection. However, as you know, it was not possible to identify them. "

Although the route of infection must be identified immediately, it is virtually impossible to identify the first person to develop the disease because it occurred at about the same time in the world.In the first place, the flood of zombies around the world in a very short period of time has left people at their best to protect themselves, and it is also impossible to find out how the zombie infection spread.

"The only thing we know for sure about the route of infection is that if you are bitten by a zombie, you will be infected with a high probability, and even if you are not lucky, you will be killed by the zombie as it is. The most scary thing is that you will get an airborne infection. It's possible. Initially, I was optimistic that there was no airborne infection because I hadn't confirmed any onset other than the onset immediately after being bitten by a zombie ... "

It was thought that there was almost no possibility of airborne infection among military personnel hunted for zombie eradication without wearing full-scale protective clothing to prevent infection, but it was thought that there was almost no possibility of airborne infection. In addition to the possibility that a soldier in the base may not develop the disease immediately after being bitten by a zombie in the base, there is a possibility that an airborne infection may occur even though the infectivity is low. It has spread.

"Is it an airborne infection ..."

Takumi muttered seriously, but another idea came to his mind.If airborne, humanity will be almost extinct in the not too distant future.If that happens, it is a dark idea that their safety may be guaranteed.

(...! No, no)

Takumi immediately shakes his head and drives away the idea.I was astonished that my current thinking might be too ruthless.

Then think calmly.

(In the first place, there is no possibility of airborne infection)

If airborne, Amber and Yu living with the zombies would already be zombies.In particular, Yu has even made a lot of mistakes with Ruri.Considering this, it seems that there is almost no possibility of contact infection or droplet infection.

I was at a loss for a moment whether to tell Sara about that, but I decided that it would be better to hide the existence of amber and lapis lazuli because Sarah and Sakura are not always reliable.Of course, it is a premise that Sakura does not know the existence of the two.

"At first, I was worried about infection by mosquitoes and fleas."

It is said that the most human-killing creatures in the world are mosquitoes, not humans.More than 700,000 people die each year from mosquito-borne infections.Just in Japan, mosquitoes are everywhere in the summer, and if mosquitoes transmit the zombie virus, it could be a terrible situation.

"Fortunately, there are no reported cases of infection by mosquitoes, flies, fleas, reduviid bugs, etc. It is only speculation because the experiment is not available, but probably zombies are not targeted for blood sucking of such organisms However, it is not possible to conclude, so be careful. Although we are instructing you to take measures against mosquitoes at evacuation centers, people are sensitive to mosquitoes even before the instruction. There is a report that it has become. It is probably because I remember the dengue fever that I had in the past. "

The shelters that are still functioning are still nervous about mosquitoes.I even check the surroundings on a regular basis to see if there is a puddle that seems to boil the bow hula.

I try to keep it clean so that flies and mice do not come near it, but the toilet is not well cleaned.It's not as dire as a toilet in a disaster because it still has water and electricity, but it's still not enough for the number of users. ..As a result, a considerable number of flies can be seen, but so far no damage such as infection by flies has occurred.

"The scariest thing about emerging viruses is not knowing what will happen, and the spread of such fulminant infections around the world can only be said to be fatal to the human race. Nevertheless, we are obliged to try to uncover the true nature of this infection. "

Sarah explained that although her sense of duty to humans has diminished, her research is enthusiastic because her primary purpose is to better understand the situation in which she is placed.

"The characteristic of this infectious disease was that it occurred all over the world at about the same time. It is unlikely that a completely new infectious disease will suddenly occur all over the world, so a human who has taken the zombie virus into his body somewhere. It is natural to think that the infection spread to the whole world from that human being as a starting point. Considering that it is almost impossible to use air or sea routes once it becomes a zombie, it is said that the infection spread when it has not yet become a zombie. It seems"

"When not zombied ..."

"Yes. Many people in the world now think that there were zombies that were the source of the infection, and that those zombies spread the infection in a mouse-like manner. That is, zombies like zombie movies. Is creating zombies. "

In fact, Takumi thought so too.

"We believe that the zombie virus has a fairly long incubation period. Most common infections develop in less than two weeks, but tuberculosis has a long incubation period of two years, HIV. If so, it will continue to hide for 10 years. A human infected with the zombie virus for some reason spread the infected person all over the world within a long incubation period, which may have reached the time of onset at once. not"

However, this still does not give a convincing explanation for the outbreak of zombies around the world at about the same time.The longer the incubation period, the greater the variability in the time of onset.There are so many infected people that there are a small number of people who developed the disease at the same time, but now I have no choice but to think that it has spread explosively.

However, if this hypothesis is correct, we cannot help but think of a dark future.It is likely that some of the humans currently in shelters will be infected during the incubation period, and humans may become extinct sooner or later if no cure is established.

And, from here on, it's important, but Sarah goes on to talk further, prefaced.

"There are two types of humans, humans who become zombies despite being bitten by zombies, and humans who do not become zombies. Also, even if they are bitten by zombies, they do not become zombies immediately but become zombies after a while. Humans have also emerged. These may be humans who developed antibodies against the zombie virus during the latency period. Many researchers now think that, so the zombies currently captured I was full of research, but I'm also starting to look at the corpses of humans who died without becoming zombies. If an antibody is found with this, the situation may change dramatically. Once zombies Regardless of whether or not it is possible to restore a zombie, if it becomes possible to immunize living humans ... "

Upon hearing that, Takumi has a complicated expression.

If that's true, and if you can cure the zombie formation, you can undo the lapis lazuli.It is my honest feeling as an older brother that it is a great pleasure.

However, if the antibody cannot undo the zombies, then Ruri will probably be subject to disposal, and if you think about how long you can hide your identity, and when your identity is revealed, it's only ruin. I don't seem to be waiting.In that case, it would be more convenient for humankind to be on the verge of extinction as it is now in terms of personal safety.

And I feel disgusted with myself who inevitably thinks about such selfishness.

"I'm sorry. I have to prepare for the meeting, so is it okay for now?"

Sara cuts out apologetically.Takumi still has a lot to ask, but now he seems to have no choice but to give up.

"Yes. I want to talk again, when is it okay?"

"Later, I will email you the free time on Sakura's smartphone."

"OK, let's talk again as soon as possible."

This is the end of my first contact with Sakura.

I think Takumi was very fruitful, but I also remember telling myself that he must be careful in what he says and does because he is a talented person who is much smarter than himself.

"What should I do?"

With Sakura's remarks, it became necessary to think about how to handle Sakura.

Takumi still doesn't want Sarah and Sakura to know the existence of amber, lapis lazuli, and Yu.Amber doesn't come to the floor you're on, and Yu can just give an order.However, Yu may come to this floor at will.

(Should I ban you from coming to the floor with the zombie room for a while? No, it's like telling yourself that something is happening ...)

After worrying for a while, I decided to temporarily let Sakura live in a furnished room on the floor below the zombie room.Yu never comes to that point.

Takumi ordered Sakura not to move from this floor.There was some resistance to giving such an order to a willing partner, but this was unavoidable.

Also, I was worried about ordering Sarah not to tell her that she was restricted in movement, but I couldn't clearly confirm the force of the order against Sakura, so I said that she was suspicious of Sarah. Judging that it is better to stop doing it, do not give any further orders.

"I can't stay like this forever ..."

Takumi is worried about how to handle Sakura, but it seems unlikely that the answer will come out for a while.