Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 73 All groups, set off!
The convoy drove slowly towards the municipal hospital, and everyone had a tense expression on their faces.

Finally, Ou Yang broke the silence: "I heard that this is where the epidemic first broke out. It's been so long, how come there are still so many infected people?"

"We don't know either," Garrison said wearily. "For some reason, the city hospital is like a magnet, drawing zombies from other directions to gather here. One of our tasks is to investigate what exactly attracts the zombies."

Ou Yang keenly noticed that he was used to calling them infected, while Garrison and other Lao Mi used the term zombies.

In terms of meaning, the infected are just patients, but zombies can be understood as living corpses, or as people who are still alive but are beyond saving and will soon turn into corpses.

Would using the word zombie make the psychological burden less?
And the fact that infected people gather in groups sounds particularly fantastic. Fungi are not bee colonies or ant colonies. Is there a queen fungus that can control all the infected people?

Why not say that after the fungus parasitized the human brain, it developed intelligence and was ready to completely replace humans and rule the earth?
Back outside the main entrance of the medical building, Joe sounded the alarm again, but turned the volume down much lower.

There was no way, the ammunition was running low and the mission had only just begun.

Not long after, the zombies appeared in sight again, but they were just three or five isolated ones, and they were easily dealt with by a few shots.

It's not a roof-mounted machine gun, but an M4A1 with a silencer.

After turning off the alarm and waiting for a while, no new infected people appeared around.

"That should be enough," said Sanova.

He is Garrison's deputy and the second in command of the team.

Garrison nodded and glanced at the time on his wrist. "Attention, all teams, get ready to go. Team A, monitoring room; Team B, wards; Team C, labs. Are you clear?"

"Team A received, target monitoring room!"

"Team B received, target ward!"

"Team C received, target laboratory!"

There were mixed responses coming over the radio.

Ou Yang knew that this was where the epidemic first broke out, but he couldn't figure out why the several locations mentioned by Garrison were worth the risk.

"Excellent, everyone, check your gear!"

The old Mis acted quickly. After checking the masks, weapons, ammunition, and radios and finding no problems, they divided into groups and reported to Garrison.

Garrison also put on his mask and asked in a muffled voice, "How's the air outside?"

"The spore concentration is medium!"

"Indoors?"

"Detecting!"

Ou Yang saw an old man fiddling with a remote control as a drone took off from the roof of a car and nimbly flew into the medical building. "The concentration on the first floor is medium... the second floor is medium... the fifth floor is high, and the sixth and above floors are extremely high!"

"Have you found any zombies?" Garrison asked again.

“Not found yet!”

"Excellent! This proves our preparations are essential." Garrison took out a silencer and placed it on the muzzle of his rifle. "Attention, all teams! We've conducted a UFO reconnaissance and haven't found any more zombies, but I believe this building is definitely not clean. For the sake of your lives, don't make a sound unless absolutely necessary. OK?"

"Yes sir!"

"set off!"

At a command, the car door opened, and three teams of four set off at the same time, rushing into the medical building and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Garrison did not set out with the team, but instead commanded from the rear.

He glanced at the time and asked on the radio: "All teams, report your situation!"

"Group A is normal!"

"Group B is normal!"

"Team C...C2 passage is secure!"

Ou Yang had no idea what these codes meant. After listening carefully for a while, he suddenly realized that ABC represented different directions and the numbers represented floors.

A few minutes later, the first discordant voice came over the radio: "B7 is safe, extremely high concentration of spores detected!" Garrison suddenly straightened his back and glanced at the time: "Team B, how long will it take to reach the twelfth floor?"

"Five minutes, no problem!"

Garrison frowned and ordered without hesitation: "Team B, withdraw immediately. Repeat, withdraw immediately!"

"Boss, we can do it!" Group B replied.

"I said, withdraw, immediately, right now!" Garrison became visibly angry.

"Group B got it!" Group B's response was weak, but Garrison breathed a sigh of relief.

Ou Yang asked curiously, "What happened?"

Garrison smiled bitterly. "Our masks are only effective for a limited time. Low concentrations can last for three and a half hours, medium concentrations for two hours, high concentrations for a little over an hour, and very high concentrations for a maximum of half an hour... Group B's target is on the 12th floor."

Ou Yang understood instantly.

Climbing from the first floor to the twelfth floor and then coming down from the twelfth floor, even if it only takes half a minute to climb each floor, almost half of the time is used up. It will take some time to enter the ward, conservatively speaking, fifteen minutes.

In addition, when leaving the medical building and returning to the car, you have to turn on the purification device and wait until the air quality meets the standard before you can take off the mask.

After coming back from an environment with extremely high spore concentration, the purification time may be longer, so let's calculate it as five minutes in total.

In other words, there is only ten minutes to complete the task.

Although I don’t know what Group B’s mission is, ten minutes is obviously not enough.

This is assuming everything goes well and there are no unexpected events. Instead of letting Group B continue the mission and risk inhaling spores, it is better to give up temporarily.

The ward won't run away, you can come back anytime.

Just as Ou Yang was lost in thought, a heavy gasp suddenly came from the radio: "Hey, I can't, I can't breathe..."

Garrison jumped up, his helmet hitting the roof of the car, but he didn't care at all: "Who, who is talking!"

"Boss, it's me!"

"Jack?" Garrison growled. "Listen to me, breathe hard. Do you understand? Team C, keep an eye on Jack. Get out of here immediately!"

"No, no, I can't... can't... ah——"

Ou Yang's eyes widened. Just by listening to the sound, he could actually hear the feeling of drowning.

"Jack—" Garrison roared manically.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." The panting sound on the radio finally calmed down, followed by a comfortable exhalation, "Oh my God, it feels so good, so good... I'm suffocating!"

"Jack, what are you doing? You can't pick it!"

"Take him back, take him back--" other people's voices were heard over the radio, very mixed and chaotic.

Jack stubbornly refused: "No, I would rather get infected than suffocate to death!"

Ouyang and Garrison's expressions froze at the same time, and the latter shouted frantically: "What happened to Jack? What did he do?"

"Jack took off his mask. I repeat, he took off his mask!"

Garrison's expression froze.

Before he could speak, Jack's scream suddenly came from the radio: "Be careful, zombies——"

bang bang bang...

Gunshots rang out, and the radio was still in chaos: "Stop shooting, Jack, there are no zombies, no..."

"Ah, I got shot!"

"Jack..."

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(End of this chapter)