Eh? Do you also want to try the iron fist of the humanoid girl?

"I'm sorry, Miss Cecilia, please don't come to me to relieve your anger. I'm not the rag doll you put by the bed."

Raphael took a half step back and grabbed his fist.

"keep Calm."

"How can you ask me to calm down? Tony is dying because of your drugs, and you still want to deny...his pass."

"Is this my problem?" Raphael replied, "Before entering the dark zone, I have already told you about the risks inside, but what did you do?"

"I ate food from the contaminated area." Cecilia looked frustrated.

"Yes, that's the problem. I don't know the person who will pick you up. The best outcome is that you will be shot on the spot. The worst outcome is that you will be sent to an unknown research institute and become a research subject."

Raphael stared at the people in front of him, calculating how much weight would be left after deducting the weight of two people and their equipment. After all, it was very troublesome to walk underwater, and if they were swept away by the undercurrent at the bottom of the river, it would be a sad trouble.

The materials of this era are still too heavy, she thought, it would be better if they were lighter. Who wants to be a homeless chicken when they can take a plane!

The night was spent in constant shooting.

The armed mob launched a third attack at dawn. They were unable to attack the houses occupied by the Hundred-eyed Giants head-on, so they could only break through the edge of the square on the left and right sides of the team.

In the end, they failed to break through the defense.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Doug Sutton heard Cecilia's voice on his radio, with its usual slightly hoarse, disgruntled tone:

"Hey, how's it going Tony, are you holding up?"

"Can hold on."

"That's all, I'll be right there."

This was the last sentence she heard on the radio. A minute later, Cecilia crossed the open space in the middle and appeared in front of Doug.

She recounted Raphael's ruthless behavior with indignation. He wanted to deprive Archie of the right to evacuate just because he had eaten a little food. Should they really trust such a bastard?

Doug saw Cecilia's actions and could only helplessly remind her that the only one willing to provide them with an evacuation helicopter was DARPA.

And Raphael is from DARPA. If she was trying to interfere, why would she bring them along?

Ultimately, the main responsibility for the current situation lies at least with them, not with Raphael who unknowingly became the middleman.

Chapter 65: Carnival Night for ELID Infected People

That night, Archie quietly went to the cellar and handed the anti-collapse radiation pills in his hand to the women, telling them to take them if they felt any abnormality in their bodies.

Because the quantity is limited, try to be cautious and use it only where necessary. Only by making full use of the supplies in your hands can you have more chances of survival.

Doug stood on the second floor, watching the direction where Alki went, without making a sound to disturb Raphael who was sleeping in the study next door. Cecilia chose to rest in the bedroom downstairs to emphasize her attitude with her actions.

A full ten minutes passed before Archie came over from the tool room.

Did they really think they could hide this from anyone? Raphael slowly opened her eyes. The slight vibrations from her footsteps could not be hidden from her sensors and earphones.

Late at night, ELID infected people dominate the open-air square behind the park and the main street in front of the park.

Raphael and the members of the Cyclops team were caught in a new situation. Although this situation was ever-changing for the survivors in the dark zone of the City That Never Sleeps, it had only one common name - "encirclement."

Going out at night is not allowed because any noise will attract the attention of ELID infected people.

It would be great if these infected were like the zombies in Resident Evil. Those zombies that also emit a rotten smell are not as strong as iron walls and can be killed with just two shots from a gun.

ELID infected people are disgusting. If the kinetic energy of the bullet is not enough, it will be difficult to hit those old corpses.

It had to be quiet here, at least until the sun rose.

Raphael sat up from the bed, lifted the covers, picked up the weapon, and then put the gun against the window.

It seems that she has to stay here, on the one hand to prevent unidentified night walkers from coming, and on the other hand to prevent ELID infected people from coming to cause trouble.

The infected people nearby seemed to have caught the slight sound of the wind and slowly walked towards this side.

I hope there won't be a fight. At the same time, she thought that she might be being too kind to the Cyclops team.

If she had been more assertive and rejected her companions' request, she might have found the location of the collapse fluid bomb or container.

If a fight breaks out, they will be dead.

On the land not far away, the bodies of ELID infected and survivors lay in various postures. No one cared about them - no effort, no strength, and no desire...

Dong-dong-dong-dong—the ELID infected person, who came from the blind spot to find the sound, was knocking on the door with his head.

Damn it, Raphael thought of that bastard named "Arki Huberst", this is what happens when you break the rules.

She placed her hands on the windowsill, and so did the tripod of the XM250. The figure with white light from the joints of her limbs was clearly visible in the pale world, and the red crosshairs in the center of the scope fell on the bumpy back of the infected person's head.

"Everyone pay attention, I'm going to open fire." Raphael said calmly.

"what?"

A cry of surprise came over the team radio.

At this point, Raphael pulled the trigger. Before the sound of "puff" faded away, the guy who hit the door with his head fell down. But this also triggered a chain reaction.

The infected person wandering outside slowly turned his head, stared at the direction where the sound came from with his cloudy eyes, and then took a step forward.

Cecilia, who was sleeping in the bedroom on the first floor, heard footsteps outside the house, like the sound of two feet dragging slowly forward.

She threw back the quilt, picked up the assault rifle and aimed it at the door to the corridor. Only then did she realize that it was the sound made by the ELID deeply infected people who were wandering around after finding clues.

What went wrong today? There are always unexpected incidents.

Tony continued to close his eyes and rest. He was now willing but unable to do anything.

The negative effects of the cocktail enhancement injection are too serious, and the immune system, rejuvenated by the anti-collapse radiation infection drug, is fighting a desperate battle with the mutated cells.

In fact, I should have listened to Raphael's advice, so as to avoid the trouble later.

But Alki was really panicked at this moment, and was a little incoherent in front of Doug. He really didn't know that it would lead to such serious consequences.

If they had stayed indoors earlier, the infected people wandering outside would not have noticed them resting here.

He also realized that if those guys found the entrance to the cellar, the women and girls who lived underground would be doomed.

Archie picked up the assault rifle, raised the weapon solemnly, aimed, and fired. When he saw a small hole appear between the target's eyebrows, he immediately shifted his gaze away.

Although he heard Doug's scolding, he still didn't show that he cared.

As a result, the hundred-eyed giant gradually broke out due to the chaos caused by its separation from SHD and its ideals. Everyone has their own ideas, and it is too difficult to expect the leaders from various industries to enforce the rules.

They are all very talented and have distinct personalities.

Unless someone more powerful and successful than them steps forward, it will be difficult to achieve the desired results.

The bullets flying out of the ejection window fell on the floor, making a crisp sound. These sounds were captured by the remaining hearing of the ELID infected, directly causing a steady stream of enemies to surge up like a tide.

The only thing that made Tony feel fortunate was that the crazy infected people ignored the tool shed nearby and went straight to the small house where the park management office was located.

When dawn came, none of the members of the Centaurs team knew how many infected they had killed. None of them asked Raphael, even though they knew she had definitely counted them.

Putting aside their prejudices, they had to admit that Raphael was an experienced master in this area.

"Any idea what the problem is?" she radioed.

Archie looked at the corpses outside for a long time, then he slumped his shoulders and stared down at his combat boots, wondering why he became exhausted so quickly... and even gave up on himself and thought that he could do nothing.

Cecilia wanted to answer, but was stopped by Doug. She looked at him in confusion, and Doug shook his head slowly, indicating that the person who started it should answer, even though he was a member of the team.

After a while, Alki's left hand fell beside the radio PTT button. After struggling for a moment, he pressed the send signal switch:

"I'm Alki Huberst, a member of the Centaurs Squad. I'm currently in the Manhattan Dark Zone. Reporting to Raphael: I... I was wrong. I violated the night silence regulations and directly led to a battle that shouldn't have happened."

The only answer he got was a murmur.

Maybe it was the channel settings, or maybe the batteries were empty, that didn't make the radio work. Alki tried one by one, sending the same message over and over again.

A few minutes later, he suddenly remembered that the other party was a lone ranger equipped with electronic warfare equipment. He blocked the nearby radio signals and did not want to hear any apology afterwards.

Indeed, if “I’m sorry” could solve all problems, there wouldn’t be so many conflicts and killings in this chaotic world.

Chapter 66 Unbuttoning

Near noon, the woman quietly walked into the park ranger's room and placed a lunch box on the table.

"The soup is ready, try it," the woman said.

"Thank you." Tony Gaggia, who no longer cared, took a sip and gave a thumbs-up, saying, "I haven't had such good vegetable soup in a long time."

"If you like it, I'll get it for you."

Raphael looked at her and did not answer. Three children living in the cellar, a woman who could share food... all this was strange and almost unbelievable.

At the same time, there is an extraordinary calmness in this, like a battle-hardened soldier picking up his sniper rifle. He should have thrown away the cigarette and crushed it with his boot, but he put the unfinished cigarette on the earthen rack, ready to finish it after the battle.

The same thing happened to this woman when she came here...

"Thank you."

Alki looked at her still standing there silently and said it again. He suddenly understood what the woman was waiting for and took out a spoon from his bag.

"It's delicious," he also praised, "very delicious... You should go back first, otherwise we will have to fight again soon."

Just across the wall, Doug and Cecilia were peacefully munching on the high-calorie compressed biscuits that came with the MRE dry food, enjoying them with a mouthful of sweet blueberry jam.

Raphael stood between the two groups of people, like a partition wall, dividing this small space into two completely different worlds.

Raphael came out of his thoughts only after the woman packed up her things and left with the food box.

She looked at the two self-destructive people who had just had their fill of food, and discovered that beneath their cheerful exterior was hidden an endless exhaustion that was about to overflow.

They lack sufficient data to establish an understanding of collapse radiation and collapse fluid, let alone the effects of wide-area low-level radiation on the human body.

When the abnormalities caused by the latter exceed the tolerance threshold of the human body - everyone's tolerance limit is different, and there are very few special adaptors like Tony - the individual's cognition will gradually undergo degenerative changes, and corresponding physiological changes will also occur, such as decreased cognitive ability, increased limb strength and slow movement.

I think they fully understood the characteristics of the infected in last night's battle and knew how difficult it was to deal with ELID infected bodies.

You know, the siliconization degree of ELID advances over time, which means that the infected people who appeared last night were just at the entry level.

If it were an ELID infected body left over from the Vietnam War, it would not be something that firearms could handle.

She didn't know what was going on in other parts of the Dark Zone, although judging from the sounds of gunfire and explosions, there was fighting everywhere around her.

But there is an ironclad fact in front of everyone: the two houses, the shattered windows, the destroyed park, her, the people who are still alive but killing each other, the woman struggling to survive with her three children in the cellar, and the collapse radiation that has spread to the entire dark zone, all of these constitute the cold and cruel dark zone.

In the next room, Miss Cecilia, who was struggling to swallow compressed biscuits, had completely calmed down and was now paying close attention to the subtle readings on the Geiger counter.

Raphael himself will not have ELID mutant cells - after all, iron lumps and bionic materials will not produce collapse radiation pollution. So subtract the historical environmental readings from the current real-time readings to know how much the increase is.

Of course, this could be due to errors or increased background radiation, but there is another speculation that someone in the team has already begun to change.

Collapse radiation directly induces mutations in cells in mitosis, and the genetic mutations caused by collapse radiation are regular and directional mutations.

The new mutated cells will not only continue to divide, but will also produce a new type of organelle, releasing rays in the same band as the collapse radiation, which is why the infected people are contagious and have abnormal metabolism.

Only then did Cecilia fully understand Raphael's overall plan.

The accusations she made were almost tantamount to slander, and they made Cecilia feel so ashamed that she could hardly face Raphael.

Because the other party's overall consideration was to take away the Centaur team, but they themselves regarded this rare goodwill as an evil plot with ulterior motives.

Cecilia avoided Raphael's scanning gaze, turned her back, and swallowed the pills with a strong industrial-flavored after-meal drink.

In the afternoon, Doug almost forced Cecilia to find Raphael. Facing Raphael's emotionless eyes, Doug stumbled and apologized for his groundless accusations yesterday and hoped that the other party would forgive him.

She was not used to this, but she had to solve the problem between them before taking the next step.

Raphael smiled unaccustomedly, walked back and forth twice in the room, then fired her automatic rifle, sat down at the table, leaned against it, and finally, with great effort, imitated the rare gloomy look on her face, and asked in her original voice:

"Will you obey my orders?"

"Hell, I can," Cecilia replied.

"To put it bluntly, you don't cherish others, and you don't cherish yourself." Raphael said: "No, very little. Everything else is good, but your arrogance and self-esteem are the problem."

Captain Doug Sutton stood by and nodded slightly to show his approval. He suddenly remembered that he had just been ordered to enter New York and the one and a half months of fighting, and he suddenly felt so tired that he felt like his bones were about to break.

Not only do they have to complete the tasks from the Post Office's forward base, but they also have to play the role of a parent and become the glue for other team members.

In order not to fall down in disgrace, he stood up, leaned against the wall, and raised his sore arm with great effort to check the time. It was 9:15 on the watch. It had been exactly 7 hours since the ELID infected person knocked on the door with his head last night.

And he was the night watchman in the first half of the night, and he had not had any rest since yesterday afternoon until now.

When Raphael and Cecilia finished talking, they realized that Doug had fallen asleep.