–-Phase 14 “The Blood”--
“Where’s he? Where’s Benji?” Kaien asked, impatient as he popped up his head into the medical tent. “Give me the infected blood.”
They only assigned one medical staff inside the tent and one army to guard the tent outside to minimalist if anything worse could happen. “He’s right there,” a woman in white cape showed Kaien the bed at the far back of the tent. “Kaien, wait! Are you sure about the blood?” The woman asked.
“Yes!” Kaien gave a definite answer which made the woman startled a bit. “It’s the only way I can get my strength back and the only way to survive those zombies.”
The woman did not move or say anything. Kaien looked at her and his eyes met her, “I’m the broken one.”
The woman wanted to protest but upon hearing the ‘broken one’, she forced a nod and went to look for the medical container. Anyone that works with the military especially on SMV will know what that means.
As she searched for a bottle full of Benji’s blood, which contained SMV, Kaien moved toward Benji’s bed. He could see an IV full of antidote being injected into Benji's arm. He knew the man would be fine. Just before he turned to the woman, a faint whisper caught his ears.
“Allen...” Benji’s eyes were closed but his mouth moved as Kaien came closer to listen clearly.
“Benji?” Kaien asked. He lower head till his right ear near Benji’s mouth.
“Allen...” Benji repeated. Kaien was not sure if Benji was having a dream or if he wanted to tell something. Kaien waited and continued to lower his head in the position. Benji whispered again, “Allen... Also... Infected because he wanted to save me...”
“What?!” Kaien gasped. He asked in horror, “What do you mean?”
“He… Exchanged our blood so he could...Buy some time for both of us,” Benji barely spoke.
A wave of emotion rose inside of Kaien. Panic, anger, regret, all came at one. That meant he did not have much time anymore. He needed to hurry.He cursed and snatched the blood from the woman’s grips. He opened the contents and drank them fast. He took another bottle from the woman and kept it in his bag, just in case.
“Take care of him and the other man,” Kaien ordered the woman. “I’ll be back soon enough.”
“Please be careful,” the woman spoke as Kaien’s figure disappeared. The man hasted his pace, ignored all his army friends who tried to stop him. Some of them stepped back and made a way to him because they knew Kaien would not stop when he had decided on something.
He used his mask of oxygen and jumped into the tunnel once again. The water was mixed with dead blood but Kaien could care less as he used his eyes behind the goggles to look for the way. Using the flashlight, he moved his legs and hands fast to fight the water. He swam fast as all of the sudden his sight got better and better and his stamina went back. The blood had to work out, he thought.
Kicking the water, Kaien finally got to the last place he fought zombies and spotted few zombies were having hard time to swim. He knew it would not last long till the virus in their dead brain learnt to swim. It had amazing evolutionary power after all. That one thing he amazed but hated.
Breathing through his supplied oxygen, Kaien shot one of the zombies that blocked his way. The armies indeed got the best technologies and he was lucky that one of them was an advanced technology for waterproof guns. Going deeper and deeper, it was like forever till he was finally in the junction. He was about to go to the passage Dominique took but then he noticed higher ground than the others.
It was another passage that led to the obvious dead end and the one they did not really examine. His gut told him there was something there. Kaien swam toward it as he lifted his head, breathing normally with the air around him.
Getting up, Kaien stood on the ground as he moved in caution. He spotted some barrels as he pointed his gun behind the barrel but there was nothing. Continuing to move forward, his sight began to shine his way as he felt his awareness of his surroundings rose high. Another effect of the blood he was taken before from Benji.
“Who’s there?!” a scared yet stern voice caught Kaien’s ears as he realized the voice.
“Dominique?” Kaien called. “It’s me. Kaien.”
The voice’s owner popped up his head. “Kaien!” Dominique cried out as Kaien rushed toward the man he spotted crawling like a ball, leaning on the wall as he closed his ears with his both hands
.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Allen?” bombed the question as he regretted when he saw Dominique’s face. The younger man looked terrified to bits and he realized Dominique was blocking a door behind him. It was supposed to be a door leading to a small maintenance room or something. Kaien wanted to open it, just to get stopped by the younger one.
“Don’t! I beg you to not open the door,” Dominique cried. Kaien realized there were some cuts and bruises all over the younger one’s body.
“Dominique, please calm down and tell me what’s going on?” Kaien demanded. Still shaking in fear, all the memories flowed into his mind at once.