Chapter Thirty-Three – Minor Improvements

Chapter Thirty-Three – Minor Improvements

“User Milesglorius: People have tried all sorts of things to kill them already
User Adfligo: Yeah, so?
User Milesglorius: wtf, you think your idea’s better?
User CuteGirlsRCute: Maybe? Not like every idea’s been tried and anyway I think that it’s okay to try new things. ATs have only been invading for like 20 years. Gotta try stuff yeah?”

Systema IRC, 2043

***

This was shit sprinkles on the turd cake. I didn’t have time to deal with zombies on top of all the rest. “Myalis, what are the chances that this is a small, one-off offshoot of the antithesis that we won’t have to worry about?” I asked.

It’s unlikely. Though I haven’t noticed any parts of the hive specifically growing model sevens. That isn’t entirely unusual. Model sevens are small and quick to grow to their full maturity. Hives will often have other models grow them wherever they find a sufficient number of corpses or usable bodies. Remember that more than a weapon, a model seven is a means of transporting biomass back to the hive.

Right, the zombies were basically the antithesis’ way of co-opting a person’s body to walk it back to the hive for digestion. The fact that it was a psychological weapon probably didn’t factor in. The antithesis were scary, but it was never purposeful terror that they sowed.

I jumped when a call came in, the alert not loud or anything, but I was a little on edge and the sound poked at my nerves. Intel-chan was calling.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” Intel-chan replied. “We’re getting everyone to take their anti-zombie pills, just in case. We don’t have much manpower to check on people, but your girlfriend’s working on sending people to every housing complex on the edges of Downtown, just to make sure that everyone is still entirely human.”

I nodded. “That’s good. Will we have enough meds to go around?”

“No,” Intel-chan said. “Not nearly. But we can give some to every militia person, and most if not all of our volunteers. The pills are only meant to be good for a day or so before you need to take another dose though.”

“We’ll buy more if it comes to it.” I looked around the office space again. Earlier it had been a big, worrisome place because it might hide a few lower-tier models. Now it was worrisome for entirely different reasons. “If the zombies are here inside the barricades, then… shit, how likely is it that they’d just spread out from here?”

Model sevens are notoriously stealthy. They aren’t fast-moving, but they can reproduce within a captured body, and there are many tales of model sevens taking over a body, then walking past defences to reproduce next to heavily populated areas.

“Right,” I said. “Intel, can you add a pin to Gomorrah’s agenda?”

“I can,” Intel-chan said. “What do you need her for?”

“Burn this entire building down. In a way that doesn’t spread to the rest of the city. I’m sure she can accommodate that much. I don’t know how heat-resistant model sevens are, but I’m sure they won’t survive the kind of shit Gomorrah can unleash when she has permission.”

“Understood. Sending a message now,” Intel-chan said.

“And, uh, hey, where’s all your weebness?”

Intel-chan went quiet for a moment, then when they replied it was with a much more perky, upbeat sort of voice. Almost gratingly so. “Oh? Stray Cat Sempai wants me to talk like this?”

I squinted.

Intel-chan waited for a long, long beat. Then they spoke up. “Uwu?”

“I hate you,” I said.

“Pardon?” Sprout asked. He looked like he’d calmed down a little, though I noted that he wasn’t looking at the corpse on the ground next to us.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “Just talking to a few people at once. The militia will start taking their anti-zombie meds, we’ll see about everyone else once we’re out of here.”

“Are we leaving?” he asked, and I couldn’t miss that hint of hope in his voice.

I didn’t want to squash it, but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t want and I didn’t get. “No, we’re finishing what we started. Do you have something to stop model sevens?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Myalis, two of those Proofing Pill things, please,” I said.

Coming right up.