Chapter 80: Elpis
The lights on the fourth basement level of the Hive never went out.
The cold, white light made everyone's face appear bloodless.
Dr. Arthur Hawthorne had not slept for forty-eight hours and had reached the crucial final step.
His glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose, and the lenses were covered with traces of culture medium that had somehow gotten on them.
He squinted through the microscope at the stained slide, his fingers turning the fine-tuning knob again and again.
"It's done."
His voice was very soft, as if he were afraid of disturbing something.
Dr. Edwin Jenner, who was standing next to him, suddenly looked up, still clutching a test tube in his hand.
Candice looked up from his notebook, his pen hovering in midair.
Dr. Elias Benson leaned over from the culture station, and Dr. Abraham Green put down his pipette.
"What's done?"
Edwin walked over, his voice trembling slightly.
Arthur straightened up from the microscope, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
His fingers were trembling—whether from exhaustion or excitement, it was hard to tell.
"The vaccine. Although it is not the complete Elpis viral serum, it can be used for prevention."
He pushed a petri dish under the light. "After inoculation, the latent virus in the body will be cleared—not suppressed, but eliminated."
Silence.
Several people gathered around, looking at the petri dish.
There was a clear, transparent area on the culture medium, with clean, crisp edges, as if it had been cut with a knife.
Candice's voice came from behind the crowd, very low: "And what happens after you get bitten?"
Arthur shook his head.
"No, it's too late to save someone who's already infected. The vaccine needs time to build up a barrier in the body. If you use it after being bitten, it'll be too late."
He paused for a moment. "But at least we can sleep peacefully now, right? We don't have to worry about wandering outside the door in the middle of the night, dying of illness or old age, and becoming Walkers."
The sentence echoed in the laboratory for a long time.
It won't change.
Once someone is dead, they are dead. They are just ordinary corpses. They won't get up and bite people, wander around the morgue, or force their relatives and friends to raise guns in their grief.
Edwin stared at the transparent area and remained silent for a while.
"Live testing is required," he said.
The group looked at each other.
Arthur put his glasses back on, leaned closer to the microscope, and said in a muffled voice, "Yes, we need to inoculate them first, then kill them and observe whether they transform."
Candice closed the notebook and hugged it to his chest.
"This needs the boss's approval."
The corridor lights were bright. Guillermo stood at the office door and saw the men in white coats walking toward him, their steps faster than usual.
Amy did not stop them from passing; Wu Fan had given instructions regarding this.
Guillermo stepped aside and knocked on the door.
"Boss, the doctors have arrived."
The door opened.
Arthur walked in front, followed by Edwin, Candice, Elias, and Abraham.
The five men had messy hair and dark circles under their eyes that looked like bruises, but their eyes were shining.
Wu Fan stood up from behind his desk, looked at the old men, and felt his heart skip a beat.
He had seen that expression before—it was the same expression they had when they developed the full-body serum last time.
"Good news?"
Amy poured water for Wu Fan and the professors, then went outside.
Arthur placed a report on the table, a thick stack of neatly stapled pages.
"Vaccine, early version of Elpis—the Greek goddess of hope."
He turned to the first page and pointed to the data.
"After vaccination, the latent wildfire virus in the body will be completely eliminated. Animal experiments have been completed, and it is 100% effective."
Wu Fan's finger rested on the rim of the cup.
"What happens after you get bitten?"
"No."
Arthur shook his head. "Vaccines need time to activate the immune system. It's too late to use them after you've been bitten."
He paused for a moment. "But if you get bitten after vaccination, you won't get infected, and you won't turn even if you die."
Wu Fan remained silent for a while.
"What do you need?"
Arthur and Edwin exchanged a glance.
Edwin cleared his throat.
"Live testing requires two death row inmates—inoculated, then killed, to observe whether they transform."
Wu Fan leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the armrest a few times.
Death row inmates.
If they had arrived earlier, he could have gotten a few guinea pigs, but unfortunately, the Woodbury armed forces had taken advantage of the chaos to escape.
They fled Woodbury without looking back.
Where could they find death row inmates these days? The law was gone, the courts were closed, and the prisons were empty.
Death row inmates had either become Walkers or escaped long ago.
Just as he was about to speak, an image suddenly flashed through his mind—the Terminus railway in central Georgia.
The cannibal stronghold from the original story.
Slaughterhouses, human flesh processing areas, and those madmen who slaughtered and ate people like pigs.
He wondered what that place was like now.
If someone had already taken it over, and if those people were still doing the same things as in the original story, then he needed to capture them alive.
As humanity's lowest scum, they had to make some contribution to human science.
Experiments required people, but cleaning up scum needed no reason.
He picked up the phone on the table.
"Have Merle and Sean come here."
Ten minutes later, Merle and Sean stood in front of the desk.
Merle had just returned from training; her combat uniform was still stained with sweat.
Sean hadn't shaved, and there were dark circles under his eyes, but he stood very straight.
Wu Fan spread a map on the table, pointing to the Macon district in central Georgia.
A railway hub, a place where several railway tracks intersected, with the place name marked next to it: Terminus.
"Go and take a look at this place," Wu Fan said. "If someone has occupied it, observe first. Don't alert them."
He looked up at the two people in front of him. "If you find any inhumane acts—treating people as food, slaughtering them, or processing them—bring them all back alive. If that's not possible, then try to bring back at least two people."
Merle and Sean exchanged a glance.
Merle wanted to say something, but seeing Wu Fan's expression, she swallowed it back.
"How many people are you bringing?" Sean asked.
"Fifty is enough."
Wu Fan folded the map and handed it to him. "Go quickly and come back quickly."
Merle took the map and left with Sean.
After the door closed, the office became quiet.
Wu Fan stood by the window, watching the two Humvees drive out through the gate downstairs.
The setting sun bathed the vehicles in a dark red hue, and they quickly disappeared at the end of the road.
The lights on the fourth basement level of the Hive were still on.
Candice placed the test tube labeled "Elpis-01" into the refrigerator, closed the door, and stood there for a while.
The transparent area in the petri dish was still there, and the edges were clean and neat.
She remembered Arthur's words—"Even in death, nothing changes."
If this were true, and if vaccines became widespread, those who died in the apocalypse would simply be dead.
No need for another shot, no need to watch your loved ones' faces turn ashen, and no need to pull the trigger before your tears had even dried.
She turned and walked back to the lab bench, picked up the notebook, and wrote a line at the bottom of the page:
Waiting for live testing.
The Humvee on the highway made a soft crunching sound as it rolled over the gravel.
Merle sat in the passenger seat with her feet up on the dashboard.
Private Shane drove without saying a word.
"You know," Merle said, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth without lighting it, "what does the boss need a living person for?"
Private Shane did not reply.
"That's your problem. Why should a greenhorn like me worry about it? Just finish the mission. Isn't that enough?"
Merle took the cigarette down and twirled it between his fingers.
"Those PhDs have been going to the fourth basement level a lot lately, acting all mysterious."