Chapter 83: Vaccine Experiments
Teresa's eyes widened when Gray was wheeled in, strapped to a wheelchair.
She saw that ashen face, those gray eyes without pupils, and the teeth showing through that half-open mouth.
She started screaming.
Gray smelled the scent of a living person, turned his head sharply, and struggled violently against the restraints.
One of the assistants untied one of his hands.
The hand reached out and grabbed Teresa's arm, the nails digging into her skin and drawing blood.
Teresa screamed and writhed, but the straps were too tight, and she couldn't break free.
Gray bit down.
Arthur waited a few seconds, looking at the wound and watching the blood seep from the bite marks.
Then he picked up another syringe and plunged it into Teresa's arm.
The bluish-green liquid was injected.
Teresa cried, shouted, and trembled.
Gray was wheeled away.
The electrocardiogram monitor displayed her vital signs—rapid heart rate and high blood pressure, but still within the normal range.
Ten minutes passed.
Twenty minutes.
One hour.
Her face began to turn red—not a healthy red, but a flushed, sickly one.
She started sweating, beads of sweat trickling down her nose.
She began to tremble, not from fear, but from cold—the kind of cold that seeps into your bones.
"Body temperature rising."
Candice's voice was calm. "Heart rate increasing."
Teresa's eyes began to roll upward.
Her mouth hung open, spewing copious amounts of blood. Her tongue lolled out, and her lips were covered in dry, cracked bloodstains.
Then her eyes rolled back down—gray.
"Conversion complete. Vaccine ineffective."
Edwin wrote another line in his notebook.
Arthur took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Elpis Version I is ineffective against those already infected or bitten. It can only be used as a preventative vaccine before infection."
"Next," he said.
Alex was still cursing when he was pushed in.
His mouth was filthy; he spewed every insult imaginable, cursing everyone from his ancestors to his unborn grandson.
After the restraints were tightened, he cursed even more fiercely, but no one listened.
After he was injected with the Elpis Version I serum, all observations remained normal.
Then he was taken to an isolation room and locked up for a day.
When the door was opened the next day, he was sitting on the bed, his face pale, but his eyes remained a normal brown.
"Bring in a Walker," Arthur said.
A Walker strapped to a wheelchair was wheeled in.
Alex's face turned from white to green.
He shrank back into the corner, curling himself into a ball.
"No... no... you can't..."
The Walker was pushed in front of him, less than a meter away.
The grayish-white hand reached out, its nails scratching his skin.
But the Walker couldn't reach him; it was restrained too tightly.
Alex huddled in the corner, trembling all over, but he wasn't bitten.
"Test again in twenty-four hours," Arthur said.
A day later, no wildfire virus was detected in Alex's blood sample.
The latent virus in his body had been cleared, and he was not infected by the new exposure—because he had only been scratched, not bitten.
But what if an open wound came into contact with Walker blood or saliva?
The experiment was still ongoing.
One after another.
Those captured from Terminus were strapped to experimental chairs, injected with Elpis, and then subjected to various forms of exposure—being bitten, scratched, and injected with Walker blood.
Some transformed. Some did not.
The pattern gradually became clear.
Mary was the last one.
She was Gray's mother, with gray hair, deep wrinkles on her face, and red, swollen eyes, but she had stopped crying.
She sat in the laboratory chair without struggling, begging, or even looking at the researchers in lab coats.
She simply kept her head lowered, staring at her knees.
Arthur entered and injected Elpis into her arm.
Her heart rate was stable and her blood pressure was normal.
Wait.
Twenty-four hours later, she was wheeled into an isolation room where a Walker was being kept.
She stood there, watching the creature lunge at her without flinching.
The Walker slammed into the fixed post and couldn't reach her.
Mary stood there, looking at the Walker, her lips moving slightly.
"Gray..."
She spoke softly.
The Walker did not respond.
It was no longer Gray; it was only a moving corpse.
When Mary was brought out, Arthur stood in the doorway holding a report in his hand.
"Your blood is free of the virus. You are safe."
Mary looked at him, her eyes empty.
"Safe? My son is dead, my husband is dead, everyone I know is dead, and you're telling me I'm safe?"
Arthur said nothing.
Mary was taken away and placed in a solitary cell.
She was no longer considered a prisoner, but a "subject of post-experiment observation." To her, however, it made little difference.
She would simply continue being a guinea pig while they conducted experiments on the upgraded version of Elpis.
Late at night in the laboratory, several PhD students sat around a conference table, each with a thick data report spread out before them.
Arthur removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Summary."
His voice was hoarse.
Edwin opened his notebook.
"Elpis Version I, as a preventative vaccine, is 100% effective. After vaccination, the latent wildfire virus in the body is completely cleared. Even if the recipient is bitten, scratched, or comes into contact with Walker blood, the virus will not trigger conversion—as long as a large amount of the virus does not directly enter the bloodstream. However, if the recipient is bitten to death or directly injected with a high concentration of the virus, conversion will still occur."
Candice added, "In other words, vaccinated people can live, grow old, get sick, and die normally. When they die, they stay dead. They won't get up and bite people."
The group remained silent for a moment.
Arthur put his glasses back on.
"That's not enough. We need Version II, Version III—a version that can treat bites, a version that provides complete immunity. We still have a long way to go."
"But at least..." Elias spoke softly, "from today onward, we no longer need to lock the door before sleeping, nor do we need to knock on doors and call out names every morning to confirm the person inside is still alive. We can sleep in the same room as our families."
No one responded.
The laboratory was quiet except for the hum of the ventilation system.
There was no sky outside the window, only a concrete ceiling and lights that never turned off.
The next morning, Wu Fan saw the experiment summary report in his office.
He stared at it for a long time before picking up the phone.
"Amy, post this report on the bulletin board so everyone can see it."
"Understood."
At noon, the notice board was surrounded by people.
Some were crying, some were laughing, and some simply stood there, reading the report over and over again.
A woman stood there holding her child, tears falling onto the child's head.
The child looked up and reached out to touch his mother's face.
"Mom, why are you crying?"
The woman shook her head and smiled.
"It's okay. Mom is happy."
Carol had just returned when she saw the notice.
She stood at the back of the crowd and read the report.
Then she turned and walked away quickly, heading toward the small house in the far corner of the family quarters.
Sophia was afraid that one day her mother would return and not be able to find her, so she often sat outside the house where they used to live, playing with the neighbor's children.
Carol knelt down and hugged her tightly.
"Mom? You're back?"
Sophia sounded happy at first, but then her voice became muffled.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Carol closed her eyes. "Mom is just happy to see you."
Gunfire continued to ring out from the training ground in the distance.
The new security team members were practicing shooting, and the Walker portraits on the targets were being blown apart one by one.
The searchlights on the wall rotated slowly, their beams sweeping across the wilderness and over the wandering gray-white figures.
This world was still a mess.
But from today onward, those who were alive could truly live.
No need to check the door lock before bed.
No need to strain your ears for noises from next door early in the morning.
No need to raise a gun after your loved ones closed their eyes.
Once someone died, they stayed dead.
Bury them, burn them—it was up to you.
They wouldn't turn into those things anymore.
Wu Fan stood by the window, watching the people downstairs laugh and cry, then stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.
Now the allure of their base could attract many survivors.
But they also needed to deal with the rats hiding in the shadows.
...
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