Hibernation

“So you mean that the newly infected people can be saved?” Rachael asked not expecting this twist.

“For now that’s just my hypothesis, I need proof to further validate it as a fact, luckily The hippocampus was still functioning so I could use the latest technology to pierce through the fabric that encloses the memories” Yoshi replied causing Bai to frown.

“Why do you talk so not understanding-ish, I’m more confused now than I was before” Bai said shaking his head.

“Yeah, you need to cool down with the encyclopedic speech” Henry also added agreeing with Bai who grinned staring at Yoshi triumphantly.

“Okay how about now homie, you feel me now dawg” Yoshi said imitating an African American’s accent.

“Now that’s just racism” Henry replied with a frown, rolling his eyes.

“Hey could we just get back to the issue at hand, we’re wasting precious time” Micheal interrupted the conversation bringing everyone’s minds back.

“So as I was saying, I scanned through the memories and even though some of the memories were lost in the process, I still discovered quite some things, one is that he was infected for quite some time, two is that the situation is more serious than I thought, most of the memories I discovered was during his time as a zombie, usually most zombies have one thought and that’s to eat and eat even more, but this zombie’s main thought was to infect as many people as he could” Yoshi continued with the explanation, his expression getting more serious with each word.

“What?” The group was shocked after they understood the main point of his words.

“You guys are probably thinking the same thing I’m thinking right, this parasite was created by someone” Hai said causing everyone to take in a deep breath, all this time they had been thinking that it was a mistake but it seemed like someone had caused all this and the worst thing was that they didn’t know who.

“So we were right the first time, someone did wipe the database clean to prevent anyone from seeing what happened” Bai said not knowing if he should be worried or proud that he was right.

“This only makes the situation more urgent, we have to find out what’s going on quickly before the situation escalates even further, if someone did create this then it meant that this zone was just a lab rat, a small drop in a larger conspiracy, we have to be careful with our next moves, I have a feeling that we’re pawns in a bigger game” Micheal said massaging his forehead, this mission had just taken a drastic turn that none of them could have imagined, there were so many unanswered questions which made him pissed, because the lives of his teammates were now in danger and he had the responsibility to save them, this situation reminded him of some memories of his that he kept hidden.

“Mike, are you okay?” Bai suddenly asked causing Micheal to glance up at him.

“Yeah, I’m okay, why?” Micheal asked not understanding the reason for the question, he turned around with a frown and then turned back around again.

“Well one, your eyes and your hair are both sparking with lightning” Hai answered in place of his brother as they all stared at Micheal whose eyes and hair sparkled with purple lightning.

“Oh I’m sorry about that, I’m just stre—“ In the middle of his speech, Micheal was suddenly cut off by a loud roar which sounded strikingly similar to the previous one.

“Damn it’s that roar again and it’s closer than before” Yoshi got up immediately grabbing his gun while staring at the direction that the roar had come from.

“Wait, did you find anything about that roar from the memories” Micheal asked Yoshi who shook his head.

“Huh, this is strange, look on your maps, all the other dots have disappeared in exception of this one, and its quite close” Henry gave the detail he just spotted while grabbing his gun in alarm.

“Everyone immediately turn invisible and stay still, Yoshi do it” Micheal said before disappearing into thin air, the others following suit within a few seconds, a huge shadow appeared above them making the surroundings go dark, the huge shadow looked around glancing to the right and then to the left before leaving, taking the darkness away, only after a few minutes of waiting to see if the shadow wouldn’t come back did Micheal turn visible letting out a deep sigh, the rest also appearing behind him.

“What was that?” Hai asked grabbing his chest and breathing heavily.

“I didn’t see it clearly, but it was huge” Henry replied also catching his breath.

“Let’s move, we’ve already wasted enough time, we have to leave now” Micheal said urgently grabbing his gun like he hadn’t also seen the huge shadow.

“Why are you so anxious to leave?” Bai asked with a frown staring at Micheal who quickly grabbed his gun and aimed at him.

“Wha—“ A shocked Bai instantly turned to the right as a bullet shot past the face of Bai striking a figure behind him resulting in a cry of pain from the figure, hearing this, Bai turned around to see a zombie with a bullet wound in its neck fall to the ground.

“We’re under attack, get ready!” Micheal yelled turning in another direction to fire a bullet which struck another zombie sending it to the ground.

“Dammit everybody behind me get down” Yoshi also yelled, his eyes glowing with a bluish light as the others ducked behind him just as a strong pulse of energy burst out from Yoshi which sent the approaching zombies crashing backward into the surrounding structures.

“Let me heat things up a bit” Racheal also added getting up quickly, her eyes glowing deep red as her hands turned red condensing huge waves of fire which she fired at the zombies causing them to go up in flames.

“RAWWWRRRR” The zombies roared in anger and pain while being set ablaze.

“Quick let’s move” Micheal said to the others before making use of the commotion to flee the scene leaving the burning zombies behind, the team fled the scene with extreme caution and speed, rushing through the estate quickly while occasionally staring left and right to see if there were any approaching enemies, but it seemed like the flames and energy blast was enough to stall the enemies, after several minutes of moving through the estate, they finally arrived at the end of the estate where they scaled the wall to arrive at the other side.

“Let’s move into one of the houses” Micheal whispered to the team who followed behind him as stared at his map which had several red dots in every house on the map, he quickly scanned the map for the safest while moving before choosing one and moving into one of the houses, by this time the sun was already going down and the sky was growing dark so they easily slipped into the house undetected, switching on their night googles and scanning the interior of the house.

Micheal stared at the map where two red dots could be seen in the house, he turned to the team and motioned for them to stay quiet by placing his finger over his lip before gesturing for them to follow behind him, they nodded and got ready, clutching their guns tightly while creeping toward the room where the two red dots could be found, after taking a few steps, Micheal paused before turning to Yoshi who stood by his side in confusion, noticing his confusion, Micheal pointed at the map which Yoshi glanced at to discover that the two dots had disappeared, Yoshi turned to his and also realized that it was the same, the others also realized that the same thing had happened to their map, and it wasn’t only the two dots that had disappeared, every single red dot on the map had disappeared all of a sudden which made the team confused.

“Let’s go check it out” Micheal whispered after some time of deliberating on the issue of whether or not to enter the room, he grabbed his gun and slowly turned the knob of the door while also opening it at the same pace, as he entered, he half-expected a zombie to jump onto him but nothing happened, instead all they met were two motionless standing zombies with two Octo-worms atop their heads.

“The f***..” Henry muttered in shock while staring at the zombies who seemed like they were dead.

“Yoshi” Micheal called Yoshi’s name to know if he understood what was happening.

“This is spectacular, something totally impossible is happening” Yoshi lowered his gun in astonishment while walking to the first zombie.

“Yoshi be careful, what are you doing?” Bai said raising his gun to aim at the zombie, he was puzzled at Yoshi’s actions.

“You can put the guns down, they won’t be attacking you anytime now, it’s like they’re in a hibernating mode, this is so fascinating” Yoshi replied with glowing eyes that sparkled with interest, it was clear that he had just discovered something very fascinating, he moved closer to the zombie, close enough for the zombie to attack if it wanted but nothing happened, instead the zombie just stayed still and motionless.

“Yoshi could you enlighten us on what’s going on, we’re in the dark here” Micheal said to Yoshi who seemed to snap out of his daze, turning to the others with an apologetic expression.

“Oh yeah sorry, I was just shocked that’s all, you guys have no idea how shocking this is, you all know what hibernation is, it’s when certain animals go into a state where their body conserves energy in unfavorable weather conditions or even lack of food, the requirement for this state are, reduced metabolism, slower heart rate, and lowered body temperature, some animals like bears go into hibernation during winter when there is lack of food and due to the weather, but it hasn’t been proven that humans could hibernate because there is actually no need and the conditions also need to be met, and since it might be lethal for a human if the conditions are forced, for example slowing the heartbeat enough for it to be regarded as hibernating, this is because a slight mistake could result in death” Yoshi explained before pausing to let the information sink in for the others.

“Okay I’m failing to see the point” Bai said displaying a look of confusion to tell Yoshi that he didn’t get what he just explained.

“Huff, what I mean to say is that humans need to go into an extended state of torpor to actually hibernate, torpor is a state where body temperature, breathing, and energy use drop significantly, an extended form of this state will result in hibernating for humans, but there are many physical limitations in humans which prevent you guys from entering that state, but the body of the zombies you can see here have evolved to be able to overcome those limitations to actually enter into hibernation” Yoshi explained ending with a grin.

“Hmmm” Micheal’s expression changed after hearing this, he understood the significance of Yoshi’s words.

“Okay I understand that it’s remarkable that the zombies are hibernating but they aren’t humans anymore, you said that it would be lethal for a human to enter this state but you forget that they aren’t humans anymore, their bodies change after becoming zombies, I don’t even think they have a heartbeat” Henry also proposed his thoughts to Yoshi who smiled.

“It seems like you don’t get my point, the other zombies we’ve heard of and encountered all turned because of either a virus or some sort of evolved fungus that kills the brain of all those infected, but this worm that turns the people into zombies doesn’t kill the brain, keeps it alive for some time plus it also hibernates at night, this means that this worm has its own consciousness, it isn’t like the other viruses that tells the host to feed and just keep feeding, this worm is smart enough that its main aim is to spread itself and infect even more, my point is that we might have been taking this the wrong way, our train of thought has been going in the wrong direction” Yoshi further explained, his words now bringing the others to the full gravity of the situation.

“Oh my God, this is serious” Hai said finally grasping the situation.

“The worm must be a hive mind” Racheal muttered the thought on everyone’s mind, it was now that everyone finally realized how scary the worm was, a worm with intellect on this level was something else, something that shouldn’t be underestimated, suddenly under everyone’s glance, the octo-worms atop the zombies started glowing with a purple-ish glow

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At the same moment, somewhere in the research facility located in the center of the zone, there was a huge room within the facility which had a large canister could be located in its center, within the canister was something that looked like a worm surrounded by a goo-ish liquid that had tubes connected to its body, the tubes moved from its body to several miniature canisters that were located across the room.

BEEP

A beeping sound echoed from the worm’s canister as the tubes trembled like something was moving through them, whatever was within the tubes shot through them into the other canisters, as the things within the tubes entered the miniature canisters, they revealed themselves to be octo-worms which trembled for sometime before their heads started glowing with a purple-ish light in synchrony with the large worm in the first canister, almost as if they were communicating.