After Keith, Fernando, and Blair joined them, the whole team spent some time learning to work together.
Life during that stretch had been almost unnaturally peaceful.
Today, however, orders arrived for them to withdraw from their previous defensive sector and establish a safety distance of at least five kilometers.
The incendiary strike was scheduled for today.
“Father, this isn’t all that different from the sulfur and fire God rained down when He purified a city, is it?” Li Yun joked with Fernando as they watched the aircraft streak overhead.
Fernando smiled.
“Not quite the same.
At least you don’t have to keep your back to the flames, and one turn of the head won’t get you burned to death.”
As the two traded jokes, the aircraft released their incendiaries over the Lost City.
Roaring flames erupted almost immediately and began devouring the city.
From this distance, none of the zombies’ screams could be heard, but Li Yun could still imagine exactly what the scene must look like.
“No idea how long that fire’s going to burn.
And honestly, knowing we still have to enter a city like that afterward to mop up the surviving zombies is a pain in the ass.”
Blair stared at the inferno and complained.
Li Yun ignored her grumbling.
Watching the flames rage, he entertained one shamelessly dramatic thought.
[Burn.
Let these raging flames scour every last trace of suffering from this city.]
“Good thing we moved quickly.
We got all three of your important test subjects out.
Otherwise, even the lowest levels of the laboratory would’ve been burned clean by those incendiaries.”
Douglas stood beside Rex’s wheelchair, admiring the Lost City in the distance as it drowned in fire and destruction.
For a man like him, the spectacle was almost mundane.
If he happened to feel literary about it, he could even compare himself to Emperor Nero watching Rome burn.
After all, the old had to be destroyed before something new could rise.
“Your reach really is extraordinary.
You actually managed to arrange for people to take me back into the laboratory and recover my test subjects.” Rex watched the distant fire without the slightest joy or anger.
Things like this already felt far removed from him.
Douglas merely shook his head as if it were nothing.
The number of zombies in the Lost City had long since fallen from its original absurd peak.
Many residents had escaped during the first outbreak; the unlucky people who remained behind and became infected had never been the majority.
“Besides, I owe that success to your research, don’t I?
I never imagined you’d develop a device capable of controlling zombies again in such a short time.”
Douglas’s appreciation for Rex only continued to grow.
The man was simply too useful.
And ordinary zombies are about the only things it can control at all.
Once those three test subjects are completed and their initial command parameters are set, there’ll be no controlling them afterward.
Their thirst for blood and killing will overwhelm any command we try to impose.”
Douglas solved the human side of the problem through bribery and moles he had planted long ago.
Rex solved the feral zombies infesting the city with his technology.
Working together, they recovered all three test subjects Rex wanted with ease.
Douglas showed little interest in the zombie-control technology itself, and for good reason.
Unless someone deliberately infected people on a massive scale to produce huge numbers of zombies, what practical use did it have?
Essentially none.
Aside from the most deranged extremists, nobody wanted to manufacture useless zombies in the first place.
Mass-producing them with cloning technology would still be a fucking money-losing proposition.
Douglas had always aimed higher.
What he wanted were top-tier super-soldiers or biological weapons.
Men at his level wanted profit.
What profit could a zombie generate?
Turn someone into a zombie and there was no turning them back.
That was a catastrophic loss on the balance sheet.
“You’ve been getting access to Umbrella’s technology too, haven’t you?
Compared with the Z-Virus, what do you think?” Rex was genuinely interested.
As a researcher, there were not many things left that could still hold his attention.
If he could continue his research and thoroughly study G, Z, and T, he might even find a way to cure himself.
That was one of the few motivations he had left.
“Some of the T-Virus data is already in my hands.
It’s fairly similar to Z in that infection can also turn people into zombies.
The later products are nothing extraordinary, though some can compete with Z-Virus mutants.
The top-end specimens are still in a different league, of course.”
Douglas thought about Rex’s three test subjects, then recalled the T-series information William had leaked to him in advance to prove his own value.
In Douglas’s view, at least, the so-called Tyrant could not begin to compare with Rex’s Phobos specimen.
As for the G-Virus, unfortunately William had revealed very little.
Whenever Douglas asked, the answer was that it was not finished yet—but very close.
William’s intention to hold out for the highest bidder was obvious.
Given Umbrella’s habits, however, Douglas suspected William was dangerously close to following Dr.
Marcus down the same road.
And William was hardly betting on only one horse. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
As far as Douglas knew, his prospective buyers included not only Douglas himself, but the U.S.
military and Tricell as well.
Douglas was convinced the man was going to die.
The only question was whose hands would kill him.
“The T-Virus is merely a foundation.
Its potential for branching development exceeds Z’s.
Starting from T, you can incorporate other traits and develop an entire spectrum of derivatives.”
With only the information Douglas had provided, Dr.
Rex had already formed an assessment of the T-Virus—and it was remarkably accurate.
“The G-Virus is different.
We know very little, but I can roughly infer that it’s moving in the opposite direction from T.
Where T aims for broad applicability, G is probably centered on the evolution of a single organism.”
It was only speculation, yet Rex’s guess was already very close to the truth.
If Dr.
William Birkin and Rex ever worked together, they might push this field to an entirely deeper level.
Under present circumstances, however, that was impossible.
Even setting aside Rex, whose personality had been thoroughly warped by catastrophe, William himself was proud and arrogant to the point of conceit.
The idea of those two men cooperating right now was absurd.
“The wind’s picking up, and it’s getting hot.
Let’s go.”
Rex had grown tired of the scene before him.
Was the Lost City his sin?
In a sense, yes—but not entirely.
He too had only ever been a piece on someone else’s board.
How much free will had he truly possessed?
Douglas nodded and turned to Carlito.
“Carlito, take Dr.
Rex back to the new laboratory.
See to his safety.
Meet his requests as far as possible.
If anything comes up that you can’t decide yourself, report to me.
Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” As Douglas’s most loyal subordinate at present, Carlito naturally had no intention of refusing.
Douglas remained where he was, staring at the burning Lost City in the distance.
Change would begin here.