The road to the Earth Alliance is not too far, but after waking up from hibernation, the atmosphere in the entire spaceship is not quite right.
There were only Ethan and Samuel on this spaceship. Originally, Roland wanted to send someone to enter with them, but Ethan refused. The spacecraft sent to them by the Ophiuchus Alliance has a strong anti-reconnaissance device. If it is only one, there should be no problem with the energy network walking around the solar system through the Earth Alliance.
The two of them sat in the cockpit, watching the jumping readings on the dashboard, and no one spoke. Since entering this universe, an indescribable oppression has been advancing through the vacuum universe layer by layer like an ocean tide. This is the atmosphere that exists throughout the universe, as if entire galaxies are dying little by little.
Here will be the beginning of destruction.
Their ship did not reach the earth, but landed in the famous slum, where Samuel was born - the seventh space station.
It was a huge city suspended in the vast universe. It looked like a stack of many cuboids of different sizes, wrapped in a pale yellow atmosphere. Coming out of the spaceship's berth, the crowded road is surrounded by high-rise buildings stacked one after another. Even the overhead is a huge building that crosses over. There are countless neon signs, illegal vendors, messy roofs and hanging outside. Clothes fill the space, almost taking up the track for a dual-purpose vehicle or aircraft.
Ethan had never been to District 7 before, and he knew from a young age that this was not the place for people with status. Apart from the Forbidden City, this is probably the most chaotic city. The narrow and complicated aerial streets are full of hooligans, thugs, prostitutes, and drug dealers. He had seen District 7 on TV, and he just remembered that the streets were full of dirty water stains, rubbish and even excrement, and people were squatting on the side of the road in dirty clothes that didn't usually fit well. The eyes of the children of some synthetic root plant Ethan didn't recognize were hollow and blank. There are gun battles every day, and wallets are stolen when shopping on the street. In his impression, this is a chaotic place that is simply uninhabitable.
But Samuel grew up in such a place. The streets he saw on TV as a child that made him frown were Samuel's childhood home.
There was no expression on Samuel's face, and he didn't know what it was like to return to his hometown after so many years, whether it was nostalgia or embarrassment. But judging from his unhurried pace, his ease of dodging crowds, and his skillful swearing back with more foul words after bumping into people and being scolded, he has quickly re-adapted to the environment here.
Although the Earth Alliance government has been calling on everyone not to go out as much as possible, there are not many people on the streets in the slums. It may be because even at the risk of contracting the plague, he must come out and continue to work to support his family. Many large factories are operating on the seventh space station, and these factories are always running tirelessly when many other space stations are under martial law. People wear gas masks on their faces and protective suits, and they must continue to work for meager salaries.
Miraculously, the seventh space station has not been quarantined. But I heard that there have also been infected with the plague.
When Ethan got this news before, he didn't intuitively feel the impact of the plague. But now, walking down the street of the seventh space station, he still felt it. Many, many people who were completely wrapped up passed by, rarely heard the voice of conversation, and never spoke to anyone unless it was necessary. People bowed their heads and hunched their waists as they walked quickly through the narrow alleys, their eyes filled with fear and numbness. As if everyone is grey, so are all emotions.
Samuel took Ethan into a crooked-looking tavern. There were few people in it, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and bad beer. Samuel sat down on the bar familiarly and raised his hand to the fat uncle who was lazily wiping his glass.
"What do you want?"
"Do you still have Black Skull here?"
The fat uncle hummed from his nose, picked up two dirty empty glasses, took two glasses of dark liquid from a wooden wine barrel, and placed them in front of Samuel and Ethan rudely.
Just as Ethan was about to drink, he suddenly heard a high-pitched cry from behind. He turned his head and saw an Omega who was about fifty years old all black, crying bitterly in the arms of an Alpha who was also all black beside him.
"Their daughter was infected with the plague and was quarantined. It seems that she died in the quarantine area yesterday, and she wasn't even allowed to see the body." The fat uncle said in a tone that lacked sympathy and stated the facts.
Samuel seemed to have little interest in this. "Can I borrow your phone here?"
"Long or short?"
"Short trip."
"One cent a minute, the phone is over there." The fat uncle pointed to an antique-grade wireless phone sitting on a faded white lacquer cabinet in the corner. There is even a cash machine nearby. Samuel called and Ethan stayed where he was waiting.
He was probably going to call home. After the plague broke out, his father seemed to have returned to the seventh space station.
"Aren't you locals?" the fat uncle asked.
Ethan said, "I'm not."
"Didn't he escape from the quarantine area?" The fat uncle hummed, "I don't want a group of special forces in protective suits to rush in suddenly, so I don't have to do business."
"Has this happened before?"
"Just two days ago. After the fifth space station was quarantined, some escaped. One of them came here."
When Ethan heard the words of the fifth space station, he suddenly felt a little sweat in his palms. He raised his head and looked at the fat uncle through the sunglasses, "The fifth space station is also quarantined?"
"Yeah. I heard that those quarantine areas are already like dead cities. The streets are full of black corpses that are turning into worms. If it wasn't for the black worms that disgusting people turned into, they would be all over the place. It's a patient who bites just like rabies in the early stages of infection. The army can't control it at all."
An old woman next door suddenly put her hands together and started to pray, and a simple lunch was placed in front of her. Ethan noticed that the pamphlet she put on her lap was the one that the Benefactor Society had circulated in the Forbidden City before.
Ethan felt something gripped his chest tightly, "What does the guy who escaped look like?"
"It's a very thin woman, dark skinned, and looks like she's in her thirties or forties."
It doesn't appear to be his father... Ethan takes a swig of Black Skull, the bitter taste making him cough a few times. He wants to go to the fifth space station to see, and he wants to go now.
Samuel came back at this moment, his expression was a little dignified, "There is no one at home to pick up, let's go directly."
Just when they settled the bill and stood up to leave, suddenly a person rushed in from outside. I saw his hair was disheveled, his body was swollen, his face that had begun to rot and turned green, and his bloodshot eyes exuded a thirsty and bloodthirsty animal light. His clothes were bloodied, his hands were swollen to barely discernible shapes, and they were covered with a sticky liquid.
The people in the tavern screamed in fear, and some panicked people ran from their seats, trying to get as far as possible from the man who had apparently been infected with the plague. The originally quiet tavern exploded in an instant, and the fat uncle also flipped out of the bar with a dexterity that did not fit his body shape, and rushed straight to the back door. The infected man was also like a mad dog, rushing at anyone he saw, but fortunately he was clumsy and couldn't catch anyone for a while. It's just that the two couples who lost their beloved daughters don't seem to be lucky enough to be forced into a dead end by him. Alpha tried his best to protect his lover, but he also did not dare to touch the body of the infected patient. After all, the mucus is said to be highly contagious, and it is very likely to be infected just by touching it. He pretended to be fierce, shouting angrily to intimidate the infected, but his hands were shaking. His omega partner was shouting in a trembling, pleading voice: Help! Help! Who will help us! Who can help me!
His pitiful plea struck a memory chord in Ethan's mind. He remembered when he was taken to the forbidden city by the robot police, when he was locked by everyone on the other side of the door on the Neptune space station, and when he was left in the dark by Samuel and others after the sudden mutation of Muscle. He had begged like that at those times, but no one came to save him...
Until Tanithel shows up...
He stood up, ignoring Samuel's tugging, and strode straight toward the infected. He grabbed the back collar of the infected person who was about to pounce, and the black tentacles on his fingertips spread along the infected person's collar to his neck, and then tightened suddenly.
The infected let out a painful whimper, but was unable to make a sound due to the strangulation of the throat. Ethan yanked back suddenly, and his huge bloated body fell out like this, knocking over several tables and chairs. The infected person twitched for a while, struggled to get up from the ground, and let out an angry roar. But when those bloodthirsty eyes met the eyes of Ethan, who pulled down his sunglasses slightly and looked over from the edge of the frame, he showed a bit of timidity, and even his body shrank slightly.
There was also a lot of commotion on the street, and it seemed that people from the epidemic control station had already arrived after hearing the news. Knowing that he could not be seen by the people at the epidemic control station, Ethan quickly turned around and rushed out the back door with Samuel.
But even for a moment, Ethan felt that the infected seemed to be afraid of him.
Is it because... you are the one who started it all
Ethan didn't have any intuitive feeling about the terrifying catastrophe caused by his mutation, but now he feels it. How many, perhaps truly innocent, are suffering from fear and the pain of watching loved ones turn into monsters because of him. Originally thought that he had no heart, but at this time, his heart was still aching, and the guilt hit his sanity, which made him hate himself more and more.
Under the Forbidden City, he mutated out of anger and followed instinct to put the goo that was stained with his DNA in the mouth of the blond guard who was trying to sneak up on him. That is an instinct, the instinct to expand one's own race, and to contaminate the things that belonged to the order.
At that time he followed his own instincts, thinking about what a nasty and dirty thing people are, hypocritical, stupid, and fanatical, and they really need to be purified.
But after seeing the scene in the seventh dimension, he began to doubt himself.
They stopped in an alley a few blocks away. Samuel glared at him reproachfully. "Are you fucking trying to get caught? What the hell?"
"It's not a no-brainer for me." Ethan lowered his head and said in a dejected voice, "And, isn't this the result you want? Otherwise, you wouldn't have been quietly contacting the Earth Alliance.
Samuel seemed to be punched by him, and after a moment he said, "I didn't intend to give you to them. I just wanted you to... get you back..."
"What are you doing here? Kill all the benefactors of the Benefactor Society? Or do you hate all of them, whether it's the Benefactor Society or the government, and want to destroy everything?" Ethan said, placing his hand lightly on it. On his left chest, where the emblem was originally drawn, "If that is what you want, that day may not be far away."
Without the emblem, his so-called "real" father would soon be looking for him. At that time, even if he is an adult, he may not be able to match an ancient "god" with a life span of hundreds of millions.
What's more, he didn't intend to resist.
Ethan's words left Samuel speechless. He did betray Ethan, and he couldn't refute what the other party said.
He didn't say anything anymore, lowered the hood on his clothes, and hurried towards his home. They dare not take a taxi, after all, such a thing as a car is too ostentatious in the seventh space station. They had to traverse half the station on foot.
But when they finally stood in the narrow stairwell before dark and pried open the door of Samuel's house with thin wire, they found that Samuel's father was not at home.