Return (2)

Arnold headed out of the exit to find that the whole sky was dark. On the top right corner of his right eye, he could see the time and date of today. "12:00pm." It was exactly midday. The sun that was supposed to be shining from above was completely covered by dark clouds, forcing Arnold to use his right eye's infrared imaging ability. The similar ability was used when he entered the cave a few days ago (it took a few days to fully reconstruct his body).

"It seems like it's gonna rain soon, I better find a place to hide." Arnold thought.

The exit he came out of was through climbing a shaft from underground. He had to move a manhole before being able to return to the surface again. When he came out of the shaft, he placed the manhole back to its original place, covering the shaft.

The place he was standing was made of asphalt. However, due to wear and tear from the weather and various other reasons, the pavement was uneven, with some of the asphault protruding out and some caving inwards. Weed grew on the protrusion of the asphalt, making the whole road seemed abandoned for a long time.

Arnold took a look around his surroundings. There were multiple skyscrapers nearby, all with broken windows. All of these skyscrapers were at least 20 stories tall, but they seemingly look the same -- completely barren, lacking in color and only concrete walls were left. Luckily, there seemed to be no zombies nearby.

Arnold ran quickly towards one of the buildings, making as little noise as he could. When he entered the building, he found a flight of stairs. He ran up the stairs for two whole stories before stopping at the third floor. Then, he headed towards the edge of the floor where the window originally stood and sat down, laying his back against the wall. He observed his surroundings while waiting for either the clouds to move away or for it to rain.

After a few minutes, it ended up raining. The rain was abnormally murky, with every droplet ranging from grey to black in color. Arnold moved further into the building to prevent any raindrop from hitting him. The rain was acidic, poisonous and radioactive. One can die in seconds if they were out and about in the rain.

While waiting for the rain to pass, Arnold reached inside his backpack and took out a nutrition bar and a bottle of water. He took a huge bite of the nutrition bar that was chocolate flavored and took a sip of the bottled water. By the time he finished eating, it stopped raining.

The sun shined brightly, completely warming up the whole area. Arnold immediately took out a t-shirt from his backpack. He opened the zipper of his pants and peed on the t-shirt. Then, he wrapped the t-shirt like a bandana and covered his mouth and nose with it. The putrid smell of urine completely filled his system. However, it was much better than the alternative.

Once the temperature increased, the rain water that was on the ground started evaporating. Arnold waited for another hour before running down the stairs and out to the uneven paved road. Then, he started running as fast as he could northwards, according to the map that was on the bottom right corner of his right eye.

After running for half an hour, he started losing his breath so he had to slow down. From what he could see, all of the skyscrapers were gone. What replaced the skyscrapers were houses that stood parallel to each other across several blocks. All the houses were dilapidated, making it almost impossible to live in. Arnold had no choice but to continue to walk. With his cautious nature, he did not dare to remove his urine-stained t-shirt yet, afraid that some of the poisonous steam might still be around.

Now that he entered what was originally the suburban area of a town, there were a lot more zombies than before. Most of the zombies were Level 5 zombies. These zombies were human-like, except for they bodies being rotten in and out. The rancid smell from their decaying bodies could travel a mile away. The zombies of this kind were weak and would not actively attack humans. Of course, if one walks close to them, these zombies would still attack. Therefore, if one wants to stay out of conflict, simply stay away from Level 5 zombies.

All the zombie cores that were in his old backpack were Level 5 zombie cores. Arnold still felt that it was a pity he could not retrieve the cores back, as he spent quite a lot of time collecting them.

After walking for another hour, Arnold finally removed the t-shirt from his mouth. He placed it back in the backpack. Suddenly, Arnold heard a scream coming from above. His face immediately turned ugly after tilted his head up. It was a mutated eagle!

The eagle seemed to be treating him as prey, flying towards him at lightning speed. When the eagle's beak was about to hit Arnold, he immediately dodged, making a barrel roll to the right. He then ran towards the nearest house for shelter. The eagle made a sharp go-around and started flying straight towards me again. Realizing that I couldn't make it, I decided to take a grenade from the side of my backpack and took out the pin. When the eagle opened its mouth wide and tried to eat me, I waited until the last second before throwing the grenade into its mouth and dodged. Unfortunately, the eagle still manage to tore some flesh away from him while he dodged. A second afterwards, there was a large *boom* sound and the eagle exploded into many pieces.

It was another inauspicious day for Arnold. The loud explosion startled the zombies. Along with the smell of blood, the zombies instictively ran towards the direction of the explosion. Arnold placed his left lumbar region. Blood was flowing from the large wound there. However, Arnold did not have the time to check on his wound. He endured the pain and immediately ran as fast as he can. While running, he reached his hand into the opening of the t-shirt created by the eagle's tear and took out his gun concealed within it. Then, he immediately turned off the safety switch and started firing at any zombies that headed towards his direction.

He shot every bullet with pinpoint accuracy, right in the middle of the forehead of every zombie. After firing ten times, he immediately removed the used magazine, letting it fall to the ground and took out a spare magazine. He shoved the magazine into the slot and started firing again.

After using up three of the magazines, he finally escaped the enclosing zombies. He had only 2 bullets left on the gun and one more spare magazine. As he pressed his wound, he headed inside an empty house. The house had several holes on the roof, allowing the sunlight to come in. The front door was completely gone, and the second floor seemed to have been ripped away. He sat on the ground with his back against the wall.

"Andy, how bad is my wound?" Arnold asked.

"Scanning. You have suffered a Class III splenic trauma, a Class II colon injury and Class III damage to your left kidney. Please see a doctor immediately."

"Well, that's not an option right now, is it?" Arnold said sarcastically. He started laughing, but instead he coughed out some blood out of his throat.

"Do you have some other method that could save me right now?" Arnold asked hopefully.

"Calculating... Survival is possible with the injection of 3 doses of stem cells. One on the damaged spleen, one on the colon and one on the left kidney respectively. Survival rate is 33%."

Arnold immediately reached into his backpack to fish for the box of stem cell syringes. He reached in, feeling for it. When he found the box, he took it out.

"Andy, I'm gonna need you to guide me through this, I have no idea where my organs are located."

Suddenly, his right eye darkened. Then, a 3D atlas of the anatomy of the human body appeared. The human looked completely identical to Arnold. There was even a large wound on the left lumbar region of the 3D human body, identical to Arnold as well. Then, Andy zoomed in on the wound.

The wound was animated, so it was not as bloody and gory as it was with Arnold's actual situation.

"Please take out a syringe. Move the syringe to the opening of the wound. Stop. Head inside for about 7cm. Stop. Turn right for 23 degrees. Stop. Head forwards for 2cm stopped. Please poke the syringe into the damaged tissue. Stop. Inject the stem cells into the damaged tissue."

Arnold followed the instructions of Andy promptly. He winced as the stem cells entered his damaged organ.

Afterwards, Arnold continued to follow Andy, injecting the stem cells into the other two organs. Then, Arnold asked, "What next?"

"We must now close the wound. Please apply an absorbable suture on the wound. Take out the emergency medical kit from the backpack."

Arnold reached inside and fished for a bit before taking the kit out, opening the lid of the medical kit.

"Please take out a packet of polydioxanone threads and the needle driver. Open the packet and grab the tip of the needle of the thread with the driver. However, leave the driver 5cm inwards from the tip to allow for penetration of the skin."

Arnold have no idea which surgical toll is which. Therefore, Andy placed images of each surgical tool with their names beside the 3D anatomical atlas of himself in his right eye.

"Use the tissue forceps and gently pinch the bottom left corner of the wound. Then, align the wound as much as you can." Andy magnified the picture of the forceps and highlighted the corner of the wound to prevent Arnold from making any mistakes.

"Place the needle on the bottom right side of the wound with the driver. Penetrate the wound at a 90 degree angle until the needle fully appears on the other side. Stop. Pull the needle and penetrate the needle throught the left side of the wound..."

The stitching continued. As Arnold was a complete newbie in such an ardous medical procedure, it took him half an hour before he finally closed his wound. He sighed in relief.

"That was hard." Arnold panted. "Now that the wound is closed, how come my survival rate is still 33%?"

"The percentage rate of fatal blood loss due to internal organ hemorrhage being faster than the accelerated healing of the organ due to the stem cell injection is 67%. Therefore, your survival now purely depends on the potency of the stem cells and the healing rate of your organs."

Arnold nodded. He started to feel very tired, but he had to maintain his vigilence since a zombie might come in at anytime. After a while, he started to feel dizzy and confused. His entire body felt weak.

"Warning, Master is now in Class III hemorrhagic shock, amount of blood lost: 1554 mL and counting. Survival rate of host dropped to 25%."