[Chapter Six]

The water wasn't flowing away smoothly due to the pieces of skin that had peeled away for her, it also was starting to get cloudy due to getting mixed in with her blood and the decayed flesh. The men outside studied her expression as it went from passive to curiosity then back to passive.

"She's quite a find major, her body is decaying but her blood remains rather red than the usual green or black goo." The second lieutenant said as he added pressure to hasten the suction of formalin. She did not resist nor attacked, he felt as if the specimen still had control of her brain.

Major Isao sounded an affirmation and said nothing else, allowing the other man to focus on his task. The major's keen eyes scanning every action the specimen creates as it moves around. It had its palms and forehead pressed up on the glass and leaning on it. Its eyes moved from the equipment to Minori and every corner in the tent except where he was sitting.

It is very tidy... They had set this up within a few hours. She weakly thought out, avoiding the burning stare the major was throwing her way. She had no memories so she'd rather be wary of everything. When the formalin was finally sucked out, Minori pushed the lever up. The sucking noise was put to a halt, her hair and clothes wet clinging to her.

Pssshhhh...

The container she was in was specially designed to allow anyone outside to open it with a lever at the side. There were tubes inside to keep the specimen alive while preserving them in formalin, this allows easy access to the specimen but the person operating needs to open the lid cover slightly to get to the tube. Puffs of smoke came out the top of the container. Since she was leaning of the glass, she had unintentionally used her weight to open it. The man in front of her rushed to prevent it from fully opening in fear that she would escape and infect people. She pushed her dried blood smeared palms against the glass and stood silently. If they were to ignore the rotting corpse image that the specimen had the men behind the major would have thought of her as a small child.

Minori quickly pulled out a syringe from one of his coat pockets, his gloved hand sticking ever so subtly to the fabric of the white lab gown. He had one of the better-built men at the side to help him hold it up, the muscular man didn’t waste time and took Minori’s place pushing the lid. The drug he was going to inject the specimen was a little special since it was a mix of several other drugs in a fixed value. If he made a mistake on how much ml he would take from each of the seven drugs at the little trolley beside the metal bed, then the effects would be unfavorable to them. He put the syringe down on and took another syringe much smaller than the one he had held. For each vial, there was a syringe placed beside each.

When the needle passed through the rubber, the syringe was filled with the liquid as the air inside the syringe moved to the vials, the content of both was exchanged. He took a new vial and slowly pushed the contents of all seven vials into it. He sealed the vial and carefully mixed it manually. Once he was all done, and the drug has been transferred to the bigger syringe, he pushed the air out after lightly flicking the candle.

Minori went towards where she was still confined and signaled the man to lower the lid slightly so he could inject her. She stood there without moving, he slightly pulled one of the flexible tubes near him after doing a half squat to reach it from underneath the opened lid. He looked at the man who was supporting the lid and breathe in deeply before pushing all the contents into the tube.

It was now a waiting game, they could not use the previous formalin they had submerged her in but, Minori was sure that she wouldn’t be able to wake up easily like the first time once it is in her system.

“Second Lieutenant Minori”, his voice low and dripped with danger. His eyes squinted ever so lightly as he stared at the military doctor assigned to them. He stared back at her figure again, Minori had felt goosebumps over his body and a cold sweat began to break out.

“I’ll take my leave, time of departure remains the same”, the major said before he stood up and walked with his company outside the tent. When the major stood, she turned a little to look his way as his back faced her walking away. Minori had a breath of relief with the origin of the tension leaving his working area.

“You can push the lid back on now private.” Minori taps the shoulder of the man that was keeping the lid from completely coming off. The man, after pushing the lid back on and Minori securing it, saluted Minori and went to the makeshift decontamination chamber.

He took one of the seats that were given to the major and his companions a while ago, and dragged it a bit near the container. He was still wearing his full gear in case the specimen would react violently. He sat on it, staring fascinatedly at the little girl that decided to sit down and pull her knees near her face in a fetal position.

The tubes that they had connected to her has restricted her movements. She can feel something warm crawling from within the tubes, her cold skin had made her able to detect it easily. It was an uncomfortable feeling especially since the person in front of her watched her like she was a problem that sparked a lot of interest from him.

The thought that this little girl has a sliver of brain activity left got Minori excited to research her. She was infected, dead, and rotting yet she still has consciousness. Other undead would walk in a group but when they found her, she was alone no other undead was near her or the vicinity. There was also the part where she did not just go and attacked as others would do, she hid. The blood on her palms, when they saw her came from the sharp pieces of glass that had been buried in her skin, was still red despite how much her skin had decayed.

He wondered if there were others like her or something must’ve happened that made the usual undead blood color, black or greenish, become red. This was naturally uncommon, rare to be precise. He remembered something when the specimen inside started to pat her sides. He remembered that when they had gotten a hold of her there was this strange knife pendant necklace inside her pocket. He suddenly stood up and hurried to the other bags that carried strange stuff that they found. The necklace was neatly placed inside a cling wrap and inserted at one of the side pockets. He wanted to know whether this thing might evoke a reaction from the specimen who was staring at his back.

“If it is true that it still has a consciousness left, then there is a chance that they are getting better.” When he had come close enough for the specimen to see what he is holding, he dangled the necklace in between him and the undead little girl. The girl in turn tried to reach out to get the item, she started using force on the glass as much as she can. Luckily, the drug was starting to take its effect. Although this time was a bit longer before the signs of slowly being unable to function could be observed. She had slowly blacked out with her hand still stretched towards the necklace. Minori decided that it was alright for him to keep the necklace for research purposes, he had a gut feeling that this was no ordinary pendant.