Chapter 41: Then I’ll Abandon Them Too
Translator: ShutDoor
I wasn’t a biotechnology major, and it had already been more than eight years since I had last studied the subject, so I knew next to nothing about life sciences. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t tell the difference between a vaccine and a treatment.
A vaccine prevented a disease, while a treatment treated a disease someone had already contracted. Wasn’t that the distinction?
Naturally, our shelter planned to develop both a vaccine and a treatment for the NIV virus. No, if I had to choose, the treatment was the immediate priority. We needed to cure the researchers’ parents who were already infected.
“We can’t create a complete treatment right from the start. We simply don’t have enough time for that.”
By “time”, Rachel meant the critical window during which the infected people in our shelter could endure the symptoms while still lucid.
As time passed, infected people unable to find new hosts would suffer tremendous pain and high fevers from the virus’s sabotage. We were suppressing the symptoms with anesthetics and sleeping medication for now, but keeping them in that state for the months it would take to develop a complete treatment was nearly impossible.
Our most urgent task, then, was to develop a drug that could buy them time until the full treatment was ready.
“So the first thing we need to make is closer to a signal blocker. It will interfere with the virus binding to neuronal surface receptors and forcibly suppress the signals already being generated in infected patients’ brains. The goal is to buy time by preventing further brain damage.”
That, apparently, was only stage one.
Rachel raised another finger.
“Stage two is a nervous system stabilization treatment that counters the virus’s sabotage signals by tricking it. To put it simply, we’ll trick the virus so it doesn’t recognize its host as a defective vector, so hosts won’t succumb to high fever or encephalitis even if they don’t infect anyone else. Once we reach this stage, patients will be able to remain rational and lead normal lives without anesthetics.”
The final stage, stage three, would be a true treatment that completely neutralized the virus itself and established immunity.
After explaining that much, Rachel paused with a few thoughtful hums, seemingly running the numbers in her head.
“Assuming we go through everything from Phase I to Phase III clinical trials…”
Rachel’s voice gradually trailed off as she calculated, and she cautiously glanced at Ann beside her. She seemed to remember being hit by Ann the last time she had said something foolish.
“…Assuming everything proceeds exactly as planned without any setbacks, it will take at least ten months.”
Ten months.
They called it ten months, but that was practically a year.
Considering the state of the world after only two weeks, South Korea would be as good as destroyed ten months from now. Even now, didn’t it rely on imports for nearly every kind of food except rice?
The crude oil reserves would probably last a little over six months at best. How could South Korea, one of the world’s biggest consumers of petroleum, possibly survive without fuel?
Once the oil ran out, the nationwide logistics network would collapse first, and thermal power plants would shut down one after another. An unstable power supply would stop the pumps at water purification and sewage treatment plants, and all the air conditioning would fail, making even food storage difficult.
For a country that produced not a single drop of oil, losing the crude oil supply was equivalent to sending the entire nation back to the era before the Joseon Dynasty.
On top of that, the sabotage committed by people infected with NIV would only grow more violent. As the number of uninfected people dwindled, their withdrawal symptoms would make the fits suffered by gambling or drug addicts pale in comparison.
Even elite special forces deployed to hellish war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan couldn’t escape drug withdrawal. How could ordinary civilians possibly endure the horrifying agony of having their brains shaken to the core and the narcotic pleasure delivered by dopamine?
In the end, the infected would stop at nothing to hunt down those who remained uninfected, both to forget their pain and obtain the pleasure their brains demanded.
And what would happen when the day finally came when they could no longer find any new hosts to infect?
The infected were still human, so they could survive for a while by raiding grocery stores or catching and eating wild animals in the streets. But South Korea was far too small and barren to feed a population of fifty million.
Farming? Would the infected quietly settle down and grow crops?
They were far more likely to have their brains rot long before they ever picked up a hoe and end up starving to death as they crawled through the streets, drooling like the drug addicts who had filled the streets of LA a few years ago.
Seen that way, this really was a zombie virus in all but name.
Wasn’t one reason zombie viruses had been criticized as unrealistic in fiction and the media that living human bodies could never withstand the overwhelming firepower of a conventional military?
But no military belonging to a country that claimed to be a democracy could handle a virus like this.
An authoritarian dictatorship like China, Russia, or North Korea might be able to brand the infected as subversives in the name of the “greater good”, rain missiles down on them, and wipe them all out.
But what about South Korea? What about Europe and the United States?
Could a government truly shoot and kill its own citizens when they could speak normally, post on the internet, and even freely wield guns and all kinds of other weapons?
Ann read my thoughts and spoke.
“If the situation grows any worse, they may truly begin firing indiscriminately.”
I nodded.
“They might.”
But the moment they did, the nation would have difficulty maintaining its legitimacy as a state. No matter how the government tried to justify its actions, the people would no longer recognize its authority.
But I was different. I could develop a treatment for the NIV virus.
Our shelter possessed state-of-the-art equipment that compared favorably even with that of the United States, the world’s foremost superpower. On top of that, we had spared no expense in committing androids with computing capabilities far beyond those of humans to analyzing the virus.
So our shelter would probably be the first to develop a treatment for the NIV virus.
After all, even Enigma had taken nearly two weeks to identify how the NIV virus spread and understand its biological mechanisms.
“Even with COVID-19, it took nearly 188 days for aerosol transmission to be officially recognized, so your assumption is not entirely wrong, Administrator.”
Ann confirmed it beyond doubt.
We were the fastest.
Even with COVID-19, it had taken more than six months to identify its transmission patterns and devise appropriate countermeasures. How long would it take with a pathogen whose structure was so sophisticated and complex that COVID-19 couldn’t even compare?
It might take several months, perhaps even longer, just to identify its basic characteristics.
Then how much more time would they need to take the next step and develop a vaccine and treatment?
Two years? Three?
“…”
In that case, could the leaders of each country truly have failed to reach this obvious conclusion when even I could arrive at it without much trouble?
They might not have advisers as capable as mine, but they must also have some of the world’s finest elites at their sides.
“As you said, Administrator, if the world’s leaders received the relevant reports, they would also have concluded that analyzing the pathogen alone would take several months. Even if the WHO scraped together every last bit of the world’s capabilities to develop a vaccine, it would still take at least a year and a half to bring it to market. The chances of the global economy surviving until then are probably…”
“Nonexistent.”
The Middle East, the hub of global crude oil exports, was already beyond recovery. The moment this bizarre infectious disease descended upon a region already ravaged by civil war, it became a true hell where distinguishing friend from foe had lost all meaning.
I had confirmed it myself through the reconnaissance satellite, so there could be no doubt.
Besides, would the infected quietly remain confined to their homes? With an ordinary infectious disease, some people might self-isolate until a vaccine was developed, but those infected with NIV never would.
Like drug addicts craving their next dose, they had already lost so much of their human reason that they were little different from monsters.
“Then let’s start developing the treatment today.”
“Yes!”
But with our shelter, if we could hold out for ten months at best or a little over a year at worst, we would somehow be able to return the infected to normal…
[ NIV Treatment and Vaccine Self-Sufficiency Process ]
Research difficulty: ★★☆
「Laboratory requirements: [230% fulfilled]」
「Equipment and advanced infrastructure: [390% fulfilled]」
「Required research personnel: [870% fulfilled]」
「Researcher morale: [Outstanding] (Family Safety Secured: Active)」
「Reagent and resource stockpiles: [Abundant]」
「 Estimated research time: 317 days → 104 days 」
“Huh.”
“Huh?”
F-Finally, the research complex was earning its keep after guzzling down 200 trillion won!
*****
[Ugh, ugh, uuuugh, aaaargh…]
Thud. Thud.
The infected person on the other side of the screen sobbed at the top of their lungs as they repeatedly smashed their head against the concrete wall. Each time their forehead struck the hard surface, the pristine white paint grew stained with crimson blood, but the scientists observing them through the surveillance camera remained utterly impassive.
They wore thick positive-pressure protective suits and even gas masks. Not a single scientist there was insane enough to whine about the heat in the face of a virus that had wrecked the world in just two weeks.
Bang! Bang!
When the heavy impacts thundered from beyond the wall, the newly arrived junior researcher’s face turned deathly pale.
“…S-Shouldn’t we stop them?”
But the senior researcher beside them shook their head as if it were nothing serious.
“Those bastards are just doing that to make us feel sorry for them. They’ll wear themselves out and collapse on their own, so don’t open that door under any circumstances.”
“B-But what if they die?”
“I thought the same thing, but it turns out they don’t have the guts to actually kill themselves.”
The senior researcher pointed demonstratively at a corner of the monitor. The countless blood-encrusted scabs clinging like rags to the infected person’s forehead and scalp made it obvious that they had already repeated the same behavior countless times.
“If they had the guts to die in the first place, they wouldn’t have followed us here so obediently.”
[Uuugh… Ugh… Sob…]
[Open the door. Please open the door. It hurts so much. My head hurts so much. It huuurts!]
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The infected person writhed and thrashed violently in agony, but apparently lacking the nerve to truly smash their skull open and die, they soon collapsed facedown on the bed and began panting.
Before the CCTV feed showing a corridor lined with countless infected-patient isolation rooms, the director of the research facility continued the briefing.
“As you can see, we have confirmed that infected people display abnormal reactions resembling drug withdrawal symptoms when quarantined in one area for at least ten days.”
“…”
The mere fact that a vice minister of a nation, someone who would normally be expected to value authority and appearances, was bundled in a protective suit and gas mask like any assistant researcher revealed just how desperate the situation had become.
“…Does that mean we can confirm whether someone is infected by confining them for ten days and waiting?”
“We can be at least eighty percent certain.”
Eighty percent. A mere eighty percent.
They had scraped together every leading scholar in virology and infectious disease still remaining in the country and confined them to this laboratory to work without rest since D-Day, yet the only result was, “We can identify an infected person with eighty percent accuracy by locking them up for ten days and observing them.”
“…”
Apparently realizing that the vice minister was displeased, the research director hastily added an explanation.
“If we can secure just a little more time and more specimens, we can clearly determine the cause and devise meaningful treatment guidelines! If we bring the full capabilities of the academic community together, we can surely pave the way toward developing a vaccine…!”
In principle, the vice minister ought to trust the researchers’ abilities, as the research director had said, and provide them with unstinting support and encouragement.
The previous COVID-19 pandemic had painfully taught them that overcoming a major infectious disease outbreak required mobilizing not only a single country’s full research capabilities, but those of the entire world.
During the last pandemic, however, the disease had spread much more slowly, the pathogen had been relatively less vicious, and most importantly, there had been no viable alternative to developing a vaccine.
“…”
In the case of this second pandemic, they had another option besides creating a vaccine.
Like the leaders of other developed nations, hadn’t the South Korean government been preparing for the end of the world since one month before D-Day?
Under normal circumstances, preparing for the apocalypse in a mere month would have been nearly impossible. But the current government had secretly gathered the numerous “users” scattered throughout the country and successfully constructed an enormous shelter that doubled as a command center and could easily endure for at least several years.
Surely it had to be the largest shelter on the Korean Peninsula.
Even the rough figures the vice minister had heard put its cost in the tens of trillions of won.
They weren’t running away.
South Korea could only continue to exist if its leaders survived first. It was just like King Seonjo, the fourteenth king of Joseon, who had fled all the way to the banks of the Yalu River but preserved the royal court and dynasty because the enemy had ultimately failed to capture him.
But there was no reason to reveal that secret and stir up needless trouble, so the vice minister merely nodded.
“Don’t worry. I was once a researcher myself, so I understand perfectly well what you’re agonizing over and concerned about. I simply had something else to consider in private.”
“…Ah, I see.”
“Report to me immediately if you obtain more meaningful results. An urgent meeting has come up, so I’ll be on my way.”
“Y-Yes, sir! Have a safe trip, Vice Minister!”
The vice minister patted the research director on the shoulder as if to offer encouragement, then headed toward the helicopter waiting outside with its engine rumbling.
The helicopter would fly straight to the airport.
There, the vice minister would board a special transport plane bound for Jeju Island, where “Paradise” awaited.
And they would never return to this blood-soaked mainland.
At least not until a vaccine had been developed.
“Phew.”
The vice minister thought about that as they smoked a premium cigarette they would no longer be able to enjoy in a few months.
*****
“By the way, how much tobacco do we have left?”
“The shelter currently has twenty million packs of regular cigarettes and at least five million premium cigars in stock.”
“If the researchers ask for cigarettes or other luxuries, don’t impose any limits. Just give them whatever they want.”
“Yes. I will see to it.”
With the treatment’s development time suddenly slashed to a little over three months, I found myself relaxing without even realizing it.
Who knew it had a hidden feature like this? Typical of a game for autists: no matter how deep I dug, something new kept turning up.
Could this be a new feature added after D-Day? That was certainly possible.
Back then, it had been the demo version, after all. Now we were playing the full version.
In any case, this was no time to worry about luxuries like cigarettes.
We were already busy developing the treatment. What would be the point of worrying about things like that too?
I read through the fresh report I had just received.
[Air and Sea Freight Volumes Bound for Jeju Island Surge]
[Twenty-three senior officials identified, including National Assembly member Yeom Jeong-gwang, the Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of National Defense]
…It seemed South Korea’s leaders had decided to abandon the people.
Then when we developed the treatment, I simply wouldn’t give it to them.
*****
Author’s Note
Munpia does not support the half-star special character, so from now on I will display a Research Difficulty of two and a half stars as (★★☆)(2.5).
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