Chapter 12

The others just nodded, watching Charlie slowly leave in the elevator. Everyone on the entire first basement floor seemed to have lost the strength to speak. This damned apocalypse, who knew when it would end.

As the elevator doors slowly closed, Charlie thought for a moment and directly pressed the button for the third basement floor. He and John were college classmates with a very close relationship. Now that John was injured, he naturally wanted to go and see him.

When he reached the third basement floor, Charlie walked through the white corridor and gently pressed the doorbell. "Dr. Kahn, it's me. I want to see John."

"Get lost! I told you not to disturb me while I'm doing experiments! Damn, can't you understand human language?" Dr. Kahn roared furiously.

Charlie was scolded to the point of being covered in dog blood. He could only laugh bitterly, shake his head, and turn to leave. From the tone, he knew Dr. Kahn was already in a berserk state. If he continued to disturb him, Dr. Kahn might come out and fight him to the death.

Besides, he knew that scientists were most忌讳 (taboo) about being disturbed while conducting experiments.

After taking a few steps, Charlie suddenly stopped. "I just want to see John."

Charlie muttered to himself and walked back to the laboratory door. He didn't know how long Dr. Kahn's experiment would last this time, but he knew that if he couldn't confirm John's safety, he would be preoccupied for the next few days, which would be counterproductive.

Taking out his tactical tablet, Charlie skillfully hacked into the laboratory's access control. The laboratory door opened silently, and Charlie slipped in quietly.

He wanted to see John and leave without disturbing Dr. Kahn.

The laboratory door closed silently behind him. Charlie then realized that the laboratory was much larger than he had imagined. The white corridor was somewhat oppressive. Charlie lightened his steps and walked along the corridor.

When he passed the third room, Charlie saw the defeated Terminator inside, still alive, chained to the ground. Seeing Charlie, it immediately struggled to get up, startling him.

"Damn, doesn't he fear the zombies escaping?" Charlie was still shaken and hurriedly quickened his pace. As he walked further, he saw several rooms with dissected zombies, their chests and abdomens cut open, their limbs dismembered and numbered, their flesh and blood a mess, but the most terrifying thing was that the zombies were still alive.

Seeing this, Charlie felt a bit nauseous. He knew these zombies were captured according to Dr. Kahn's instructions, and he thought they had already been dealt with by Dr. Kahn, but he never expected them to still be alive.

Not knowing what came over him, Charlie pushed open a door and walked in. The zombie tied to the operating table with alloy chains started to move.

Charlie covered his nose, enduring the stench of blood, and walked forward, picking up the experiment record book hanging in front of the operating table and flipping through a few pages. They were all Dr. Kahn's records.

"Specimen No. 9. Ordinary zombie, no evolutionary trend. Genes completely collapsed..."

Charlie couldn't bear to read more. The pages were filled with Dr. Kahn's experiment records: reactions after cutting nerves, healing time after cutting knees, effects after cutting the heart, and so on. If it weren't for the fact that the subject was a zombie, Charlie felt that just reading these records might make him want to kill Dr. Kahn ten times over.

"Damn. Scientists are indeed all crazy."

Charlie cursed, not daring to look anymore, and closed the door. Although he knew Dr. Kahn's experiments were significant for the survivors, he still felt uncomfortable.

After all, those zombies might have been anyone you met on the street, a father, a son, a boyfriend, a loved one.

Not wanting to see the miserable state of the experimental zombies anymore, Charlie quickened his pace, starting to search for John's location. "Damn. Is Dr. Kahn planning to treat John in such a place?"

This place was like a hell on earth. Even if the subjects were zombies, Charlie believed that no normal person would want to see this cruel side of science.

He only hoped that John wouldn't develop depression in such an environment. After passing through several rooms, Charlie still hadn't found John, and he began to feel a bit anxious.

When he reached the corner of the corridor, the rooms finally no longer contained those terrifying and miserable zombies, but a somewhat familiar machine. Charlie knew this was the capsule production line that Raul and the others had helped Dr. Kahn obtain last time.

Charlie stopped, gently pushed the door open, and walked in. The production line was not complicated, clearly having been dismantled in many places. Charlie glanced at it and knew how it worked.

On one side was the feed opening, followed by mixing and grinding, then capsule filling. At the end of the production line, a few inconspicuous capsules remained.

Charlie secretly put those capsules in his pocket. Although they often mocked these ridiculous vitamins, Charlie knew that perhaps just these few capsules meant survival for the survivors on the first basement floor.

Charlie had no interest in studying the production materials of the vitamins. He wouldn't understand even if he looked. After searching and not finding any residual vitamin capsules, Charlie prepared to leave.

"Idiot!"

A drawn-out voice suddenly sounded, startling Charlie. He thought he had been discovered by Dr. Kahn and was about to explain, but when he looked up, he saw no one, making him even more anxious.

"Idiot!"

Another mocking and crude voice sounded. Charlie followed the sound and was stunned. In the opposite room was a large red bird, like a parrot but clearly mutated, about the size of an eagle, also chained with alloy chains. One of its wings was bald, with many cut scars.

"Damn."

Charlie was almost disbelieving. He knew parrots could talk, but he swore he saw naked mockery in the eyes of the mutated parrot.

"Shh, don't make a sound." Charlie didn't care whether the parrot understood and quickly signaled for silence.

The mutated parrot called out even louder, "Idiot, you haven't pressed the button or crawled into the hole, so you can't transform."

Charlie was stunned. He saw a sense of smugness in the mutated parrot, the kind of superiority he often felt when he thought he was intellectually superior to others.

"Idiot!"

The mutated parrot called out even more smugly, its voice changing to Dr. Kahn's, "Throw the person in, press the button, and the vitamins will come out automatically... Damn, can't even a computer chip control your greed for humans after the nerves are cut?"

Then the voice changed to John's, which Charlie recognized very well, "No, Kahn, you devil! You're crazy! No, no... Please, don't kill me. I just broke my leg, I'm still useful, I can get better!"

Then it was Jerry's voice, "Kahn, I beg you, let me go. I don't want to die. My wife is waiting for me upstairs, please..."

"I don't have enough medicine to treat you, so this is the best choice..."

The mutated parrot continued, but Charlie could no longer hear clearly. He felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his whole body numb. Then, like a madman, Charlie ran to the feed opening of the capsule production line and crawled in. The smell of blood was so strong, even after being cleaned many times, Charlie could still smell the raw sin and blood.

"This isn't real! This isn't real!"

Charlie screamed in pain, pushing over the feed opening. With a loud bang, a layer of fine white powder mixed with white bone fragments and blood residue fell to the ground. Among them, Charlie saw a broken ring.

Trembling, he picked it up. Just one look, and Charlie couldn't help but vomit violently, digging his fingers into his mouth, as if trying to tear it apart and pull out his stomach, because the ring was inscribed with, "To my dearest..."

"Damn! You damned mutated parrot, maybe I should dissect you completely!"

Dr. Kahn's angry roar echoed as he strode out of the laboratory.

"Damn. How did you get in here? What are you doing here? Get out now!"

Bang!

A gunshot rang out. Charlie, trembling, shot Dr. Kahn in the thigh, the smoking gun barrel pointing at Dr. Kahn's head. "You bastard, you damned bastard! I'm going to kill you! I have to kill you!"

"Damn. You shot my leg, damn!"

Dr. Kahn clutched his leg in pain, almost disbelieving, "Are you crazy?!"

"You're the one who's crazy."

Charlie was in immense pain, pulling out the few vitamin capsules and throwing them at Dr. Kahn's face, "What have you done! You bastard, you actually turned John and the others into capsules! Vitamins?! I'll f*** your whole family!"

Thinking of this, Charlie angrily rushed forward and kicked Dr. Kahn to the ground. Dr. Kahn remained silent, quietly pressing the alarm. Soon, a piercing alarm sounded.

"You don't understand anything. This is science. I forgive you. Put down the gun, and I won't pursue this matter." Dr. Kahn spoke slowly, without much fear.

"Ha ha ha!"

Charlie laughed in pain, his laughter extremely suppressed and painful, "After doing such things, don't you feel any guilt? They are people, not your test subjects, not those zombies!"

"You're the crazy one."

Charlie took a deep breath, slowly tightening his grip on the gun. He swore he would blow Dr. Kahn's head off and send this damned bastard to hell to repent for his sins!

"Charlie, what are you doing! Put down the gun!"

The alarm had alarmed Raul and the others, who immediately rushed into the laboratory. Seeing Charlie pointing the gun at Dr. Kahn's head, they all changed color.