"Dr. Spaciel, are you alright!"
Kevin increased the speed of his digging upon seeing the man's head. Using both hands, he gradually pulled Spaciel out of the rubble. As Spaciel's gruesome injuries came into view, Mei's expression grew more serious.
Finally, when Spaciel's left forearm, covered in purple streaks, was exposed, Kevin still didn't realize the implications.
"Dr. Spaciel, grab my hand..."
"Wait, Kevin." Mei stopped Kevin. As she knelt to examine Spaciel's arm, she caught sight of a small arm pressed under the rubble. "There's someone else."
After another round of digging, Kevin sucked in a cold breath at the sight of the revealed Sijin.
Ugly, distorted purple streaks, the signature of Honkai corrosion, spread from Sijin's crushed leg all the way up to her neck. The Honkai energy, symbolizing death, pulsed and moved within these streaks, visibly spreading and about to engulf her face.
Corrosion to this extent, if it didn't turn the victim into a Zombie, would lead to immediate death. The vital areas were already saturated with Honkai energy. Even an inhibitor would only delay death by minutes or hours, and Mei only had one syringe of inhibitor left.
Two people needed the inhibitor: Sijin and Spaciel. If she injected Spaciel now, Mei still had a chance to perform an excision surgery immediately. As for Sijin...
This was not a difficult choice for Mei. If the situation were reversed, and she and Sijin swapped places, she would make the same decision.
She decisively took out the inhibitor, tore open Spaciel's scorched sleeve, and aimed the syringe at his arm to inject him.
Spaciel recoiled in panic, avoiding the syringe, and pleaded, gazing at the equally dying Sijin: "No... Give it to Sijin..."
This was a sudden, unforeseen destruction that no one had anticipated. In an instant, nearly a hundred lives vanished. It was a sudden and cruel reality for Spaciel... no, for everyone at the Fifth Branch.
Spaciel didn't know the cause of the incident, nor did he care about his Honkai-corroded left arm. All he wanted now was for Mei to give the inhibitor to Sijin.
He knew better than anyone how weak the inhibitor's effect would be on Sijin, but he still yearned for the impossible miracle. What if... what if Sijin's constitution was special?What if the cure for Honkai Sickness he was searching for was in Sijin's body and just needed the inhibitor to activate?
His mind was in disarray, incapable of logical thought. He only knew that if the inhibitor was injected into him... Sijin would die.
Kevin was equally distraught. He stared anxiously at Mei, who was momentarily still. At this moment, he could only trust Mei to make the right decision.
This was Kevin's first intimate encounter with the cruelty of the Honkai.
And this was far from over.
"Gah—"
Kevin's hairs stood on end.
Spaciel's eyes widened.
Mei coldly turned her head, looking at the figure staggering to its feet.
A Zombie.
"Mei..." Kevin stood up and took a step forward, shielding Mei.
He swallowed, trying to raise his gun, but his hand felt incredibly heavy, as if someone were dragging his arm, refusing to obey his command.
Mei turned back, holding up the syringe, and gave a clear instruction: "Kevin, shoot."
"No... please, Dr. Mei..." Spaciel's tears flowed profusely from the corners of his eyes, like a broken dam. He pleaded with the cold-faced Mei. "Karen must be salvageable... Please... can't you temporarily contain Karen? I will surely develop a cure..."
Kevin's pupils widened. The air seemed stuck from his lungs to his throat. His mind was a mess.
Right now, he should immediately open fire and kill the approaching Zombies. Regardless of who they were in life, after being corrupted by the Honkai, they were mere puppets of Honkai energy. Kevin would not spare his bullets or his compassion.
But at this moment, the arm that had remained unwavering even in the face of death was trembling.
Because the Zombie staggering to its feet was none other than Spaciel's wife, Karen.
Her once beautiful, sapphire-blue, jewel-like eyes were now dominated by terrifying white sclera. Her skin was the pale white common to Zombies. Her flawless white hair was stained with dirt and blood. She shuffled slowly toward their location.
Kill her here?
In front of her husband and child? Just pull the trigger and... stop her movement?
Kill his beloved in front of Spaciel?
In Kevin's eyes at this moment, the Zombie wasn't Karen; it was Mei.
If I were lying in the ruins now, watching Mei transform into a Zombie and walk toward me, and another person raised a gun to kill her...
Would I also let out a heart-wrenching scream? Would I beg and cry?
And if it were Lin? What would he do?
The face of the person aiming the gun gradually transformed into Lin's.
He would ignore Kevin's pleas, and then, he would pull the trigger of death on his own friend.
"Dr. Spaciel, what I'm about to say may not conform to humanism, but in my view, the only true justice is to cure the Honkai Sickness and save humanity." Mei pushed up her glasses. The cold light reflecting off the lenses was chilling. "Please don't question my choice. You are a critical talent in fighting the Honkai Sickness, and I cannot save them."
"Kevin, shoot."
Mei raised the syringe.
Kevin raised his pistol.
The white-haired young man gripped the gun with both hands, stopping the trembling. He channeled all his compassion into the resolve to end suffering, aiming at Karen's forehead.
His finger contracted.
"No—No—" Spaciel struggled, reaching out his hand.
"Bang!"
The bullet pierced Karen's skull.
Spaciel's time stopped.
In his frozen time, his nerves completely collapsed. He saw Karen collapsing forward, saw Sijin's rapid breathing, saw Mei plunging the syringe into his shoulder, saw the shocked Kevin, and...
Lin, standing in the distance, firing the shot.
"Hiss..."
The inhibitor was fully injected into his body. Spaciel's nerves utterly collapsed, and he passed out.
"Lin..." Kevin's body trembled. He stared at the helmeted man, who was lowering his gun, his lips shaking uncontrollably.
Lin walked past Kevin, picked up Sijin, and headed toward the rooftop without looking back.
"Let's go. We'll perform the excision surgery on the rooftop." His voice was as cold as ever.
As if nothing had happened.
Lin looked down, gently touching Sijin's face with his finger.
"...Squad Member Lin."
A figure knelt on the rooftop.
Tears fell like broken pearls.
A corpse lay nearby.