Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 265: Lump
When Martin heard that he had to pass through the icy road covered with egg sheaths, an extremely reluctant look immediately appeared on his face... But compared to the third way mentioned by Ke Lan, he could only bite the bullet and follow the others.
"Pay attention to where you step, and be careful not to break the egg sacs." Ke Lan said - at this time, the team's position changed again, Ke Lan returned to the vanguard position, and the task of covering the rear was given to the hound and Zhuo Ligetu.
The surface of these egg cases is frozen with a layer of solid ice. To be honest, the hardness is not low. Even a modified human with an extraordinary tonnage like Layton can step on them without any harm. This discovery finally made Ke Lan breathe a sigh of relief.
If it were other insects, if the egg sheath ruptured before the larvae matured, the larvae would basically die. However, this red fleshy worm was different... This creature could not even be considered a "worm" in the conventional sense. When they gathered together, they could even form a behemoth like Leviathan. This alone was enough to overturn the biological theories that humans had developed for thousands of years.
Ke Lan didn't dare to treat these things as ordinary "bugs".
The team moved very slowly because the egg cases were not only hard but also very smooth. Because they were covered with a thin layer of ice, stepping on them was no different from stepping on an ice surface. And it was not an uneven hemispherical ice surface. Every step they took required several times the energy to find a stable foothold , and the whole body had to be tense at all times to maintain balance.
"I always have a feeling... that what I'm stepping on is not an insect's egg case... but a landmine." The hound couldn't help but complain.
The arrangement of these egg cases was very irregular, and everyone was basically trudging through them, one step deep and one step shallow. Martin and Qin Zhao even slipped a few times. Fortunately, the egg cases they bumped into did not show any changes.
After advancing about 200 meters, the egg sheaths attached to the ice finally disappeared. The hunter couldn't help but let out a long sigh and said, "I finally crawled out of that pile of disgusting insect eggs... Damn, my ankles are almost cramped from being stretched so tight."
"This ice road... could it be the spawning ground of these insects? But why is it in Li..." Leighton suddenly reacted here, glanced at Qin Zhao and the other person who were confused behind him, and didn't continue.
"It seems that our previous speculation was correct. This twin ruins should be the place where the Alpha civilization developed biological weapons, just like the research institute on the Ark." Ke Lan said.
"That's troublesome. The security measures at the institute are so abnormal that even a mosquito can't fly in. If this place is the Alpha Institute...tsk tsk..." Layton shook his head, "The situation is not optimistic."
Hearing him say that, the Hound rolled his eyes at Layton again: "Can you shut up your crow mouth? You never know how to say anything nice all day long."
"You are too superstitious, old man. You can't blame me for this kind of thing..." Leighton said aggrievedly.
"Anyway, can you please stop talking nonsense? I'm tired of listening to you." The hound scolded, "The problem now is how to get out of this ruins. Don't think about it. Look at that little bastard named Martin. He's almost scared to death after hearing what you said."
"Uh... I, I'm actually fine..." Martin said weakly, but his trembling fingers and the stiff expression on his face completely betrayed his true thoughts.
"It's okay to be a little timid. Cowardly people live longer. But being too timid is not good either. If you are too timid, you'd better change your career as soon as possible." The hound walked forward and patted Martin's shoulder hard, but the latter's knees went weak and he almost fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the hound was quick-witted and grabbed the opponent's arm and lifted him up. But at this moment, the hound suddenly let go of his hand as if he had seen a ghost, and kicked Martin back several meters.
"On your wrist! What's that?!" the Hound shouted.
Following the beam of light from the flashlight in the hound's hand, everyone discovered that the small exposed part of Martin's wrist was stained with a bright red color, and there were many rice-sized lumps on the surface of the skin.
Martin looked down and was immediately frightened. He grabbed his arms tightly and was about to shout, but found that a roll of bandage was suddenly stuffed into his mouth, blocking the sound in his throat.
"Don't get excited, calm down, maybe there is still hope." The person who put the bandage on was Ke Lan, who had already put on rubber gloves and had several sharp medical knives clamped between his fingers.
Martin stared in horror, looked at Ke Lan's scalpel, then looked at his wrist, struggled nervously, and wanted to speak, but couldn't say anything.
Seeing this, Ke Lan reached out and pulled the bandage out of his mouth.
"Senior, senior, senior... are you, you you... planning to... cut off my hand?" He spoke somewhat incoherently, with obvious tears in his voice.
"Let me check it first. Amputation is not necessary." Ke Lan said, looking up at the others, "You can also check yourselves to see if there are similar symptoms on your skin, especially the exposed parts."
After saying that, Ke Lan picked up a pair of the largest surgical scissors, cut vertically along Martin's cuffs, and turned the layers of thick fabric to both sides.
The red area is about eight centimeters long, extending from the wrist to the lower third of the forearm. The outside is lighter in color and the inside is darker. As for those rice-sized lumps, they are only on the inside of the wrist.
"Do you feel itchy or painful?" Ke Lan asked Martin.
"No, no." The latter was stunned for a moment, then shook his head vigorously.
"What now?" Before Ke Lan finished her words, the scalpel blade had already pierced into the red skin, and the tip of the knife sank diagonally to a depth of half a centimeter.
"Ah! Hisss... Eh?"
Martin's cry of pain was swallowed by himself just as he shouted out halfway. He looked at the blade that pierced his wrist with a puzzled look on his face. He was puzzled at first, and then terrified. "It seems... I can't feel any pain at all? Ah! Senior, is my hand... useless?"
"It's too early to draw a conclusion." Ke Lan said seriously, and the people watching nearby didn't even dare to breathe. "Since you can't feel the pain, I won't use anesthesia. Layton, hold him down with the mechanical arm and try not to move around. In addition, don't have direct contact with his body. The parts that are indirectly in contact must be disinfected later."
As he spoke, Ke Lan had already turned the blade and cut open a lump the size of a grain of rice.
The lump burst, and clear, thick liquid mixed with a streak of blood flowed out.
"What is this?" the hound couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know." Ke Lan shook his head. He took out a test tube used to hold specimens and used tweezers to squeeze all the liquid in the tumor into the test tube.
But after the pus in the lump was squeezed out, the red skin around the lump actually returned to its original color, and Martin's face also showed a look of pain...
"Hiss... It hurts... I can feel the pain again... What's going on?"
"Although I don't understand the principle, it seems that as long as you squeeze out the contents of these lumps, your arm will return to normal." Ke Lan said, taking out a syringe and giving Martin a few injections in the middle of his forearm. Immediately, the pain that Martin had just recovered disappeared.
"Senior, I can't feel the pain anymore..."
"What Ke Lan just gave you was a blocking injection, a solution of lidocaine mixed with dexamethasone. It would be a miracle if you can still feel the pain." The Hound said unhappily. Although he was not a doctor, he still recognized the labels of those commonly used medicines... As a lone hunter, he basically had to deal with emergency treatments for major and minor injuries by himself. If he opened the first aid kit and didn't even know how to use the things in it, he would probably have died countless times.
After anesthesia, Ke Lan cut open several lumps in succession. After squeezing out all the thick fluid in the lumps, Martin's arm finally regained its original color.
Finally, Ke Lan rinsed the cut several times with alcohol solution before wrapping it with a bandage and sealing it with a layer of isolation film like plastic wrap.
"It's actually difficult to completely remove the pus in the lump with this method alone..." Ke Lan said. He couldn't help but think of Ivan's infection with the Seed of Erosion. "In fact, amputation is the best method. It's the safest..."
"Is it really necessary to amputate?!" Martin was shocked and quickly covered his arm with his hand.
"But there are no conditions for amputation surgery now. If you do it directly, you will most likely die from heavy bleeding or wound infection." Ke Lan said, "But if you don't do it, there is a possibility of recurrence at any time. You must always pay attention to changes in the wound, and others must keep a safe distance from you."
"Okay, okay, I got it! I'll take care of myself!" Martin nodded repeatedly when he heard that there was no need for amputation.
"If there is a chance to return to the Ark, even if the wound has not changed, I must perform another deep debridement. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand! I understand!"
"As for this." Ke Lan raised the test tube containing pus in his hand, "I will give this thing to the people above. Maybe someone from the research institute or the security bureau will come to you later. Be prepared."
"Security Bureau?" Martin couldn't help but shudder when he heard the word, "I... I won't be silenced, right?"
"You're overthinking it. Do you really think that the people in the Security Bureau are all executioners?" Ke Lan glanced at him speechlessly. "However, if they really send someone to find you, it means that there is a big problem with this thing... At that time, if there is any problem with your body, only they will be able to help you."
"Will I be sent to the dissection table?" Martin asked.
"It's possible." Ke Lan nodded, "But if things develop to that point, even if you escape from them, you won't live long, and your end may even be worse than being put on the dissection table."
"Is it more miserable than being on the dissection table?" Martin's face turned pale. "Senior... I don't quite understand what you mean..."
"It's better not to understand." Ke Lan took off his gloves and stuffed them into a sealed waste bag together with the used surgical instruments. Then he made a gesture to Leighton that only they could understand.
The gesture means: keep an eye on Martin.
He didn't know what the pus was, and he couldn't even be sure whether it was related to the red fleshworms in the egg sheath... But one thing was certain: this thing could infect humans, and Martin, as an infected person, became an unstable factor in the team.
Even though he hadn't mutated or changed in any other way, that didn't mean his condition would remain the same forever.
If it were a more cold-blooded hunting group leader, he might choose to abandon it directly - from a certain perspective, doing so would completely eliminate this unstable factor.
"Let's go, keep moving forward."
…
After the operation just now, the atmosphere in the team became a little depressing. Even the hound rarely spoke. Everyone walked in silence, but as they walked, Ke Lan always felt that the surrounding environment seemed to be becoming weird.
But this strange feeling does not come from vision, but a kind of alertness that arises from deep in the heart...
"Something's not right." Ke Lan said softly.
"What's wrong?" asked the Hound.
"I can't say." Ke Lan shook her head.
"Maybe you're too nervous?" The Hound rubbed his chin. "To be honest, nothing in this damn place is right. If it's right, then there must be something fishy."
"No...it's not that feeling, it's just..." Ke Lan rubbed his forehead. He wanted to express his feelings, but found that he couldn't find the right words to describe it.
At this time, Layton, who was walking at the front of the team, suddenly uttered a light exclamation: "Hey, there seems to be something on the ground ahead."
"What is that?" Upon hearing this, the Hound immediately raised the gun in his hand and aimed the crosshairs at the dark ice road in front of him.
"Let's go take a look." Ke Lan suggested. Layton and Hound nodded, and the three of them raised their weapons and walked over with very light steps...
And when they finally saw clearly "that thing" that Layton was talking about, they stood still as if struck by lightning.
A piece of clay explosive covered several cracks in the ice, with a metal detonator inserted into it.
"Hiss... why... why are we back here again?" the hound muttered in a low voice.
"That's my explosives and detonators..." Layton said with a stern face, "This is impossible. This is absolutely impossible."
The ice track was a straight passage with no turns or forks. Logically, there was no way they could get back.
