Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 361: Marshall Taken Away
"What about him? Where is he now?" Before Ke Lan could speak, Asano Akira next to him couldn't help but ask.
"He...he...he is now..."
The woman did not answer immediately, but became hesitant. Ke Lan's heart could not help but "skip". He looked at Asano Akira with some worry. Then he turned his head, stared into the woman's eyes, and asked in a low voice: "Tell me first, is he still alive?"
"I...I don't know."
Ke Lan noticed that Asano Akira's hand was tightly grasping the sword disguised as a guide stick, and the cloth wrapped around the scabbard was squeezed into obvious wrinkles.
"You said you didn't know, so you didn't see him being killed with your own eyes, right?" Ke Lan grabbed the woman's shoulder with his other hand, "Then tell us everything you know, not only will I not kill you, I can also give you three more painkillers."
“Let me… think about it for a moment…” The woman lowered her head, covered her head with her hands, and tried hard to recall.
"Don't worry, think about it carefully and don't miss any important details." Ke Lan said.
The woman was silent for four or five minutes before she spoke: "I first noticed that man on the transport ship."
Ke Lan and Asano Akira both pricked up their ears, but neither of them said a word, for fear of interrupting the woman's thoughts.
"His gray hair was very eye-catching. When I was first brought into the cargo hold, I noticed him sitting in the corner."
Sitting in the corner? Hearing the woman's description, Ke Lan's facial expression could not help but change slightly... It seemed that her previous guess was correct, and Marshall had indeed recovered from his paralyzed state.
Although Ke Lan had many details to ask, he did not open his mouth but continued to listen to the woman.
"I thought it was an old man at first. I was very curious at that time... You know, miners can't handle such physical work. And the environment in the mining area is so bad, with high temperature, lack of oxygen... and that damn radiation. Young people can't survive for a few months, let alone the elderly whose physical fitness is not as good as that of young people. At that time..."
As the woman was talking, her body suddenly swayed and a dazed look flashed across her eyes. Her body, which had been sitting on the bunk, actually fell down limply and slowly tilted to one side.
"It's the side effect of the painkillers. In addition to relieving pain, this stuff can also be used as a sedative. She just swallowed three tablets in one breath, which is 1.5 times the maximum daily dose." Ke Lan couldn't help but feel a headache. He hurriedly supported the woman's body, and with his own shield, he took out a highly concentrated military stimulant from his secret bag. He used his fingernails to pick open the protective cap of the needle, stabbed the other person's arm, and then crushed the glass bubble filled with compressed air at the end of the syringe.
The medicine was quickly injected into the young woman's veins and spread along with the blood. She subconsciously let out a comfortable moan. Her eyelids, which had begun to slowly close, opened again and she looked at Ke Lan in surprise.
"You...what was that injection you just gave me?"
Her heart rate began to speed up, and her cheeks and the front of her chest turned a light red due to the accelerated blood flow, and her ten fingers trembled slightly involuntarily.
"Do you still feel a slight tingling sensation on your back, thighs and neck?" Ke Lan said, "The drug I just injected you with is a military stimulant. The main active ingredients are adrenaline and glucocorticoids. This is a normal reaction... Otherwise, you would have fallen asleep just now."
"You... who are you? Why do you have this kind of thing?" The woman's throat moved and she swallowed hard. "This thing shouldn't be stolen from the transport ship by you, right? Those painkillers aren't either... and, and your..."
Before she could even say the word "gun" in "that gun ", Ke Lan interrupted her: "It doesn't matter who we are. If you still want to get some drugs from me, you should continue to recall and tell me everything you know about that white-haired man."
"...Okay." The young woman nodded vigorously. "He...the man with white hair, I thought he was an old man at first, but when I got closer, I found that he was only about forty years old at most."
In his forties... Ke Lan thought, the age was correct. According to Asano Akira, if Marshall were still alive, he would be around thirty-five years old at most. Adding to the torture he had endured in the past few years, it was normal for him to look old.
"There were a lot of tubes in his arm, those transparent plastic tubes." The woman continued, "I saw something dark brown flowing in the tubes... I don't know if it was blood."
External tubes? Ke Lan frowned. Is this probably part of some kind of life-support device? In the early years, many biochemically modified people had such tubes on their bodies. However, since external tubes were easily damaged and would increase the risk of infection of body tissues, they were gradually improved to internally embedded tubes. For example, Layton, two-thirds of the blood vessels in that part of his biological body were artificial, and there were countless tubes embedded in his body. However, from the outside, his biological body was almost indistinguishable from that of a normal human.
An external pipe like this is either an extremely old biochemical modification surgery or a temporary life-sustaining device. If such a temporary device is not regularly maintained, its service life will not exceed one month.
And in this sick village, there are obviously no conditions to maintain this thing.
If this thing is really a temporary life-support device, then three months have passed now. Even if Marshall is still alive, his condition is definitely not much better.
Unless he can meet the conditions for removing the life support device within these three months.
But even if one wants to create a miracle through mutation, three months is far from enough given the radiation intensity in the space station.
"Go on." Ke Lan said to the woman.
"Not long after I got on board, everyone was gathered and the transport ship started." The woman licked her chapped lips. "The people on the ship only distributed food and water to us once, and never entered the cargo hold before we arrived at our destination."
"It seems that the Mitsui Group is relatively honest." Ke Lan thought to herself, probably because she was also on the ship... As for the transport ship that the woman was on, the crew obviously didn't care much about their lives, which reminded Ke Lan of the smuggling ships under the hands of the snakeheads in the old era - they stuffed people into the cabins and hidden plywood, like a crowded can of sardines. As for how many of the "fish" in the can were still alive after arriving at the destination, it was not something they needed to worry about.
Anyway, the so-called "immigration fee" had already been paid to these illegal immigrants before they boarded the ship.
The crew of these transport ships may view these sick miners in the same way as the human traffickers viewed those illegal immigrants back then... As for the rules of the mineral mining alliance, they are actually just a cover to cover up the scandal.
"They gave us one day's worth of food and water at once, but the transport ship didn't arrive until three days later." The woman couldn't help but shudder. "In the cargo hold... those who were strong first killed the seriously ill people and took their food and water. Then, they targeted some people who were alone and looked weak."
"Didn't they target you?" Ke Lan asked casually.
"I... I was in a relatively good situation at that time. I was able to resist, and I had a companion... Although she is dead now, those people were unwilling to waste their energy on us... However, if the journey was longer, I don't know what would have happened."
"Those people are targeting Marshall, right?" Ke Lan asked.
"Yeah." The woman nodded. "He... that Marshall, he looked very ill, only slightly better than those people lying on stretchers and unable to get up. They surrounded him, and then..."
"Did those people beat him?" Asano Akira's voice came lightly from the side. Although the volume was low, it was full of chilling meaning.
Ke Lan felt that if Asano Akira was in the cargo hold at that time, he would definitely kill those people without hesitation.
"No..." The woman exhaled and moved back slightly, creating some distance between herself and Asano Akira - although she could not feel the murderous intent emanating from Asano Akira, the oppressive feeling made her afraid to look directly at the young man holding the "guide stick". In comparison, Ke Lan, who almost strangled her to death just now, was less scary.
"Before they made any move, that man... Marshall took the initiative to give them his food and water."
"He gave them the food ? All of it?" Ke Lan was a little stunned. If Marshall had not handed over all of his share, he would have been beaten and kicked for sure. Those guys had the blood of the miners on the same ship on their hands, so they would not care about the life or death of someone like him.
"Um."
"He just stayed in the cargo hold for three days without eating or drinking?"
“…It seems so.”
"Asano, is this possible?" Ke Lan turned around and asked, his meaning was obvious - a person might not starve to death if he didn't eat for three days, but if he didn't drink water for three days, even a biochemically modified person like Layton would probably have died of dehydration long ago.
Only special modified humans who have specially enhanced their physiological tolerance or can put themselves into a state similar to "suspended death" have a chance of survival.
"No, at least it was impossible for him at that time." Asano Akira replied.
At this time, the woman also reacted. She muttered to herself in disbelief, "He didn't drink any water or eat anything for three days... How did he... How did he survive... I didn't even notice this at the time... Has he... Has he mutated?"
"Probably, otherwise there is no reasonable explanation." Ke Lan said, "What happened next?"
"Then... I don't remember what happened afterwards. Although my food and water were not taken away, the amount was too little. I was hungry and thirsty... I almost fainted several times."
She went on to say, “It was probably after the transport ship arrived that the crew gave us some food and water, and then we were driven down to the cargo hold.”
"What happened next? Did the locals, the 'priests', kill the sickest among you?"
"No, no, the seriously ill patients on our ship were killed on the way. They just pulled out the teeth of the corpses... Oh, that's right, it was at that time that they took away that man, the Marshall you mentioned!"
"Marshall was taken away by the 'priest'?!" Ke Lan was shocked. "What was his condition like at that time? Did you notice?"
"I... I didn't pay much attention. He always looked listless. When we were in the cargo hold, I thought he was dead several times."
"So was he alive when he was taken away by the 'priest'?"
"Well... and I remember clearly that when the 'priest' saw him, he seemed very surprised..." The woman paused, as if she was choosing her words, "Surprised, no... surprised. The 'priest' was very happy. He even asked his men to give him water... But after that, I haven't seen him since."
"Tsk, this is going to be troublesome..." Ke Lan smacked his lips and imitated a hound, rubbing the stubble on his chin with his fingers. "That 'priest' has obviously discovered something. Now that we are looking for someone, we are bound to have a conflict with them..."
…
Meanwhile, on Layton and Ivan's side.
The two followed the local residents into Area B. The boots of the power armor had built-in adsorption function, so the two did not float up due to the sudden change in gravity.
However, the moment they stepped into Area B, they felt a lot of unfriendly gazes focused on them. There were at least twenty or thirty people staring at them, overtly or covertly.
"I hate this feeling." Layton said in the team's communication channel, "I always feel uneasy."
"Didn't we prepare before coming here?" Ivan replied, "Anyway, the task of dealing with the locals will be handed over to Ke Lan and the others. We are only responsible for collecting some objective clues and providing support. We don't need to worry about those people."
"I always feel like they want to attack us." Layton muttered, "Damn it, how about we strike first?"
"Don't do anything stupid," Ivan said, "be careful Ke Lan will scold you to death."
"Oh, I'm just saying..."
