7 Analysis and Planning
Lucas was beside the body of the split-head mutant, he felt tired, tremendously sore, and to top it off, his head was throbbing with pain. The side effects of "boosting" his thought speed twice arrived. He lay on the floor, motionless for about three minutes. In that time, he didn't think about anything and just allowed himself to sleep. After three minutes, he felt that strange, relaxing feeling again.
Opening his eyes quickly, he saw all that scarlet liquid that had come out of his shredded arm coming back and remaking all the lost flesh. The mutant man's blood was also converging towards him. All this liquid was moving across the floor, sliding down his body until it entered the necessary places. He watched this process very carefully, as he didn't want to miss anything.
As the liquid flowed back into his body, he began to move slowly and managed to sit on the floor. As he saw both his and the mutant's blood converging on him through his pores and wounds, both his body and head pain began to lessen.
'Apparently my mutation has to do with blood. It doesn't look special, besides having a good recovery and being able to absorb it from other creatures. Apparently, my body strength also increases-'
He suddenly remembered something and mentally called himself an idiot. How could he forget that? So he promptly tried to get up. It was very difficult but in the end he managed to stay upright leaning against the wall.
When he got up, all the blood of his own that he had lost had already returned and only the mutant's remained, however, when he started walking, the red liquid stopped converging on him as if there was a distance necessary to activate the ability.
The young man recalled that there were 15 people in the bunker including him and his father. Now that Ferdinand, the insect woman and the mutant man are dead, there are twelve left with him. However, he saw bodies strewn across the floor of the infirmary and decided to check the number of bodies to make sure how many people were probably still alive.
Arriving at the infirmary he felt a strong smell of blood; guts, veins, arms, legs, fingers, random bits of human flesh and brains were everywhere. The red hue almost completely covered the floor and wherever he passed, the sound of him moving followed him. All that blood began to converge on her automatically. He felt like a loofah absorbing water. In a way that was comforting, his arm was still not fully recovered, but when receiving all these nutrients his arm improved extremely fast. He fixed his gaze on her regenerating arm… somehow, he enjoyed seeing her bones, skin, veins and other structures all rebuilt, it was very satisfying.
As he reveled in that sensation, his arm had healed and now the blood was moving to the cuts and bruises left by the recent fight. After all the wounds were healed, which took a few seconds, he noticed that his vision was getting sharper, his lungs were taking in more air than usual and he felt extremely refreshed and full of energy.
After having all these feelings, the liquid stopped flowing into his body, but he didn't give up and concentrated on it in an attempt to make him continue to enter his body. His effort paid off, after all his effort, the blood moved toward him and entered his pores.
He could feel the red liquid entering his pores and nourishing his body; his muscles began to define and his brain worked a little faster, however it didn't take long and soon the red liquid stopped flowing. As much as he tried, concentrated, and directly touched the blood, that liquid would not enter his body again.
'It seems that there is a limit then, well, at least I am fully recovered. My body can absorb the blood around me and others and heal me, however there is a limit and I think it must be linked to my body's ability to get used to or use all these nutrients, I need more tests to make sure of this.'
After thinking, Lucas moved around the infirmary counting the bodies, as everything was spread out on the floor, he decided to rely on the amount of brains seen to facilitate the counting. It was definitely a harrowing experience, counting brains was not something one would choose to do to pass the time.
He saw brains on tables, on the floor, still attached to the head and broken into pieces. The count didn't take long and quickly he got a result, he found 9 brains. His expression froze, two to go, indicating that he wasn't alone in the bunker and that they were probably deformed mutants.
Lucas wasted no time, returning to the corridor where the mutant man was, grabbed his knives and went in search of the other two walking brains. However, even though he searched every corner of the bunker for these two survivors, he didn't find them. Whether due to natural causes or the enhancement given by his mutation, he didn't get desperate, in fact he became calmer and thinking more clearly.
"I didn't find them, there are only three options for that, the first is that they were eaten by the mutant man, the second is that they have already left the bunker and the last is that they have some ability that allows them to hide."
After these thoughts, he turned and headed towards the exit door of the bunker, to be honest, the young man really wanted it to be the first option, the second was not so bad, but not ideal, finally, the third it would be terrible, because a mutant that could hide from his eyes and senses could attack him at any time, making it impossible for him to react and thus very likely he would be killed.
He kept going towards the exit which was not majestic, only contained a five meter staircase that led to a 1m square door locked from the inside. He approached the ladder and climbed it, while climbing he had a certain tingling and shiver, it was nothing like when he was absorbing blood, this time it was a bad feeling that almost made him give up going up.
That feeling didn't make him give up, and he soon arrived at the door realizing it wasn't locked! In fact, there were light trails coming out of its cracks, curious he tried to open it a little to see the environment from outside. The door made a scratching sound to open and the young man took the time quickly looking around.
The world was grey, he could see the dire state of the terrain with potholes all over the place, the trees were either in pieces or completely destroyed, there was a certain sulfur-like smell in the air, but Lucas didn't recognize it and just thought it was a consequence. of the bombs, which in part wasn't wrong.
Confirming the second hypothesis, he closed and locked the door, went down the stairs and began to think as he walked through the bunker:
'Well, I can confirm that it's just me here, it's time to get ready to leave. I already know basically how my mutation works and I can't forget that there are at least two types of mutants, the deformed ones without rationality and the ones like me, these can have mutations much stronger than mine. In fact, I think either one is stronger, I just might be better at regeneration, but for survival it's very useful'
With that thought, he started looking around the bunker for everything that could be of help out there, such as a backpack, medical kit, medicine, canned food, extra clothes and so on. Just before leaving he returned to his room. He wanted to think about his father one last time and not forget all that Ferdinand had done for him.
He stood in front of the bed for about five minutes, reminiscing about his best moments and then he left. Lucas now had another mindset, he would survive at all costs! So he went back upstairs and opened the door.
