Chapter 9: Talking with Humans

"What's been going on in the city while I was locked away?" Professor Berk asked as he put on a smile he had trained in the likes of speaking with a New Gen official or representative, but considering where they are. That wouldn't be much of a problem. Ms. Eri smiled politely towards him before giving a quick glance to Omen, the think tanks called it that, and took tentative steps to come closer to the professor, who sent a sympathetic look towards her.

Omen only stared at her a few seconds before removing its gaze and looked elsewhere in the stadium, specifically the area where John went to find a Swarmer host he could take over. She noticed the disinterest it had in its eyes, or what Eri thought as eyes, before she cautiously moved closer to the professor. Once beside him, she sent another quick glance before turning her body to face the professor. "New Gen's had lost control over a few settlements." She informed without hesitation, she knew what she was allowed to say and what was not. They inserted a small camera on her breast pocket and were watching everything. The slight static she heard in her right ear signalled her to continue. 

"The Republic had managed to infiltrate Eldan through the smuggling market." Another static. "We have captured the majority of the intruders but some managed to slip away." Eri spoke, her tone of confidence unwavering and her posture still as straight as a tree. The professor frowned and held his chin, rubbing it a few times. "So even without my traitorous disciple's help, they manage to infiltrate the city." He murmured to himself, just loud enough to let Eri and the hidden camera to hear. "Those that slipped by you, must've already erased their tracks and hidden amongst the populace." Professor Berk then moved his gaze from Eri, towards the tall creature. Thinking for a moment, he slightly tilted his head towards its direction.'And what do you think about that?' His action portrayed the silent question.

Eri noticed his movement and glanced from the corner of her eye. Omen was behind her, but its gaze did not even land on them. It was waiting for something, or someone, and that made her nervous. Focusing her eyes back towards the professor, she silently whispered to him. "The tanks had started to call it Omen, there wasn't too much we could gather on its abilities. Frankly, even the other subjects around it are still a mystery to them." The comm link on her right ear stayed silent, she continued. "Some of them theorised the subjects evolved or mutated from plant life, the ones that had a similar but shorter stature than Omen." 

"And what do they think about the others?" Professor Berk quietly asked, his gaze swiftly moved towards the empty field and focused on the working figure of the Drone. "The ones that are moving the debri and materials around are far more numerous than the ones similar to Omen." At his word, Eri followed his actions albeit slightly more noticeable and matched his gaze on the lone Drone. "The majority believe them as something like a worker ant or worker bee." She answered while they watched as the Drone fished out a decayed corpse from the debris it was moving and threw it to a small pile of corpses. Eri wanted to cringe at the sight, but her training managed to push back the feeling crawling in her body. "The tanks tried to gather as much info as they visually could, but they speculate that the workers body type can multitask and manipulate their limbs into different tools they could use."

Professor Berk then gulped before taking a large breath of air. After his action, he shifted his gaze towards the huge black spot in the stadium, Eri following suit with him. This is what concerned the both of them. For Eri, she was concerned and afraid of this huge spot because of the many stiff bodies that were on the other side of the stadium. All of them are in various stages of decay. The bodies varied from infected humans to animals and from normal infected to mutants. They synchronously faced each other once again. "What do they think about those?" Professor mumbled the question. The effects after The Fall can still be seen in the surrounding environment. The large craters, the fallen building, the scattered refugee camps, and the hordes of infected and mutants. Although many consider The Fall a disaster. The true disaster is the aftereffects of the event.

"We…They aren't sure about them," The comm link blared two times, forcing Eri to change her supposed sentence. "They want to study those things closely, to run tests and experiments on…" 'Who and How long they can control a person.' The rest of the sentence went unsaid but hung in the air around them. Professor Berk cringed and tried to think about something to change the subject.

He coughed into his closed fist. "So…Anything else that I missed?" Professor Berk awkwardly said with a small forced smile. Eri thought and formed her sentence in her mind before she opened her mouth to answer. "The Office has ordered another recruitment order." She said with a tone of sympathy in her voice. "We lost a lot of people on the defence line against the Akharians." Professor Berk grimaces at the mention of those monsters. The Akharians were a race of cannibalistic mutant infected that adapted to gain intelligence, although they used primitive tools, their reproductive capacity is no laughing matter. A month passes, a hundred thousand Akharians were born. Their growth process makes them already deadly enough, after a few weeks of the Akharian baby life, they'll have already grown to an early 4 month old human baby. Their skin was thick enough that it took 5 body shots or 2 headshots to take them out. Their stature varied from muscular and obese, they ate the children they deemed weak after the child had lived half a month and did not physically improve.

The Akharian children, once they lived for an entire two months, are already considered as recruits of the group and directly sent to the frontlines. Those that came back alive were considered warriors, and those with many kill counts were considered elites or geniuses. The counts are numbered on how many skulls they brought back. Their six to seven feet height had given them numerous pros and cons, they adore the skulls in their clothing as a sign of their achievements. The weapons they used varied from wooden clubs to weapons made from various scrap. Very few held weapons that were barbaric versions of mediaeval weapons.

"W–what's the status on the line?" Berk asked, his voice weak and desperate. Eri answered his question first with a sigh before she moved her eyes towards the stadium ground. "They managed to break through some areas of the first line," Berk silently gasped, eyes wide and brows raised. His face was quickly paled and his body shivered. "We were forced to fall back to the second line. The retreat cost us lives and materials." Eri opened her mouth to continue further but the comm in her ear blared twice, commanding her to stop revealing anymore. Luckily enough, the sound of shuffling feet entered their ears and both of them looked towards the direction of the sound. They were met with a perfectly fine, albeit slightly dirty, blonde man in his early twenties stiffly and rigged walking towards them. 

Berk's mouth agape, eyes widening further, his expression was that of horror and slight disgust. Eri shakily covered her mouth with her right hand as she stared at the man while he got closer. Both of them noticed the small insectoid leg on their shoulder, they had already deduced that the body was being controlled. The hidden camera on Eri's breast pocket zoomed in on the man. This young man was actually quite well known in Elden city, after all, who wouldn't know the youngest child of the Russel clan.

The Russel clan, one of the first residents of Elden city, had the most help and benefits they gave in the building process of the city. Even though Elden city is a tier 2 city and not comparable to the tier 1 capital city of New Gen. Tier 2 cities are already considered as heaven by many survivors. The tiers from highest to lowest go to, Tier 1 Capital city, Tier 2 Major city, Tier 3 Minor city, Tier 4 Town, Tier 5 Frontier town, Tier 6 Village, Tier 7 Settlement. New Gen had 3 Tier 2, 4 Tier 3, 6 Tier 5, and 9 Tier 6; their territory is the smallest in the region out of all the factions around them.

Most factions ignore each other and focus on expanding and gathering as survivors as possible. They'll only interfere or fight each other, if their interests clash. Not to mention that most battles were skirmishes and not full on war like the Republic is doing to New Gen. The Republic focuses on quantity and expansion, while New Gen focuses on quality and internal expansion. In the past, New Gen was a powerful faction and the Republic was still a small faction at that time, but they focused on infiltration and schemes to devour the factions around them. They only grew by absorbing and digesting the absorbed factions; there were originally 13 factions around New gen. Now, however, only 8 factions left around them. 

Back to the matter at hand, the young man stopped in front of them and stiffly offered his hands as a greeting. Professor Berk did not move, this was not the star disciple he remembered. Eddie Grant Russel, Berk's graduated star pupil, instead of taking the path of science, he picked to be a medic. Specifically a Frontline Medic, and from what Berk sporadically heard, Eddie saved civilians and wounded soldiers away from conflict zones and into refuge and medical camps. Last he had heard from his star pupil, was him being sent towards the frontline against the Akharians. There was no news after that, Berk at that time deceived himself in thinking Eddie was just busy working around the lines since the front against the Akharian offensive was known for its brutality. 

Facing the corpse of his star pupil, The loving and kind Eddie. Berk knew the Eddie in front of him was dead. The pale complexion over Eddie's sunny light brown skin that showed his liveliness. Berk wanted to vomit, he felt the bile quickly climbing his throat, his vision spinning and a forming pang of pain in the back of his head. Eri on the other hand was half showing her expression of horror and disgust hidden behind her hand that covered her mouth.

The corpse opens its mouth. "H—Helloo…" A low raspy and grated voice came out of its mouth. Berk cringed while Eri flinched and stepped back. If berk didn't know that his disciple was dead, he would've been fooled by the corpse in front of him. It sounded like Eddie just had a sore throat. Berk slightly tightened his jaw before sending a withering glance at Eri and moved back at the one controlling his pupil's corpse. Opening his mouth to greet the thing in front of him. "Hello…You may call me Berk or—-or Professor Berk." Berk tried to say it in confidence, but being face to face with his dead star pupil made him remember the bitter fresh memories, his confidence wobbled and expression falling slowly to grief. "N—ice to m–meet you…" The corpse replied before it stepped closer towards them. Eri, still terrified and scared, was still and barely moved. Her wide eyes showing their dark brown colour, she did snap out of it once she noticed the corpse stood in front of both her and the professor within arms reach. 

She closed her hand that used to cover her mouth and coughed into it. She was trying her best to calm herself and try to remember her training. She fixed her expression into a polite smile before offering her hand to the corpse. "Ehem…Hello, my name is Erian Casey," The corpse reached out their pale and noticeably rough hand before it grasped Eri's, who slightly shivered from the feeling of rough and cold hand, and shook it slightly. "I am a representative sent by New Gen to speak with the leader of this…group." Eri introduced herself before letting go of the cold hand and bringing hers to her side. Her posture was straight as a board, but mentally she was nervous and scared, the comm in her ear was still silent until it let out a few clicks. 

'Morse code?' Eri thought to herself before she tried to focus on the code. 

{C.O.N.T.I.N.U.E. Q.U.E.S.T.I.O.N} 

Meanwhile on John's end, he was annoyed by how he can't properly talk. He had decided early on that he was going to form a communication with the Humans of this world. 'Sometimes, I wish I had a psychic ability…' He thought exasperatedly while he controlled the corpse to speak a few more words. "Weee…are p–peaceful…not…threat." The corpse said with their voice grating to anyone's ears. Then like a flash of inspiration, John suddenly remembered the energy that Scorran used. 'Maybe…' John began to concentrate his thoughts while attempting to use the energy he had in the pool in an attempt to make a temporary connection to the two humans in front of him. The attempt had already shown its effect when both Professor Berk and Representative Eri dropped towards the ground.

Berk suddenly found himself grabbing his head tightly, his ears deafeningly ringing while a pain like no other prodded his mind. He didn't even register that he and Eri were screaming on their knees. Both of them made their form smaller, moving their entire body into a fetal position while they twitched and shivered from the pain. John was surprised by the sudden event, it hasn't even been a second of him trying to make a temporary connection. But before he could draw back the attempted connection, the feeling of two newer connections. 'Did…did I succeed?' John asked himself unsure of his own action, the connection was there, just faint. 'Can you hear me?' He asked, making his tone as soft as he can, through the two connections. Promptly, both Berk and Eri froze before they stiffly looked up towards John. Both of them heard soft voices that overlapped on top of one another. It was…soothing and careful, like holding something fragile.

Their eyes widened, John noted how both of their eyes had fear and horror but also a tint of reverence in them. 'Forgive me of the intrusion of your thoughts,' He apologised, tone still soft, he once again made the corpse move as it waved its left arm towards two cement rocks that can be sat on beside them. There was a brief moment of hesitation, then the first to move was Berk puffed out a breath of air and shakily stood up and trudged towards one of the rocks. Mind still blaring with pain while his body was filled with a feeling of discomfort. Sending a quick glance toward Eri, he sat down slowly before adjusting his body to properly face John. Eri soon followed suit and quietly sat down. After a while of silence, Eri opened her mouth to speak. "We have introduced ourselves to you, may I ask who you are?" She asked hesitantly, both her and Berk saw how Omen moved its head and stared at them. Bright orange eyes that flickered like fire, narrowed while they flexed their fingers. The camera on her breast was still streaming. Eri knew that once she got back, they'd quarantine her for safety measures. 

John thought for a moment, unsure of what his reply should be, then he got an idea and set his sights on Wickerman-01 before he looked back at the duo. 'You may call me Voice.' John transmitted back towards them. "Voice…can I ask what you are?" Eri asked again, John already knew that she had a comm link on one of her ears. It was already within protocol for representatives being sent to the unknown to either have a camera or a comm link or even both. 'I am the land you walk on,' He said mysteriously, already deciding to hide the fact about the pools and himself. 'I am the forest and mountains. I was the first defence against the virus.' 

Berk perked up and asked a question before Eri could. "Are you the consciousness of the world?" Berk's tone was filled with fascination and hope. John thought that the idea was quite nice so he agreed. 'I was, until the virus came encased in hollow meteors. The first wave was easily defended against but once they evolved,' John made his tone more tired and sorrowful, 'I could not hold long before they seeped into my core and slowly pushed me out. The ones around you are the only ones I have freed from the clutches of the virus.' He lied, creating a fake event that they would not notice, but John's worries were for nothing since Berk jumped up to stand, his face expressing a sudden realisation. "So that was why it took a few years!" He yelled, his breathing quickened as hope bloomed. "No wonder the first sign of those infected mushrooms were stagnant and sporadic! You were delaying and expelling them, buying as much time as you could!" 

Beside him, Eri was wide eyed, her eyes showed a renewed flicker of flame. 'Yes, you are correct.' John agreed to what Berk said. 'For the past years, I've been slowly gathering what authority and children I could save from its clutches.' This time, Eri stood up and stepped forward. "You said the virus pushed you out, can–" Before she could finish, John answered her question unhesitatingly. 

'If you are asking if the virus can manipulate the world like I did, then no.' John knew the virus could not do what he could, so he was confident that the virus can't make or do anything like he did. 'The virus was made and not natural, because of it being made and not natural it would need countless years and evolution cycles before it could manipulate the planet like I did.'

Eri and Berk looked blank, Berk had a look of renewed flame in his eyes while he digested the half truth John gave. Meanwhile, Eri was contemplating something else. Her mind was going back on what history New Gen academies taught. When the first sign of the virus was found by the world's scientific community, the government sent out three waves of scientific exploration protected by Military personnel, they were planned to be sent with a half a year schedule and a gap time for any discoveries before sending the next. The shrooms were sparsely populated during the first wave but even with the sparseness, the first wave came back to different laboratories' and after months had passed they came out with various new technologies and discoveries. Such findings changed everything. But when the second wave was sent in, with less wariness and more greed, did the problem start to rise. The Marked zones were made once the second wave came back with casualties and wounded. The discoveries and scientific breakthrough the second wave had was minimal then the sudden boon the first wave gave out. 

When the third wave came with a lot of preparations and contingency plans made, they came back to the Marked zones, the zones were already covered with mushrooms of diverse types in different environments. "The Black Sky'' was what the current generation called the event. The Third wave was ordered by the Hierarchs, the supreme council, to burn the zones or even bomb it before sending scientists to gather samples. They had only decided such action once other plans that were invasive failed and only gave body bags and wounded. The worst came from the wounded, Eri and the current era of humans called them "The Sods". Their wounds and injuries never healed, every waking moment was met with inexplicable pain and torture that drove them mad. They couldn't sleep or eat and the majority of attempts to soothe their pain only gave them horrifying deaths and contorted bodies that were positioned in ways a normal person's body wasn't supposed to. Even when the Hierarchs ordered a mass mercy killing, it only served the subject's dead body to convulse and roll around chaotically like they were possessed while letting out a blood curdling screech that made everyone present or within hearing distance have PTSD and went to therapy. Majority of them became so paranoid that they ended their own lives. Their letters scribbled like a madman's writing. Everyone called the event, which caused the loss of thousands of lives, "The Wretch's."

Then after the Black Sky event, there was an eerie peace in the zones, that made everyone weirdly tense and afraid. Like a primal sense of wrongness that seeped into their bones. Then the reports of cities and towns going dark, the next couple of months after no news of the investigation teams sent out did the world change. Hordes of infected and first stage mutants, human or not, came out of the forest peripheries or in some cases came out through the city sewers and chaos ensued. The Hierarchs attempt to stop or slow down the hordes to evacuate as many as possible. The Historians called it "The Surge", where everything went wrong and the once united plant became an apocalyptic wasteland with its inhabitants doing everything they can to survive. Even actions that were seen as barbaric or even execution worthy. 

Eri then suddenly remembered of the Remnants, the surviving members of the Hierarchs and evacuated survivors with a large military armament that built the Bastion city in the far northwest situated beside the ocean. Last Eri heard of any news about the Remnants was them deciding to send out exploration teams to check on the world's other continents for a situation report before they'd gone dark. Eri then focused her thoughts and looked directly at John. John on the other hand, while Eri was lost in recollection, had a sudden surge of knowledge inserted into his being. The process of digesting the knowledge was predictably hard, since John had to compile the info into a timeline to understand while trying to understand and answer the questions Professor Berk sent towards him, he noticed the look of sorrow and heartache in his eyes. 'The questions can be asked and answered at a later date.' John cut off another question that was about to come out. 'But I believe the negotiation is far more important.'

Eri stood up and stepped one step forward, John sensed the air around her alight in flaming determination. "Then first things first, What was your plan in sending your…Children, towards the inner city." She hesitated on what to call John's creations, John did not blame her for that, before she asked her question. John thought about it for a while before answering. 'I saved a group of children, all four are siblings.' John informed them while making the body he was controlling turn its head towards Wickerman-01. 'The eldest is a teenager, wounded heavily and infected. I sent my children to look for any medicine within the inner city.' The two of them stared at the body with shock. It was a few moments before Eri shook her head and stepped forward, the air around her was vibrating in worry. John was interested in the phenomena happening in front of him. But there were other things to focus on so he continued his half truth.

'The infection was still in its early stages, but with no kind of medicine found for the wound,' John made himself pause to create a sombre atmosphere, 'The time passed with the infection spreading throughout his body.' Both Berk and Eri moved their eyes towards the ground, they had an apologetic expression. "What did you do to them?" Berk hesitantly asked, his body shifted uncomfortably while he wrung his fingers against one another. 

'I had decided to do the same thing I did with my children,' John answered. He controlled the body to walk towards the destroyed railings and looked towards the centre field. 'The process was lengthy and I had managed to save him from such a fate.' Berk smiled brightly before he exhaled in relief, Eri on the other hand had no such luxury however. "How…did you save him?"

John made the body turn its head lightly and used its eyes to glance towards them. 'I had to use the energy I had to infiltrate his body and purge out the virus.' He answered yet again before he followed up his words. 'The purging process left a permanent mark on his shoulder and became one of my children in the process. He has yet to wake.' Eri nodded at the answer and explanation, filing it away in her mind. "Then may I ask, if you wish to have an alliance with us in particular?" Eri sent out one of the offers her higher ups sent her, they had sent this in an attempt to see how the other side reacted. John thought about the pros and cons about such an offer. 'I will be honest, I do not see any kind of advantage I would have but…maybe a non-aggression pact first?'

Eri's expression changed to surprise before she nodded her head. "Yes, a non-aggression pact would be good." After her words her comm link clicked once more. Eri thought it was gonna be another set of morse code. She was not expecting a deep voice to transmit through. "Representative Casey, this is Commander Sadine of Elden city's Defense corp." Eri was surprised to say the least. She was only just a representative and did not have the privilege to personally meet her superiors. But this was different, with no hesitation she reached a hand towards the comm link and replied to the commander. "I copy, Defense Commander." Eri had the strangest feeling that this Voice already knew of the comm link.

Unfortunately, Commander Sadine reprimanded her through the comm link while Eri thought the Commander was glaring at the screen from her breast camera. "Representative Casey! Why are you blatantly showing you have a Communication link!!!" Eri winced from the volume before she turned her eyes to the corpse in front of her. It opened its mouth as if it knew what her expression conveyed. "I…Know of y–your communication…No need…T-to reprimand." It said, its tone of voice changing from raspy to ear grating pitches. 

Commander Sadine on the other line went silent, Eri even thought the commander was silently fuming until her comm clicked to life once again after a moment or two. "Asked them about what they plan to do next."

Eri conveyed the commander's question. "The Commander wants to know what you plan to do next?" Eri hoped that they wouldn't disappear after their first contact. The corpse in front of her moved its head up and down stiffly, Eri could practically feel the bones grating into one another. She shivered at the thought, she also noticed from the corner of her eyes that Professor Berk did so too. "W—we pllaann to…return to the forest."

Eri felt oddly frightened at the corpse's words. She knew the Voice was powerful, and with its ability to free the infected from the clutches of the virus was already something that gave her hope. Then she heard the mutterings of the Commander. "Then we can make an attempt to retake the fallen area." 

Eri pressed her comm link again. "Commander, may I suggest asking for the assistance of our new friends?" She suggested. Professor Berk beside her noticeably froze on the spot while the corpse visibly stiffened more and Eri noticed the way Omen glanced towards her a second longer before looking towards a new area of the stadium.

'Assistance over what?' John telepathically asked. He was curious and her suggestion woke him up. John became more interested in the matter and began to intently listen to Eri. "The assistance I was suggesting was about retaking the city back."

John thought about the suggestion over, there were a lot of pros and cons about it. John thought about the suggestion more. The success of this action can bring him a lot of influence to trade with for any materials or samples. 'I agree, on the certain conditions but we can continue that on a later date.' John agreed on giving them assistance, but he planned on getting as much benefit as he can so he needed time on what he needed. But first he needs to gather his thoughts for his new ideas. Eri was disappointed to say the least, she did not want to end things yet but after putting her hand in one of her pockets, she pulled out a silver metal oblong stick before she flicked it and it extended into a square with a see through glass before it should. 4:30 pm. Night time was deadly for any survivor out there. Since the Black Sky event, the planet's atmosphere has been perpetually covered in ash clouds. The infected were not a problem since they made noise, she was more worried about the mutant activity in this ungodly hour. She knew the convoy she was with would form up and fall back to Elden with or without her.

She let out a sigh before she flicked her device again into its previous look and returned it into her right pocket. "I guess we should continue at another time." She said, tone filled with disappointment before she looked towards Professor Berk. "What about you Professor?" Berk looked towards the corpse with a spark of excitement. John knew this professor wanted to study him, he also knew of the dangers it would pose. 'You may come with meProfessor Berk. I can feel it from your eyes that you wish to find out more.' John offered, more like granted permission, in turn the Professor's expression was filled with joy. 

Eri then straightened her posture a little while dusting her clothes. Then she glanced towards the piles of stuff on the centre field. "What about those?" John made the body look towards the piles. 'The debris will be transported towards the safe area where the children are. I plan to make an attempt for a shelter.' John answered her. 'The canned foods and what not will be left for you.' He began to cut the connection with the Swarmer he controlled. Eri said her goodbyes before she exited the stadium the same way she entered. John sent an order to Wickerman-01 to begin transferring the materials towards the forest while escorting the Professor towards the mountain pool. Once he cut off the connection, after a blink and double checking on his orders, John's perspective was met with two children running around in circles. In the middle was what surprised him. It was the teenager that was previously injured. Although he looked worse for wear, John couldn't blame him since it had only been a few days after the process.