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(EXTRA CHAPTER)
"Holy shit!" Jenson stared in shock not far away, completely forgetting to fire.
"Inside!" Calista reacted instantly. She grabbed the still-stunned Leah and shoved through the narrow opening!
Carver and Mike rushed in right behind them.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut at incredible speed.
Bang!
With a heavy, muffled impact, the door sealed perfectly, cutting off the entire apocalyptic world outside.
Inside was the empty CDC lobby. The pale lighting was harsh and glaring, making the four of them squint after coming in from outside.
Aside from Calista, who already knew what to expect, the other three were still stunned by what had just happened.
Other than the absence of people, everything inside looked exactly the same as it had before the apocalypse.
At that moment, an airtight door deeper inside the lobby slid open.
A figure appeared on the steps.
He wore a light-colored crew-neck T-shirt. The shirt was wrinkled and slightly stained, and he had a pair of house slippers on his feet.
He looked utterly exhausted. His hair was messy, and his expression was complicated, tinged with a faint trace of hope.
He was even absentmindedly holding a tablet in one hand.
Calista thought to herself that her treatment seemed better than Rick's group had gotten. At least no one was pointing a gun at her.
Dr. Jenner's voice trembled slightly.
"You just said Project Wildfire? Who are you? How do you know that name?"
The people behind her looked like mercenaries or military personnel, but the girl standing in front of him was clearly a civilian.
After the initial excitement faded, Jenner realized this group had not been sent by his superiors to retrieve him.
He stared fixedly at Calista, as if trying to see straight through her.
Calista met his intense gaze while her mind raced.
She couldn't reveal that she was a time traveler. She needed a reasonable explanation—something that would catch his interest.
"Flammèche Technologies," she said clearly.
She saw Dr. Jenner's pupils contract sharply.
"Spark Biotechnology. Have you heard of it?"
Dr. Jenner murmured to himself.
"As far as I know, that's one of the financial backers behind the French laboratory.
What's your connection to Spark?"
"The owner of Spark, Silas Norton, is my father. He's also one of the hidden sponsors of Project Wildfire."
She paused before dropping an even more explosive piece of information.
"And I… am the 'bloodline sample' he selected.
Earlier this year, under his orders, one of my family doctors used my annual physical as an excuse to inject me with an experimental compound labeled V-07α—without my knowledge."
Calista stepped forward.
"Dr. Jenner, I was injected with the unfinished prototype Wildfire vaccine from the French laboratory. That's why I'm here."
Dr. Jenner's expression shifted again and again.
He looked like a dying traveler in the desert who had just seen a mirage—knowing it might be an illusion, yet unable to stop himself from rushing toward it.
"Proof! I need proof!" Dr. Jenner said hoarsely, though most of the suspicion in his eyes had already faded.
"There's a doctor in my team who used to work with that family physician. Even though he didn't know about the injection, he can confirm the authenticity of my medical records. And—"
Calista pointed toward the door.
"I also have a wounded man who urgently needs medical treatment. He's nearly bled out. My other teammates are still outside, exposed to danger. If you want proof, the first thing you need to do is let them come in alive."
Dr. Jenner's breathing quickened.
In the end, the hope of an experimental vaccine sample outweighed everything else.
He suddenly turned around and rapidly operated the control panel on the wall.
Another heavy alloy door slowly opened.
"Once the outer door closes, it can't be reopened," Dr. Jenner explained.
Calista nodded. This was clearly one of the CDC's safety protocols—just like in the original storyline.
"Hurry! Get them inside!" Dr. Jenner shouted to Calista while nervously watching the surveillance monitors.
Calista immediately waved toward the convoy outside.
Turner and the others had been watching the situation the whole time. During the wait, they had already moved the supplies from the pickup bed into the Humvees.
Their reaction was immediate.
The moment they saw the door open, the engines roared to life.
The pickup and the two Humvees sped across the plaza.
Before more walkers could gather, the vehicles stopped in a tight semicircle.
All three vehicles faced inward, forming a curved barrier that blocked the walkers outside.
Only Merle struggled awkwardly to dodge a walker's swinging arms. He tumbled down from the other side of the pickup bed and staggered through the doorway with the others.
"You bastards! I led you all the way here and you were gonna feed me to the walkers?! Let me tell you something—I once knocked five front teeth out of a guy's mouth. You don't want to piss me off!"
Jenson snorted and looked him up and down.
"You lost your hand, but you can still move pretty fast."
Wells was convinced Merle was bluffing. He barked out in disbelief.
"Damn! What kind of guy has five front teeth?!"
Dr. Jenner didn't waste time exchanging pleasantries with the newcomers. His attention was completely focused on what Calista had said.
"Come with me!"
He spoke quickly, his tone filled with nervous excitement as he gestured for everyone to follow.
He led them underground into a room that looked like an observation chamber.
Behind a huge glass wall stood advanced laboratory equipment.
But Dr. Jenner didn't show them the machines. Instead, he went straight to the main control console and began typing on the keyboard with trembling hands.
A massive screen facing the glass wall lit up.
The image displayed the structure of a human brain, covered with dense clusters of glowing dots.
"This is a human brain?" Leah frowned.
"This is an exceptional brain. Those points represent memories."
He switched the screen, and complex brain scan images and waveforms began to appear.
"Look. After infection with this virus, brain activity almost completely stops. Only the most basic instinct remains—hunger. No memories. No emotions. No trace that 'she' ever existed as a human being…"
Dr. Jenner's expression turned distant. In a very low voice, he murmured:
"If only you had come earlier… just four days…"
Calista knew the experimental subject he was talking about was Dr. Jenner's wife.
This familiar and suffocating scene weighed heavily on her heart.
She knew what Dr. Jenner would say next—and she knew how devastating those words had been for Rick's group in the original story.
The team watched the images on the screen while listening to Dr. Jenner's cold explanation.
Their expressions slowly changed from curiosity to shock, and finally to a dead silence.
So after turning into a walker… nothing remained.
No heaven. No hell.
Only endless, hollow hunger.
But now, things were different.
Dr. Jenner snapped back to his senses and looked at the group again.
"Blood samples. I need your blood samples right now. Everyone!"
His eyes burned with excitement, especially when he looked at Calista.
No one objected.
Everyone cooperated silently, their moods heavy as Dr. Jenner collected their blood samples.
He almost couldn't wait to place Calista's sample into a separate analyzer.
The machine began humming as it started the preliminary analysis.
At that moment, an irritated voice sounded from the corner.
"Hey, Doc, I figure you can see there's a guy with a severed arm standing right here waiting for someone to stop the bleeding."
Merle sounded extremely unhappy. This doctor had his eyes glued to Calista and seemed completely unconcerned that Merle was nearly bleeding out.
"Oh—oh! Sorry. Come with me first."
Dr. Jenner then led Merle to the medical room despite Merle's constant grumbling.
Using the CDC's remaining medical equipment, he performed emergency wound cleaning and sutured the stump.
The procedure was difficult, but they managed to save Merle's life.
After injecting him with a powerful sedative, Merle fell asleep on the medical bed.
Only after finishing all of this did Dr. Jenner finally relax a little.
He activated the CDC's internal systems. Electricity once again lit up the entire living area.
To everyone's surprise and delight, the place even had hot water.
Real hot water for showers.
...
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