Curse the Mainframe! 184 The Truth Behind Lies II

She tilted her head up, firming herself. "I helped cause this problem, now I want to help stop it."

Even though she was sincere about her words, they didn't change the way they treated her.

"Bring her along, then."

Lukas nodded, having left the decision to Alec. He dragged Natalie's limp form with them into the jeep, taking a dagger out.

Natalie shrunk a little, trembling, but didn't make a move to resist.

Alec respected that she had enough courage to say that and try and make amends even if he didn't like her.

Anyway, if the cause of mutation couldn't be obliterated, then they had a convenient scientist on their hands that could possibly find the cure. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

He'd looked through the files on the database, and her work wasn't too bad, so she was still relatively useful should they decide to use her.

There were many things that they didn't understand, and despite him having knowledge about certain things, he wasn't infallible.

"There's only one thing that wasn't written in the files. How did you manage to extract the virus to use?"

Natalie trembled. "I don't know. That part was redacted from the papers, but from what I gather, it was originally from some sort of rock or meteorite. The virus was extracted into a gaseous form that was then stored in a metal tube and handed to us to experiment on."

-

Natalie spent a few days in silence in the jeep. No one talked to her, but she was grateful that they even left her alive in the first place. That they were giving her a chance to atone and fix the things that had went wrong.

She had no idea whether or not she could do it, but she had to try. For humanity. Because that was all that she'd wanted in the first place. She had really been trying to empower humans.

For now, they ruled the earth, but what about outer space? There was no way that in the entire multitude of the galaxy, they were the only intelligent lifeforms out there.

More than that, she wasn't lying about wanting to atone. She honestly had no idea that the world would devolve into this state.

The research notes that she'd gotten painted such a beautiful picture that they could all picture the optimistic world if they worked it out properly.

At this thought, she felt a familiar fear and anger mix together.

Her superiors originally had told them that they were only testing it small-scale on a few willing test subjects, sending them over.

The subjects had been paid off, and they weren't afraid of death, so the human experimentation had been given tacit approval from the rest of her fellow scientists and researchers.

The fact that they were delivered in a van, unconscious, with the statement that they were drugged to sleep because of the off chance that things went wrong. Even if they were willing to give their lives, that didn't mean that they should suffer.

In hindsight, that was super shady, but none of them had questioned it because they had been blinded by their enthusiasm.

Natalie first started getting a bad feeling when she saw how some of the subjects devolved into a state that could only be called a life between death and life. While they didn't have a heartbeat anymore, nor did they have any conscious thoughts, they were able to move around.

They'd sent the report of the data up to the higherups but hadn't received any news back about what they should do, so they just continued researching the strange state that these people were in.

They didn't need to eat, nor did they need any stimulus.

By all accounts, they were just… existing. They weren't alive, nor did they have any thought processes.

The only thing that stood out was they reacted to sound, and meat caused them to go crazy. It was extremely discomforting.

It was only one day when they were suddenly knocked out cold, placed in separate containment rooms that they realized they were next to be experimented on.

It drove them crazy, the thought that they would be the next ones facing that state.

And for what? Why weren't they needed? Was it because they failed in their research?

The coldness started seeping into her bones then, and the red haze of the virus started seeping into the room, lasting for a total of what felt like an eternity.

She'd seen her fellow researchers bang crazily on the door, unable to get out, their eyes going wide and frantic as they shouted, but no sound made its way to her.

One by one, they started turning and devolving, their eyes going from clarity and desperation to a blank white. No more pupils, no more irises.

Natalie shuddered.

Natalie's heart had thundered in her chest as she scrunched her eyes shut, waiting for death. Waiting for her brain to stop working, to stop functioning as she turned into what she could only call zombies.

She clamped her hands over her ears, wanting to block out the ringing silence. Somehow, it was worse that she couldn't hear anything. She couldn't hear as the rest of her colleagues went crazy, couldn't hear as they screamed and shouted.

Natalie wasn't alone in this place, but she was alone in this room.

No one could hear her, no one could save her.

She was going to die. Alone. Because how could you call that state that was in-between life and death anything else?

It was only then that she regretted not once questioning the orders from the higherups.

Had the subjects earlier even been willing? Or had they been kidnapped off the streets, fed drugs before their bodies were used without both their knowledge and consent?

The thoughts haunted Natalie for hours until she realized that she wasn't going to turn into one like the rest of them, but that only terrified her more.

She wanted to live, but she also didn't want to have to face the facts that she'd contributed to this experiment.

She didn't know how she got out of the room. Someone must have been monitoring them as they released the lock on her door.

Natalie had collapsed, shivering.

She had no idea how long passed like that, her mind wandering without focus as she thought about the horrors that she'd partaken in.

Everyone was dead.

Maverick, Jacob, Sally… everyone…

But… but at least now that the higherups knew about the downsides of using this virus, right?

She was wrong. It was only when she stumbled out and exited the lab that she froze in horror.

Nearby buildings and the normal bustling that used to exist in the background had faded away, leaving Natalie shivering.

She shut herself back into the lab, trembling, her face pale and devoid of blood.

They'd used it.

They'd used it after seeing what it did to all of them, and sHE WAS AT FAULT IT WAS ALL HER FAULT HER HER HER HER –

She must have shut the trauma into the back of her mind, because she returned back and realized that a few days passed without her even knowing.

The lab was silent and devoid of any life, but at the back of Natalie's mind, something whispered to her not to leave. Not to go looking. Not to turn on the computers, or the television.

Natalie didn't know why, but she heeded the voice in her head.

The loneliness got to her first, but the terror that had been ingrained in her bones stopped her from doing anything.

She lived as a shell for an unknown number of days. It wasn't until Lukas and the rest had broken into the lab, all but stabbing her with their cold words that had been just as sharp as any knife that the trauma came back in full force, all her memories returning.

It hurt.

Her mind hurt; her heart hurt.

And she regretted.

This wasn't why she had studied molecular biology. She wanted to change the world, that was for sure. But she wanted to advance mankind. Not bring it to its end.

It was too late for that now.

All she could do now was make atonement, even though she would never be able to atone properly. If they allowed her, she would live out her life devoting every moment of her time to finding the cure.

When she was done… when she was done, she'd find a quiet spot to die.

Chapter end