Chapter Thirty-Three - Minor Improvements

“User Milesglorius: People have tried all sorts of things to kill them already

User Adfligo: Yeah, so?

User Milesglorius: wtf, you think your idea’s better?

User CuteGirlsRCute: Maybe? Not like every idea’s been tried and anyway I think that it's okay to try new things. ATs have only been invading for like 20 years. Gotta try stuff yeah?”

Systema IRC, 2043

***

This was shit sprinkles on the turd cake. I didn’t have time to deal with zombies on top of all the rest. “Myalis, what are the chances that this is a small, one-off offshoot of the antithesis that we won’t have to worry about?” I asked.

It’s unlikely. Though I haven’t noticed any parts of the hive specifically growing model sevens. That isn’t entirely unusual. Model sevens are small and quick to grow to their full maturity. Hives will often have other models grow them wherever they find a sufficient number of corpses or usable bodies. Remember that more than a weapon, a model seven is a means of transporting biomass back to the hive.

Right, the zombies were basically the antithesis’ way of co-opting a person’s body to walk it back to the hive for digestion. The fact that it was a psychological weapon probably didn’t factor in. The antithesis were scary, but it was never purposeful terror that they sowed.

I jumped when a call came in, the alert not loud or anything, but I was a little on edge and the sound poked at my nerves. Intel-chan was calling.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” Intel-chan replied. “We’re getting everyone to take their anti-zombie pills, just in case. We don’t have much manpower to check on people, but your girlfriend’s working on sending people to every housing complex on the edges of Downtown, just to make sure that everyone is still entirely human.”

I nodded. “That’s good. Will we have enough meds to go around?”

“No,” Intel-chan said. “Not nearly. But we can give some to every militia person, and most if not all of our volunteers. The pills are only meant to be good for a day or so before you need to take another dose though.”

“We’ll buy more if it comes to it.” I looked around the office space again. Earlier it had been a big, worrisome place because it might hide a few lower-tier models. Now it was worrisome for entirely different reasons. “If the zombies are here inside the barricades, then... shit, how likely is it that they’d just spread out from here?”

Model sevens are notoriously stealthy. They aren’t fast-moving, but they can reproduce within a captured body, and there are many tales of model sevens taking over a body, then walking past defences to reproduce next to heavily populated areas.

“Right,” I said. “Intel, can you add a pin to Gomorrah’s agenda?”

“I can,” Intel-chan said. “What do you need her for?”

“Burn this entire building down. In a way that doesn’t spread to the rest of the city. I’m sure she can accommodate that much. I don’t know how heat-resistant model sevens are, but I’m sure they won’t survive the kind of shit Gomorrah can unleash when she has permission.”

“Understood. Sending a message now,” Intel-chan said.

“And, uh, hey, where’s all your weebness?”

Intel-chan went quiet for a moment, then when they replied it was with a much more perky, upbeat sort of voice. Almost gratingly so. “Oh? Stray Cat Sempai wants me to talk like this?”

I squinted.

Intel-chan waited for a long, long beat. Then they spoke up. “Uwu?”

“I hate you,” I said.

“Pardon?” Sprout asked. He looked like he’d calmed down a little, though I noted that he wasn’t looking at the corpse on the ground next to us.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “Just talking to a few people at once. The militia will start taking their anti-zombie meds, we’ll see about everyone else once we’re out of here.”

“Are we leaving?” he asked, and I couldn’t miss that hint of hope in his voice.

I didn’t want to squash it, but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t want and I didn't get. “No, we’re finishing what we started. Do you have something to stop model sevens?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Myalis, two of those Proofing Pill things, please,” I said.

Coming right up.

The pills appeared in a pair of little cigarette-box-sized containers. I tossed one to Sprout and opened the other, then I undid part of my helmet to dry swallow one of the pills. It wasn’t exactly tasty, but I’d live with it. Honestly, I was probably safe. A model seven would have to get through my armour first, which I doubted they could do. But Sprout wasn’t wearing gear that was as good as mine yet.

Besides, it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to zombification.

Once Sprout took his pill, then stuffed the rest into a pocket on his vest, I tapped him on the shoulder and gestured deeper into the office space. “Let’s go,” I said.

The staircase’s door was wedged open, so I approached it ready to have something jump at my face. Nothing did, though the stairwell was unlit and windowless, so it was filled with long shadows that we only made worse as we stood by the entrance.

That, and there were potted plants scattered across the ground.

Just three or four different sorts of plants on what looked like those common brownish-beige ceramic pots that I’d sometimes seen in groceries with, like, a dying sprig of basil or something in it.

These weren’t any common spices though. One of the plants had spread roots out across the ground and another was covered in little ball-like flowers with what looked like sacs under them.

“Those are mine,” Sprout said. “Spreading Creeper, Acid Bells, and Thorn Thistle.” He pointed to the plants in turn.

“You dropped them here?” I asked.

“On the way back up,” he said.

“What was your plan, exactly?”

He shrugged, a little sheepish. “Get to the entrance, plant these down. They’re all hyper-invasive and can grow quickly.”

“Like, quickly for a plant, or actually quickly?” I asked.

“They mostly take a few hours to grow. The thorn thistle would be large enough to block a doorway in under six hours.”

“And that would stop the antithesis from breaking in here?” I asked.

He squirmed a little. “It would make it harder for them. None of my plants break down into usable biofuel for the antithesis. Some are the opposite, even, with chemical packs hidden within them that can destroy the digestion baths the antithesis uses to dissolve organic matter into the nutrient slurry they use.”

“That seems decent for area denial, I guess. Fuck with their food supply, make the area inhospitable to them. But, ah, I’m not sure if it’s ideal for plugging a passage.”

“They dug the passage, I figured it wouldn’t matter if I plug it since they could just dig out another. And... well, you sent me here, and this is the best I could do.” He gestured futilely at the pile of discarded plants on the floor.

Kinda felt bad for the guy.

“Shit,” I said. “Look, this is my bad. I should have figured out what you’re good for before sending you over here. Could have used your area denial stuff around River Heights, or on the borders.”

“I’ve planted some things there,” he said. “A lot of my plants are good for blocking alleys, and some I got to plant outside of the walls. Hopefully they’ll bring those back to their hives. Ah, some plants have trackers in them too, and pheromones that make them really attractive to the Antithesis. Or some of them. Most don’t have... noses.”

“Do you make any points with that kind of thing?” I asked.

He glanced away. “I haven’t figured out that part yet. I do make some but my AI explained that since it’s at such a remove I don’t make many. But a lot of my plants can multiply. So once I get a proper set up going, It’ll basically be free to keep going. I... my goal is to create some semi-invasive species, or buy them at least, and then plant them around areas with Antithesis hives to kill them off without ever putting someone at risk.”

“Didn’t they do that in Australia?”

“Yes,” he said. “And they made it worse. But I think... I think I can do it better.”

I gave him a pat on the shoulder. Guy was aiming a lot higher than I was. Had to respect that.

He was still useless in a fight though, which became obvious when a model three scrambled up the stairs and Sprout stumbled backwards and out of the stairwell.

I rolled my eyes, then shot the alien. Then shot a second time to actually hit it.

We all had something to work on, it seemed, and I couldn’t fling stones from my glass house just yet.

***