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"Undead? Did they turn into Undead here?" Drake asked.
"We donât know," said the King. "But they seem to spread a strange disease through biting. A few of our soldiers suddenly turned against us. Weâve had to take them down to prevent the strange disease from spreading further."
"However, there are larger hordes of those undead over there, too many, hundreds of thousands I would say," said the Queen. "So far, weâve used our Forcefield Walls to keep them at bay, but theyâre relentless, and there seem to be stronger, tougher, mutated beings among them."
"This is really weird..." Drake said. "Wait a second... mutated zombies? Huh... so itâs really Earth, but..." He glared at Benladann and Miranda.
"Yeah, maybe," Miranda nodded. "Theyâre zombies made using something synthesized from the mold, but I couldnât sense anything, so itâs probably a derived thing, a different strain, or maybe something different."
"The laboratories where I was raised werenât just working on the Mold. They were working on other bioweapons..." Benladann sighed. "I canât believe this... so the city where that laboratory was is here?"
"Have you talked with any of the humans who werenât infected?" Drake asked. "Can you speak with one another?"
"They seem to be very scared and wonât really talk much, other than repeating the same words about escaping the zombies," said the Queen. "And how they will always find their way no matter what..."
"Weâve imprisoned them for now, quarantined separately," the King said. "One of them in particular was very strong, someone who called himself Chris Bluefield or something. However, he was ultimately taken down by our Golems. He seemed like the one protecting the other survivors."
"Chris Bluefield? Benladann, do you know him?" Drake asked through a telepathic message, opening a telepathic channel with her.
"I..." Benladannâs eyes widened, realizing she knew that name from her past life.
"I do..." Miranda said. "He was a government agent sent to kill us back then... he seemed to specialize in taking down bioweapons that threatened peace. He was... he was..."
"He was the one who took us down, yeah..." Benladann laughed. "I-I canât believe this. It feels like a fever dream. Is he really here right now?"
"Heâs the one that..." Drake was confused, shocked, and even more confused. "This is really something... Uh, yeah... Toren never told us they had zombies. I guess Texas was safe from them?"
"They probably quarantined that whole city..." Benladann said. "Maybe he was sent there to secure something specific before the city was nuked or something, and then this entire thing happened, and, well, they couldnât do it..."
"...Do you have any grudges against him?" Drake became more serious. "If you do, then I canâ"
"No, no..." Benladann said, stopping him. "He killed us, but... he was a good man."
"He showed genuine sorrow and apologized when he took us down..." Miranda said. "He was just doing his job. We were doing bad things."
"Hm," Drake nodded, ending their telepathic message. "Alright, your majesties, I will take it from here. Could you show me where these survivors are first? I need to ask them several questions."
"N-No fucking way..." While this happened, Alma had also reacted strangely. "So theyâre here... huh? This is so weird..."
"Whatâs wrong?" Hermes asked. "You know them? I had no idea there were zombies back on Earth..."
"I... uh, kind of... not really..." Alma sighed. "I worked in one of those facilities."
"What?!" Benladann asked, looking at Alma with shock.
"Yeeaah... can we go somewhere else to talk about this?" Alma wondered. "Itâs a long story..."
"..." Benladann looked at her and sighed, nodding. "Okay, sure..."
Everyone quickly moved downstairs to a large waiting room, where the king and queen sent soldiers to help them relax and speak freely, while they also sent soldiers to unseal the quarantined area.
Drake made sure there werenât any devices that could spy on them, and then he decided to start the conversation again. There was a lot to unpack here after all.
"I guess a lot of people involved in that whole incident reincarnated at the same time..." Miranda said. "I donât really hold any grudge against anybody at this point. Weâve all started anew, right, Benladann?"
"Yeah... I guess so..." Benladann nodded. "So, Alma, who were you?"
"I would rather keep that a secret, haha..." Alma giggled nervously. She didnât want everyone to know she used to be a man. "But yeah, I worked mostly on the computers, doing DNA stuff... I never really got involved in anything else. I was told it was going to be a short, easy job where I would earn a quick buck. I never imagined it would be about experimenting with people... Iâm so sorry, Benladann... I really am. I never really... uh, read the fine print in the contracts. Ivan really got me back then. And once I was there, I was afraid he would kill me if I left because he feared I would leak important info..."
"Hm..." Benladann nodded. "I see... So how did it happen? How did you die?"
"The facility was raided by a bunch of soldiers, and I was shot down alongside the rest," Alma sighed. "Not the nicest way to die, and then the next thing I knew, I woke up as a cute little elven princess in a fantasy world. Crazy, right? I remember seeing Ivan fighting against Chris, but I donât remember the outcome."
"Ivan..." Drake said. "That was your dad, right?"
"He was..." Benladann nodded. "I... or I donât know, really. Was he? Was he not? I have hardly any memories of him. Itâs so blurry. Do you, Miranda?"
"Nope," Miranda said. "I only remember him calling you his precious child and how he was going to reach new heights or something... but I think I remember something... he was trying to use the Mold to revive you."
"...Revive me?" Benladann asked.
"Yeah! The first time I saw you, you were frozen solid inside a giant case full of ice! And... you were dead or something," Miranda said. "Weird, right?"
"..." Benladann fell silent.
"...Iâm so sorry! Was that too sudden and weird?" Miranda said awkwardly.
"Yeah... maybe..." Benladann sighed.
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