Chapter 56
Dudian, Sham and Zach stared at the dark blue ball. They were confused. A ball fell out of … a head. It was perfectly spherical. The color was dark blue and it looked beautiful. Obviously it was not result of intracranial tissue sclerosis as it looked like a metal ball.
Only, how could there be a metal in the brain?
Dudian was anxious and doubtful. He didn’t take the initiative to touch it but gentle poked the ball with the dagger. It skid as the blade of the dagger touched it.
“So hard!” Dudian was mesmerized. Infection rate through hard objects was slow. Moreover it wouldn’t penetrate the way liquids did. He had gloves which could isolate from infection. “A Simple touch should be okay”, Dudian decided. He moved his hand and picked it up.
The moment he touched the ball he felt a chilling ambiance. The only feeling that came through his finger nerves was cold.
Extreme cold!
He felt like he was holding an ice hockey puck which he just picked from the field. “Did the body, the flesh and blood freeze due to this dark blue ball?” Dudian thought.
Coldness spread along his arm. He felt the temperature of the entire arm was rapidly reducing and it became stiff. He picked the dark blue ball with his other arm. Coldness began to pierce through his other arm too. Dudian felt his body becoming chilly, as if he was walking naked in the ‘black snow season’, exposing his body to snow.
“How the hell does it work? My hands are holding it but my whole body feels cold. I could feel the soles of my feet were numb because of the cold.” Dudian was surprised. First it felt like playing with snowballs in the winter. The hand would turn cold but body would remain warm. But at that moment, he felt the chills all over his body, as if he was covered by ice blocks all around.
Immediately, he put the dark blue ball on the ground and rubbed his hands with each other. He felt a bit warmer. Soon his stomach rumbled due to hunger. He had not eaten from the moment they have left the giant wall. He put up with forbearance as there were more important matters at hand than a meal. Suddenly, he thought of a reason.
“Heat absorption!” Dudian jolted. “This dark blue ball absorbs heat! It works like the saltpeter of gun powder. It is not just one of the raw materials of the gun powder but could be used in ice making. In this world the alchemists have only mastered the use of saltpeter in making ice but have not discovered that nitrite mixed saltpeter can explode…”
In case saltpeter is placed into small enough amount of water, it will absorb the heat in the water so the water will turn into ice.
Obviously this dark blue ball had the same endothermic functions of saltpeter which was why he felt his body’s temperature decreased. If he held it in his hand, the ball will absorb the heat along the arm. It won’t stop unless it will absorb all the heat within the body. After the temperature of the body reduces to certain extent, the heart naturally will stop to function.
“No wonder! No wonder the temperature of the undead’s body is so low and so cold. Dark blue ball is the reason. But where does this ball come from? Why would it appear in corpse’s brain?” Dudian mind was full of curiosity. “If it has colonized its brain…Unlikely…It would need very long time and energy to colonize the brain”
“However the corpse was infected with the virus. Although they are variations but at the end they were humans. They were made up of flesh and blood. How would a hard object like a metal would grow in the brain? That is also strange,” Dudian pondered.
Suddenly a figure jumped from the stairs into the room. All three of them were shocked and alerted.
They turned to see that it was Mason so they were relieved.
Mason saw that they were alright so he snapped: “You guys scared me. I almost thought that I’ve lost you guys!”
Sham scratched his head. “It was you who scared us! I was watching Dean dissecting the undead so I forget to inform you..”
Zach hurriedly added on, “You have come down so who is gonna throw the bricks? ”
Mason’s eyes rolled up, and replied “Of course I’m back. I’m exhausted. Decide who will change with me.”
Sham stared at the beheaded corpse. “I’ll go,” Sham said.
Dudian’s thoughts were interrupted by Mason. He continued to think but he couldn’t find more clues. He wouldn’t dwell on this topic anymore, surviving was the most important thing right now. His eyes lit up as he looked over at Mason and Zach. “Come with me as a back up.”
They were in doubts as they couldn’t figure what Dudian wanted to do but they still followed him downstairs.
Dudian arrived downstairs to see the group of undeads were far away. He sneaked out to the corner and used the dagger to cut the heads of two undeads which were still lying on the ground. Carrying their heads over he quickly ran into the building. He saw Mason and Zach retreat, so he smiled and told them, “Nothing dangerous, they are dead.”
Mason was frightened: “You, when have you become so daring?”
“I’m still adapting.” Dudian replied. Returning to the upper floor, he slit open the second head the way he had done before. Now it was much easier to pierce inside, as the heads of the undeads were ripped apart from the body. As expected, there was another exactly similar looking dark blue ball inside the head of the undead.
He was going to cut open the third head when he thought of a problem. He decided to forgo the previous cutting method. Instead he began to cut through the splits of the skull that had resulted from the free fall. The head slowly broke apart. Soon they saw the full intracranial view. Most of the brain tissues were frozen. Dark blue ball had lodged itself into the brain in an ovary like place.
However, probably due to the skull crack the dark blue ball lodged inside the brain tissue was damaged. Dudian carefully rummaged for a while. Soon he came to understand the dark blue ball was in control of the undead’s actions.
The so-called, destruction of the head can kill the body of the undead, were firmly based on two principles. First is to destroy the central nervous system in the head so that the head could not control the body. The second is to destroy the dark blue ball’s connection to the brain.
In simple terms, this dark blue ball somehow connects to the brain through the ovary-looking organ. So there was no need to cut the head. As long as a strong enough force is applied to its head this dark blue ball will vibrate within the ovary. In case like that it will lose the contact with the ovary’s wall and won’t be able to signal the nervous system to perform any actions. The undead will automatically cease to act. It is same as killing the undead.
Dudian was more puzzled as he understood this point. What was the matter that made up the dark blue ball? Why would it grow in undead’s brain? Was it manufactured or formed by the virus?
Dudian picked up the dark blue ball and began to cover it with fabric. He covered layers over layers so it was wrapped into a large fist-sized ball. He handed two of them to Mason and Zach: “This thing can absorb the body temperature. It will help us to lower the temperature down. You don’t have to hold it as it will absorb the body heat anyway. The best is to put it into the backpack.”
Macon and Zach were surprised to see these wrapped up balls. Mason curious: “What are these?
“I don’t know exactly what these are. However, Hunters who kill the undeads will pry open their heads for this thing. It should be very valuable. Otherwise they won’t turn a blind eye on things like gold.” said Dudian. He had seen many all the heads of the undeads had been split open but he would have never thought that Hunters would split the heads just to pick this dark blue ball out!
Mason became frightened. “Are you sure that Hunters kill the undeads for this? ”
“Maybe.”