Ken clenched his teeth and fists as he faced this painful decision. With no other choice left, Ken had to cut down those that were meant to fight alongside him. Hinata, Ichiro, Takeshi, and others who were not infected shot the infected ones, but the bullet holes closed, and those who were cut into different pieces merged back together.
Seeing this, Ichiro looked around. "Fire... we need to burn them."
A portal flashed, and a tiger emerged. It opened its mouth, unleashing flames on the infected agents. The moment the flames touched them, a piercing screech left their mouths. It sounded like even the centipedes screamed with them, and the pitch of their screech was so high that they had to cover their ears.
Fortunately, their resistance to fire was non-existent. They all collapsed, leaving the rest of the team in shock.
"How did we not notice those things?" Takeshi gulped, his hands on his bald head.
"The question is, how did it spread so fast, and we didn’t even know?" Hinata looked around as other agents went about killing centipedes that were about to escape.
"They don’t need a host." No one knew how pale Ken’s face was behind his mask.
"What?" Ichiro faced him. Everyone did. At this point, they needed to know what they were facing. Thirty agents were dead, and the rest of them were barely able to keep themselves under control. Some wanted to strip naked to ensure there was no centipede in their body.
"I stayed up all night expecting an attack, but there was none. All the time we’ve been camping, these centipedes have been sneaking into our tents. I think they’re able to enter our bodies without our knowledge." Ken faced Ichiro.
"We need to go."
Hinata squatted before a dead centipede. It was black with bright red legs and about as long as her index finger. Then, she looked at the huge centipede on one of the burnt corpses tied to a stake.
"Did this thing grow that big while being inside a person’s body?" Her eyes trembled.
"It clearly did." Takeshi shuddered.
"Alright, it’s clear every moment we stay here, we risk being infected. So we need to leave. But first, everyone must be examined. Move in pairs. Both will examine each other." Ichiro ordered, and everyone dispersed to check themselves.
At a corner, two female agents removed their clothes. The first one glanced at the second one.
"Rika vomited on you."
The second glared at her. "I hit those things off. I’m not infected—" As she spoke, her eyes went to her abdomen, where something small moved beneath her flesh.
Her eyes widened. The first agent saw it and pulled out a gun, but the second jumped on her. They hit a half-burnt wooden wall, collapsing into the building, both struggling for the pistol.
Eventually, the second agent overpowered the first and got the pistol. She aimed it at the first one as she panted heavily.
"I only have to get home, and this thing will be taken away. I can’t die, not here and not like the others," she said while glaring at the one on the floor.
"Kill me, and they’d know something is wrong. I can’t let you bring this thing to Tokyo." The first agent responded firmly, but the second sighted something on the neck of the first.
"Is that so? Go ahead then." She dropped the pistol on the first agent, then rose to her feet. As the first agent stood up, the second chuckled.
"Kill yourself first. You’re also infected. Shoot me and they’ll also want to search you." The first agent’s eyes widened in horror as she felt the centipede crawling from her cheek to her forehead, then into her scalp.
Everywhere it passed felt itchy, forcing her to scratch.
"The pistol is in your hand," the second agent said once more. "You can either kill yourself or hold it in. Once we get back, I’m sure we can be cured."
The first agent trembled but put her pistol back into its holster.
Both of them went back to the group. Ichiro looked at them.
"Anything?"
They both shook their heads.
"Let’s go then. We’ve checked the trucks." Ichiro marched for the trucks. Others joined him, and everyone quickly found their spot.
Takeshi sat in the driver’s seat of the second truck, and the second agent sat beside him. The truck’s engine roared to life, and they drove off, heading back to the gate at high speed. It had taken them more than two days to get here, but at high speed, they could reduce it to a day’s journey or ten hours.
Ken sat atop the third truck. His mind kept replaying what happened to the agents. He brought out his diary and began to sketch the centipede.
’I don’t know how long those things were inside them, but I have little details of what I think they can do. One, they can’t be sensed. Two, they move within the body without causing pain. Three, they reproduce at an uncanny rate. And four, those heavily infected can’t be killed with anything other than fire.’
He was silent for a long while as they went past grasslands. ’If there is no cure, then those infected are already on a death sentence. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to avoid being infected, and we have to know the state of Tokyo.’
While he pondered, Takeshi discovered the female agent, well-kitted in her helmet, mask, and armour, was twitching.
He ignored it at first, but it had been over an hour now, and her twitching grew worse. Then, she began to scratch while looking out the window.
Takeshi’s eyes narrowed. One hand was on the steering wheel, while the other reached for her.
Right at that moment, the sound of a flute echoed.
Takeshi went straight for a pistol without a care in the world. He would rather kill a normal agent than risk being infected, but when the female agent snapped her head toward him, Takeshi’s heart almost fell out.
Centipedes burst out of her eyes, and she vomited a great deal of centipedes and white mucus from her mouth, splattering them all over Takeshi!
He mashed the brake, slammed the door open, and fell out as the truck drifted, then crashed with a loud sound.
Takeshi’s screams pierced the air as he kept hitting the centipedes on him and ripping off his armour. A man with a weapon capable of killing demigods was overwhelmed with so much fear, he looked untrained.
Other trucks screeched to a halt.
Ken wasn’t able to focus on Takeshi as he noticed a motion in the truck he sat on.
An eerie laughter echoed from a bamboo forest not far away.
Ken realised. The team was already doomed.
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