Falling into the Abyss

Samuel’s home was very small and had two narrow rooms, one of which was obviously inhabited. On the neat bedding, there was a sweater that had not been folded up. In the kitchen sink, there was a dish and a pair of knives and forks that had not yet been cleaned. On the dining table, there was a cup of tea that had already cooled, with a teabag quietly soaking in it. The room was still tidy, and there was no sign of struggle, but his father did not answer the call to his capsule. After Ethan discussed with Samuel, they decided to wait at his home. Maybe Samuel’s father had just gone out due to some business and would return later at night.

Ethan walked across the damp, moldy floor and heard a creak. He asked Samuel, “This is where you grew up?”

Samuel went to the cabinet where the TV set was placed, picked up a rarely seen electronic photo frame, and looked at the photos rotating every ten seconds. “Yes.”

Although it was clean and tidy, it could be seen that everything was very old, as if everything was frozen by time many centuries ago. Even the thick antique TV set, which had long since been obsolete, was still standing on the cabinet with pride. Ethan squatted in front of the TV and studied it for a while before finding the switch and turning it on. He was also surprised by the remote control. He pressed it randomly. Most of the stations displayed snowflakes without signal, but after switching to a few of them, surprisingly, they could see the news when they were connected to the current TV broadcasting system.

On it was an announcement to report anyone with a cold or fever, especially relatives or friends. The ads showed the clean corridors and wards in the isolation area. The patients were lying on the dazzling white beds one by one with smiles. The doctors and nurses said hello to the patients with friendly smiles on their faces. There were flowers on the tables beside them. The food was so rich that it was like breakfast in a hotel. No one showed any negative expression, as if they were not in a hospital but on holiday.

“The isolation area is absolutely safe and comfortable, and even if you are not sick, you will still want to live here~” The female Beta with a sweet smile said in the advertisement, but Ethan thought it was all ironic. Would anyone really believe such a shameless lie?

But even if you didn’t believe it, you had no choice but to do as they say. The road was full of robot policemen scanning human body temperature. Once they found that someone’s temperature exceeded the normal range, blood would be taken immediately for testing.

Samuel was obviously a little uneasy, pacing around the room anxiously. The time was getting late, and it was way past the time to have dinner. Even if his father went out to work, it should be time for him to return. Seeing this, Ethan saw a scarf on the armrest of the sofa, so he went to pick it up and hold it in front of his nose. The scarf has a lot of Samuel’s father’s smell, a slightly astringent hormonal smell, somewhat like persimmon.

Samuel noticed his movements and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Tracking your dad’s scent.” Ethan put down his scarf and closed his eyes. A few thin black tentacles sprang out of the back of his neck. On the tips of the tentacles grew the noses of star-nosed moles, which opened in the air like the petals of a sea anemone. These tentacles were densely covered with protrusions the size of needle tips, which seemed to be some kind of organ used to sense smells. These thin tentacles stretched out so long that they almost filled the whole apartment. They danced leisurely in the air like ribbons, while Ethan stood in the center silently, like a statue. Even if Samuel spoke to him, he didn’t seem to hear.

Ethan focused and felt his sense of smell leave his body and float over the chaotic and crowded Seventh Space Station. This city in the vast cosmos was filled with all kinds of odors, such as the smell of sweat, fishy scents, the scent of a rotten rat in the wastewater, rotten wood, rusty iron, the smell of hot water pipes used for bathing, the smell of cheap perfume, and inferior artificial skin. The smells gathered in a big river and flowed slowly around Ethan.

Among these odors, Ethan sensitively caught onto a scent similar to what he just smelled. The direction of the scent, which had almost faded away, led him in a direction full of the smell of death and decay.

Ethan opened his eyes, and his pair of green eyes looked anxiously at Samuel.

Samuel clenched his fists tightly, grabbing the coat on the back of the chair and wearing it before going to the door. “I’ll go myself. Don’t follow me.”

However, Ethan did not intend to listen to him. He picked up his coat, pulled up the hood, and used the high collar to cover his face. “I’ll go with you.”

“Didn’t you say it was a trap? Why send yourself to their doorsteps?” Samuel pushed him back, deliberately using a vicious tone to frighten him, “Didn’t you come to Earth to find your father? Don’t wait for me. Let’s say goodbye.”

Samuel always thought that the father Ethan was looking for was Adrian Eldridge. Ethan did not correct him. After all, he really wanted to find Adrian and ask him. Ethan was no longer afraid of Samuel’s tone and took a firm step forward. “Maybe it’s not a bad thing to be found by the government’s people. Since they captured your father, I’m not sure they haven’t put my father under house arrest.”

“Do you think you will be able to see your father if you fall into their hands?” Samuel irritably blocked the door and said, “They will just dismember you immediately and try to use your blood to make an antidote or something. Is it interesting to waste your life?”

Ethan laughed, as if he heard Samuel say a joke. “Do you really think they can catch me so easily?”

Samuel was stunned. He didn’t know what had happened in Ophiuchus Alliance, but he also heard the guards murmuring something about it. They seem to be saying that Starwind was carrying a monster that could never die and also carried a terrifying plague that caused the whole military base to panic. He thought it was Ethan at that time. After all, Ethan’s terrifying appearance when he mutated was still fresh in his memory.

Even now, there was an impulse that made him want to stay away from the innocuous Beta in front of him. But the other half of him could not help being attracted to the man in front of him who came out of the medical room with a subtle evil vibe. His feelings for Ethan were difficult for him to say clearly. At first, he was attracted to Ethan because he was similar to his lover during the first half of his life. Later, when he learned about his relationship with the priest, it gradually turned into friendship. This friendship wavered in Pales after he saw Ethan’s mutation, but it was still going strong.

Later, after Schneider died, everything changed. Hatred made him want to destroy the root cause of his pain, even if he used Ethan. As a result, Ethan said that he found out early on……

Ethan clearly found out about it but still treated him the way he usually did. Even after speaking the truth, Ethan forgave him almost effortlessly.

However, Samuel could not let it go. He couldn’t forgive his betrayal, but he also couldn’t put down the hatred.

He needed Ethan to complete that ritual, to destroy this filthy galaxy. Even along with himself.

Seeing Samuel’s wavering expression, Ethan reached out and gently pressed against the back of his neck and said to him with a seemingly innocent smile, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

.

The quarantine zone of the Seventh Space Station had established a nano plastic wall on the opposite side of their area, which was used to separate the struggling life outside and the death area inside. All the usable rooms in the building behind the wall had been transformed into temporary wards, but many of the so-called wards were better known as “cages.” Many patients in the early stage of infection were kept inside like wild animals. They were given a small amount of food and water every day, and they waited for them to mutate into a black worm with tentacles dripping mucus before they burned them to death with fire. Only those who had not yet gotten sick could get a little humane care, but sooner or later, they would be put into those dirty cages full of blood and mucus and would twist and curl up in the fire until they no longer have a human body.

There were not many medical staff in the quarantine zone, and almost 70% of the nurses were soldiers who were drafted here during the emergency. There was always a burnt smell in the city. Except for the ambulances and the patrolling troops, no one could walk around the streets here.

Ethan and Samuel had no symptoms of fever, so they could not mix into the facility this way. Instead, they thought of a way to sneak in. That was, to take advantage of the supply car parked near the hospital in the quarantine zone to quietly hide in the car.

The process of entering the facility was smooth, but they were met with an obstacle when some people suddenly decided to check the car. Ethan had to use some of the needles at the tips of his tentacles to secrete a temporarily paralyzing neurotoxin to put them down. In the dark, those people couldn’t even see what was attacking them in the car. They just felt something whistling forward like a whip. As soon as they felt the back of their neck hurting, they lost consciousness.

They got out of the car and found a gray wasteland of a city spreading out in front of them. Amid the silence, an animal-like hiss could be heard occasionally. The city looked very terrifying and gloomy and was accompanied by the sight of the dilapidated skyscrapers.

At this time, most of the nurses were off duty, and there were not many patrolling troops. Even if there were, they were detected by the olfactory tentacles spreading behind Ethan’s neck, so they had ample time to avoid them.

This was the epicenter of the plague and even the air stank.

On both sides of the wide but dirty road, lots of large, sealed bags were piled together, which appeared to contain something black and shapeless. It seemed to be a liquefied object. Samuel thought it was rubbish, but in some bags, he vaguely saw a structure similar to the head. The burned skin was shriveled on the skull, but the rest of the body that had grown tentacles had melted together, just like an insect.

The nightmare from Red Earth was replicated on a large scale right in front of him.

Samuel only swept his gaze around once, and his heart started seething. He silently begged for his father not to be in these bags, but he didn’t know who he was praying to.

If father really died, would he hate Ethan?

However, Ethan mutated into that to save him and Schneider, didn’t he?

He stopped himself from thinking about it. He just wanted to speed up his footsteps and find his father. But as soon as he turned around, he noticed Ethan hadn’t kept up.

He only saw the Beta squatting beside a corpse, carrying some pity and sadness as he reached through the transparent body bag and touched the disgusting head.

“What are you doing! There is not much time. The people who have been knocked out will soon be discovered!”

Ethan stood up, stretched out the thin tentacles from the back of his neck to track the scent, and continued to search for Samuel’s father as he walked through the dilapidated buildings. The smell brought him to a very tall building with empty windows overlooking them. In the silent night, cries of pain traveled out from some of the windows, causing goosebumps to surface on their skin.

“It seems like……it came from here,” Ethan murmured. Somehow, hearing people howling in pain made him feel strange. He didn’t feel it was terrifying. Instead, he felt strangely familiar with it.

He remembered the frightened look in the eyes of the early-stage infected patient in the hotel. He recalled that look of fear that person gave him. Ironically, he felt a subtle tinge of anticipation.

Ethan didn’t know if they were replying to his feelings, but just as they stepped up the steps, the terrifying howls from the depths of the building suddenly became several times louder than before, sounding just like the wailing of animals. Samuel was startled and seemed to be considering whether to retreat temporarily first. However, Ethan wrinkled his nose. For a moment, he looked like a wild animal. Suddenly, a very thick tentacle stretched out from behind him. At its tip, something similar to a mouth suddenly opened, and a ring of sharp rotating teeth opened and closed. From the dark “throat” came a roar that could not be heard by human ears. The buzzing infrasound wave quickly spread in the air.

The roars of those infected people quickly died down, leaving only one or two shivering whimpers.

Samuel stared at Ethan beside him, watching the thick tentacle quickly retract into the skin of the Beta’s shoulder, and the wound that should have been left quickly healed under the surging of many black tentacles. Ethan looked at him with a shrug, along with a casual expression that seemed to say: I also don’t know what’s going on.

What he didn’t know, however, was that something more incredible would happen later.