Several guards quickly arrived at the scene, including Noah, who had just come out of the laboratory. “I only found this,” Hexa said, crouching and pointing at the organism for Noah. His face was grim. “You seriously don’t know anything about this organism?! Doesn’t it look exactly like the one you showed me earlier, huh?!”
“Calm down.” Noah approached the organism, picked it up with tweezers, and placed it in a sample container.
Hexa hurried out of the room. “Tch!” He lit his cigarette. Fsssh... Not far from where he was smoking, the victim who had previously been ensnared by the creeping roots lay stiff and motionless. “Wait.” Hexa opened the body bag containing the victim. “Who is this?” Then he closed it again.
“He’s the victim who was caught by that root Monster earlier, sir.”
“Wasn’t he still alive when I fought the Monster?” he muttered. He put out his cigarette and hurried back into the laboratory to find Noah.
Crash! Something made a noise not far from the biobank. Hexa was startled when he reached the laboratory door.
“What was that!?”
“Oh, that’s an animal from the ‘animal house.’” Noah pointed toward the room not far from where he stood.
Hexa fell silent and stared at Noah.
“What is it?” Noah asked.
“You’re too calm. A human being just died.”
Noah stopped what he was doing. “Ah... Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“What am I supposed to do, Hexa? I don’t know anything about that Monster plant either.”
Crash!
“What now?!”
“Calm down.” Noah continued working.
“Bring me three animals from the animal house. I’m going to study this organism.”
“Tch.” Hexa clicked his tongue and walked out of the room.
Noah merely shook his head and smiled. “Don’t forget to bring their cages,” he said, pointing toward the small cages beside the door.
“Yeeeah... Professor...”
When he arrived at the animal house, Hexa saw various animals and plants being kept there. Among them were white mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, and several monkeys hanging from the cages.
“Plants again... Haaa...” He looked at several plants arranged neatly in a row. “Hopefully these ones don’t spread.” His gaze swept across the entire room. “It’s like a miniature zoo.” He sighed. “Why do scientists always love this kind of thing?! Turning living creatures into experiments.” He smiled bitterly. “And I’m one of the people who accepted a job here.”
“Are you complaining?” Noah’s voice came from behind him. The man, whose hair was graying in places, approached the metabolic cage.
“We only use rodents. The primates here were already here long before I arrived.” “The one we use most often is... this,” Noah continued, picking up a white rodent.
“A rat?” Hexa asked.
“No.” Noah lifted the animal.
“This is Mus musculus. It’s in the same group as rats.”
Hexa picked up the cage he had brought and handed it to Noah. They left the animal house and headed for the wet lab.
“I’ll probably be studying this for quite a while,” Noah said.
“All right.” Hexa contacted the helicopter operator and asked him to shut down the engine for the time being. A short while later, he walked alone through the old laboratory corridors, which resembled a maze. Long cracks covered the walls and ceiling. The building looked like a relic that had been abandoned long ago. As he passed the room where the creeping plant had ensnared the guard’s neck, his pace slowed. Evacuation personnel and several researchers were sterilizing the area. “Looks like that plant is... dead? But it looks frozen...? Ah, screw it! Tch!” Hexa continued on his way. Before he knew it, two hours had passed. He was lost among the dark buildings, with the remains of rubble not far from the laboratory’s main building. He switched on his flashlight.
Zap...