Like so, Landon and his people continued their busy yet fulfilling lives in the bubbling Baymardian empire.
And just like that, days, weeks, and even an entire month went by smoothly.
.
--Klant Town, Empire of Czar, Romain.--
.
October 26th.
The air was foul, grim and heavy.
The heavy rains fell accompanied by the wailing winds that blew fiercely across the open land.
~Cough. Cough. Cough.
Many coughed and hugged themselves in their homes, feeling very ill and not at ease.
There was a tickle in their throats. They had the cold sweats. And their nagging coughs were only getting worse and worse.
What should they do?
The state of the town was in disarray.
And many began to wonder if things would ever get better.
However, they were the luckiest of the lot because just outside the open town roads were many lifeless bodies stacked and packed on one another.
The strange virus was eating their core!
And coupled with this weather, not many had a chance to survive.
As of now, the town had lost 6/10th of its inhabitants.
That's 60%! And this didn't include the already infected that were still alive.
In essence, only 15% of the people of the entire population still hadn't been affected, maybe because of luck or something else.
Time was running out.
And the longer they stayed in their current state, the closer they were to death.
Day in day out, many died and got disposed of.
Of course, some travellers also died while walking on the roads.
The scene was alarming.
.
~Thap. Thap. Thap. Thap.~
~Vrrmmmmm!
Countless Baymardian military trucks and vehicles stormed into the town under the heavy rains.
It's been raining for 5 days straight now.
And quite frankly, waiting for the rains to stop would be stupid.
This was the height of Fall. And the rains wouldn't be letting out that frequently.
Thus, they couldn't afford to wait or slow their pace down.
Moreover, time was costly. And the price to pay were the lives of the infected.
Additionally, from some of the information provided by their good Zalipnian brothers, they also found out that the weather in Czar was similar, if not more brutal, than that in Zalipnia.
So it would be best for them to solve this matter before winter comes.
Or else, wouldn't the many snowstorms and earth-shattering occurrences push them back?
Doctor Cynthia stared out her window with a grim expression, looking at the dreadful horrors of the town.
The faces of the dead were truly gruesome. No doubt about it, they died in pain.
She squinted her eyes deeply: "We can't afford to drag treatment into winter. I have a hunch that the virus might like the cold, using it as a catalyst."
"You might be right. However, we still can't rule out the possibility of heat being its catalysts too." Doctor Liam added.
"Hmm." Cynthia and everyone else nodded.
.
Already they had begun accessing the matter the further they advanced.
And the many mission recorders and reporters had begun writing exactly what they saw.
Yes!
This was their only job out here.
They were to detaily record everything that happened every single day. This included what they saw, what others experienced and any other helpful information to properly paint the picture for the higher-ups.
Because once they had gathered enough information, they would send it back to Baymard, alongside the blood samples of a few infected.
And while those in Baymard were busy testing and looking for accurate solutions, those here would also test and try to solve the issue at hand.
In truth, the team to most likely succeed in cracking the code should be the team over here.
For one, the patients were right in front of them. And when it came to viruses, the matter was constantly changing.
Today's patients could evolve into deadlier stages in a matter of seconds.
The virus itself could switch from a Level 2 to a Boss level character in a game just like that.
So maybe the samples that would arrive a month and a half later would be old news.
In short, by the time the sample reached Baymard, maybe the team here would've found more breakthroughs and successfully cracked the code.
That's why when Landon sent them over, he sent them with full medical supplies and workstations.
They would test, experiment and do all they could to prevent things from escalating.
Heh.
Firstly, before they send in their samples, do you know how long it would take to gather all information about the virus?
They might use 3 or 4 weeks to do so before sending all they knew to Baymard.
.
Bottom line, Baymard might receive news early or late January of next year.
And by then, do you know how many people would die if they sat still, relying on the team in Baymard to find the cure?
And even if those in Baymard began working on the samples... Their results wouldn't be accurate since they didn't consider all the newly emerging information about the virus.
What if, after sending the samples, those in Czar realized that the patients reacted vigorously once exposed to a certain flower?
Or what if there was something new and bizarre that was yet to be uncovered?
Landon and even the team in Baymard knew that they had to rely on the Czar team.
Both teams would experiment and share information with each other until the suitable formula for the virus was created.
But even at that, they would have to test their inventions before injecting them into the patients.
Yes! They were all animal lovers.
But humankind was at stake here.
So somewhere down the line, they would have to inject a guinea pig with the virus and test their solutions.
Guinea pigs had roughly the same biological systems as humans.
That said, they would test it out before creating a few samples from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
The samples would then be injected into the volunteered patients in Czar.
They only needed a handful of volunteers.
Medieval people were more direct, accepting their fates, though the Baymardians had no intention of purposefully harming them.
Well, they would choose patients from all stages of the virus to efficiently test how accurate the results are when compared to guinea pigs.
When successful, the cure would be mass-produced!