Looking at Jolene's body at that specific moment, it wasn't a complete absorption as I thought because there were flaky bits of skin that fell off along with some bones that were either too big or a little loose compared to the rest of the ones making her look like the most fucked-up hedgehog known to man.
However, even if I've seen a lot of shit before—even the ones committed by people—seeing how the whole process works was still unnerving, to say the least.
But yeah, our whole conversation took more than a few hours to finish but at the end of the day, it was just more ways in how these things could function, not how to bring about a solution.
'Hmm... outsider meat just refers to the deadheads that might have a different strand of the virus... Also, our nerves could still order the body around without the proper support, hence the ragdoll-ing...'
In any case, to fully solve this thing or any other viruses or whatever the fuck we were facing right now, the way to go was to fully understand it as well—and somehow even recreate it—because that was how it was done even before this zombie bullshit started.
It's just that the mutations occurring over and over was making everything extra hard because a cure for one strand might not be the cure for another. We've discussed this type of thing before and we did end up with the "solution" of making something that could also evolve with the virus to render it null and void.
However, it's still just fantasy land at this point because all we've done was send samples while the ones we sent them to just analyze them.
It's like going an incline that keeps getting steeper and steeper and there's no downhill or end point in sight. It would've been nice if there were checkpoints or water breaks along the road we were trekking but we're still stuck with the same cure we've had since day one: violence.
And before we left the Admiral alone for a while, I did ask for copies of the footage and images we'd seen and he reluctantly agreed.
"You can say no, you know?"
"It's... It's alright. The more eyes to see this, the better. Saves us the trip to Mindanao too."
"I see..."
"Well... If you don't mind, I really need to be alone right now. If you're gonna ask for anything, just look for~ anyone really, just tell them I gave you the go-ahead."
"For real?"
"Yeah."
With that said, as I was leaving after copying everything I could by plugging my phone into his laptop, I did hear him call for someone to be alone with. However, that wasn't my business at this point, though I have another use of my phone now that we're still in the Eisenhower.
"Well..."
Of course, my rep of being a lunatic was starting to get high but since I mentioned the "go-ahead" from the Admiral himself and adding our little moment earlier plus her discovering I was the kid who cooked their breakfast, it didn't take long before we fucking took to the skies with her F-18F, a two-seater variant of an F-18, and I was on the backseat acting as the Weapon Systems Officer(WSO) while she was obviously on the pilot's seat and making me go through several G's of force after a brief warmup.
[YOU STILL ALIVE OVER THERE?!]
"THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY FUCKING LIFE! MORE! MORE!"
[WE'RE ALREADY ON 6GS, YOU FUCK! YOU SURE YOU WANT A TASTE OF WHAT I CAN DO?!]
"I'LL LET YOU FUCK ME IF I PASS OUT! BRING IT ON!"
[HAH! I'M FUCKING YOU AFTER THIS ANYWAY! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS SHIT GETS ME SO FUCKED UP!]
With that said, Rachel cackled briefly before she let me have a taste of 7.5Gs of force for a few seconds. Let me be fucking honest, I almost passed out when I felt everything hit me but let's just say that my will to only serve my ass to Kaley was stronger so I fucking survived.
Still, both of us were still having the best time even when we got back to the flight deck, and the look on everyone else's face, especially the Admiral, was fucking priceless.
"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?! AND YOU! WHY DID YOU LET HIM FLY THE—"
I cut him off, "I can fly it?! CAN I?! CAN I PLEASE?!"
"SHADDAP!"
Rachel had my back, "With all due respect, Admiral, you did give him the hall pass, right?"
"I DID— BUT— I DIDN'T THINK YOU TWO WOULD DO THIS!"
Then Oscar placed his arm over the ADM's shoulder:
"First time?"