Chapter 48 – Mad Dogs
Tu Ran struggled to remain calm as she reached out to take the miniature camera, which was no larger than a fingernail.
She inserted it into the side of her communicator, and the screen displayed “video loading.”
The progress bar showed 11%, 12%, 13%…
Tu Ran looked at Tubin. “Mr. Tubin, please lead our team to collect the faces of everyone who died last night. I need to compare them with the video.”
“Alright,” Tubin said, his gaze leaving the communicator on Tu Ran’s wrist.
“Li Wu, Liang Feng, you two go with Mr. Tubin,” Tu Ran instructed, looking at them seriously. “Be careful. The alien parasites might still be nearby. Don’t let anyone approach you, and don’t trust anyone.”
She emphasized her words by patting their shoulders firmly.
“Got it,” Liang Feng and Li Wu nodded.
“Go ahead.”
After the three of them left, the progress bar on Tu Ran’s wrist showed 78%.
She then looked at the two pioneers assigned to her by Xie Xu.
Both of them wore expressionless faces, with half-closed eyelids, as if they didn’t care about anyone. They held various heavy weapons and wore full professional combat gear. Their tall, broad-shouldered figures exuded an intimidating aura from the half of their faces visible beneath their helmets.
Tu Ran didn’t recognize these men. She quickly glanced at their names before giving her instructions.
“With your experience, you’ll be responsible for searching the farm for suspicious traces. Find any humans who might be possessed by the aliens. The remaining guards will assist you.”
The two men didn’t object, just gave a slight nod. Each led four guards and left in opposite directions.
Tu Ran and Ding Naiqing were the only ones left in place.
The progress bar showed: 100%.
Zero’s mechanical voice sounded, “Video loading complete, fourteen faces extracted.”
Zero enlarged each face one by one, and Tu Ran found them all somewhat familiar.
She had passed by these people yesterday, even personally questioned some of them, but she hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
Zero focused on the footage captured after the surveillance was damaged, and Tu Ran clicked play.
The scene was dark, but the setting was vaguely discernible.
Seven or eight people emerged from the darkness, their eyes glowing green, bright like will-o’-the-wisp in the night.
One by one, they knelt down and tore into the massive half-corpse of the Tibetan Mastiff, biting, tearing, and fighting over it like a pack of ravenous mad dogs, even fighting over a single rib.
The scene became chaotic.
Amidst the chaos, Tu Ran noticed the figure of Karen Singh.
She was trying to claim the Mastiff’s head for herself when a thick, patterned snake coiled around her body.
The snake tightened its grip, and blood began to ooze from Karen Singh’s orifices. Then, her head was squeezed off, rolling to the ground, her eyes staring directly at the camera.
The alien parasite possessing Karen Singh’s body remained unharmed, but it had to crawl out of the mutilated body to find another human host.
Soon, the Mastiff’s corpse was devoured completely, and the humans possessed by the aliens, patting their now-round bellies, scattered in all directions.
The scene quieted down.
The timestamp jumped to half an hour later.
A foot in a high-heeled shoe appeared where the camera was positioned.
