Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 271 Lump (4000 word chapter)
As soon as he heard that he was going to pass through the ice road covered with egg sheaths in front of him, Martin's face suddenly revealed a look of extreme reluctance... But compared to the third road that Ke Lan said, he could only stick to it. Scalp followed behind the others.

"Pay attention to where you land, and be careful not to step on these egg cases." Ke Lan said——At this time, the team's position changed again, and Ke Lan returned to the vanguard position. Gave the Hound and Zoligetu.

The surface of these egg cases is frozen with a layer of hard ice. To be honest, the hardness is not low. Even a modified person with an extraordinary tonnage like Layton stepped on it safely. This discovery finally made Ke Lan feel a little relieved.

If it were other insects, if the egg case ruptured before the larvae matured, the larvae would basically die, but this scarlet flesh worm is different... This kind of creature cannot even be regarded as a "bug" in the conventional sense When they gather together, they can even build a giant beast like Leviathan. This alone is enough to subvert the biological theory that human beings have developed for thousands of years.

Ke Lan didn't dare to treat these things as ordinary "bugs".

The speed of the team is very slow, because these egg cases are not only hard, but also very smooth. Because they are covered with a thin layer of ice, stepping on them is no different from stepping on ice, and they are not uneven hemispherical On the ice, every time you step down, you have to spend several times your energy to find a stable foothold, and your whole body must be tense all the time to maintain your body's balance.

"I always have a feeling that what I'm stepping on is not a bug's egg case... but a land mine." The hound couldn't help but complain.

The arrangement of these egg cases was very irregular, and everyone basically trudged among them. Martin and Qin Zhao even slipped and fell a few times. Fortunately, the egg cases hit by them did not appear. any changes.

After advancing about more than 200 meters, the egg case attached to the ice road finally disappeared. The hunter couldn't help but let out a long breath and said, "Finally crawled out of the pile of disgusting Bala eggs...he Damn, my ankles are about to cramp."

"This ice road... Could it be the spawning ground of these bugs, but why is it here..." Layton said, he suddenly reacted, glanced at Qin Zhao and the two who were in the back without knowing it, and did not continue.

"It seems that our previous speculation was correct. This twin ruins should be the place where the Alpha civilization used to develop biological weapons, just like the research institute on the Ark." Ke Lan said.

"That's going to be troublesome. The security measures in the research institute are so perverted that even a mosquito can't fly in. If this place is the research institute of the Alpha people... tsk tsk..." Layton shook his head, " The situation is not optimistic."

Hearing what he said, the hound gave Layton a blank stare again: "Can you close your crow's mouth? You don't know how to say good things all day long."

"You're too superstitious, old man. You can't blame me for this kind of thing..." Layton said aggrievedly.

"In short, can you just stop talking nonsense, I'm tired of listening." The hound scolded, "The problem now is how to get out of this ruins, don't think about it, look at that man named Martin Little bastard, I'm almost scared out of my wits when you say that."

"Uh... I, I'm actually fine..." Martin said weakly, but his trembling fingers and the stiff expression on his face completely betrayed his true thoughts.

"There's nothing wrong with being cowardly. People who are cowardly can live a long time, but it's okay to be too cowardly. If you're too timid, it's better to change careers as soon as possible." The hound stepped forward and patted Martin's shoulder vigorously, but the latter turned out to be knee As soon as it softened, it almost fell to the ground.

Fortunately, the hound had quick eyesight and quick hands, grabbed the opponent's arm, and lifted him up vigorously, but at this moment, the hound suddenly let go of his hand as if he had seen a ghost, and then kicked Martin to the ground. Backed up several meters.

"On your wrist! What is it?!" the Hound snapped.

Looking at the beam of light from the flashlight in the hound's hand, everyone discovered that Martin's bare wrist was stained with a bright crimson red, and there were many bumps the size of rice grains on the surface of the skin.

Martin himself glanced down, and was immediately paralyzed by fright. He clutched his arm tightly, and was about to shout, but found that his mouth was suddenly stuffed with a roll of bandages, blocking his voice in his throat. .

"Don't get excited, calm down, maybe there's still hope." Ke Lan put the bandage on. He had already put on rubber gloves at this time, and several sharp medical knives were caught between his fingers.

Martin stared in horror, looked at Ke Lan's scalpel, then at his own wrist, struggled nervously, wanted to speak, but couldn't speak.

Seeing this, Ke Lan reached out and pulled the roll of bandage out of his mouth.

"Ex-ex-ex-senior... are you, you, you, you... are you planning to... cut off my hand?" He said incoherently, with obvious crying in his voice.

"Let me check first, it doesn't have to be amputated." Ke Lan said, raised his head and glanced at the others, "You all check yourselves to see if you have similar symptoms on your skin, especially if you are naked part."

After speaking, Ke Lan picked up the largest surgical scissors, cut along Martin's cuff lengthwise, and opened these layers of thick fabric to both sides.

The reddened area is about eight centimeters long, extending from the wrist to the lower third of the forearm. The outer side is lighter and the inner side is darker. As for those rice-shaped lumps, they are only found on the inner side of the wrist. .

"Do you feel itching or pain?" Ke Lan asked Martin.

"No, no." The latter froze for a moment, then shook his head vigorously.

"What about now?" Before Ke Lan finished speaking, the blade of the scalpel had already pierced the reddened skin, and the tip of the knife sank obliquely to a depth of half a centimeter.

"Ah! Hiss...huh?"

Martin's cry of pain was swallowed by himself as soon as he yelled halfway. He looked at the blade piercing his wrist with a puzzled expression, his expression was puzzled at first, and then frightened: "Well... it seems that I don't feel it at all. Pain? Ah! Senior, Senior, my hand...is it useless?"

"It's too early to make a conclusion." Ke Lan said with a serious expression, and the few people watching beside him didn't even dare to breathe, "Since you can't feel the pain, then I won't give anesthesia, Layton , use the mechanical arm to hold him down, and let him not move as much as possible—in addition, do not have direct contact with his body, and the parts that have indirect contact must also be disinfected.”

As he said that, Ke Lan had already turned the blade and cut open a lump the size of a grain of rice.

The lump ruptured, and a clear viscous liquid mixed with a strand of blood flowed out of it.

"What is this?" the Hound couldn't help asking.

"I don't know." Ke Lan shook his head, he took out a test tube used to hold the specimen, and squeezed all the liquid in the lump into the test tube with tweezers.

But after the pus in the lump was squeezed out, the red skin around the lump returned to its original color, and Martin's face also showed a painful look...

"Hiss...it hurts...I can feel the pain again...what's going on?"

"Although I don't know the reason, it seems that as long as you squeeze out the contents of these lumps, your arm can return to normal." Ke Lan said, took out a needle tube, and pricked a few needles in the middle of Martin's forearm. Immediately, Martin's newly recovered sense of pain was gone again.

"Senior, I can't feel the pain anymore..."

"Just now Ke Lan gave you a sealing injection, lidocaine mixed with dexamethasone solution, if you can still feel the pain, then you will be damned." Hound said angrily. Although he is not a doctor, those commonly used drugs I still know the signs... As a lone hunter, I basically have to deal with all major injuries and minor injuries by myself. If I open the first aid kit and don't even know how to use the things inside, I'm afraid I don't know how many people have died. time.

After anesthesia, Ke Lan cut several lumps one after another. After squeezing out all the viscous fluid in these lumps, Martin's arm finally returned to its original color.

Finally, Ke Lan rinsed the incision several times with alcohol solution, then wrapped it with a bandage, and sealed it with a barrier film like plastic wrap.

"It's actually very difficult to completely remove the pus in the lump with this method alone..." Ke Lan said, he couldn't help but think of Ivan's infection with the erosion seed, "Actually, amputation is the best way, this method is the safest ..."

"Is it really going to be amputated?!" Martin couldn't help being startled, and quickly reached out to cover his arm.

"But now there is no condition for amputation. If you amputate directly, you will most likely die from hemorrhage or wound infection." Ke Lan said, "But if you don't amputate, there is a possibility of recurrence at any time. You must always pay attention to it. The wound changes, and other people must keep a safe distance from you."

"Okay, okay, I'll remember! I'll take care of it myself!" Martin nodded repeatedly when he heard that there was no need for amputation.

"If there is a chance to return to the ark, even if the wound has not changed, another deep debridement must be performed, do you understand me?"

"I see!"

"As for this." Ke Lan raised the test tube containing the pus in his hand, "I will give this to the people above, and maybe someone from the research institute or the security bureau will come to you later, you should be careful Prepare."

"Security Bureau?" Hearing this word, Martin couldn't help but shudder, "I...I won't be silenced, will I?"

"Thinking too much, do you really think that the people in the Security Bureau are executioners?" Ke Lan glanced at him speechlessly, "But if they really send someone to look for you, it means that there is a big problem with this thing... At that time, if something happens to your body, only they will be able to help you."

"And am I going to be sent to the dissecting table?" Martin asked.

"It's possible." Ke Lan nodded, "But if things get to that point, even if you slip away from them, you won't survive for long, and your end may even be worse than being on the dissection table."

"It's worse than being on the dissection table?" Martin's face suddenly turned pale, "Senior... I don't understand what you mean..."

"That's better if you don't understand." Ke Lan took off his gloves, stuffed them into a sealed waste bag together with the used surgical instruments, and then made a gesture to Layton that only they themselves could understand .

The meaning of the gesture is: keep an eye on Martin.

He also doesn't know what these pus are, and he can't even confirm whether these substances are related to the red meat worms in the egg case... But one thing is certain is that this thing can infect humans, and as an infected person Martin, on the other hand, became an unstable factor in the team.

Even though he hasn't mutated or changed in any other way, it doesn't mean that his condition can always be maintained in this state.

If it were a cold-blooded hunting group leader, he might choose to abandon him directly—from a certain point of view, only by doing so can this unstable factor be completely eliminated.

"Come on, move on."

……

After the operation just now, the atmosphere in the team became more depressed. Even the hounds didn't speak much. Everyone walked in silence, but as they walked, Ke Lan always felt that the surrounding environment seemed to be starting to change. It got weird.

But this sense of weirdness does not come from vision, but a kind of vigilance that arises spontaneously from the bottom of my heart...

"It's not right." Ke Lan said softly.

"What's wrong?" asked the Hound.

"I can't tell." Ke Lan shook his head.

"Could it be that you are too nervous?" The hound rubbed his chin, "This kind of ghost place, to be honest, everything is not right, if it is right, then there is something wrong."

"No...it's not that kind of feeling, it's just..." Ke Lan rubbed his forehead. He really wanted to express his feeling, but found that he couldn't find the suitable language to describe it.

At this time, Layton, who was walking at the front of the line, suddenly let out a small sigh: "Hey, there seems to be something on the ground in front of you."

"What?" Hearing the words, the hound immediately raised the gun in his hand, aiming the sight at the dark ice road ahead.

"Go and have a look." Ke Lan suggested, Layton and the hound nodded, and the three raised their weapons and walked up with very light steps...

And when they finally saw "that thing" that Layton said, they immediately stood still in place as if struck by lightning.

A piece of clay explosives covered several cracks in the ice, with a metal detonator stuck in it.

"Hiss... we... why are we walking back?" the hound muttered in a low voice.

"That's my explosives and detonators..." Layton said sullenly, "It's impossible, it's absolutely impossible."

The ice path is a straight passage, without any turns or forks. Logically speaking, it is impossible for them to come back.

(End of this chapter)