Chapter 224: The Outbreaks Begin
Aaron rubbed his tired eyes as he looked at another name on the notebook Jade had personally written for every search team.
Three days had passed since the Pathmadre gave them the list of symptoms, and during those three days, every Freebound member had done nothing but search every corner of Climber Rift, dragging anyone suspicious straight to the quarantine camp outside the settlement.
There was no room for hesitation anymore. Whether they were truly infected or not would be determined later by Greenwarden.
Their job was simply to make sure no one fitting Jade’s description remained wandering among the civilians.
Unfortunately, the work wasn’t as easy as they had imagined. Most of the people they arrested were simply exhausted refugees.
Some suffered from hunger, some had gone days without proper sleep, while others were already developing frostbite that made their bodies tremble uncontrollably.
Every false alarm wasted manpower, yet neither Jade nor Gideon allowed them to lower their guard. If even one infected person slipped through, the consequences would fall upon the entire settlement.
Kilian suddenly stopped walking and grabbed Aaron’s shoulder.
"There."
Aaron followed his gaze toward a man standing in front of a tavern.
The young man looked ordinary enough. He was smiling politely at a merchant selling dried meat, but only a few seconds later his expression suddenly froze.
His shoulders began shaking violently while his lips moved without producing a sound. His unfocused eyes stared somewhere beyond the market as though another world existed in front of him.
"...Open..."
"...Together..."
"...Family..."
The trembling lasted only a few seconds before it disappeared completely. The young man blinked several times, apologized to the confused merchant with an awkward smile and continued walking as though nothing had happened.
Aaron quietly closed the notebook. "Empty stare, body tremor, incoherent murmuring and sudden recovery. It matched the symptoms."
Kilian nodded once. "We’re taking him."
Neither of them cared that hundreds of people were walking around them. Climber Rift had already entered emergency protocol, and everyone knew Freebound had begun arresting suspicious individuals.
A few curious pedestrians slowed their steps to watch, but no one dared interfere. The two of them walked straight toward the young man until Kilian firmly grabbed his wrist.
"My name is Kilian from Freebound."
His voice remained calm but left no room for negotiation. "You’ll come with us to the quarantine camp."
The young man looked genuinely confused. "Quarantine? I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else."
Aaron had already moved behind him. "We’ll determine that after the Greenwarden examines you."
The smile on the young man’s face slowly disappeared. For the briefest moment, his pupils lost focus again.
Then everything happened at once. His elbow shot backward toward Aaron’s jaw with frightening speed.
Aaron barely managed to block it with his forearm, yet the impact still numbed his entire arm.
Before he could recover, the young man twisted his captured wrist with enough force to break Kilian’s grip before throwing a straight punch toward his throat.
Kilian narrowly leaned away and immediately answered with a knee aimed at the man’s ribs. The impact echoed loudly across the street as the young man staggered only half a step.
Aaron and Kilian exchanged a quick glance, both of them understood the same thing.
That blow should have dropped an ordinary man. Instead, the young man merely tilted his head while his body continued trembling.
His joints bent unnaturally every time he moved, almost as though he cared nothing about tearing his own muscles apart.
His lips never stopped moving either, quietly repeating the same words over and over while he rushed toward them again.
"...Protect..."
"...The colony..."
"...More..."
Aaron drew the combat knife from his waist without hesitation. "He doesn’t feel pain."
Kilian stepped forward instead of retreating. "He’s forcing his body beyond its limit."
The infected man threw another wild punch. Kilian caught the wrist, twisted it until the joint cracked loudly and slammed his forehead directly into the man’s nose.
Blood immediately poured down the young man’s face, but even then he showed no reaction, continuing to struggle with the same terrifying strength.
Aaron didn’t waste the opportunity. His leg swept behind the man’s knee while driving his shoulder into the man’s chest.
The infected finally lost his balance, and before he could stand again, Kilian locked one arm around his neck while Aaron forced both wrists behind his back and secured them with heavy restraints.
Even pinned to the frozen ground, the man continued fighting like a wild animal. The veins around his neck bulged violently, his muscles trembled under impossible strain and his mouth kept whispering the same incomprehensible words as though answering someone only he could hear.
Aaron breathed heavily before looking at Kilian. "If every infected is this strong, ordinary patrols won’t be enough."
Kilian nodded while tightening the restraints one final time. "That’s why Jade wanted them arrested immediately."
He looked down at the young man, whose empty eyes still stared somewhere far beyond the winter sky.
Without another word, the two of them dragged Ethan toward the waiting truck outside the settlement, completely unaware that, among the silent crowd watching them leave, another pair of unfocused eyes quietly followed their every movement before disappearing into the market.
***
The military containment camp stood nearly five kilometers outside Climber Rift, deliberately built far enough from the settlement that even if the worst happened, the infection would have little chance of reaching the civilians.
Gideon had personally provided the entire facility after Patrick warned them that ordinary tents would never be enough to contain an unknown parasitic aberrant.
Several dome-shaped containment tents stood neatly in rows, surrounded by double layers of steel fences and armed guards patrolling without pause.
Temporary floodlights illuminated every corner of the compound even though the sun had yet to set, while two sterilization chambers had been installed at the entrance for everyone entering or leaving the camp.
Aaron slowed his pace as he and Kilian dragged the restrained man toward the main medical tent.
"I thought Jade only wanted suspicious people quarantined," he muttered, glancing toward the other containment units.
There were already far more people inside than he had expected.
Some quietly sat on their beds with blank expressions. Others were restrained after repeatedly trying to attack the medical staff.
Several looked perfectly healthy, making it difficult to believe they had been brought here because of the same suspicion.
Kilian narrowed his eyes. "I counted at least twenty."
"And they’re still bringing more."
Before either of them could speculate further, the entrance flap opened and two people wearing thick Greenwarden coats stepped outside. They looked almost identical except for their hairstyles.
The young woman had long wavy dark hair tied behind her head, while the young man kept his blonde hair cut short. Both of them had the same pair of sharp blue eyes that immediately settled on the struggling prisoner between Aaron and Kilian.
Both of them never saw those two Greenwarden since a professor named Patrick was usually the one who handled this containment.
The woman stepped forward first. "I’m Violet. We are sent here as professor Patrick representatives since he is already busy in another area. "
The young man nodded shortly afterward. "And I’m Azul. But don’t worry, we are as capable as professor Patrick."
Aaron immediately gestured toward the restrained man. "We found him wandering through the market. He matched every symptom Jade listed, and when we tried to quarantine him, he fought back."
Kilian crouched beside the prisoner before grabbing his chin and forcing him to look toward the twins.
"He isn’t military trained like most of the Eagle Union, probably only a logistics or even another staff there," Kilian said calmly.
"His movements are crude and full of openings, but he’s unnaturally strong. I hit him hard enough to crack his ribs, yet he barely reacted. Even after restraining him, he kept repeating the same words."
Azul’s expression immediately became more serious. "What words?"
Aaron answered without hesitation. "’Protect the colony,’ ’together,’ and ’more.’ He repeated those three the entire way here."
Violet quietly took out a notebook before writing everything down. She then approached the prisoner and carefully observed his face without getting too close.
"The tremors are becoming more frequent and his eyes move unnaturally fast."
Azul nodded in agreement before turning toward two nearby medical staff. "Move him to Containment Room Seven."
One of the nurses looked surprised. "The maximum security room?"
"Yes."
Azul didn’t hesitate. "Professor Patrick will examine him himself once he’s finished with the Pyrovour Borealis."
The staff immediately nodded before carefully wheeling the young man toward the innermost section of the camp.
Only after the prisoner disappeared behind another security door did Aaron finally voice the question that had been bothering him since he arrived.
"What happened here?"
He looked around the camp again. "I didn’t expect this many people. I mean most of them have already been discharged."
Violet exchanged a brief glance with her brother before sighing. "This morning another Freebound team arrested one of the Eagle Union’s missing members,"
The answer alone was enough to make Kilian’s face harden. "So these people..."
"They aren’t random arrests," Violet continued. "After interrogating him, we reconstructed every location he had visited since entering Climber Rift. Every tavern, every lodging house, every merchant he spoke to, even the people who shared meals with him."
She gestured toward the surrounding containment tents. "Everyone inside had direct contact with him."
"And if Professor Patrick’s theory is correct..." Violet quietly continued, "...we’re already racing against a parasite that’s several days or even weeks ahead of us."
Silence settled over the camp as armed guards continued escorting another restrained civilian through the main gate.
Watching the frightened man disappear into yet another containment tent, Aaron couldn’t help wondering how many more infected people were still walking freely inside Climber Rift, smiling and talking like ordinary humans while something else quietly whispered inside their heads.
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