The entire courtroom fell silent after my revelation. It was so quiet that you could practically hear a pin drop.
“D-Did she just say that the infected is a superhuman soldier?” someone finally broke the silence.
Superhuman soldiers were part of a project designed to create fighters capable of effortlessly taking on Demon Zombies and potentially standing toe-to-toe with Demon Monsters like the enormous centipedes, giant bats, and demon hounds. My husband had once been involved in this project, but it ended in disaster. The researchers, including my husband, had been massacred by their own creations.
The project had been put on hold after that catastrophe. However, the government’s desire for its continuation led to a new team of scientists taking over. Despite their efforts, progress remained slow compared to the advances my husband had achieved.
If the superhuman soldiers were successfully developed, they would likely be hailed as saviors. They could become a beacon of hope for Hope Island and potentially bring an end to the Ruination. This is why the courtroom was filled with astonished faces, including the mayor’s and the judge’s.
“T-That’s a lie!” Evan shouted, leaping out of his chair and pointing at me. “I’ve known from day one that she’s infected! She’s just a random zombie found in the area bombed by the Slayers! Can’t you see it in her appearance? She’s a fucking zombie through and through! Look at that hair! There’s no way a color like that could belong to a normal human! And she can’t even speak—she can only growl!”
“He’s right,” someone else chimed in. “There’s no way she could be normal. Just look at her hair. Even the roots are purple.”
“Purple is usually a demon color. Maybe Mr. Wright’s son is onto something.”
“We can’t afford to be too hasty.”
“But it’s possible her hair is like that because of modifications done to her body. If she really is a superhuman soldier, that could explain it.”
“It would be a shame to have a superhuman soldier and then just discard it. I don’t want to see a potential asset thrown away.”
“We have no way of knowing for sure. Mr. Wright could be right, but Miss Fischer might also be telling the truth.”
The people in the courtroom were now divided, struggling to decide which side to take. I had deliberately revealed Shredica as a superhuman soldier to provoke this reaction. These high-class individuals were notorious for their ambition—not only did they want to extend the survivors’ influence beyond Hope Island, but they also aimed to reclaim the mainlands using superhuman soldiers. They were power-hungry, grimy politicians at heart.
“I’m telling you all, she’s lying! Can’t you see? She hasn’t spoken a single word!”
Shredica simply glared at him.
“See! Look at the way she’s staring at me! She’s eyeing me like I’m just a piece of meat! There’s no way she’s a normal human!”
Evan kept shouting, his voice rising with each word, but Shredica just glared at him, unfazed.
“She’s not normal! She can’t even talk, and her hair—it’s fucking unnatural! That can’t be—”
“Shut up!”
Shredica suddenly spoke up. I could hardly believe my ears. I had thought she couldn’t speak, so I stared at her with wide eyes. Jessica was surprised too, but her shock was more subdued compared to mine. Was this a result of the days she’d been working without sleep? How did she manage it?
“It worked, Mother…” she said in a whisper.
“D-Did she just speak?”
“Then she’s not infected?”
“So she really is a superhuman soldier?”
The people were bewildered. Evan was utterly confused and in shock.
“N-No, this can’t be right. There’s just no way…! I saw her! She was only growling and acting like an infected. There’s no way she could… How could she speak?!”
Evan was now shouting at the top of his lungs. At that moment, the balance shifted in our favor. The game-changer was Shredica speaking.
The hearing dragged on for hours, but by the end of the day, there was little they could prove to label Shredica as infected. The session concluded with Evan being convicted of attempted rape and sentenced to six years and a day in prison. Even the mayor’s attempts to intervene fell flat. With Shredica now viewed as a superhuman soldier by the public and even the high-class elites, the mayor’s influence was rendered useless.
We returned to the laboratory afterward. Shredica didn’t utter another word. She only spoke those two words, and that was it. Jessica glanced at Shredica, her expression thoughtful yet troubled.
“Mother, I genuinely think that Shredica is going to become the savior of humanity.” she said. “I genuinely think that.”
She reached out a hand and cupped Shredica’s cheek with it.
“She will be our hope.”
***
Jessica’s POV
100th Year of the Ruination Calendar.
Two years after that hearing.
“Shredica.” I called out to the woman with purple hair, who was practicing outside the laboratory. She was a stunning woman with an expression of perpetual anger, though it was just her natural scowl. She was always frowning. The woman was engaged in target practice, her focus intense.
“Hello, Jess,” she replied, her voice devoid of emotion. Her eyes were cold and unfeeling, giving off a sense of someone who was battle-hungry and yearned for war.
“What are you doing? It’s already night,” I said to her.
She smirked, a terrifying sight that I’d grown accustomed to. “The battle is tomorrow, right? I need to be ready.”
“You know you shouldn’t overdo it, especially with the battle coming up. You should take a break now and then. It’s only been a week since the last campaign to reclaim some areas on the main islands.”
“I don’t need rest.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” I conceded. “But you should rest regardless. Then again, I can’t exactly stop you, can I?”
Shredica glanced at me, her eyes cold but determined. “The island we reclaimed isn’t the only thing we’re going to take back, Jess.”
She was right. Just last year, we’d launched a campaign to reclaim not only the islands but all the continents. Shredica had been the main force behind it. Just last week, we’d finally secured one of the most strategically valuable areas humanity had been aiming for.
But of course, taking over the island was just the beginning. We planned to build facilities there, like laboratories and military camps, to strengthen humanity’s fight against the demons. We’d also start working on creating more superhuman soldiers. Right now, Shredica was still the only one of her kind. When the authorities asked me how I’d created her, I told them she was the result of my father’s work, who managed to avoid going insane from the experiments. They seemed skeptical but didn’t press the issue, thankfully.
“Well, since you’re done, why don’t you join us for some food?” I asked her.
“I’ll be there after I practice a bit more,” she replied.
Shredica wasn’t exactly the sociable type. I wondered if this was her nature even before the Ruination, back when she wasn’t infected. Despite her lack of social skills, she showed respect in her own way. Though she appeared cold, I could tell she saw me as more than just a stranger, and even had some regard for Mother. I told her to think of me as a sister, and while she glared at me like she didn’t appreciate the suggestion, she didn’t argue. I think she took my words to heart, at least.
Interestingly, Shredica didn’t eat human flesh or anything else related to what infecteds typically consume. She ate like a normal person, despite not showing any real sense of hunger. Her eating habits seemed to stem from the memories implanted in her brain, which reminded her that she was once a regular human who had become a superhuman soldier.
Her speech patterns had improved significantly. Initially, she spoke with a slouch and struggled to form coherent sentences. She even bit her tongue once while trying to talk. However, with the right amount of teaching from me, she managed to get the hang of it and now spoke in full sentences. I attempted to teach her mathematics and science, but she seemed to grow bored quickly and didn’t pay much attention. It was clear she’d been a slacker even when she was a regular human.
Despite her current state, she was still a normal human once. I couldn’t help but worry about her venturing into dangerous places.
Suddenly, she stopped shooting her gun. “Jess, you don’t need to worry about me. I can handle myself.” She tried to smile, but it looked strained. She wasn’t used to smiling, and it came off as comical, which made me laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing at all,” I said, wiping away the tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “I just think you’re cute, Shredica.”
It was true. Despite being a zombie, she didn’t act like one. I thought of her as a sister.
‘I wonder what kind of person you were when you were still human?’ I thought to myself as I stared at the stars.
