"But that still doesn't explain why the attack pattern changed all of a sudden," Ryker stated.
"Agreed. However, Lucas' assumptions are valid as well. I mean if we think about it, how did these monsters even come to our world? What happened? Why are the attack patterns so inconsistent?" Vance voiced his thoughts, agreeing with Lucas.
"I second that. Was there any strange incident that we didn't know about?" Seb asked.
However, no one had an answer to the questions.
Time passed by quickly. When they noticed that there wasn't anything else happening, Ryker directed the chopper back home.
"Can you fly past Orvale? I want to check something." Lucas requested, a strong ominous feeling sinking in his heart.
He didn't know why he wanted to visit Orvale. Was it because it was the place he first landed in? Or was it for some other reason? He could not decipher.
Ryker had no qualms with his request. Anyway, it was just a few hundred kilometers and he had sufficient fuel to cover the distance and then, return home.
Lucas tapped his feet anxiously, his body too overwhelmed with emotions he had no control over. From fear to anxiousness, to being distraught and lost, he had never felt so emotionally wrecked.
Vance sensed the agitation in the man beside him and glanced at him worriedly.
Lucas looked at the sky. The sun was shining brightly and he even felt the warmth on his skin. But his heart was anything but warm.
Thirty minutes or so was all it required for them to reach Orvale and Ryker descended the chopper a little so that they could take a good.
All four of them were smart men. They noticed the strangeness within seconds.
"Just what I thought," Lucas sighed, rubbing his forehead in distress.
"What happened to all the monsters? If they behaved the same as what we saw today, shouldn't their carcass still be here?" Ryker asked, watching the vast land.
Other than the unoccupied houses and buildings, with some of them now ruined, and empty roads, there was nothing, not even the bodies of the dead humans.
If not for the blood coating the ground, the incident could easily be brushed off as a nightmare or an imagination.
"Vance, the problem isn't as simple as we thought," Lucas said, his expression grim.
"Lucas, you know what? I have been shocked so many times today that I can't think properly right now."
"Agreed. I feel so disturbed right now that I feel sick," Seb added, his face losing all color.
"Maybe we should return home and calm down first. It's been one hell of a day," Ryker suggested and nobody stopped him.
Nobody spoke a word about the matter either. Instead, they kept the conversation light-hearted to ease the situation until they returned to Velomore.
When the four people landed, they were bombarded with questions by the others waiting for them, bringing their dreadful memories back.
It wasn't easy to handle all of them at once. But Vance did it, explaining to them the reason they stayed behind as well as revealing all that they had seen.
"I'm going to look for Patrick," Lucas whispered and Ryker nodded at him.
Retracing the familiar route, Lucas was outside Patrick's room, the same room where he had met him the previous day.
Lucas knocked on the door and heard footsteps from the other side, followed by shuffling.
"Who is it?" Patrick asked and opened the door. "Lucas, it's you."
Patrick's eyes lit up when he saw who it was. He opened the door wide, allowing the man to enter his place.
"Come in, come in."
"I hope I'm not disturbing your rest."
Lucas had heard from Vance that Patrick was a night owl. He preferred to work at night when he wouldn't be disturbed by anyone.
"Not at all. I was going to look for you in a few hours."
Patrick cleared his bed, finding a place for Lucas to sit.
"I'm sorry. My room's a mess."
"No worries." Lucas looked around and noticed that his room was strewn with sheets and files, no doubt related to whatever he was currently researching.
"Umm...Patrick, may I ask you a question? It's related to the monsters out there."
"Sure. Go ahead," Patrick sat on the chair before him and looked at him curiously.
"Have you or anyone here tested the fiends?" Lucas asked, giving him a hopeful look.
"No. I never got the opportunity to." Patrick shook his head and sighed softly.
He had always wanted to dissect and perform tests on the monsters wreaking havoc in their world. But he gave up on the thought when he thought of the danger it involved.
Who in their sane minds would go near one when they would end up becoming its food, let alone capture a monster and bring it back?
"Why do you ask?"
"I'll tell you. Before that, can you tell me how the first attack happened?" Lucas asked, drawing his brows together in confusion. "I don't remember a lot of the details."
"Sure. I have all the details here."
Patrick picked a file from one of the drawers and handed it to Lucas.
"It started on September 18 last year. We still don't know how the monsters appeared in our world. We weren't prepared and people died, unfortunately."
"So there wasn't any strange incident or event that month or sometime before?"
"None I can think of." Patrick frowned and tried to recall if anything significant had happened that month. But he came short.
"Patrick," Lucas closed the file and looked at the man keenly, "Is it possible for someone to create the monsters?"
"If it were before, I'd say no," Patrick said with a tense smile. "But now, I won't. It's not impossible, but it's hella difficult."
"Let's say someone in this world created the monsters. Do you know who has such vast knowledge and expertise?"
Patrick's smile vanished and he looked at Lucas perplexed. "What are you insinuating?"
Lucas didn't hide anything and told him everything they had discovered while on their excursion.
"Not only have the ghouls become immune to the tranquilizers, but they have even started mutating."
Lucas noticed how Patrick's expression changed with each word he said.
The man was already pale from having stayed indoors all the time. Now, he looked deathly pale and Lucas was afraid that Patrick would faint any time soon.
'Don't faint. Don't faint. Don't faint,' he started chanting in his mind while he waited for Patrick to digest the news.
"It sure seems weird," Patrick said, his voice trembling slightly. "I do know a few people who are into research. But I'm not sure of their areas of expertise."
Patrick thought for a minute more and tilted his head. "I did know someone who was researching about cloning. Yes, there was another person who was researching about mutagens."
"But..." Lucas prompted when he realized there was more.
"But they are the dead now. It was their city where the first attack took place."