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Anthony places a hand on the cat as well. He forces a smile in a weak attempt to placate Lucy. "Ice cold, deary, ice cold. Vince, can you check if this thing still has a heartbeat?"
You place your hand right around where you think the cat's heart would be. You're no vet, but you got a basic idea where it might be.
Nothing. No heartbeat, no nothing. Actually, now that you think about it, have you seen this thing BREATHE at all? No heartbeat, no breathing, an infected wound it doesn't register? Wait-
The cat immediately realizes what you're doing, and it begins to flip out. It hisses and screeches like a wild beast, nearly launching itself right off the table.
Your coworkers scramble to restrain the damn thing as you try to check for its heartbeat again.
Even with it panicking, <span class="mu-b">you can't detect a heartbeat. This 'cat,' if you can even call it that, should NOT be alive.</span>
It takes all three of you to stuff that damn thing back into its cage. You throw in an extra can of cat food in a vain attempt to keep it pacified. It thrashes and shakes inside of its cage for a good while, but it eventually gives up trying to escape.
>10 CANS OF CAT FOOD LEFT!
>ROTTEN BROWN FLUID SAMPLE and MAGGOT SAMPLE x2 obtained! (Both extracted from EL FELINO. Something's clearly wrong with this cat.)
You're not sure if U.E.D. would count this thing as an anomaly, but you could probably spin this as one with a bit of effort.
>This counted as an anomaly work, but further work on EL FELINO won't.
"Vince. Where the hell did ya get that thing again?"
"ARC paid me to take it." You mutter. "Now I'm starting to see why."
"That thing has to be a zombie, Vince." Anthony picks up the cage. "My advice? We burn that thing before it infects us."
"Place it back where we found it. We'll deal with the anomaly later." You sharply deny Anthony's proposal.
"T-that thing? Uhm. I-I'm not s-sure if it's an anomaly, a-actually. Maybe it's l-like me?" She points at her slimy, melting flesh. "A-affected by one, sure, b-but not one itself?"
"If ya say so." Anthony absently shrugs. "Sorry. Thing made Lu' gag and weep, soured me somethin' fierce, Vince."
"Don't quite like it, no sir, but if ya two wanna keep it?"
"I-It's his choice." Lucy murmurs. "W-we can study the WINE-SOAKED sandwiches on it, at least?"
You nod. With the question on whether to keep it settled, you move onto something that'll hopefully be a lot less distressing for everyone involved.
>LUCY's MENTAL HEALTH is now <span class="mu-b">SHAKY.</span>
>ANTHONY'S MENTAL HEALTH is now <span class="mu-b">UNCOMFORTABLE</span>
Your two coworkers carry the cat back to its spot by the BEER VENDING MACHINE. Time to prepare another experiment while they're busy.
You remove the RÊVE CHARDONNAY sample from the old mini-fridge you looted from that lab you fought the STATIC ANGLERFISH in. You're going to do some quick tests on this to cleanse your palate, as it were.
You wonder how it looks on a microscopic scale.
