"Boss, something doesn't seem right," said Ophelia suddenly as she approached Josh while he and Colonel Ward were sipping on drinks and commenting on the prisoners.
"What's going on?" Josh asked, and Colonel Ward also seemed puzzled. Could it be that this woman was going to defend the prisoners or something?
"We've found that many of the prisoners here are suffering from severe anemia," Ophelia said.
Josh and Colonel Ward were both momentarily speechless.
"You know the conditions of this prison camp, don't you? Is anemia really that strange?" Josh gave Colonel Ward an apologetic smile and then whispered to Ophelia.
As he said, the camp had nothing to eat, nothing to wear—so isn't anemia to be expected?
"Of course it's strange, Boss. Even if they don't have food or clothes, it should be malnutrition, not anemia. These are two different things!" Ophelia immediately explained when she saw Josh misunderstanding her.
Now, it was Josh and Colonel Ward's turn to be confused.
Is there really a difference between anemia and malnutrition?
"Malnutrition can indeed lead to anemia, but it's not a given. I've asked around, and most of these prisoners haven't been here long. The military hasn't completely stopped feeding them, so for the more robust individuals, they shouldn't have reached the level of anemia yet...But the situation now is that the scale of anemia has already exceeded normal levels," Ophelia explained again.
Now Josh understood, but why would this be happening? Could it be that the guards in this camp were selling the prisoners' blood?
But when Josh glanced at Colonel Ward, he also had a confused expression.
"By the way, I made another discovery!" Seeing their confused expressions, Ophelia quickly returned to the female prisoner lineup and directed two soldiers to bring a naked female prisoner in front of them. She pointed to the woman's lower back. "Look here!"
Josh and Colonel Ward looked in the direction she pointed, and they saw two small holes with dried blood crusts.
"Could this be from a vampire bat?" Colonel Ward muttered when he saw the wounds.
"Colonel Ward, have you ever seen a vampire bat?" Josh was momentarily stunned and asked.
"Of course, I'm from Texas, and we do have those things there, though not very commonly. I just didn't expect them to be in Germany. Ha, maybe that's where the vampire legend comes from!" Colonel Ward said with a laugh.
However, Josh looked at Colonel Ward with a strange expression.
"Uh...What's wrong?" Colonel Ward asked, feeling odd under Josh's gaze.
"Colonel Ward, there are vampire bats in Central America, sure, and also in Africa, but Europe doesn't have any vampire bats. Those creatures live in the tropics and can't survive in Germany's climate, especially not in the middle of winter. And by the way, the vampire legends have nothing to do with vampire bats," Josh said, shaking his head.
"So what is this then? Could it really be the work of vampires?" Colonel Ward scoffed, but when he saw the serious look on Josh's face, his expression slowly turned serious as well.
"Ophelia, you've been in Europe for many years. Have you ever heard of vampires existing?" Josh didn't respond to Colonel Ward, but instead turned to Ophelia and asked.
That's right. If Josh were in his previous world, he might have dismissed the vampire legends like Colonel Ward did. But Josh wasn't in his old, ordinary world; he was in the Marvel universe.
Although there had never been a direct appearance of vampires in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, that didn't mean they didn't exist.
The most famous ones were from the Blade series—though those weren't part of the MCU, they could very well be in this world.
Besides Blade, Morbius, the Living Vampire, was also part of the Marvel universe and could be considered a kind of vampire.
Given Josh's previous experiences, he strongly suspected that this world might be a fusion of many worlds, some of which he knew or didn't know about, including the Marvel universe.
This meant that vampires like those in Blade, Underworld, or Twilight could indeed exist in this world.
To be honest, if vampires like those in Blade or Underworld were real, Josh would be quite happy, because they were weak and could easily be killed with technology.
But if they were the kind of vampires from Twilight or Dracula Year Zero...Josh would prefer to go back to the U.S. as soon as possible.
"I've heard of some legends. Although I'm Austrian, I was born in Hungary, and there are indeed some similar legends there. Romania also has them, but I haven't heard of any in Austria. Besides, before Hydra was defeated, Red Skull sent Reinhardt to collect supernatural items, and I think they investigated these two countries, but I don't know what they found," Ophelia said after thinking for a moment.
"Mr. Kane, you don't actually believe in vampires, do you?" Hearing Ophelia, Colonel Ward asked with a nervous chuckle. Honestly, seeing Josh's serious expression, he was starting to get a little worried.
"Colonel Ward, why are you so scared?" Josh was a bit puzzled seeing the colonel like this.
Josh might suspect the existence of vampires because he was a time traveler, so he had a different perspective on this world, but Ward, as a regular army officer, shouldn't be so easily convinced of such things.
"Cough, Mr. Kane, to be honest, when I was a kid in Texas, I did see some strange things. So for some things, it's better to believe they might be real," Colonel Ward said, his expression growing more serious. "So, do you really think vampires might exist?"
Hearing Colonel Ward, Josh realized why he was so anxious. It seemed that Ward had encountered strange things as a child.
Texas was indeed a place known for supernatural events in American pop culture, so it made sense that Ward might have seen something unusual.
"It's hard to say. After all, we can't rule out the possibility that someone is just pulling tricks. No investigation, no conclusion..." Josh shook his head and said. "But I don't think Colonel Ward should worry too much. From the current situation, it seems that whoever is doing this is only targeting the female prisoners, and they are being very cautious. No one has died. Besides, I think your soldiers haven't had any such issues, right?"
"I'll have to check with my officers, but as of now, I haven't heard of any soldier suffering from malnutrition or anemia...Hmm, but there have been a lot of back injuries," Colonel Ward shook his head.
Back injuries...Josh couldn't help but twitch his cheek.
With these American soldiers' behavior, facing a camp full of defenseless female prisoners, it would be a miracle if they could control themselves.
They wouldn't even need to use force—just a little bit of food would be enough to make these women serve them willingly.
"Let's put that aside for now. Keep selecting the prisoners. I'll talk to General Eisenhower about this, though I don't think he'll believe it," Josh said, shaking his head.
There were too many people in the Rhine camp, and even if there were vampires, Josh and his few people wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
"Mr. Kane, if there really is something like that, is there any way to deal with it? Garlic? Crosses? Holy water? Silver?" Colonel Ward also understood that without solid proof, the higher-ups probably wouldn't believe it, but he couldn't be unprepared.
"Colonel Ward, I'm just speculating. I've never actually seen one of those things. I'm just guessing they might exist because of certain reasons. As for whether garlic, crosses, holy water, or silver works, I don't know. But if you have the means, feel free to prepare some. However, in my opinion, if vampires do exist, the weapons your soldiers have might be more effective than any of those things," Josh said, secretly rolling his eyes.
Whether or not vampires existed, Josh didn't want to get involved unless they provoked him. He'd just mention it to Eisenhower, and whether or not Eisenhower believed it was up to him.
However, Josh seemed to have overlooked one thing.
He wasn't interested in vampires, and the military's top brass probably wouldn't believe in them, but that didn't mean others wouldn't be interested.
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