Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  “I do. Do you mean…” Chang held the crossbow against his shoulder and pulled the string.

  “Something is coming to us!” Qing Shui shouted to the troop franticly, “Take your weapons and protect each other! Spread out in a half circle!”

  The troop reacted immediately, this well-trained squad stood close to each other side by side in semi-circle. The soldiers always took orders without hesitation.

  “Mr. Li, what is in front of us?” One of the soldier shouted in the formation.

  “I don’t know either, but the voles that have been stalking us just fled. This is a warning to us that there must be something unusual.” Qing Shui took the wounded person from Ming Yi’s back as he said, “I need you to be prepared. I will take care of this person, so just focus.”

  “Yes, sir.” Ming Yi nodded.

  “Where did they run off?” asked Qing Shui.

  “Right behind us.” answered Chang

  “Alright, can you look out what happened ahead of us?” Qing Shui freed one hand and patted it on Ming Yi’s shoulder, “Can you go with him?”

  “Not a problem!”

  “Come!” Chang delayed no more.

  The crossbow was fully loaded. Chang and Ming Yi were the strongest combination of physical strength, and bolted out to the invisible road ahead. After only 50 meters, Chang heard the breeze that came with a disquieting rustle.

  “Here it comes!” Chang got out of the way with Ming Yi as soon as he heard the noise. They quietly hid behind a tree, but their heartbeats raced like rapid drumbeats. The rustling got closer and closer, Chang nerved himself to look out from the behind the tree. The noise gradually became crisp and clear, a gigantic yet colorful creature made his bold entry to Chang’s world.

  “Holy sh*t! What is this?! This is so disgusting!” As soon as Chang saw it, his stomach reacted, reflecting his thoughts.

  Chapter 68: Millipede

  The appearance of the monster gave Chang goosebumps all over his body. He fought with the urge to vomit and glanced at the colourful monster.

  It was an insect for sure. Its slender body and shell reminded Chang of a centipede. The difference, however, was that it had more legs, yet they were shorter. The insect looked hideous, but the shell was shiny and rich in color – an aposematic signal.

  “Is this a millipede…” Chang struggled at recalling the name of this monster. Although every species was evolving, it was still too soon to produce new species. Therefore, no matter how it looked like right now, it must come from a previously known species.

  “It is! It is a millipede!” The image of a tiny millipede overlapped with the image of the gigantic creature in Chang’s mind, and he realized that they are almost identical.

  “Is it coming?” Crouching behind the tree, Ming Yi whispered to Chang.

  “It’s almost here! Run!! It’s fast!” Chang pulled up Ming Yi and they sprinted back.

  “What is that?”

  “An insect that looks like a snake and as wide as a wine barrel. I only know it was wide, but I assume it is long too” They ran extremely fast, and within a few words they got back to the troop.

  “What is it?” Qing Shui knew that there must be something unexpected when he saw Chang rush back.

  “An insect, millipede, wide as a barrel, about 35 meters in length, seemed poisonous from its colors.” Chang answered with the key features he observed.

  “How fast is it? Any chance we can avoid it?”

  “I don’t know, it wasn’t at its full speed, but it definitely moves faster than any of us.” Chang looked back in a rush, the shadow had showed its huge head from the red fog.

  “We can’t run away from it, here it is!” He shouted out loud and squeezed into the center of the troop.

  “There! Over there, fire!” Chang straightened his index finger, pointing at where the millipede was coming.

  “Fire! Fire!” Qing Shui screamed “Its acidic secretion may blind you, stay away from it!”

  Most of the soldiers had never known what a millipede was, nor did have they seen the shadow 10 meters away from them. It was an inherent instinct that they wanted to avoid such a creature.

  FRRRRRRRRAK!!!

  Four soldiers shot their assault rifles at the same time. The bullets tore through space and the air shattered. They bolted out as if it was their fated mission.

  Although they weren’t far away from the monster, most of the bullets were off target.

  Their accuracy was low because even if it were a sharpshooter, without seeing the target it was impossible to hit.

  Fortunately, the assault rifles had a decent rate of firing, one or two bullets completed their mission and collided against the millipede’s body.

  Bang!

  The hit was crisp and sharp, as if metal had hit metal. The two bullets struggled to penetrate the monster’s armor, causing negligible damage.

  Creak!

  The insect noticed that something had ambushed it, and a stream of yellow slurry spurt flew out from its secretion gland. The millipede bounced up like a basketball, and disguised itself within the trees.

  Chang lost track of the monster even though he had been trying to keep up with it.

  “Damn it!”

  Within this lushness of the jungle, the sky was cut off by the curtain of countless leaves and vines long ago. The greenery made up a brand-new dome for this jungle, in which it was impossible to find something hidden.

  “It hid on the trees, be wary above your heads!” Chang was the eyes for the whole troop, he coordinated the troop and said, “I remember you brought some heavy firearms, It’s their time to shine. The rifles seemed useless to fight it.”

  “We have a few grenades and a single-use rocket launcher.” A soldier threw away his rifle and equipped with the rocket launcher “I don’t whether this is going to hit, I have never used this before!”

  The soldier was almost in tears. He looked up to search for his target, but he barely saw anything except for the leaves that almost got onto his face. His vision was greatly limited.

  “There are too many trees here…shi*t! I can’t see either, be quiet. Be careful to any movement from above us.” Chang held the crossbow and was ready to shoot anytime. He hoped to spot that color-bright creature from the mixed greenery and to capture the sound of the slightest movement.

  But this time was different than usual, his sensitive sense of smell was the one that warned him.

  “A strange smell! Spread out! Spread out!” Chang’s nose captured a pungent smell that wafted around. He pulled Pangzi immediately away from that area.

  The rest were one step slower to dodge.

  When the last person jumped back, a strange mist-like liquid doused the clearing between the trees. It coated the grass on the ground, turning them pink.

  Chang finally spotted that garish insect in between a narrow gap of trees.

  “There!” He almost roared when he pulled the trigger and the bolt penetrated its armor accurately.

  Creak!

  The massive insect twisted on the tree, emitting a nauseous shriek.

  The shriek was the perfect guide for these soldiers, and a number of rifles fired at the same time the crying soldier shot the rocket launcher.

  As if thunder rumbled through the sky, the explosion caused a burst of tinnitus and dizziness for the troop. As the explosion was too close to where they were, a wave of fire accompanied with amplified sound and air waves that blew away their formation made some fall hard on their backs.

  “What the hell!” Chang spit out a mouthful of sand and soil and drew out three pieces of rocket shrapnel that were inserted on his chest.

  “Couldn’t you just tell us before you fired?” Another soldier rolled up from the ground angrily. It looked like he was burned all over his chest, but the rage made him forget his pain.

  “I didn’t know it was so close to us, I couldn’t see anything!” The crying soldier sobbed, he threw away the rocket launcher and stood up. “Tha
t thing is dead, isn’t it?”

  “It should be.” The flame danced on the branches and vines after the explosion, Chang carefully searched for parts of the millipede in the black smoke and the fire.

  Chapter 69: Under the umbrella of the odor

  Chang looked around in the ruin for a while, and found the half of the millipede that was charred. The power of the missile blew up its hard shell and separated it into two parts. The fire extinguished most of its bodily fluids, making the remaining more viscous.

  “It seems like it was killed, but I don’t want to confirm whether it is dead or not.” Chang stared at the corpse that hung onto the tree.

  Qing Shui rolled up and wiped off the nosebleed, “Fortunately, there weren’t too many pieces of shrapnel that got blown to where I was, otherwise, I would have died.”

  “Good for you…but that man had bad luck.”

  One soldier pointed at the wounded soldier who was carried by Qing Shui before the explosion – the shower of shrapnel killed him.

  His death reminded Chang of Jing. He immediately turned around, but only saw Pangzi lying on his stomach.

  His back was bruised and lacerated from the shockwave of the missile, and half of his hair on the back of his head was burnt. He seemed like he was right under the center of the explosion. What was even worse was that Jing was nowhere to be found.

  “Pangzi, Pangzi!...” Chang pushed Pangzi fretfully, as he asked with great concern “Can you hear me? Where is Jing?”

  “Ah…” Pangzi was awoken by Chang and was barely able to lift his eyelids. He took a while to digest what had happened in the last few minutes, and he revealed what he had been covering– Jing. “She is fine, but I feel like I am gonna die.”

  Pangzi sat up and stretched his hands to touch the back of his head and lightly touched his skin “I probably got a concussion from the shock. My head keeps buzzing. Oh and the tinnitus! Ah! If the missile exploded even one meter closer to us, I am not sure if the monster would get blown up or not, but I am positive that none of us could have endured that explosion.”

  “I am sorry… I didn’t know we were so close to the target…” Realizing the missile caused irreversible damage to everyone, the soldier apologized to the troop.

  “Don’t worried, be glad that your missile eliminated that millipede, otherwise we would have died in a different way.” Ming Yi comforted that soldier with a light laugh. Apparently, his skin was so solid that only 2 or 3 pieces of shrapnel sliced his body, and there was almost no visible wound.

  “I wish I had your body!” Pangzi smacked Ming Yi’s chest, “we should have asked to fight it one on one, so that we don’t need to be in such a tight spot.”

  “Come on, I can be easily killed by it.” Ming Yi joked back.

  However, the troop strived through the disaster, and without further delay, they set off again to Zhengzhou.

  Now there were only 9 people left.

  Almost everyone teetered forward, as they didn’t know if they were the ones to die next. The fear and insecurity haunted them, but the hope of getting saved in Zhengzhou kept them alive.

  “Don’t worry everyone, it wasn’t a bad thing that we ran into that millipede.” Qing Shui tried to encourage the troop lightheartedly.

  “Yeah, sure, it wasn’t a bad thing. Without the wounded, we can even speed up.” Someone in the troop taunted. Apparently, people became more aggressive when they were in deep fear.

  “I didn’t mean that.” Qing Shui didn’t take that person’s attitude seriously, instead, he explained “I was talking about that heavy smell from the millipede, don’t you think that odor should have covered the smell of blood?”

  “So what?”

  “Well, it is beneficial in many ways. First of all, we’d be much safer if the blood smell is not giving out our location. Secondly, that millipede looks like a top predator in this jungle, if we smell like it…” Qing Shui laughed happily “the smell has become our umbrella.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad!” Chang sniffed the millipede’s body fluid on his cuff and said, “Should have rubbed my shirt on it haha!”

  “What a joke, Chang! You know I can’t laugh too hard, it hurts my back.” Pangzi was relieved by Chang’s jest, he lightly scratched his back, hoping that it could reduce the pain on his back.

  Under the protection of millipede’s smell, the nine joked and teased at each other along the way.

  As the sun moved toward the horizon, they were finally close to the end of the journey – Zhengzhou.

  “We are almost there! Come on!” Qing Shui calculated the remaining distance while speeding up.

  The destination was right in front of them, and the troop resisted the fatigue to trot faster. The sky got darker and darker in another half an hour, the visibility dropped sharply, and while everyone paced up again, Chang heard the footsteps of Satan.

  That familiar rustle sound.

  It was exactly what they heard a few hours ago, Chang never forgot what it brought.

  “Millipedes! There are more than 1 this time!”

  “What the hell? Do they think we are one of them?” As Chang spoke, some soldiers dropped their weapons immediately and ran as fast as they could towards the end of the Zheng Kai Avenue. They could have died there if they didn’t have that rocket launcher, but now, there were a few coming altogether. The destination was so close that added onto the fear of the millipede, it made everyone choose to flee instead of fight. Every single person, including Chang, Qing Shui and Ming Yi, bolted out. Jing was held by Chang with both his arms as they bumped along the Avenue.

  The gap between EMs was clearly shown.

  Ming Yi, as expected, was faster than anyone in the troop. He jumped up and down like a monkey, and soon disappeared in the jungle ahead.

  Chang tightly followed Ming Yi, the stronger physique and better vision allowed him to avoid obstructions in the forest in advance. Although he carried Jing with him, he wasn’t much slower than Ming Yi.

  And the third in the troop turned out to be Qing Shui. He was visibly weaker than those elite soldiers, but he was far ahead of those people. As if every step he took had undergone sophisticated calculation, he precisely avoided those slippery mosses and stout vines. He always stepped on wherever was easy and safe to take the next step. Although his vision was as normal as the others, he seemed like he had a sensor installed to tell him what and how to avoid. To be more accurate, the way he ran seemed like he had taken this route countless times, it was all natural for him.

  Chapter 70: Things like this

  Everyone ran as fast as their legs could carry them — they all knew the consequence of being left behind.

  However, even a fast runner like Chang couldn’t completely get rid of rustle sound that followed him all along.

  The millipedes were extremely fast. Although their stout figure could easily fool other animals to assume that they were slow and clumsy, they were actually quick in action. Chang breathed through his mouth to get as much air as he could, but the millipedes still showed their figures through the gaps in between the leaves above his head.

  “Separate! We should go separately!” Even though Qing Shui wasn’t as good as Chang in strength, his ability of observation alarmed him to the danger above them. He shouted as he hastened “Go in different directions! If we were to be caged by these millipedes, no one can escape then.”

  “But…”Chang was about to argue, half of the body of the millipede hung down from the tree in front of him, it was almost horrified to react as the blinding secretion ejected from the sharp mouthpiece of the millipede, was directed toward Chang’s face.

  “F*ck!” Chang made a 90 degree turn without hesitation, the turn brought him to the other side of the jungle.

  As it was very close to Zhengzhou already, Chang was not worried about getting lost. As long as he was heading to the direction where Zhengzhou was, he could get out of the jungle easily. He chose to run on places where the shrubs were denser and lo
wer compare to where it was on the Zheng Kai Avenue. As soon as he noticed the rustle sound slowly disappeared, he made another 90 degree turn to get back on track.

  Chang trotted through the shrubs with caution and he gradually went far away from the millipedes.

  Until the rustle sound was completely gone, he sped up again toward the east where Zhengzhou was.

  From west to the east, the Zheng Kai Avenue was 80 kilometers in length. He had finally reached the exit of the avenue in his heavy breathing.

  The scene changed tremendously as he went away from the jungle. All the tall trees, slippery mosses, and fungi became less visible. The branches and leaves that blocked out the sky rapidly moved backward. The plants became smaller and smaller as he ran through an area where there was a mix of grass and shrubs. Running full speed for another 20 minutes, the shrubs became even more sparse. The moment he bolted out from the jungle, the world no longer seemed threatening to him. The air was clear and fresh, making him more lighthearted.

  The highway and overpass were cracked as if wrinkles had grown on their surface. Ten meters away on his left-hand side was the exit of the Zheng Kai Avenue.

  Chang stopped, his breaths were the loudest sound at the moment.

  He walked to the exit with uncontrollable excitement, under the billboard where it said, “Welcome to Zhengzhou.” He stared at the cracked path that he could barely see in the jungle, he suddenly had a feeling that it was as if a century had passed.

  The countless tribulations and hardships were about to end, the journey began from “Welcome to Kaifeng” and ended at “Welcome to Zhengzhou.” Many tortured and died on this long march, the remaining were scarred. Yet, it was only one hour away by car before the red fog.

  Chang and Jing rested for two minutes, and then walked around to look for other people. Five minutes after his search, he found Ming Yi, who was also seeking to reunite with the group.