Global Evolution

“Alright, alright.” She rubbed her eyes after sitting up in the bed. “What time is it now?”

“Six forty in the morning,” the soldier replied honestly.

“It’s still early, no rush.” The woman stretched and yawned. “The higher ups are too insensitive, they even let someone into my room when I’m sleeping! Although I grew up in the military, this is still a lady’s room!”

“I, I apologize...” The soldier nodded, bowing to the woman’s complaint, while cold sweat formed on his forehead.

“Did you find their clothing? Or anything they used?” the woman asked, reached out to him with an open palm.

“Yes, I did.” The soldier handed a piece of shabby cloth to the woman. “Here it is.”

“What is this?” The woman picked it, and holding between two fingers sniffed it. The strong odor made all her olfactory nerves sparkle, and the signal was amplified for more than a thousand times until it was delivered to the cerebral cortex. The feedback from the cortex triggered nausea and discomfort to the stomach. She began retching.

“This is the target’s sock. It was said that he dropped it when crossing the jungle. Dr. Zhuo from the research institute sent it. He said that its tang will be rich enough for you to remember.”

“Oh, screw you, Zhuo.” The woman was wide awake now as the strong odor had stimulated her brain. “F*ck this sh*t! Forget about the breakfast, call my team, we are leaving, now!”

“Yes, madam!”

When Chang woke up this morning, Rui was waiting for him at the door.

Since Jing was younger than sixteen years old, she wasn’t assigned any duties. Thus, she followed Chang to wherever he went to.

“She’s really attached to you,” Rui casually started the conversation while patrolling with Chang. “I wish I had a sister like her.”

“Well then, do you want to take care of her for a few days?”

“I was just joking, I can barely feed myself! I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to take care of her as well as you do.” Rui waved his hand and picked up a new topic. He said, “By the way, when we left in the morning, I heard from my neighbor that the gang that ‘protected’ us was wrecked last night.”

“Oh really?” Chang tilted his head. “Who did it?”

“Who knows, perhaps some other gang. In a way, they avenged you,” Rui answered casually.

“However, without the gang, we have to be more cautious... Although we had to give away our harvest to them everyday, the other gangs didn’t dare to rob us because of them, too. They did protect us in a fashion.” Rui continued, “I can foresee that since the gang dissolved, hooligans and thieves will begin to consider us as an easy target...”

Rui hadn’t even finished his sentence, when a sharp scream came from the entrance of the community.

Chang turned his head in the direction of the scream.

A young girl was dashing through the entrance, her shirt dishevelled and her hand pressed to her collar. She seemed like she was only fourteen or fifteen years old.

Two young men were chasing after her. One of them seemed to be cultured, judging from his neat robes that belonged to the class of well-educated people, while the other had an air of impudence about him—both around the same age as Chang. As they caught up with the girl, they pushed her to the ground.

“Sons of b*tches!” Chang was enraged, sprinting toward the girl.

“What’s wrong?” Rui didn’t know what had happened, but he followed after Chang. “Is something happening over there?”

“It seems like there are two hooligans trying to rape a girl.” As Chang was speaking, he kicked over one of the young men when he made a quick stop in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Chang asked, standing still. Rui and Jing caught up with him a second later.

“What do you mean?” the impudent holligan stood up, provoked. “It’s none of your business.”

“I’m a guard of this community, of course I have to get involved in this. Go away before I punch you!” Chang pointed at him, saying, “I can’t stand raping! Although I‘m not a good guy, either, this just makes me feel disgusted. Get out of here!”

“We won’t leave as easily as that.” The cultured man shouted, his face flushed. “She stole our food! Why do we have to leave instead of her? Are you guys shadowing each other? Great! Fight us then! I’m not afraid of you! These days, those peas are more valuable than our lives anyways, everyone is relying on them to survive.”

The cultured man pulled out a dagger, pretending to be threatening.

“Did you steal the Crystal Pea from them?” Chang questioned the young girl, frowning.

“No, I didn’t!” The young girl shook her head, her arms wrapped around her body as she screamed out, “They slander me, they’re just trying to rape me!”

“Bullsh*t! You have our peas on you, do you dare to show them what is underneath your shirt? We’ll see who is the liar then!” The impudent man pointed at the girl’s chest.

From where he was pointing to, Chang saw a small mason jar.

“These are my Crystal Pea, mine!” The girl wrapped her arms tighter around herself, shaking her head.

“Let’s go.” Seeing this, Rui patted Chang’s shoulder. “We don’t need to take care of issues like this. As long as they aren’t residents of our community, the best we can do is to expel them. You are not a judge, how can you know who is right and who is wrong? Besides, we will often run into arguments during a day, are you going to administer justice to all of them?”

“...” Chang looked back and forth between the mason jar and the raging men, realising that the world was no longer as simple as he’d thought. He rubbed his temple, admitting that he couldn’t tell who was telling the truth and who wasn’t from their accusations. He heaved a sigh with his eyes closed, deciding to turn away from this argument.

“Chang, we should save her. Her index is low, and she is starved and weak. If we leave her alone, she’ll die for sure!” Jing pulled Chang’s shirt, unwilling to leave.

Jing almost begged Chang to help the girl, her face reminding him of how they’ve met. He felt sympathetic toward the girl, and thinking of this, he turned around, asking, “You guys wanted the pea, right?”

“Oh yeah, we only want the Crystal Pea. We can’t even feed ourselves, who do you think this scrawny girl is? No one would be interested in her,” the impudent man shouted out, smirking.

“Just give them your peas,” Chang said to the girl. “Give them the peas, I have something else for you.”

The girl only shook her head. She obviously didn’t believe in his words.

The hooligans were impatient. They looted the jar and left while the girl begun bawling.

“... Come with me, I have some extra food for you. Whether you believe in me or not, you have no other choice now.” Chang pulled the girl’s arm to help her stand up. He told Rui, “We’re going into the building, do you mind patrolling by yourself for a bit?”

“Come on! Why do you care so much about this?” Rui didn’t understand Chang’s kindness.

“It wasn’t me, it was my sister who wanted to save her.”

The three soon disappeared in the red fog.

As Chang’s figure became vague, Rui murmured, “What a meddling guy he is!”

...

They returned to Chang’s hiding room. There he took out the wooden box that contained the white worms and retrieved a small bowl from the shelf. He scooped up a half- bowl of the worms, using his right hand to block the edge of the bowl to prevent the worms from wriggling out. He then placed the bowl into a cooking pot filled with water and steamed it with a gas cooker.

Ten minutes later, a bowl of “rice” was served to the girl.

“Try it, it’s edible.” Handing the bowl to the girl, Chang threw a few of the worms into his mouth, proving that they were nontoxic.

The girl scrupulously observed Chang until confirming that the worms were safe. Then she grabbed the bowl from Chang and began to devoure them like a wolf. In less than a minute, the bowl was cleared.

The girl’s eyes were full of gratefulness.

“You should leave here now, I’ve done what I can for you.” Chang asked the girl to leave before she got too attached to them.

Yet the girl didn’t respond to his order. She sat on the chair as if she hadn’t heard anything.

“Can I play with her for just one day?” Jing sensed her unwillingness and so tried to shield her from leaving. “I felt lonely these days... She is around my age, and I wish somebody like her could keep me company. Just for one day, please?” she pleaded for his permission, her voice soft.

“Well... then, promise me, just one day,” Chang finally agreed after some thinking.. “But you must understand what we’re going through right now. We can’t afford to have another person living with us.”

He then confirmed they were safe and left the room.

“Have a good time, girls! I need to go back to continue on patrolliing with Rui, after all, he treated us well and I can’t leave him alone out there.”

“Sure! We’ll be here waiting for you!” Jing waved to Chang. Before he had even stepped out through the door, she had already began prattling to the girl, her hand gripping the newcomers’ skirt.

Without further hesitation, Chang gently closed the door.

It was a tedious morning of patrolling. He witnessed the changes brought to the community by the loss ot its deterrent, the “protective” gang. Arson, robbery, homicide and rape could be seen everywhere. The community received ten times the amount of attacks compared to before, and Chang was incapable of stopping every crime.

Only now did he realise that the consequences of what he had done were irreparable.

It brought back the emotional numbness again. Even if the crime was right in front of him, he chose not to see it.

His mind was restless, blaming himself for being juvenile. His footsteps were heavier. When he was about to return home, the noise that he’d been hearing all day disappeared out of a sudden.

A series of neat footsteps replaced the brief quietness.

He knew who they belonged to as he had lived in the research institute for some time.

“The military!” he murmured to himself.

The sound came from far away, but soon it became louder. He saw a troop reveal itself from the red fog upon coming closer. The soldiers were entering the community.

“Sh*t!” Chang almost froze up from the panic, but his body moved before his mind caught up. To run away from the soldiers, he sprinted as fast as he could to his room, In there, he had his handgun, the crossbow, and most importantly, Jing.

Those things were as important to him as his own life, and they were what he cared about the most.

Chang had grown much in these days, his index having passed six long ago unbeknowst to him.

Having his calculation ability as a bonus, he was able to find the fastest route to his room. He ran over a hundred meters in eight seconds.

When he entered the building, it was blocking the sunlight from shedding over him.

Chang climbed the stairs at full speed. He crashed through the door and grabbed Jing under his arm. His other hand reached out for the handgun and the crossbow. He swung them behind his back, double checked that he had everything, and then jumped off the building through the window.

“Chang! What’s wrong?”

“The military! They’re here for us,” he answered in rush. Having Jing in his arms, he covered her head so that she wouldn’t get hurt by the broken glass shards.

“I see.” Jing buried her head in his chest and then felt a sudden jolt as Chang’s feet steadily landed on the ground. He didn’t hesitate at all, and they soon disappeared at the end of the street.

...

At the same time, the hooknosed woman was leading her troop, walking straight toward the apartment building which Chang had just escaped from. Her dog-like sense of smell mapped out a path for her to Chang’s room, whose window he’d just broken.

“Hello!” the hooknosed woman took a deep breath, turning her face to the remaining girl in the room. She smirked. “It smells just like that sock, do you feel the same?”