The creature's skin was black, the color of Blake's skin. However, at this moment, his human face had been distorted, and the area where his eyes used to be was covered with dense brown scales. His nose extended diagonally downward into a huge crack, and his mouth protruded outward, with a long, curled black tube extending from the middle.
He stopped, the edge of his wings scraping against the wall of the car, making a sharp sound.
"Blake, what are you doing?" Leon Huo's dissatisfied voice sounded: "I don't like being watched."
After saying that, he lowered his head again. Adrian An's body sank, and he felt teeth biting his neck and shoulders. His skin was rubbed by the teeth, and fine pain came up. But he didn't care. He tensed his whole body and stared at the monster that Blake had transformed into.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
The wings behind Blake vibrated slightly, and his mouthparts flipped in the air.
"Are you scared?" Leon Huo, who was lying on top of him, seemed to feel his body stiffen and cursed incoherently: "Why are you pretending?" Then he pinched his waist tightly and bit his skin hard.
At this moment---
A buzzing sound of vibrating wings was heard, and Blake's six slender legs were bent to the ground. He leaned forward, sank down to gather strength, and rushed towards them like a slender spider!
The sound of wind rang out in the small space. Adrian An's pupils suddenly dilated and his body instantly changed, switching to the soft and sensitive state of a mushroom. The mycelium spread in the carriage, almost filling the entire space, temporarily blocking Blake's sight.
Then, Adrian An suddenly felt the body on his body stiffen for a moment, choked and coughed a few times, and then used all four limbs to panic: "Damn, this is---"
He looked down and saw Leon Huo biting off countless soft hyphae in one bite, which choked the fungi into his airway and esophagus. He looked terrified and in pain as he coughed.
At the same time, countless hyphae were cut off by Blake's forelimbs. The hyphae were soft and easy to break, without any toughness, so he could only buy less than five or six seconds to escape.
Adrian An estimated the distance between himself and Blake, quickly wrapped his clothes with mycelium, and flowed out from the gap in Leon Huo's body, regaining his freedom.
His snow-white mycelium surged towards the door like a snow-white tide, turned back into human form at the door, and pressed the switch at the door.
With a dull thud, the car door bounced open. Adrian An instantly retracted all his hyphae, stretched out a hand, grabbed Leon Huo's collar and rolled out. The two fell out of the car together and landed heavily in the sand.
---At least it's safer here than the small space in the carriage.
However, after a moment, Blake also poked his head out from the car door. With a sharp buzzing sound, he first flapped his wings and flew to a height of four or five meters, then suddenly dived down. Adrian An quickly got up the moment he flew up and ran quickly to the back.
But Leon Huo was just lying on the sand with his eyes dazed, and Blake's sharp forelimbs pierced his chest in an instant.
---Adrian An had seen too many ways of hunting and escaping by monsters in the abyss, and he knew how to escape, and he thought Leon Huo knew it too. However, it was not until the moment when the blood splashed that Leon Huo suddenly came back to his senses, yelled, grabbed Blake's front legs with both hands, and kicked Blake's body, which had turned into a black pupa, with his legs, trying to retreat.
There was a rumbling sound on the ground, and Adrian An quickly turned back and saw that the armored vehicle, which had originally driven quite far away, suddenly made a sharp turn and turned around to speed towards this side. Vance finally realized that something was wrong.
He took a few breaths and ran towards the armored vehicle.
Through the car window, he could see Ryan' anxious expression. Before the armored vehicle arrived, the door had already popped open. When Adrian An passed by the armored vehicle, a pair of strong arms suddenly pulled him up from the ground. He cooperated with Ryan' movements to get into the cockpit. Ryan quickly threw him to the other side of the cockpit and slammed the door shut.
Adrian An said: "They..."
"It's too late to save it!" Vans slammed the steering wheel again, and the armored vehicle turned back to its original direction. He stepped on the accelerator and sped towards the north.
Adrian An leaned back on the back of the passenger seat and took a few breaths. After calming down a little, he looked at the rearview mirror. The mutated Blake and the seriously injured and dying Leon Huo were tangled together and rolling on the ground. Blake raised his front legs and then fell down suddenly, piercing Leon Huo's abdomen and nailing his body to the ground. Then, the thing raised its head and looked in their direction. After about five seconds, it seemed to give up chasing the armored vehicle, lowered its head, and pierced Leon Huo's head with its slender mouthparts. Leon Huo's body completely softened after a twitch.
The car was driving very fast, and in a short while, their figures had disappeared among the yellow sand and bushes and could no longer be seen.
Fan Sidao: "Blake has changed?"
Adrian An turned his head to look at Fan Si and saw that his eyes were slightly red.
He lowered his head. "I'm sorry."
He is still alive, but Vans has lost two teammates.
"What are you sorry for?" Fan Si forced a smile. "People often die when we work here. We're used to it. Maybe I'll be the next one to die."
But Adrian An did feel guilty. Blake was infected. If he had told Vance about it after discovering the traces of human blood on the ant scales, they might have discovered that Blake was infected in advance.
He lowered his head and spoke out the matter.
Vans was silent for a while, and his voice became slightly lower: "Blake didn't turn into an ant. He might have been infected before. We encountered a group of mutated wild mosquitoes before we met you."
Adrian An: "And then...was he stabbed by the armor again?"
Vans looked out the window, and after another long silence, he said, "The pollution level in the Second Plain is very low, two stars, and being pricked or slightly injured will not necessarily lead to infection. But if you tell others, you will definitely be left behind by the team, and many people will not tell others after being injured."
He lowered his voice a little: "...because I want to go home."
Adrian An: "What about Leon Huo?"
If Blake's infection had been discovered earlier, Hosen might not have died.
"Don't take it to heart. Leon Huo's death was not unjust," Vance lit a cigarette and took a long puff. "He did a lot of immoral things and killed at least five people. If we hadn't been short of manpower this time, Blake and I wouldn't have cooperated with him. What was he doing at the time? Did he bully you?"
Adrian An didn't say anything, and Fan Si turned his head to look at him.
In the twilight, the boy's silhouette looked quiet and peaceful, like a crystal clear water drop. This kind of person appeared in the dangerous wilderness, perhaps there were unspeakable difficulties, but he did not ask.
Similarly, Adrian An didn't know what to say to Fan Si. He was thinking back to the scene before Leon Huo's death. At first, Leon Huo seemed to have lost his mind for a short time, and only woke up after being stabbed.
What did Hoson do before this?
He took a bite of the mycelium.
Adrian An frowned. He actually didn't know whether he, as a mushroom, was poisonous or not.
Now he suspected that he was a poisonous mushroom.
As they went further, the vegetation became even more sparse. There were no living creatures in the endless desert, only their armored vehicles were moving alone.
At night, when the aurora appeared in the sky again, Vans planned to stop the car to rest. He put out the cigarette on the steering wheel, opened the gate connecting the cab and the rest room, and jumped down. A voice rang out in the dark rest room: "Let's sleep first. We will reach the base in another day and a half."
Adrian An also came to the gate. In order to have a wide field of vision, the driver's cab was located very high, and in order to save space for the storage compartment, the lounge was located very low, with a height difference of more than one meter between it and the driver's cab. He had to jump down.
He stood there and hesitated for a moment. After only three seconds, Vance seemed to see his hesitation and said, "Sit there first."
Adrian An followed his instructions and sat down on the edge, with his legs dangling in the air. Then, Ryan reached out and grabbed his upper body, helping him down.
Adrian An landed steadily and whispered, "Thank you."
"It's okay." Vans smiled, his voice revealing a slow and gentle tone: "My brother is afraid of heights and is often like this. He is about the same age as you."
Adrian An tried hard to figure out the rules of human communication and asked tentatively: "Is he coming to the wild with you?"
"Yeah." Vans said, "We were together before."
"You're not here this time?"
"Dead." Fan Sidao: "Two months ago, he was killed by the Inquisitor at the gate of the base."
Judge, this is the third time Adrian An has heard this word.
The first time was when Ethan An dissuaded himself from going to the human base, saying "You can't escape the eyes of the Inquisitor."
The second time was Blake, who didn't want to be included in the team, saying "We are not inquisitors and cannot confirm that he is 100% human."
And in the memories of Ethan An that he obtained, this seemed to be a term that appeared very frequently.
So he repeated: "...Inquisitor?"
"You don't know?" Vance raised his voice in surprise: "Where on earth did you come from?"
Adrian An whispered, "I didn't deal with others before."
"I see." Ryan turned a knob on the wall of the carriage, and a dim white light came on from the top of the wall, barely illuminating the small space. He took out dry food from the grid on the wall, and Adrian An also took out food and water from his backpack and sat down opposite Ryan.
Then I heard Fan Sidao: "The base has a system called the Inquisitor Act, and then there is an organization affiliated with the military, a very high level, called the Inquisition. The members of the Inquisition are the Inquisitors." Fan Sidao: "They usually take turns at the gate of the base. Everyone has a license to kill, and killing people is not against the law."
After hearing this, Adrian An vaguely remembered that he found something related in the memory he got from Ethan An.
He said: "...Do they judge whether the people entering the base are human or infected?"
Vans: "Well, besides the infected people who can be seen, there are some people who can't be seen. The mutation process has not yet begun, or the mutation level is too high, and their appearance is no different from that of humans. The base calls such people aliens."
Adrian An opened his eyes wide.
If that's the case, then he is an alien.
Vans unbuttoned his coat and put it aside, unscrewed the bottle cap of the kettle, and continued: "The population of the base is too dense. Once the alien species enter the base, they will slaughter them crazily, and then there will be a large-scale infection. The responsibility of the Inquisition is to judge whether everyone who enters the city is a human or an alien species. The judgment process is called 'trial'."
"Then..." Adrian An: "What happens after we discover the alien species?"
"What else can we do?" Vance raised his eyebrows and said, "We shot him on the spot."
Adrian An said nothing, lowered his head and took a bite of compressed biscuits. He had just learned to eat the human way, and human food was a bit rough for him. When he swallowed it, his mouth and throat would be scratched. He ate slowly, but his heart beat fast.
After a pause, he asked again: "Can you really recognize all the alien species?"
Vance took a big gulp of water, leaned against the wall of the car, closed his eyes, and said with a hint of dejection in his tone: "Who knows? There is no evidence. No one knows whether those who were killed are really aliens. My brother is like that."
Adrian An didn't say anything. Fan Si seemed to have a nonsensical answer, but he still listened quietly.
"He...came with me to the First Plain that time. The pollution level there is even lower than the Second Plain. I kept watching him and I can confirm that he was not injured." Vans smiled, but his voice was hoarse: "Back at the gate of the base, the one on duty that day was not an ordinary judge, but their boss. Everyone called him the 'Judge.' Other judges would give reasons for killing people, but he didn't. He didn't need a reason to kill anyone, and he didn't accept defense, even if they were high-ranking officials in the base. He killed them. That day, he did that. He only looked at my brother and shot him."
"I don't believe it, but there's nothing I can do. This kind of thing happens a lot. He has killed a lot of people. There are too many people in the base who hate him. I can't be a problem. Maybe one day, I will be beaten to death by him."
After that, Ryan stared at his right hand for a while, then threw the kettle aside and lay down with his arm as a pillow, but his eyes were still on the top of the carriage. He finally got back on track and answered Adrian An's initial question: "They would rather kill the wrong person than let him go. If a real alien species sneaked into the base, they would definitely be discovered. There has only been one alien attack incident this year."
Adrian An felt uneasy. In order to hide his uneasiness, he closed his eyes and rubbed them with his left hand.
Vans said: "Go to bed, kid."
Adrian An lay down next to him. No matter what happened tomorrow, at least he was safe tonight. There were no monsters or Leon Huo, only a Fan Si who was very kind to him.
Before going to bed, he held the bullet shell and looked at the car door at the end of the aisle.
If - if he quietly opened the car door now, got out and left, returning to the wilderness full of monsters, he could still be alive, would not face trial, would not be shot on the spot, he didn't know how long he could live, but it would definitely be longer than tomorrow.
But are spores something larger than life?
---yes.
For creatures in the abyss, death is the most insignificant thing. In the short day outside the abyss, he witnessed Blake's mutation and Leon Huo's death, and human life is not precious.
Adrian An closed his eyes, he knew he had to go to the northern base.
The next morning, they continued to drive towards the base. Because Vance was the only one driving and lacked energy, their rest time became irregular. They rested in the afternoon of this day and continued to drive north at midnight on the third day. When the aurora began to dim and the sky turned white, Vance said, "We are almost there."
Adrian An looked ahead and saw a circular city gradually emerging from the horizon in the gray morning mist.
Cities, he knew the word, and humans gathered in cities like mushrooms in the rainy season.
The armored vehicle continued to move forward. As the morning mist gradually dissipated, more details appeared in front of it. The circular city had a gray steel wall, as high as the tallest mushroom. Even if twenty people were stacked up, with one person stepping on the shoulders of another, they might not be able to climb over the wall. There were also some steel fangs and thorns sticking out of the wall, sharp and cold, like rocks and soil in winter.
The edge of the city wall was covered with surveillance equipment and laser devices, and intruders would be discovered immediately. The two city gates were the only way in and out, one for entry and the other for exit. The one they were in now was the one that could only be entered but not exited.
Afterwards, Adrian An saw many teams similar to Ryan coming back from all directions. Some of them were lightly equipped, while others were wearing heavy equipment and holding weapons. They were in a team of four or five, driving similar armored vehicles to stop in designated areas, then getting off and walking into the city gate. The vehicles and people were checked separately.
Ryan got out of the car first, and Adrian An grabbed his arm and jumped out of the car. He felt that Ryan' arm was a little tense. He thought that this city gate might have evoked Ryan' bad memories about his brother.
They walked together towards the city gate, where there was a long queue. There was a bit of commotion at the head of the queue, but it was hard to see the situation clearly. People were entering one by one.
Adrian An followed behind Fan Si and walked towards the queue, looking around as he walked.
Soldiers in black uniforms stood on both sides of the city gate, with two guns on their waists, one thermal weapon and one laser gun. Behind them were huge heavy weapons facing the city gate. It can be imagined that if a monster tried to invade, it would be blown to pieces by these heavy weapons.
After looking around, he was attracted by a black figure - in an empty space under the distant city wall, the man was also wearing a black uniform. He seemed to be a sloppy and undisciplined deserter. Unlike his colleagues, he did not stand guard like an official. Instead, he half leaned against the city wall, lowering his head and slowly wiping a black gun.
However, his black uniform with silver tassels seemed to be much more refined and upright than those of the others, or perhaps it was because of his taller and more well-proportioned figure.
Ryan glanced over there, and for some reason his pace quickened a lot, pulling him straight forward. Just when they were about to join the end of the team - Adrian An saw the man in the distance slowly raise his head.
A pair of cold green eyes appeared under the brim of the black uniform hat.
In an instant, Adrian An stopped walking abruptly, and felt a chill rising around him, as if it were frozen.
Vans turned around and said, "What are you---"
The voice stopped abruptly.
A gunshot rang out.
Vance's tall body swayed in place, and then fell to the ground with a thud. His eyes were wide open, his throat was crackling, blood was oozing from his temple, and after his body twitched a few times, there was no movement.
But Adrian An couldn't even reach out and grab the corner of his clothes, nor did he have any time to think about what had just happened. He could only raise his head and look at the officer in black uniform, because at this moment, the officer was slowly turning the black muzzle of the gun - pointing it at him.
Login to comment
Be the first one to comment...