Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  “Hey, Tao, time to wake up!” His voice was filled with joy because he survived. He pushed Tao who was sitting next to him – his stiff body slid to the ground.

  Bang.

  "Tao?" Seeing Tao’s body hit the ground, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

  He moved forward to straighten Tao’s body, but the area that Chang grabbed was stiff and sticky – Tao was dead, and his skin began to soften and decompose.

  Tao couldn’t be more dead; his muscle was rotting.

  “...” staring at his classmate’s corpse, Chang was speechless.

  One thing to keep in mind was that Chang’s fever was much more severe than Tao’s. However, things were unpredictable nowadays. Who knew whether someone would pass away in the next moment?

  “Well, I didn’t know you would die before me.” Chang tilted Tao’s body into a sitting position, then he found a pack of cigarettes and lighter from another man’s corpse. He put the cigarette between Tao’s lips and lit it.

  “Last time you asked me for cigarette, I didn’t have any. This time, I hope I’ve fulfilled your last wish.” Chang once again straightened Tao’s sliding body, but when he touched Tao’s limb, a large piece of sticky flesh fell off of Tao’s arm.

  “The microbe mutations have made the decomposition speed of corpses so much faster!” Chang pasted that piece back on Tao’s body, which he tried to keep intact.

  Gazing at him for a while, Chang stood up and realized that most of the people he saw yesterday didn’t manage to get up.

  Though some may have left, only he and a woman were the only people still alive in this pharmacy. She didn’t notice Chang at all as she was sobbing in front of a body that she was holding. Looking at her back, she looked especially sorrowful.

  “…” He inaudibly sighed and thought of his father when he saw all the corpses around. He reached into his pocket and took out his father’s fingers that he kept. The skin and muscle that used to be attached on them had melted; all that was left was two bones.

  He rinsed off the remaining skin on the fingers with alcohol while rubbing it, then Chang walked out the room without hesitation.

  "Wait, where are you going?" Just as he was about to leave, a female voice came from his back – it was the sobbing girl.

  "I am going to the orthopedics or operating room to find a needle to string my father’s fingers into a necklace. I’m afraid I may lose them if they stay in my pocket,” Chang confessed.

  “Can I go with you… we can take care of each other,” Her voice choked and let go of the middle-aged man’s body.

  “Yea, its better to stay together,” Chang nodded.

  After all, having a companion was safer than walking alone in the apocalypse. Chang was going to propose the idea of leaving together with her. However, he didn’t interrupt when he saw that the girl was in deep sorrow.

  Chang waited until she came closer. She was in her 20s. She was neither pretty nor unattractive; she looked ordinary.

  Chang cracked a brief smile to this girl. His chapped lips were already healed. A smile also touched the corner of her lips. But at this moment, their smile was full of bitterness.

  “Do you know where the operating room is?”

  “Not far ahead,” The girl pointed at the corridor outside of the pharmacy.

  “Okay, let’s go then.”

  They walked side by side in the corridor, and it was very quiet in the hospital. Chang didn’t know where those doctors had gone, but he didn’t see wounded people come in, either. The hospital seemed to be a lonely island. There was no sound at all – everything in here was particularly bizarre.

  Passing through the fog, they came to a room with the large sign “Operating Room”. The door squeaked as Chang opened it.

  Suddenly, he was pushed out of the room by a massive black shadow, along with a strong buzzing sound. He staggered a few step backward until he saw what pushed him out. He threw up immediately at the door.

  It was groups of flies that gathered into dark clouds. They were strong enough to even able to push a living person when they were frightened.

  After the flies left, Chang repressed the nauseating feeling and walked into the operating room.

  Compared to the silent world outside of this operating room, it was full of rustling sounds.

  Click, clack.

  It came from the operating table. Chang carefully looked at the curtain in front of the table. He saw something that disgusted him again.

  It was a corpse that had been cut opened. It was stuffed with maggots in its belly. The maggots were the cause of the uncomfortable sounds.

  This time, Chang’s puke immediately coated the entire ground.

  Chapter 12: Strange Tree

  Chang repressed the twitching in his stomach, then he turned his head away from the operating table and reached for the surgical instruments.

  He collected some needles and threads for stitching, and then turned to the scalpels.

  Scalpels were one of the sharpest knives. The purpose of its existence was to cut. Hence, Chang didn’t doubt the sharpness of these tools.

  Compared to the scalpel, the kitchen knife in his backpack was dull, not to mention the material it was made of. Chang simply picked up a few of the largest ones, then tightly grabbed them in his hands and left the operating room.

  The girl outside of the operating room was still vomiting, so Chang stepped forward and patted her on the back. “There, there, they are just flies. If you want to survive in this world, you need to prepare to face any circumstance. Here, take two of these and man up. We’ll fight with these knives if we ever encounter anything.”

  Chang handed the knives to the girl, then headed back to the pharmacy department.

  He walked towards Tao’s corpse, which already had a pungent odour.

  Tao had “smoked” half of the cigarette.

  “Sorry buddy, I have to leave you here.” Chang glanced at Tao, then gave the body a big hug. He put Tao’s body back into hid original spot, then pulled on his arm. A finger was sliced off using the scalpel.

  Chang then scraped off the flesh from his bone and soaked it in alcohol. He rubbed off any remaining pieces and threaded it together with his father’s finger. He put the necklace on his neck.

  “I’m taking your finger with me, thank you for the last journey.” Chang called the girl who was mourning her family member. Then, he loaded a backpack that he found somewhere else with antibiotics and antiseptics.

  This was the second time he left the pharmacy, but this time he was going to leave it behind forever.

  Following the girl and being once again exposed to the sunlight passing through the red fog, the first thing that caught his attention was that the visibility seemed to have improved.

  “Is the fog dissipating?” Chang looked at the girl beside him. He clearly remembered that the visibility was less than 3 meters yesterday morning. But now, he could see bushes that were seven or eight meters away, causing Chang to be astonished.

  “No…The fog didn’t change one bit.” The girl squinted and carefully observed the fog, confirmed, “It didn’t dissipate; rather it’s even denser than yesterday.”

  “Really?” Chang looked around and found that he could see within a range of seven to eight meters, so he asked with uncertainty, “Are you sure?”

  “Hundred percent sure, why?” The girl was puzzled too.

  Seeing her face, Chang no longer suspected her, and instead obtained a new perception of this world.

  The chance of the fog dissipating was low; he knew that before he even asked the girl. If the fog wasn’t dissipating, but vision had broadened, there was only one conclusion he could make – His vision had improved.

  “Does this mean I’m the one that mutated?” Chang muttered to himself, “every other organism has evolved, so it must be the human’s turn.”

  Thinking of this, Chang clenched his fists tightly and spent a moment to feel the changes in his body.

  First, he c
lenched his fists, causing his skin to rub between his knuckles. Chang felt that his power had improved, but not by much.

  Secondly, he could now capture the soft sound of the air flowing with his ears, and his nose could smell the fresh grass meters away – his sense of hearing and smell were greatly improved.

  “What are you doing?” Noticing that Chang didn’t move with his eyes closed, the girl urged.

  “Nothing …” He quickly changed the topic, “How did you get to the hospital yesterday?”

  “I was bitten by a stray dog and came after my wound got infected.”

  “How do you feel now, anything unusual?”

  “Unusual? Not really, the festering has healed, and except for some minor itching and pain around my wound, nothing’s different.”

  “Oh.” Chang nodded, “Let’s go.”

  The two walked side by side and entered the grass jungle that was as high as an adult in the hospital courtyard.

  “It’s strange,” She seemed to realize something suddenly.

  “It is strange. To be honest, there should have been more injured and sick people that came to the hospital for medication, but since this morning, we haven’t seen anyone enter. It’s eerie, be careful-”

  Just as Chang finished his sentence, he suddenly frowned and felt something coming from behind him. He jumped aside unconsciously and escaped an attack from behind.

  Phew!

  What attacked him was a cane branch, which looked like willow branches, but thicker. It was glossy and red and covered with barbs; it truly was a ferocious weapon.

  Chang heard a short scream while he managed to escape. The girl beside him was pulled up by a branch of wicker by her ankle. She hung upside down and soon disappeared in the fog.

  “Fuck!” Witnessing the girl being towed away, the instinct of saving a companion as a social animal crowded his mind and he chased after her without a second thought.

  He ran after the cane until he came to the center of the courtyard. Through the thick fog, he saw a terrifying scene.

  It was a tree – a huge willow tree.

  Willow trees were those kinds of trees that grew on sidewalks for landscaping, but now that it was seven or eight meters high, Chang couldn’t even see the crown of the tree despite standing under the tree.

  This wasn’t even the most horrifying scene; on this willow, pieces of shriveled human skin were hanging all over the branches. Seeing this, Chang didn’t dare move an inch.

  The shriveled skins were hung on the barbs of stout wickers; the faces of skin hanging on the branches were extremely grotesque because it no longer had any fat or muscle. These wrinkled faces could create nightmares for anyone who ever saw them – the willow had completely mutated and evolved, other relatively small flourishing willow stretched their arms towards the huge willow as if they were paying respect to it.

  Chang wasn’t brave enough to chase forward after he saw this scene – he knew it was impossible to save the girl even if he tried his best.

  There was no way he could beat this monster.

  The girl was dragged under the tress. Then, a few more stout wickers reached over and curled the girl up with their soft and sharp arms. The barbs on the wickers poked into her body at the same time, sucking up her blood while injecting digestive juices into her body.

  The whole process took less than 20 seconds, and another human skin was hung onto its branch.

  Her empty eyes were still looking at Chang before she died, as if she was looking for a sense of security in her last moments.

  “I’m sorry,” Chang stared at the fresh human skin and silently apologized.

  He couldn’t save her, and even if he tried to, he would only end up as another decoration for the willow. In the apocalypse, there were no heroes that could always save others’ lives. The ones who could survive were the heroes.

  Therefore, Chang repressed the guilt in his heart as he stood still in the grass. He carefully observed the willow, trying to obtain some information on the way the willow hunted.

  How did it hunt for its prey? Smell, vision, vibrations in the ground, or by something else…

  Chapter 13: Life and Morality

  Before Chang was even able to decide what to do next, he stood there as still as he could and held his breath. Chang was afraid that if he made any sort of movement, the wickers would endlessly and fatally attack him.

  He adjusted his breath and leaned over in the grass at a snail’s pace. When Chang observed the strange tree, he noticed something bizarre. Behind the guard of the glossy red wickers, there was a humanlike face on the trunk – it wasn’t exactly a face; it was more like a lump that commonly grew on old trees. But now, he saw a bloodshot eye on the lump that only humans had.

  This scared Chang.

  "What’s going on in the world? It's been less than 24 hours and this tree has already grown eyes. I can't imagine what kind of changes would happen if more time passes."

  The answers to the questions raised during the apocalypse had gone beyond his wildest imagination. Who could’ve ever thought that the unicellular organisms from before the Cambrian Explosion could completely transformed the Earth into a vivid paradise?

  But now, it was a different situation. The world already contained many more complex organisms like human beings. What would be the result if another event like the Cambrian Explosion occurred?

  A spark of mixed thoughts flared in Chang’s mind, but as soon as he came back to reality, fear filled his heart once more.

  Chang's body became stiff as he spent a long time observing the tree. He made a hypothesis to his own question – that strange tree may have sensed the vibrations from the ground to determine the location of its prey.

  Though there were tiny red vessels in the tree's eye socket, it would take at least a few days for the tree to fully gain vision.

  Chang further lowered his breathing as he made this judgment, then he removed one of his shoes slowly.

  Foosh! He hurled his shoe to the other side of the courtyard.

  The shoe fell on the thick grass with a muffled sound. Four or five stout and barbed wickers immediately flew to the location of the sound.

  Bang!

  The wickers split the bushy grass and hit the ground heavily, destroying the entire region where it hit. Chang’s shoe was pretty durable, but was still torn into pieces in a fraction of a second.

  The attempt confirmed Chang’s hypothesis, so he quickly threw another shoe at the same spot, and seized the opportunity while the tree was distracted to flee as fast as he could.

  He could escape the attack range of these wickers if he ran about 40 meters.

  Chang took a deep breath. The moment his shoe hit the surface of the grass and the wickers attacked, he ran for his life. The medicine bottles in his bag collided with each other as he scurried, and the clinking sound from his backpack was a premonition that hustled Chang to quicken his pace.

  The clinking was followed by the bloody wickers’ pursuit as they quickly responded because their previous attack was fruitless. They quickly approached Chang; they were fast – at least twice his speed.

  Fortunately, he had already run 10 meters before the wickers initiated the second attack.

  In the end when the bloodthirsty wickers were about to catch Chang, they could no longer reach any further. The wickers had stretched to their limits.

  He had escaped the immediate danger, but Chang still had a lingering fear and kept running until he was out of breath.

  After he caught his breath, he turned around. However, there was nothing he could see in the fog. The bizarre scene was left behind, as if whatever happened to him was just an illusion.

  He sighed and decided to leave this place forever, as there was no room for him to worry about others’ lives. The danger of this world didn’t only come from what was behind him; the mutated willow was merely one of those dangers.

  Chang felt like a century had passed, and his soul was completely drained the pas
t 24 hours. He lost everyone – strangers, classmates, friends, and maybe even his family. Chang unconsciously caressed the necklace that he made. He couldn’t even tell whether he was grieving or not, but at least the pressure of survival didn’t leave him any time to mourn.

  A bitter smile came on his face, and Chang slowly walked out of the courtyard of the hospital with bare feet as he saw some people gathered in front of the hospital. Some were talking to their each other while others had passed out. Apparently, they were restless and wanted to get some medication from the hospital.

  The small crowd was seven or eight meters away, so they couldn’t see Chang, but he could see them clearly. Even the conversations they were having was crisp and clear in his ears.

  “Mom, dad is dying, let me try to go in there,” A family of three was within Chang’s vision range; a teenage boy carried his father with worry written all over his face.

  “Don’t, you can’t go in,” Beside the boy was a middle-aged woman. She shook her head after she heard her son. “We haven’t seen anyone come out from the hospital since this morning.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re all dead!” The boy almost yelled impatiently, “We’ll lose dad if we don’t even try.”

  “If someone must go, it’ll be me.” The woman gently pushed her son aside, “Look after your dad, I’m going.”

  “Don’t go into there, there is no way you can pass the courtyard.” Chang’s sorrowful figure showed up from the fog and walked towards the family.

  "Who are you?" The woman and the boy looked at him warily due to his sudden appearance.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t have any bad intentions.” Chang waved his hand and hid the scalpel behind his back. “I just fled from the hospital. A scary monster is growing in that courtyard. You’ll die as soon as you step in.”

  “But my dad… my dad won’t last for long…” The boy almost burst into tears. “We need… we need antibiotics; his wounds are infected.”

  Chang looked at the father’s wound; it was as worse than the one he had. It was a deep scratch from some sort of animal and was severely festering.