Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  “Dogs are pretty average in terms of smell compared to other animals, like cats and rats. It’s just the fact that other animals aren’t as common as these domestic animals, so animals in nature are greatly understudied. But knowing less about them doesn't mean they are incapable.” Qing Shui reorganized the tools he brought with him in the backpack, and then let Jing stay on his back again. “We should keep walking, we’ll discuss more as we walk.”

  “Good.” The trio headed to the downtown of the city.

  “As we hunt, we should be careful of three things in order of importance – smell comes first, then hearing, and lastly vision. In terms of vision, you have the green paste on your body and the fog, and the grass is a perfect cover for you. Some animals are more sensitive to movement than to colors, so they usually won’t be able to notice you when you are lurking. Hence, just be more careful when you do move; if they become alerted, hold your breath and freeze your movements immediately until they let down their guard.”

  “For hearing, you should breath as gently as you can and try to stabilize your heartbeat. Also, don't forget about your footsteps. You need to be very calm to control your body to move in the exact way that you want it to.” As Qing Shui spoke, he suddenly grinned, “This is probably the ‘killing intent’ that’s always described in novels. It seems like a good hunter would be a good killer too.”

  “As for smell, although I did my best to make you a camouflage, you still need to pay extra attention in case they can still sense you. You have to test out the direction of the wind. Don't forget to get around to the position against the wind, so that you have lower chance of being discovered. And…” Qing Shui was about to lecture more, but Chang interrupted him.

  “Mr. Li, as I have been listening to you, a strange thought popped in my head all of a sudden.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Compares to hunting, killing people is such a simple thing to do!”

  Chapter 32: Predate

  “I agree with you. To be honest, humans are too civilized and dull with regards to the five senses compared to other animals. If you manage to succeed in hunting even just once, killing a person will be much easier.” Qing Shui didn't refute what Chang said; instead, he continued this topic. “The world is in total chaos now. It’d be helpful for you to acquire hunting skills. Getting involved in fighting is inevitable, and those skills could be the key to our survival in the future.”

  “Yeah,” Chang nodded. He fully understood the dullness of the human senses from his experience killing those thugs.

  Human vision wasn’t bad in the animal kingdom, but smell and hearing were much worse than other animals. In the dense fog, having relatively good vision wasn’t as useful as in normal conditions. Chang still remembered how he used the fog as cover to kill those poor thugs on the street. They didn't hear or smell Chang at all, and without having any vision on him, they were as helpless as old men.

  “Did you have a mutation?” Qing Shui changed the topic all of a sudden. “A mutation like Jing has; she developed a new ability, so did you perhaps enhance your body?”

  “I think so.” Chang answered, “But how do you know? I don't recall ever talking about the changes in my body.”

  “I don't know what’s happening either; these days my mind has become clearer, and somehow I’m remembering memories from a long time ago – even things that happened when I was a baby. I can analyze everything better and faster than before.” Qing Shui talked slowly, “For example, when we were walking together, you moved a step to the left and after 4 meters, I saw that on the track you were on originally, a tree was going to get in your way. It is so strange to me that I have concluded that your vision is at least two times better than me.”

  “If it was before, I won’t be able to notice these small details. But now, even a slight change is apparent as if you have taken a big step out of sudden. I also noticed that every time you stepped forward, you were faster than me and you didn’t seem out of breath even though we had been walking for quite some distance. From all of my observations, I realized that your strength was greater than mine, and all these pointed to one answer – you had undergone a mutation and evolved.”

  “I’m sorry I didn't tell you guys about it before.”

  “Its fine; after all, our relationship was merely teacher and student a few days ago. It was totally normal that you didn't say anything about it.” Qing Shui didn’t stop his footsteps for even a second, and the fog flowed by him as he walked. “Now that we share life and death, let’s face this world together. Our ancestors only survived because they united as a single group.”

  Chang gave Qing Shui a smile and continued to ask, “Three of us have mutated in different degrees and aspects. Does this mean that humans are entering a period of evolution?”

  “Maybe; human have always considered themselves as one of the most complex organisms, so reasonably we should be the last to mutate or evolve. In more than 5 billions years, humans as a species have gotten lucky and evolved. As a result, we became able to think and imagine, which are probably unique types of intelligence as far as I know. But actually, on the genetic scale, we share a lot of common genes with the rest of the animal kingdom. I mean, we aren’t that different from the other animals, so it might be time for humans to evolve or mutate too.”

  “Do you think everyone of us will mutate?” Chang asked.

  “I would say that is possible, but we would evolve to different degrees. That is to say, that might be another validation of the Darwinian theory,” Qing Shui sighed. He suddenly looked down on the ground as if he knew something was there before he saw it. “Wait, here is some fresh excrement from some kind of animal, let me check.”

  Qing Shui squatted as he spoke and carefully distinguished the hair and footprints around the feces. A moment after, he raised his head confidently and said, “We should go southwest. A dog just left from here and we can handle its size.”

  “Another dog?” Chang exclaimed gently.

  “What else can you think of? Cats, dogs and rats are the most common animals you would see in a city.” Qing Shui picked up the pace. “Jing, let us know immediately if you notice something turn up within 100 meters.”

  “I will,” she responded.

  Five minutes later.

  “Three living organisms have stepped in my range, and their danger indexes are 1, 1 and 8 respectively.” Jing whispered in a quick manner, causing Chang and Qing Shui to stop spontaneously.

  “What?!”

  “Holy…”

  They expressed their shock at the same time when they heard the number 8.

  “Shhhh… wait, that level 8 seemed to have walked away.” Jing closed her eyes and carefully sensed the atmosphere, “It left my perception range.”

  “Did it go far?” Chang was delighted as Jing said so.

  “I don't know, I can’t feel it at all.”

  “Let’s go closer.”

  “Sure.” Jing and Qing Shui nodded, and then they moved forward about 20 meters.

  “It seems to have gone away.” Jing shook her head, indicating that she still didn't detect the level 8 organism.

  “Maybe we should wait for a minute or two. Perhaps it is wandering around and will come back very soon,” Qing Shui started to walk around Jing in a big circle.

  “It isn’t here.” Chang and Qing Shui walked around for more than 10 minutes, but there was still no sign of the horrifying organism.

  “We shouldn't wait for it any longer.” Chang slowly raised his and casually grabbed a handful of sand from the ground. “I’m going to check out those two level 1 organisms. Stay about 90 meters away from them and don't move, or they might become alerted.”

  As Chang spoke gently, he put his hands up in the air and opened his palms. The wind carried the fine sand away and Chang found the direction against the wind.

  He then removed his shoes and gently stepped on the ground. The small rocks and cement blocks caused him to feel pain
on the bottom of his feet, but once he got used to the pain, he ran toward his prey swiftly and silently.

  Chang was going in the direction that against the wind, and once he got closer, his footsteps slowed down.

  Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters…. every step he took was full of consideration and caution as he gingerly snuck through the gap between the grass and bypassed the rubble. In a moment, he finally found where they were.

  There was an open space in the grass; two dogs were lying there quietly. Although they were quite bulky and looked stronger than normal, their size wasn’t as big as the cat that Chang saw the other day. They were pretty small compared to the white cat. Chang wasn’t afraid of them as he had his spear in his hand.

  But he still refrained from getting too close to his prey – after learning about their extremely sensitive sense of hearing and smell, he didn't think they were easy to approach.

  Crouching in the bush, Chang took a few deep breaths and started to imagine the scene of the sky and ocean that cooled him down. He took quite the effort to suppress his racing heartbeat from his anxiety.

  One… two…

  After the third long and silent breath, Chang finally restrained his emotions, and his heartbeat gradually slowed down and his body no longer trembled after the surge of epinephrine wore off in his bloodstream. He entered a relatively calm state.

  Chapter 33: Pursuit

  Clenching the spear tightly in his right hand, Chang had the urge to hunt as if he was a cheetah hiding behind the grass. He was waiting quietly and patiently until the moment his prey lowered its guard.

  This time he was lucky that he only had been lurking in the bushes for a while before he found a good opportunity – two wolfhounds were playing around and they both turned away, exposing their backs and black thick tails to Chang.

  “A good hunter knows how to lurk, but what he knows better is to seize every fleeting opportunity he has to attack.”

  In this moment, Qing Shui’s words flashed across Chang’s mind; without any hesitation, he took advantage of this perfect opportunity and carefully and swiftly moved forward towards his prey, and then shouted. He pushed off his legs like a hound to reach his greatest speed.

  “Hah!” The wolfhounds were startled by the aggressive roar and turned to Chang at the same time with their tails tucked between their legs. Surprisingly, they didn't run away – it was a natural response for animals. They were shocked and frozen by the sudden threat.

  The shout also granted Chang a perfect chance. Jumping up high widened his vision, so he chose the stout wolfhound and pierced through it with his spear from top to bottom.

  This action made a muffled sound; it was an attack with all his strength, so the spear poked through its skin and penetrated its organs and finally broke through the skin on the other side of its stomach. The wolfhound was firmly nailed to the ground as the tip of the spear deeply thrust into the ground.

  “WOOOO!!” The wolfhound screeched and instinctively began to struggle furiously. Despite blood spurting from its mouth, it still tried to bite Chang’s ankle.

  This kind of desperate struggle was part of an animal’s natural instinct. Chang immediately jumped back and left the wounded wolfhound where it was. Chang took out the scalpels from his back pocket and turned to the other wolfhound.

  “Arf! Arf!” The unwounded wolfhound didn’t go away as it saw Chang back off. It didn't attack Chang either, but it barked loudly as if that threatening tone would scare Chang away.

  However, Chang wasn’t affected by its barking as he knew he could hunt this wolfhound too. His fingers rubbed on the handle as he was figuring out a safe way to capture the weaker wolfhound.

  As if the wolfhound knew what Chang was thinking, it made a quick glance at its companion and fled after a few long threatening barks. Chang was surprised that it abandoned its partner, which meant that this probably wasn’t the dog’s habitat. However, the hunger stopped him from thinking further. Even if he was able to kill the other one, the extra meat would easily rot in this hot weather and with the evolving bacteria. It would only take two or three hours for the meat to rot.

  The wolfhound he got weighed about 100 pounds; it was absolutely more than enough for the five of them.

  Therefore, Chang was delighted from the bottom of his heart. The desire for meat had temporarily occupied his mind. He walked up to the wolfhound that was nailed to the ground and impatiently stabbed the dog with his scalpel into its neck.

  One, two… after 30 seconds, the dog died from excessive blood loss; the blood spurted out from its artery and coated Chang’s sleeve.

  After he finished that, Qing Shui, with Jing on his back, rushed to the scene.

  “Jing just told me that a living being, which wasn’t you left her perception range; with the signal of the other organism suddenly disappearing, I knew you succeeded.” Qing Shui put down Jing and took out a giant garbage bag from his backpack. He then took Chang’s scalpel and said, “Give me your scalpel, I’ll dissect this beast. You can put the meat in the plastic bag, and be careful not to get more blood on your body.”

  “Okay.” Chang opened the garbage bag and looked at how Qing Shui skillfully dismembered the wolfhound into chunks of flesh. The whole process was short, and what was even more amazing was that the way he cut the wolfhound kept the blood from oozing.

  “Bag them quickly; the smell of blood is too strong and I’m afraid that it will attract danger.” Qing Shui wiped off the sweat on his forehead by lightly pressed his sleeve on it.

  “Will do.” Chang was deeply amazed by his technique. He stuck those pieces into the black garbage bag – if he were to put everything into the bag, it would be too heavy for them to carry. Chang had a hard time choosing which piece to take, and once he finished, the backpack was stuffed with the meat Qing Shui cut.

  “Alright, come on!” Chang “cleaned” himself with some plant juice that he squeezed from the plants around him, and then picked up the spear and let Jing lay on his back. The trio left the scene with hearts filled with joy.

  “I didn’t expect such a harvest today.” On the way to the base, Qing Shui, Chang and Jing were so excited that they finally laughed for the first time since the red fog appeared.

  “It was lucky for us.” Qing Shui said. “I wasn't expecting such a success in the first hunt with you either. However, the meat is too much for us, and honestly, we can’t eat too much right now, since we have been starving for days. A sudden large consumption will easily make us sick.”

  “But if we don’t eat it, it will perish in two or three hours.” Chang felt pity for the amount of food that would go to waste.

  “Well…we don’t have access to a refrigerator or something that can keep it longer. How about this, let’s try to trade some of the meat with the military for hardtack. The crackers can last longer than the meats. Plus, the military must be starving too. With the amount of soldiers they have, they definitely won't mind doing business with us.” As Qing Shui spoke, he lightly pinched his chin.

  “But if we were to trade with them, they’ll probably interrogate us, won’t they? It could be troublesome and risky.” As an ordinary person, he didn't like to deal with the authorities – he would likely suffer losses as the military was in control of the shelter and safety; they were still relying on the military for providing a place to stay.

  “I’ll try to avoid any trouble that might come up…” Qing Shui fell in silence as he dropped his voice. Apparently, he was wondering how to avoid trouble.

  The three stopped talking. Their pace to the base was fast. When they got closer to the base, Jing suddenly sprang up.

  “Chang!!!! Something is coming for us and… and they’re extremely fast! One is level 8 and… a level 1 is following it.” Jing hastily finished reporting this startling information. Both Chang and Qing Shui’s heart sunk; they wanted to run faster so that they could get into the base. But as she finished speaking, Chang heard a noise come from the bushes behind
them.

  How fast can a person run 100 meters? Before the apocalypse, there were people who could run the distance in 10 seconds, so now people could definitely do it.

  But how fast could a dog run? It wouldn't be a surprise that most of them could run that distance within 10 seconds; with the possible mutations and evolution, it made perfect sense that their current speed could reach 5 or 6 seconds per 100 meters.

  Therefore, at the same moment that the muscle on Chang’s leg contracted when he ran his first step, a dark shadow flew over his head; a gigantic wolfhound steadily landed in front of him after leaping from his back.

  The path to the base was blocked. Chang immediately stopped so that he wouldn't run into it, and then he raised the spear and carefully scanned his enemy.

  It was a giant dog.

  But how giant was it actually?

  It stood on four limbs and was bigger than the bears in the forest. Perhaps dogs were usually bigger than cats, but this dog was even bigger than the white cat they previously ran into. Its face was grim and its limbs were stout. The dog showed its anger by growling deeply; its teeth were exposed in the air and every single tooth was as long as Chang’s finger.

  From a single glance, Chang knew that if he were to fight against this dog – he would be torn apart!

  Chapter 34: Pus

  While Chang was observing his giant enemy, another wolfhound ran out from the bush. As soon as it stood in front of Chang, it gave a loud and short bark, leading the giant dog’s attention to Chang.

  “So it's revenge.” He glanced at that small wolfhound – it was the one who fled; or more accurately, it didn't flee. It went to find someone to back it up.

  “Jing, leave with Mr. Li. The wolfhounds are only here for me.” Chang slowly lowered his body so that Jing could climb off his back. He clenched the spear even tighter – after all, that was the only weapon he had that could possibly save him.