Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  “I was,” Jing agreed with a nod. Her fingers softly yet firmly grasped his shirt.

  “Let me see if there is anything we can do for fun.”

  Jing quietly nodded again.

  Chang stood up and walked around the suite – of course it wouldn’t have any toys or games; there wasn’t any television or internet either. He had no idea what they could do in here.

  Pondering it for a while, Chang seemed to have an idea. He pushed over the wooden tea table, and then sawed off pieces of similar length from the table’s legs using the sawtooth side of his military dagger. Afterwards, he further divided the wood from the table legs to make 16 chess pieces, which were marked into four groups. Chang drew a simplified aeroplane chess board on four pieces of paper that were taped together.

  Upon finishing the game, he felt very accomplished, and laughing waved for Jing to come closer. In this desperate world, they could enjoy a moment of pure joy by playing this rough-made chess.

  This was the first time they had ever had some sort of entertainment since the beginning of the apocalypse. They had become family without the need for blood ties, depending on one another and looking after each other. Protecting this new found family became one of their life goals, and they would not abandon the other no matter what.

  The smile on Jing’s face was innocent, pure and heart soothing.

  The game reminded Chang of his own childhood – the colorful marbles he treasured, the hero cards he collected, the chess he played with his grandpa… The distant happiness surged out, and for a second it made him forget where he was. Like he was still living in the peaceful days before the apocalypse.

  However, nothing was the same. The happiness would not come back. He was forced to grow up in just a bit over a month. Forced to become a man of no scruples. He was more mature now, but at the cost of his own happiness.

  They played the aeroplane chess again and again, until Qing Shui came back from the lab. He then joined the game without any hesitation.

  At the end, the trio found endless joy from such a simple game. They played it til midnight, until they could no longer resist the fatigue. Then they slept on the bed with happiness that had been absent from their life.

  Unfortunately, the joy was short-lived in the apocalypse.

  The next morning, when everyone woke up, they tensed up once more.

  The next two days Chang went out to search for edible plants with the bug’s help, while Qing Shui secretly planted the seeds that Chang brought back.

  In three days, Chang brought 27 types of seeds, 18 of which sprouted after seeding. Qing Shui studied and estimated that three of them could be reproduced in a large scale given their properties. Except for the plants, Qing Shui had also found a white worm.

  It was half transparent and with a smooth surface. No bigger than a rice grain, round bodied, and without any aggressiveness at all. However, the speed of its reproduction was unimaginably fast for an insect. It consumed basically everything as a source of energy. “It is a kind that could survive because of its fecundity and diversity.”

  Qing Shui later discovered that the strange worm had high protein, and was easy to cultivate. He asked Chang to collect more of this insect and made a special field to cultivate them.

  Hence, working together Qing Shui and Chang came up with a rough idea of how to feed themselves without the Crystal Pea.

  In three days, a heart-stirring news spread through Zhengzhou – the Crystal Pea was ready to be harvested!

  Tons of the Crystal Pea were distributed to the military and the citizens. The plant was as nutrient-rich as they had marketed – 300g of the Crystal Pea could fulfill the daily needs of an adult.

  The Crystal Pea was immediately accepted by the masses as if it was a light shed to clear the darkness. The people were in deep awe of the creator of the Pea.

  The military began to deify Zhuo to gain control over people’s minds.

  A commendation meeting happened the next day. Qing Shui sat at the very back and hid himself in the shadows. The man on the stage passionately spoke about the benefits of the Crystal Pea and how Zhuo succeeded in his mission. But Qing Shui only half-listened with his brows tied closely together.

  “Aren’t they just boring? Speaking the same thing over and over again,” Zhuo asked softly, quietly sitting down beside Qing Shui. The young man always masked himself with a gentle smile.

  “It is tedious, but we Chinese people are always good at deifying a man who stood out to save the masses. It seems meaningless but you know what it can do to the people, don’t you? Otherwise your wouldn’t have planned it secretly,” Qing Shui said, turning to face Zhuo. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you, the hero, be sitting in the front row to receive the medal?”

  “I ought to be there as you said, but I prefer to sit next to someone that is smart.” Zhuo looked back at him. “I heard that you are researching the edible plants as well?”

  Chapter 83: Bizarreness

  “You are right, I am, indeed, conducting a food experiment. After all, I can’t always rely on someone else.”

  “Cool.” The smile on Zhuo’s face didn’t change even a bit. “But you don’t have to rush as the Crystal Pea is sufficient enough for everyone. I just want to apologize for what I’ve said a few days ago; I was too worried about this. But by any chance, would you be interested in joining our research in group Alpha?” Zhuo hazarded again.

  “I...” Qing Shui was going to decline his offer again, but he was interrupted before being able to speak the words.

  “Again, I understand that you might have no interest in working with us. But I figured that it is necessary to show you what we have achieved before you make any decision as you have no knowledge of what we are researching yet. I am confident that even if it’s you, you won’t be able to turn away from this great temptation. Qing Shui, we are the same kind of people, even though you might deny that.”

  “What have you done?” Qing Shui’s eyes lingered on Zhuo’s mysterious smile. He was intrigued.

  “Would you come with me later? Words are not persuasive enough for you, so I’d show you my great work on transgene.” Zhuo gazed at Qing Shui’s eyes as if he was trying to look into his very soul.

  “Of course,” Qing Shui agreed with a tilt of his head.

  “Like I said, you are different from those ignorant yet arrogant ‘scientists’.” Zhuo was happy with Qing Shui’s answer and stood up once a bright ray of light descended on him. “I’m going to get the medal that they are awarding me with, see you at the front door.”

  Qing Shui didn’t reply to the man bathed in the sharp light but nodded. He sunk back into his chair, quietly following Zhuo’s silhouette with his eyes, contemplating.

  Zhuo leaned forward on the stage so that the Lieutenant General could place the medal on the left side of his chest with ease. He disappeared in the dark as soon as he left the stage, and Qing Shui knew it was time to leave. They walked together to the test area that was specially assigned to Group Alpha.

  Technically, Group Alpha wasn’t located in the main building. It was rather remote as it was built underground; the only entrance and exit being at the ground level of the institute. The door itself was almost unnoticeable except for there being two armed soldiers guarding it at all times. The security level was one of the highest in this institute as Zhuo needed to scan his retina and sign his name on a document that indicated the time he entered and exited; the document was kept with the two soldiers just in case the digital scanning record was lost during an external attack.

  The equipment in Group Alpha was far more advanced than anywhere else that Qing Shui had been to. They had the best machines gathered for their transgene experiments, and the working area was sophisticatedly designed for better efficiency. It was a completely different world.

  Qing Shui wasn’t won over by the equipment as he had expected that Group Alpha should have access to the top resources. However, Qing Shui was intrigued by rats that were flo
ating in tiny tanks, aligned neatly one by one on a shelf mounted on the wall. They were placed so closely that it gave an illusion of the whole wall being decorated by these tiny yellow tanks. The concrete was simply nowhere to be seen.

  Observing from a close distance, Qing Shui immediately discovered from where this strange feeling was coming from—rats. They were in shapes and forms that Qing Shui could have never thought to see them in. One donned pangolin’s armor, another had beefy limbs, while some others were skinny but with absurd bone structure, or even had wings. They were unconventional rats, and each different from the others. The surreality dizzied Qing Shui for a while.

  “These are what you made with your proud transgene technique?” Qing Shui’s finger lingered on one of the tiny tanks.

  “They are merely my experimental byproduct, believe it or not.” Zhuo was gratified by the astonishment on Qing Shui’s face. “How marvellous they are! Thanks to the red fog concentrate, we could introduce the desired gene pieces from other species into the rats free of rejection! Don’t you think this was how god made us?”

  “I believe the way he made us wasn’t as inferior as you made them,” Qing Shui responded with a sneer.

  “Well, it might seem primitive to you, after all, we only started a month or so ago.” It sounded like Zhuo didn’t hear any of Qing Shui’s comments, he dawdled around his ‘artworks’. “Look at all these man-made creatures, how beautiful and strong they are! They’ll be able to outcompete other species if I released them out.”

  “I simply don’t think so.” The yellow tint reflected on Qing Shui’s face as he looked closely at a rat’s body. He asked, “These transgene creatures… I doubt they reproduce, do they?”

  “You brought up an interesting problem that I have not yet been able to solve.” Qing Shui’s question pointed at the weakest spot in Zhuo’s research. He threw his hands and grinned wryly. “As I said, we’ve just started. If you would join us, I believe such issues could be resolved soon.

  “Oh right! I don’t think I have mentioned that those rats were produced in my early experimenting stage. Come, I’ll show you what I really am capable of making, and I am the only person who’s made it. This is real art!” As Zhuo spoke, he opened a side door. “This way.”

  Fanaticism and ecstasy were clearly written on Zhuo’s face. He couldn’t resist showing off his creation to someone who he thought deserved to see his work.

  Led by curiosity, Qing Shui walked into the room whose door silently sealed behind once he entered.

  It was spacious.

  Instead of a room, Qing Shui would have called it an experimental field. Although it was constructed underground, it seemed broader than outside, now that it was limited by the red fog. The place was half as big as a soccer field, and human-sized glass containers were neatly aligned on both sides of the room. They were filled with some red sticky solution, which was as condense as the red fog concentrate.

  The room lit up progressively as they went further, the light revealing the contents in the containers—humans. Of all sorts. Men, women, children, infants, even elders!

  “Human subject research? You are conducting your experiments on humans?” Qing Shui asked in disbelief, his shock so great that his mind went blank for a second.

  “You should calm down, Qing Shui. They are not dead.” Zhuo walked to one side, and knocked on a glass container.

  Upon knocking, the human in the container moved reflexively, without conscious thought, then soon relaxed again.

  “See, they’re alive.” Zhuo smirked.

  “But that doesn’t disguise the fact that you are doing human subject research.” Qing Shui kept frowning.

  “Well, what if I tell you that they volunteered for my experiments?” Zhuo shrugged his shoulders. “At the very beginning of the apocalypse, many died because of their weakened immune system. If they hadn’t turned to me, they’d be dead bodies rotting somewhere on the street like stray dogs. I gave them a second life; no reason for me to take your criticism.”

  “I am not trying to criticize you, nor am I willing to debate with you about ethics. We are different kind of people, that’s it,” Qing Shui said, almost vententing out his anger but barely holding onto it. “And that’s all, isn’t it?”

  “Surprise! Seems like you’re always underestimating me. I am so disappointed, Qing Shui. Let me feed you with some real stuff.” Zhuo almost rushed to the end of the room, where there was a button beside a container. Zhuo pressed it with his hand shaking due to excitement.

  Soon, the cord that was connected with this person’s brain delivered an electric impulse to the inside. The person slowly regained his consciousness.

  “Wake up! Wake up! Your moment has come!” Zhuo yelled delightfully as the person opened his eyes.

  The person moved in the tank as if he was trying to warm up his body.

  “Get out of the tank, you dumbass! I do not tolerate mistakes.” Zhuo climbed up the stairs and rudely dragged the person out of his tank.

  The person lied on the ground on his stomach while Zhuo asked Qing Shui to stay tolerant.

  “You have to be patient, he is quite weak at this moment. But that is because he was just woken up and needs some time to recoordinate. You will be the first person besides me to witness the power of this creature!” Zhuo even kicked the person, laughing. “And don’t worry, he won’t harm us. He is flawless. This is the prototype of the super soldier I plan to put under mass production. The excess extract from the red fog I dosed him in has made him completely subservient.

  “Now, he will only listen to me.” Zhuo recovered from the fanatic stage. He said, “ In five minutes, he’ll surprise you.”

  “I am surprised already.” Qing Shui approached the person cautiously. “Is he still a human? He is hairless and extremely pale, covered by hardened keratin scales like those pangolins have… this is what you have made...”

  “He is good, isn’t he? The gene expression on him perfectly reflects what I inserted in his genome. Powerful physical strength, hard shell for defense and exceptional vision. A man like this is more useful than an armed troop if you place him in the jungle.”

  Meanwhile, the person slowly recovered. He stretched out on the floor, then stood up.

  “See, he is here. Interesting, he recovers faster than I’ve seen him do before.” Zhuo was so excited that he shouted out his joy, his hand examining the joints and the person’s wrinkled skin. The pupil test indicated that the person was fully functional. “Good to go!”

  Zhuo then ran to the other side of the experimental field, where he took out a rifle from a cabinet.

  “This is what I use to test.” Zhuo pointed the rifle at the pale man. “Hold your breath, I am showing you how much impact he can take with those beautiful scales.”

  Chapter 84: The Most Desired Genes

  Zhuo fired the rifle as he spoke, the sound of the gunfire filling the void of the experimental field. Bullets were ejected from the gun barrel like cheetahs, they all bolted toward the same target -- that hairless bizarre man.

  Ratatatat -- --!

  These metal cheetahs crashed into the man’s pale skin, making a series of deep sounds. Zhuo threw aside the rifle, watching Qing Shui go closer to the strange man. He almost couldn’t disguise his exhaltation.

  “Ah,” the strange man moaned as he saw Qing Shui come closer to him. He raised his right arm, slowly gouging out the bullets from the indentations on its surface. Some bullets had been lucky enough to penetrate his skin but none of them went far enough to injure his organs.

  “What do you think of it?” Zhuo laughed out loud with pleasure. “I made him bullet proof! Qing Shui, did you see that? The bonus of this perfect layer of keratin scales is that despite its resistance to impact, it won’t slow down his movement at all!”

  “Catch it!” Zhuo bent down to pick up the rifle again and threw it to the strange man. “Rip it.”

  “Ah.” The strange man caught the rifle in the air precisely
with two hands as if it was a programmed sequence of actions. He broke the rifle in half by smashing it to his raised knee. He even went further. The broken rifle returned to his knee, the two pieces crushed in half once more. It became four pieces of wasted metal laid on the ground.

  “This is how powerful it is.” Zhuo turned to the pale man and shouted, “Come on! Show Mr. Li how fast you are and how you can react.”

  The pale man immediately ran around the experimental field as Zhuo commanded. His heavy steps left indentations on the floor. Meanwhile, Zhuo approached Qing Shui to pick up the rifle pieces, flinging each of them to a different corner.

  And because he hurled those gun pieces from different angles, the flight paths were quite different from each other. However, the pale man accelerated accordingly and caught the gun pieces one by one as if he was programmed to run this way.

  The strange man demonstrated his flexibility and balance as he grabbed all of the pieces before they touched the ground. He didn’t even make loud noises during his actions. It was purely an elegant sequence of movements.

  “Now, come back!” Zhuo shouted again and the pale man returned to him with the gun pieces in hand. He opened his palm to submit his mission.

  “What do you think?” Zhuo flaunted arrogantly as the pale man had performed as well as he planned him to do.

  “Not too bad, I don’t think a troop would be able to subdue him.”

  Qing Shui stepped closer to carefully observe the man-made creature again. It was as if he wanted to engrave every detail in his mind.

  When looking into the pale man’s pupils, he said, “However, his intelligence seems lacking. It deviates far from average.”

  “You are not wrong, and that is because I inserted gene segments from other species.” Zhuo didn’t avoid talking about the disadvantages. “Those gene segments messed up with its development. But I don’t care whether it is intelligent or not. I think intelligence would be even troublesome for me. As long as it listens to my commands... Don’t you think?” Zhuo said, fondling the fine scales on the pale man.