Chapter 13 (1/2)

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 gra.s.s 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 pa.s.ses.”

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 similar to 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 be able to see.

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

Foos.h.!.+ He hurled his shoe to the other side of the courtyard.

The shoe fell on the thick gra.s.s with a m.u.f.fled sound. Four or five stout and barbed wickers immediately flew to the location of the sound.

Bang!

The wickers split the bushy gra.s.s 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 could run about 40 meters.

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

The jingling was followed by the b.l.o.o.d.y 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 limit.

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.