The Return of Cambrian Period Volume 1 Chapter 16 11 Feb 02, 2020

The two men experienced two sudden temperature drops in the past two days, so they were extremely distrustful of the current weather. Therefore, before going to bed, Cong Xia placed all the thick quilts inside the room to the side of the bed in advance. In order to make them feel even more comfortable, Cong Xia also changed a set of bed sheet. It was a pity that Cheng Tianbi didn't appreciate it. He fell asleep as soon as he laid down.

Cheng Tianbi was specially trained to fall asleep immediately under any circumstances in order to maintain sufficient physical strength, but Cong Xia was different. He had a lot of thoughts in his mind. He believed that right now in this city, all the people who could not see the future were just as insomniac as he was.

The compressed biscuit that he ate during the day was already well digested at this time. He rubbed his stomach. The feeling of hunger was really unbearable.

He forced himself to close his eyes. The original owner of this house should be a single male. The bed in the bedroom was 1.5 meters wide. When two men lied together, they barely feel crowded, yet they were very close. The sound of stable breathing from Cheng Tianbi reached his ears. He listened carefully and gradually he calmed down.

No matter what, at least he was not alone.

Cong Xia gently leaned closer to Cheng Tianbi, he felt a sense of security in his heart. Fatigue got the better of him, he finally fell asleep.

Early next morning, the two of them were awakened by the disturbing noise downstairs.

Cheng Tianbi sat up with vigilance, he gently walked to the window, opened the curtains and looked downstairs. Cong Xia also woke up and asked softly.

"What's wrong?"

Cheng Tianbi shook his head, he watched the downstairs attentively.

Cong Xia went next to him and looked downstairs, just to see a group of residents gathered at the patio at the center of the neighborhood. They all should be the residents of this neighborhood. Some of them were holding tools such as shovels to clean up the weeds that had just grown during the night. Some of them were listening to a white-haired old man shouting something.

Cheng Tianbi said.

"Let's go, go down and have a look."

The two men put on their clothes. Cheng Tianbi brought the gun and they went downstairs together.

When walking downstairs, Cong Xia noticed that those who were cleaning up the weeds were all women. The group who gathered at one place to discuss something were all young men. The emergence of two strange faces immediately caught the attention of the others.

"Hey, there are two new people."

Everyone looked at them. The white-haired man who was explaining something publicly just a while ago asked.

"You are from the outside?"

Cheng Tianbi frowned slightly and indifferently said.

"Passing by, stayed for one night."

"Don't tell me that you want to leave? Where are you going to go?"

Cong Xia said.

"We haven't decided yet."

"Don't go, the military said everywhere was the same. Now we can only survive by sticking to each other. Just tell me, where can you go?"

Cheng Tianbi said.

"If you have something to say, just spit it out."

The white-haired old man came closer.

"Where were you? You don't even know anything about the situation out there?"

"Not much."

The old man looked at them suspiciously.

"Okay, I'll explain to you briefly, then I'll tell you my purpose of persuading you to stay. As for the situation of the humanity, I don't need to explain further, right? Before, we were the bosses. We ate whatever we wanted, we were above all species, but now we have also entered the cycle of the food chain. There are countless animals and plants out there which can eat us whenever they want. Everything has become dangerous. Neither the government nor the military can do anything about this sudden mutation. At the moment, the government can only provide four hours of water and a meal of compressed food every day. Ordinary people like us can only take care of ourselves. Lone wolves like you won't live past two days. I can see that you are strong and young, why not stay here and join the organization of our neighborhood, everyone has more hope to survive."

There was absolutely no expression whatsoever on Cheng Tianbi's face.

"You can't even feed yourself, you won't feed other people without a reason. Just say it, what do you want us to do?"

The old man said.

"I'll be honest, the government distributes compressed food every day at noon, but one person can only receive one portion, he or she cannot receive on our behalf. There are 42 people in our neighborhood, half of them are the elders, the women, the children and the weak. In the past two days, everyday we had to send 10 out of these 20 young adults to get the food and come back to share with everyone. If you join us, we can get two more portions. With two more portions, these little kids can eat a little more."

Cong Xia asked the crucial question.

"Why do you only send young adults?"

The old man sighed.

"Every day we go out, there will always be one or two people who won't come back. When there are no more youngsters coming back, it's this old man's turn."

Cheng Tianbi asked.

"The government is the one distributing food or the army?"

"I don't know about this. I heard them said that the ones who distributed stuff were wearing military uniforms, aren't the military and the government the same thing?"

Cheng Tianbi had no intention to explain to him.

"Okay, today we'll go, when will we leave?"

"Wait until they finish drawing straws, you can go with them."

Cheng Tianbi said.

"Are there any mutants in your neighborhood?"

There was an usual expression flashing across the old man's face, it was the expression that combined both resentment and jealousy.

"No, if there were, there would not be so many deaths."

"Why do you say that?"

"The government is recruiting the mutants. The mutants are much more capable than the ordinary people. The world has become like this, of course the people with the hard fists are valued. Now the mutants can work for the government. Each person can get at least 5 portions of food per day. Moreover, a lot of mutants do not need to wait for the government to distribute the food. They can hunt for themselves."

The two men glanced at each other, they were a little bit swayed. They both had experienced the feeling of starvation and did not want to experience it ever again. If they could get 5 portions a day, it would be enough for both of them.

However, it did not matter whether Cheng Tianbi was a mutant or not, they couldn't remain in this neighborhood, let alone share food with these people. Now they only needed the people of this neighborhood to lead the way, saving them the trouble of finding the army station.

The two men went upstairs to pack up their belongings. They carried useful things with them, then walked downstairs and joined the youngsters who were drawing straws.

They didn't know if they would return to this neighborhood tonight or not. After all, this world was changing rapidly in every second, so they had to take their luggage with them. A small team of ten people set off just like that. Cong Xia asked the leader.

"Are we going on foot? Why not drive?"

The leader answered with a question.

"Did you come here by car?"

"Yes."

"From the outskirts of the city? It's impossible to drive in the urban area. The cars can't move at all. The original roads are completely ruined. Now whatever you want to do, you can only use your legs."

"How long can we get there?"

"If it goes well, in over two hours, we will go around and pass the big pine tree in the center of the city, but until now, we have never been through without a hitch."

There were terrified and suffering expression on the leader's face.

"You also heard it. Every time we go out, not everyone can come back."

"In short, what is in the city?"

"Everything, human-eating rats, human-eating mantises, human-eating cats and dogs. Anyway, human-eating creatures are everywhere. The first time we went out, two people got their necks cut by the mantis. The second time, one person was taken away by a wild cat. This is the third day, no one knows whether they can go back alive. Now, I especially regret that when the neighborhood committee voted whether we should allow raising pets in the neighborhood or not, I voted against it."

"How so?"

"Some people rely on their pets to survive now. The proportion of animals that mutated is much larger than that of humans. Although the domesticated animals have mutated bodies, their personalities are generally unchanged. At least they are still loyal to their owners. They will not actively attack people, but strays are different. They eat everything, especially humans. Because humans are easy to hunt and we have plenty of meat. One meal is enough to fill the stomach. One of my friends raises a dog at home. It now grows to more than three meters. Every day it goes out to hunt with its owner. His family doesn't need to worry about food."

The leader smiled bitterly.

"You see, in this world, everything is reversed. Humans have to depend on dogs to feed themselves."

Cong Xia honestly couldn't smile at all. Just thinking that they might face animals as big as a hill and he already felt a cramp in his calves.

The leader continued.

"When we go out, we also want to make the best of the time and hunt something, small mice or something like that. Don't think that you won't die if you have grasses to eat. People who suffered long term malnutrition and have weak physique will soon be finished. Even the young and strong won't last very long, so we have to eat meat. When we go out, we risk our lives to find food for our families. As long as we still breathe, we must crawl back."

Cong Xia was very touched. He also let out a sigh. Cheng Tianbi had always been silently listening to them the whole time. He dragged Cong Xia next to him, lowered his head and whispered.

"When there is danger, don't do stupid things, follow me."

Cong Xia smiled bitterly.

"Relax, I know what to do."

Although he was good in nature, he was not selfless enough to sacrifice himself to save others. Although the love for family of the leader moved him, he knew that in the apocalypse, he could not help irrelevant people, because he himself was also in imminent danger.

After the party walked for more than forty minutes, they encountered a huge golden retriever. It was more than three meters tall. One leg was almost as thick as a human's waist. Its fur was sparkly golden under the sunlight. It was mighty and beautiful. There was a very ordinary woman in her thirties next to it. The woman was pulling the fur on the dog's leg. The golden retriever matched with her speed and walked slowly towards this direction.

A few people became anxious, the leader shouted.

"Don't be afraid. It has an owner. Don't be afraid."

This was the first time that both Cheng Tianbi and Cong Xia saw the pets that hunted food for their owners in the team leader's mouth, even though they had grown as big as a large truck and should no longer be called pets. Therefore, they were just as nervous as the rest. Even if they knew that this dog would not attack them, they were still nervous. It was the animal instinct when they encountered powerful creatures.

The woman looked at them, she waved her hand and pulled the golden retriever to the side.

Everyone noticed that the woman was dragging along a bloody bag with her hand. Looking at the size, it might be a mouse that was half the size of a human. Everyone was deeply envious. They looked at the dead mouse, their saliva almost fell down.

Although mice were the most suitable animals that could become their food that they could come into contact with at the moment, they were very difficult to hunt. They were no match for the mice when they were in groups, on the contrary, they might become the other party's meal. Lone mice would run away when they saw people, they simply couldn't catch up with them. Those who could hunt mice were either the mutants or the people who had the help from their mutated pets. These two kinds of people had now become the subjects that everyone envied.

After the collapse of the social value system when the apocalypse came, to humans who were under the pressure of physiological needs and safety needs, money had lost its meaning. The high ranking officials and rich people could no longer make them feel envious. Now, strength determined everything.

When the team left, someone started to whisper.

"If I had known earlier, I would have already raised a dog."

"Cats are better, cats can catch mice much better than dogs do, so we can eat meat every day."

"What's the point of saying this, if your dad hadn't voted against it..."

"What do you mean, it was not just my dad who opposed."

The leader shouted.

"Okay, what do you quarrel for, if you continue quarreling..."

The leader's voice came to an abrupt halt. In front of the crowd's eyes, a thin bloody slit appeared on his throat. The leader widened his eyes. Everyone also widened their eyes, looking at the head that was alive and still talking a second ago slowly displaced and finally tumbled down to the ground. Arterial blood spurted more than two meters high and fell down like rains.

"Aaaaaaaaaaa! Mantis! It's the mantis!"

Everyone saw an emerald green shadow flashing by, but the city was already full of green color. The weeds were even taller than human waists. Green had become the color that was least likely to be distinguished by human vision. The praying mantis was right in this waist-high weeds, relying on its petite body of 20 - 30 centimeters and the perfect camouflage color. It could appear and disappear unpredictably and cut off human and animal necks easily.

The small group ran forward in a frantic manner. After the mantis attacked, it immediately disappeared into the grass. No trace of it could be found at all. Among the insects, the mantises were currently the most common and also the most potent hunters in the city. Even the mutants were extremely afraid of their speed and camouflage ability. Like the assassins, this group of praying mantises was good at hiding in the dark and ambushing the fresh meat that was unable to withstand a single blow.

Cheng Tianbi and Cong Xia had already heard how bad these monsters were from the fat man's mouth. The first encounter had already left them with a bloody impression. Obviously, they dared not to underestimate and desperately ran away as well.

They hadn't run for long when Cheng Tianbi sensitively captured the direction of the wind's movement. The praying mantis might be very good at camouflaging, but as long as it moved, no matter how light the movement was, it would definitely generate wind. Cheng Tianbi could feel it first hand. He suddenly turned around. There was an emerald green blade-like leg appeared in front of his eyes. The blade-like leg was extremely sharp and the emerald green exoskeleton was still stained with bright red blood!

[Note: Golden Retriever is a dog breed originated from the UK and Scotland. The weight can range from 30- 34 kg for males and 25 - 32 kg for females. The height for males is 56 - 61 cm while the height for females is 51 - 56 cm source: wikipedia]

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