Wei Tianyang followed the black, polluted river towards the direction where the scent of humanity lingered. He didn't know how long he had walked; the sun had already slipped behind the continuous, undulating grey mountain range at his back.
His left foot was reduced to a skeletal frame, stepping on the dried mud, with plenty of gravel and hard clumps of earth wedged into the gaps between the bones. Although somewhat disgusting, it wasn't uncomfortable.
His right foot, however, was not so fortunate. The sole and heel were chafed raw, and several blisters had formed on the pad of his big toe. Walking was both painful and itchy.
But Wei Tianyang had no mind for these concerns. A year had passed—his mother and the little girl next door must have had a tough time.
His mother had worn out her body testing drugs for various hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, losing her capacity to work, while the little girl was too young to work outside.
On his last visit to Tiantai Pharmaceutical, Wei Tianyang had intended to leave behind some money... but Chicken Snake Country's official forces, exploiting the death of Grandpa Liu next door, abused their power to abduct and extort people, and they even lusted after his mother's beauty, wanting to take advantage of her. To avoid trouble, Wei Tianyang had no choice but to part with his money.
Thinking of this made Wei Tianyang's rage boil. If he had known he would end up like this today, he would have killed them with his fists back then and left Qiyang City without looking back, taking his mother with him.
With him by his mother's side, those officials had already been so arrogant and domineering; during this year with only his mother and the little girl to fend for themselves, without Grandpa Liu's support, wouldn't they have suffered much bullying?
The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became, but his body could no longer keep moving. Since waking up, he hadn't eaten anything, and his frequent use of his superpower had left his body on its last legs.
At this moment, he was exhausted and hungry, his mouth dry and tongue parched, with a dull ache in his back, his legs trembling and his vision starting to blur.
It was now evening, and the sky was slowly darkening. The celestial fires were about to die out, the deep blue steadily swallowing the vermilion glow on the horizon. A wild wind picked up over the wasteland, and the temperature plummeted suddenly.
Wei Tianyang, clad only in a thin surgical gown, wrapped the remaining bandages around his limbs to fend off the cold, tucking the file bag into his chest and clutching his arms as he struggled forward.
Suddenly, there was an odd smell in the air, unpleasant and pungent. Then, the horizon rumbled, as if a giant blower was directing its blast at his eardrums.
The sound grew louder, and he looked up to find its source. The next second, three giant shadows swooped over his head from behind and flew towards the red glow on the horizon.
They were three low-flying fighter jets!
There were no tail flames to be seen, only the deafening sound of the sonic booms and the engines' roar.
Wei Tianyang was no military expert, but he knew low-flying fighter jets were used to evade radar detection. With such a vast sky and such small jets, the noise wasn't much of an issue. As long as they avoided radar, they could carry out bombings out of the sight of ground forces.
Were these fighter jets affiliated with the conservative or the radical faction? Having lived in Chicken Snake Country for 15 years, despite the country being fractured and on the verge of a hot war, almost everyone had not actually considered the possibility of a real conflict.
A lot could happen in a year.
That scent of food and humans, which he had detected from over a hundred miles away, was now even more intense. But Wei Tianyang could no longer move.
The dull pain in his back was like a toxin spreading to his legs and abdomen; taking a single step would make his upper stomach and thighs sting as if pricked by needles. He forced himself to take a few more steps, then collapsed face-first into the mud.
His right arm, skeletal in appearance, was darkening throughout, and he couldn't tell if it was because the day was turning to night or if it had truly turned to a burnt black—a sure sign of nothing good.
Was this the poison in the spine that the woman had spoken of?
He wriggled forward slightly but ultimately succumbed to the pain, laying face down and falling into unconsciousness.
In the darkness, there was a stifling heat, and Wei Tianyang felt as if he were wrapped in the heart of a fire, curled up like an infant in swaddling clothes, with unintelligible whispers echoing in his ears.
He slowly opened his eyes, not knowing when he had changed positions, and now he was lying on his back, facing the sky.
Above the dark blue firmament, it was as if someone had set a celestial fire, with billions of stars drowning in the sea of flames, and the high-hanging silver moon radiating a pure light. But in Wei Tianyang's eyes, it seemed like a prisoner drowning in a red galaxy, and behind that indistinct halo, a spherical shadow was moving. For some reason, a wave of panic surged in the depths of Wei Tianyang's heart. He felt a heart-pounding discomfort, and a thought suddenly emerged: "The moon is trapped."
Wei Tianyang turned to his side, feeling as though something had grabbed half of his body, pulling him downward. The ground beneath him shifted from dry, hard soil to an intangible darkness. He struggled silently, but his body was already half-submerged. In that darkness lurked sneaky things!
He was completely engulfed, the darkness covering his mouth and nose, and he gradually could no longer feel his body. A pair of red eyes shone in the night, bright as constant stars.
Just as Wei Tianyang thought he would die from asphyxiation, his cheeks suddenly felt moist. The water flowed down the curve of his cheek to his lips, finally offering some relief to his cracked lips and tongue.
He opened his eyes once more, still lying on the dried-up, hard ground. The cool night breeze scattered the bandages on his body, the sky was no longer blood-red but a normal, deep blue. A serene moon quietly hung overhead, the lunar craters faintly visible.
Had it all been a dream?
He came to his senses and suddenly noticed a large group of people gathered around him.
These men and women, children and old people, looked like refugees fleeing danger, some dragging suitcases, others just holding on to children, carrying backpacks.
Their clothes were tattered, bloodstains on their exposed arms, the leading man over 40 years old, gaunt, dressed in a black jacket, holding a mineral water bottle in his hand.
"Don't die here, eh?"
The middle-aged man's voice was seasoned with hardship. He tilted the water bottle slightly, dripping water onto Wei Tianyang's face to try and wake him up.
The people around him stood silently in the darkness, even the children in their arms not crying.
"What's... what's happening... where is this..." Wei Tianyang, lying on his side, felt weak but still tried to ask.
"There's danger, they're coming," the man said.
"Who...?" Wei Tianyang muttered to himself.
The man crouched down, the last rays of the setting sun shining on the plastic bottle in his hand, a sight common on the streets, yet now charred black, completely devoid of water.
In a daze, he realized it had started to rain, with droplets hitting the side of his face, flowing down the curve of his cheek to his parched lips.
Wei Tianyang tried to prop himself up but was unsuccessful.
Just then, a rumble of an engine came from the distance, sounding like a military truck.
And sure enough, it was one of the green-skinned military trucks commonly seen on the streets of Qiayang City, parading around the city, flaunting the authority of the conservative forces.
The truck's headlights pierced the newly fallen darkness, stopping twelve steps away from Wei Tianyang.
The beam dazzled him, and from the black mass in the back of the truck, several soldiers jumped down.