Global Evolution

"Oh no, they don’t have autism." Chang turned around, stroking the clones’ hair. "Instead, I think they think we are foolish."

"Really?" Yin Qin wrapped her arms around her own kid. "Then we must be strange and foolish to them as well."

"Maybe, they must have a different outlook on the world than us." Chang tilted his head. The two-headed kid had both a girl’s and boy’s faces. They started whispering and giggling among themselves when they noticed that Chang was looking at them.

"Don’t you think they are perfect? They are never lonely." Chang forced a smile.

"They are, but they fight all the time." Yin Qing sighed. "My girl is bossy, and she gets to eat all the food while my boy... he is nice enough to take all her temper."

"This isn’t fair!" Chang rolled his eyes, he couldn’t help thinking how the boy couldn’t get to eat anything all the time even though they shared the same body. "If I were the boy, I would fight for what I ought to get."

"Therefore, you are not a gentleman." Yin Qing chuckled. "From when you refused to help a lady, I was aware that my boy is a better gentleman than you."

"Well, I don’t care if I am less than anyone." Chang heaved a sigh. "I can’t be a gentleman for everyone on the street! I can only care for the people under my wing, and I am happy enough that they are safe."

"Me too, actually." Yin Qing wrapped her arms tighter around her two and a half kids. "You guys must be tired."

"A little," the boy’s head said.

"No, you are not!" The girl almost shouted. "Mommy carries all the stuff, and we didn’t even walk that much. How dare you say that you’re tired?"

"So... sorry..." The boy lowered his head.

"You daughter is very considerate." Chang laughed and resumed the march.

The group traveled through Zhengzhou. Before leaving, they picked up Dr. Huang, who still hadn’t figured out what was happening in her community. She quickly agreed to come along once Chang explained the reason for the animal migration

Upon the reunion with Dr. Huang, the clique headed toward the north of Zhengzhou, where they entered the jungle.

"The G4 expressway is right ahead of us; it connects Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau, meaning that it connects the major cities from the very south of the country up to Beijing. Let’s walk along this expressway. By the way, where is your destination again?"

The expressway was shattered and almost hidden by the plants, the trace of it was barely distinguishable. Yin Qing stared at the paper map. "If we march along this expressway toward the north, the next major city will be Xin Xiang. However, I’m concerned about the distance that we need to travel - it’s impossible to finish the journey in one day, we must stay in the jungle for at least a night."

"In fact, we haven’t decided on a destination." Chang looked back to Zhengzhou, and the birds flying overhead. "Our idea is to keep traveling to the north; do you remember the reason I told you? There is an organism migrating to the north as well, and it is taking lives along its way. Our goal is to avoid it as much as we can. But our final destination is unclear."

"I see. I had the same mentality as you when I witnessed the migration. Something atypical must be happening - I couldn’t find any other reason behind the phenomenon with my knowledge." Yin Qing kept patting her kids‘ back. "I thought it must be a catastrophic disaster. But you just said it’s because of a migrating gigantic organism. I wonder what it looks like exactly, how it managed to make billions of organisms flee?"

"Well, I can only say it’s something that you’ve never seen, and its size must be greater than Zhengzhou now." Chang lowered his head, reading the map in his hand. "The only fact I know is that, if it arrives, we’ll all die. Therefore, there is no point to discuss how big it is. We already known the one and only consequence of its arrival. I think this is a very reasonable basis on which we should flee with the birds and insects."

"Well, I guess we’ll plan as we go. What do you think of Xin Xiang as our next destination?"

"Sounds good." Chang rolled up the map, the unpredictable journey ahead worried him, but he had no choice but to accept the reality and what it may bring.

The clique was lucky, the jungle didn’t give them too much trouble when they journeyed through it. The afternoon was well spent as they trotted for more than thirty kilometers. In time, the sun began hiding its face behind the horizon, and their shadows on the ground started growing longer and longer.

When the world lost its last beam of light, they stopped.

"Let’s call it a day." Yin Qing almost got dragged down by her bags on the back. "Hiking with all this weight is tiring, you’re outstanding in how much energy you’ve got." She gasped for breath.

Chang carried most of the weight along the way. Besides his own luggage, he also took turns in carrying Zhizhi’s portion as well, and he didn’t show any sign of fatigue. Yin Qing found that amusingly impressive.

"The march is nothing, I’m just worried that we might encounter dangers." Chang gazed at the sky. "Though fortunately the migration also took away most of the animals here. I saw the departure of the organisms with the great migration. It’s relatively safe here now," Chang explained. "Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it this far today."

The bonfire was started on the spot and Chang constructed a simple hearth for the pot, in which he put a few piece of hardtack and poured water for boiling.

Animals were scared of fire. Regardless how far they had evolved, as long as they weren’t as intelligent as humans, they would stay away from the fire. This was an instinctive reaction, and Chang made use of it; the bonfire was constantly stoked, as a warning to the animals remaining in the jungle.

Zhizhi was tacit. She took out a ladle from her luggage, seemingly experienced in cooking this biscuit porridge.

Yin Qing knew that she wouldn’t get a share from Chang, so she distributed her own food among her family - to a teen and her two-headed kid.

"Is he your brother?" Chang pointed at the teen.

"No, he is my nephew," Yin Qing answered. "Most of my relatives died, but he somehow survived, and he was like a younger brother to me since a long time ago. "

"I see." Chang nodded. "What about... them? They are sharing one body, so they share the same set of organs?"

"Exactly, except their minds are separated and independent." Yin Qing sighed. "They are all well-behaved."

"I can tell." The two-headed kid was playing rock-paper-scissors to decide which one would be eating. Chang was intrigued and asked, "Is that how you guys decide which one of you gets to eat? Whoever wins eats?"

"Humph!" The girl looked away, but the boy explained, "No, usually she gets to eat. Mama said to her that she should stop taking advantage of me, and that’s why we are trying to decide who eats today. Usually, I feel full without taking a bite."

"This must be a weird sensation!" Chang laughed wholeheartedly. He scooped out some of his biscuit porridge into a small bowl and handed to the two-headed kid. "Here you go, you guys should share some hot food together. Otherwise, the moist and coldness in the jungle may make you sick."

"And you three,"—Chang was speaking to the mini Qing Shuis—"you should have some of the porridge too."

The clones were obedient, they gulped the porridge without commenting anything.

During the dinner, Chang kept talking to Yin Qing - After all, he wanted to know more about this newly joined family to ensure that they weren’t harmful to his family.

Although Yin Qing didn’t seem like a wrongdoer, Chang was still skeptical about her motivation. And apparently the latter thought the same, so dinner consisted of both simple food and deliberated questions between the two.

"I don’t think I’ve asked you before, how did you know the identity of the organism that is causing this migration?" Yin Qing put down her food. "From what I know, all the communication channels between the citizens were intercepted by the red fog or simple destruction. If you know it so well, you must’ve either met it, or know someone from the military who possesses a high position. I heard they managed to resume communications of some sort."

"Well, I myself don’t belong to the military, but you are correct, I know someone from there. He told me this," Chang said. "So I know this disaster isn’t something I can deal with. I think he’ll announce the news to the city in a day or two. By the time it arrives, it’ll be too late to leave."

"You are right, evacuation for millions of citizens isn’t easy. It’ll be an enormous mess!" Yin Qing exclaimed. "I’m just glad that I left a day in advance."

"Yes, but also keep in mind that good days won’t last for long. We might have a hard time traveling when land animals catch up later." Chang smiled rigidly, stoking the bonfire. The tip of the fire roared to the sky when he flicked the branches underneath. He then distributed the sleeping bags to others. "Let’s rest today, I’ll keep watch tonight."

Chang covered his lower body with his own sleeping bag, but he didn’t lay down. He leaned on a tree trunk, keeping his eyes opened.

The rest laid down, not talking much today because of the fatigue. The clones quietly walked to Chang, placing their heads on Chang’s legs.

At midnight.

The birds stopped chirping, but the insects continued to creak. The symphony in this jungle never ended. Under the disguise of the high-pitched creaking, Chang spoke in low voice, seemingly speaking to no one. "Guys, are you asleep?"

"No," the clones answered altogether.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

"Go ahead," one of them said. "This is exactly the reason why we came with you in the first place."