Chapter 3 The world seems to be in chaos.
The sky, which had been shrouded in haze for a long time, finally cleared up. When the sun shone through the sky, I felt a trance that I hadn't felt for a long time.
The water level in the disaster-stricken city began to recede as expected. Within two days, it disappeared completely as if it had never been there. The huge rock that was weighing on people's hearts was finally removed.
Those who have been feeling uncomfortable being cooped up these days can't wait to go out, and those whose homes were flooded have started to count their losses. Most of the furniture has been damaged, and all the electrical appliances have to be replaced.
A flood that came with great force and then retreated silently caused considerable losses to many cities, both for the government and individuals.
The people who have suffered heavy losses and have nowhere to go will be temporarily resettled by the government and will be properly dealt with later.
After that, water and electricity will be restored, the city will enter into large-scale cleaning and maintenance, and life will soon return to normal.
Everything seemed to be over. Regardless of whether they had suffered from the flood or not, everyone was happy to see the blue sky again after two weeks.
Only Jiang Jie, when he looked up at the scorching sun, felt no joy in his heart, because he knew that the real disaster was about to come.
After the rain, the sky cleared up and the cool weather seemed to return to normal all of a sudden. However, in just two or three days, people began to feel the heat that summer should have.
The little moisture left in the air seemed to evaporate in an instant. God's change of mind was faster than turning the pages of a book, not even giving people time to adapt.
The people in the disaster-stricken cities also calmed down completely during this transformation. Only when they passed by the collapsed buildings in the flood did they recall the fear of being trapped.
But they are already very lucky. Many people were washed away in the flood and disappeared without a trace. Even now, their bodies have not been found. Their living relatives, homes and families were all lost in an instant.
Those who are capable can provide help, while those who are not can only sigh. In the face of disaster, people are always insignificant, and for those who are still alive, life must go on.
However, this disaster did bring some follow-up impacts. A flood washed away many planting areas. After being soaked for several days, there was nothing to eat, and the farms were also not spared.
The people who contracted these suffered heavy losses all of a sudden, and the farmers who depended on the weather for their livelihood were even more miserable. All their hard work for the whole year was wasted.
The supply of fresh food in supermarkets is obviously much less and the prices are higher than usual.
But even so, there are still many people rushing to buy, perhaps because of the aftereffects of being trapped before, or the anxiety caused by food shortages.
After all, food is the most important thing for people, and no one can endure hunger.
Jiang Jie also started going out to buy things. He did not squeeze into the crowd to grab the fresh food. He only took some fruits from a place with fewer people. In addition to instant food, he also moved several boxes of mineral water.
He never buys too much each time, just fills up the trunk and leaves.
After the weather cleared up, in order not to appear too careless as a boss, he went to the company.
After graduating from university, he worked hard day and night and founded a technology company. From the initial small studio to the current large scale, it took countless efforts.
Just when he thought he could slow down and take a break, the end of the world came, and all his years of hard work were destroyed, leaving him back to starting with nothing.
Later, he took one step at a time and, relying on his own abilities, built a survival base in the apocalypse and had a place to live. However, he was stabbed in the back by his companions and ended up dying.
He felt that he was very unlucky, but also very lucky that he could live again.
But this time, he didn't want to do anything, didn't want to care about anything, he just wanted to live a good life, do whatever he wanted, and go wherever he wanted. He didn't want to do such a shitty thing again, wasting a lot of energy and ending up with nothing.
He wanted to take it easy during this time before the world really ended.
So the day he came back, he contacted his assistant and said he wanted to rest for a few days. He had not been to the company before today, and from memory, he had not seen this place for three years.
He didn't wear formal clothes, just a comfortable short-sleeved shirt and overalls.
This caused his assistant to look at him several times, as he was really curious about the appearance of his boss, who usually wore a suit and tie.
Jiang Jie didn't care about his gaze at all. He sat down in the boss chair with his right leg resting on his left knee and his arms resting on the armrest. He sat in an untidy manner, but very comfortably.
He looked up and saw that his assistant still didn't react. He reached out and knocked on the table, reminding him, "Why are you standing there? Bring the documents over."
"Oh, yes." The assistant came to his senses and quickly placed the folders he was holding on the table in front of him.
Jiang Jie picked one up at random, placed it on his lap, opened it, and leaned back in his chair to examine it casually.
Before leaving the office, the assistant couldn't help but look back out of curiosity, wondering in his heart, how come his boss, who was once well-dressed and well-mannered, became so... ruffian-like after the flood?
He searched for a more appropriate description and left with a lot of confusion.
He had a lot of curiosities hidden in his mind, which Jiang Jie didn't know. After reading the documents, he went to the technical department for a visit.
Recently, a software development project has reached a critical moment. Most employees are busy working, typing on their keyboards, with no time to pay attention to the surrounding environment and no idea that the boss has arrived.
Jiang Jie didn't disturb them. He just took a look and left. He must have some feelings for the company he had established with so much effort. He felt a little sorry when he thought that it would eventually disappear in the coming apocalypse.
But this result cannot be prevented, and he will not let these emotions affect him for too long. They will be dispelled quickly. He is not an emotional person.
After showing up, he only stayed in the company for half a day and then left in a casual manner.
The temperature has been unusually high recently, as if we have entered the dog days of summer. I sweat as soon as I go out, and the sun makes people feel restless and irritable.
There was no shelter at the intersection, and it was noon, so the sun was particularly scorching. Jiang Jie stopped the car and waited for the red light. He pushed the sunglasses on his nose and turned down the air conditioner in the car by two degrees. Only then did he feel comfortable.
"ah!"
"Hey, where did this wild cat come from?!"
There was a scream outside the car, and he turned his head to look.
A wild cat jumped out from the green belt beside the road and rushed into the crowd waiting for the red light, scratching anyone it caught like crazy.
The first person to be unlucky was a young girl holding an umbrella. Her exposed calf was scratched. She was frightened and lost her balance. She took two steps back and fell to the ground.
The crowd was in chaos because of this sudden change, screaming and dodging.
The stray cat, which usually carefully avoids people, was provoked by something and after scratching the girl, it went on to attack the next person.
Unfortunately, this time it picked a tough guy, and the strong man kicked it away in panic. It fell to the ground, twitched and struggled for a few times, and then stopped moving. No one knew whether it was dead or alive.
Because of what happened just now, no one dared to go over to take a look, for fear that the beast was not dead yet and would attack them again.
Two or three kind passers-by gathered around the injured girl, bending over to ask questions with concern.
"Are you okay, little girl?"
The girl didn't say anything. Her wound seemed to be very painful. She couldn't hold the umbrella in her hand anymore, and it fell to the side. Her face was pale in the sun, and it was obvious that she couldn't bear it.
"Ouch, your injury looks quite serious. You need to go to the hospital. I don't know if there are any bacteria. It would be best to get an injection."
A kind passerby frowned and took out her cell phone to call a taxi for her.
The red light flashed twice and then turned green. Jiang Jie withdrew his gaze, stepped on the accelerator and left, seemingly not interested in the lively aftermath.
The initial alien creature was extremely aggressive and irrational. It could not endure the pain brought by the physical deformation and died at the hands of that man.
If an ordinary person is injured by a mutant and sees blood, there is a 60% chance of being infected with toxins. Once infected, if no effective treatment is given, the most serious consequence is death.
Only people with special abilities like Jiang Jie are immune to this poison.
However, this cat is not a complete mutant, and the toxins in its body are not that strong. If it is sent to the hospital in time, there should be no problem. It's just that the wounds caused by the mutant are several times more painful than ordinary wounds, so it will suffer.
It turns out that the alien creatures started appearing so early, Jiang Jie thought. It was just because their appearance had not been distorted that people thought they were just ordinary animals hurting people and did not take it seriously.
After a period of time, when injuries occur frequently and even some people die, panic will begin to spread.
By that time, not only animals, but even the usually harmless flowers and plants will begin to become "man-eating" monsters.
*
As the temperature continues to rise, people have even begun to miss the rainy days, forgetting the pain as the wounds have healed.
It's not even the end of June yet, but the temperature outside has already soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius, and this is in H City, which is further south.
In such a temperature, you will sweat like crazy as soon as you go out, and you will be sunburned. Some people even exaggeratedly described that if you fall, your skin will not be scratched but burned.
"Why is it so hot? Our city doesn't seem to have such high temperatures in July and August in previous years." The worker who was repairing the road on the side of the road wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm and looked up at the scorching sun in confusion.
"Who knows," his companion also pulled at his collar to cool down, "maybe it's just that it rained so much recently that the sun, which had been holding back, has been pouring down all at once."
The joke made both of them laugh a few times, but they didn't take it seriously and continued to work.
The plants in the flower bed next to them seemed to have been melted by the high temperature and were wilting and not very lively.
In the gap, there was a blade of grass standing upright, which seemed to sway twice in the wind, but did not attract anyone's attention.
The same situation happened quietly in many unnoticed corners, and people suffering from the high temperature did not realize that the crisis was lurking around them.
The hot weather really doesn't want to let people go. By the beginning of July, the highest daytime temperature had exceeded 40 degrees Celsius and was gradually soaring towards 50 degrees Celsius, which was simply crazy.
Official television stations have begun to frequently broadcast warnings to prevent heatstroke and cool down, minimize outdoor activities, and prevent excessive sweating, dehydration, and heatstroke.
Some people complained online that this year's weather was like a curse, with all kinds of once-in-a-century conditions occurring recently. They even joked that the world wasn't really going to end.
Someone else added to the comments below, saying that we don’t know whether it will be the end of the world or not, but if the temperature continues to soar, we will die of heat before the end of the world comes.
It was a joke, but the temperature kept rising as if to make it come true. It was unbearable. The moment I stepped out of the door, I felt like I was going to suffocate from the heat.
Heatstroke has started to occur more frequently, and the fastest-selling items in pharmacies are heatstroke medicines and fever-reducing ice patches.
But soon something even more alarming than the temperature happened.
Someone died.
It was not just one death, but multiple deaths in many regions. Mad animals attacked and injured people. Some of the attacked people were bitten to fatal parts and died on the spot, while others could not be saved when sent to the hospital.
Someone took a photo of the animal that injured people. Its face was hideous, its fangs were exposed, its eyes were bloodshot, and it was full of irrational bloodthirsty ferocity. It didn't look like it was crazy, but rather like it had mutated!
When the pictures and videos were widely circulated on the Internet, it caused complete panic among people. Some people speculated whether this was an animal virus like rabies.
The authorities seem to have no idea about this yet, and the explanation given is that they are still studying and investigating, and will announce the results as soon as they are available.
However, such incidents did not stop because of their fear and continued to occur.
For the sake of public safety and to appease the public, the authorities, who have not yet found the cause of this, can only conduct a large-scale capture and killing of stray animals in the city. They also warn people who keep pets at home to pay attention to inspections. For their own safety, it is best to cage the animals first to avoid close contact.
But just when people felt slightly relieved by such actions, an even stranger situation occurred.
At first, it was an early-rising sanitation worker who was found dead on the edge of a green belt. His chest was pierced by something unknown, and there were no traces left by animals.
Such an injury should have caused a lot of bleeding, but apart from a little blood around the wound, no other blood flowed out, as if there was no extra blood in the body.
Terrible and bizarre incidents are more disturbing than animal attacks. The unknown is often the most terrifying.
It was not until the evening three days after the incident that someone witnessed with their own eyes that the harmless, soft grass leaves on the side of the road suddenly grew and stretched, instantly entangling passers-by. The sharp leaves pierced through the chest like a knife at that moment, and the original emerald green was dyed bright red, absorbing it.
The witness was almost frightened to death and fled away scrambling. At that moment, the unknown was not as scary to him as the real scene he saw before his eyes.
And this is just the beginning.
When those "weak creatures" hiding in the dark began to show up in front of people, it was humans who should feel fear.
People only realized at this moment that the world seemed to be in chaos since some time ago.
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