Chapter 88 Order is gradually becoming chaotic
(with 6w nutrient solution plus additional content)
Looking at the densely packed thin long insect bodies and hammer-shaped tentacles facing her, Youxi felt as uncomfortable as when she first saw the giant moth.
The size of these butterflies has not changed much, and their colors can be described as beautiful. But there are too many of them, and they are facing her at such a close distance, as if they are looking at her through the glass, as if... they are deliberately rushing towards her.
For some reason, she actually felt hostility from a group of butterflies.
Youxi remembered the few wisteria petals she shot down in the afternoon. When she thought about it again, she found that she could not tell whether those falling petals were real petals or butterflies pretending to be petals?
So, they not only remembered her, but also followed her breath to find where she lived?
Why didn't they react at all in the afternoon? Aren't butterflies insects active during the day?
Could it be that the mutation has also changed their living habits, making them nocturnal animals like moths?
So, they lurk quietly during the day and come out in groups at night to seek revenge?
Wait - nocturnal?
You Xi suddenly thought of something, and for a moment, some clues connected in her mind.
Night, silent creatures, large-scale poisoning incidents... She now boldly assumes that the gymnasium incident, could it be related to butterflies? She
remembered that even before the mutation, some butterflies were poisonous, but the more famous poisonous butterflies were mostly distributed in M and F continents. The scales and bodies of such butterflies are highly toxic, and it is said that they can poison five or six cats.
Now, some butterflies have mutated, not only are they poisonous, but they have also become smart, knowing how to hide and sneak...
And the people who disappeared in the community seem to be related to these butterflies.
However, the bodies of the people in the gymnasium remained where they were after being poisoned, while the people in the community were completely missing. She alone could not find the connection and difference between the two.
Or maybe the gymnasium incident had nothing to do with butterflies, but it should have been caused by creatures of similar types.
There were too many butterflies outside the glass, and this was the 15th floor. Even if she opened the window, she couldn't go out to deal with the butterflies, and the butterflies could fly in as long as they found a crack.
Although it would not endanger her parents, the end of the world had just begun, and she did not want to turn her home into a battlefield. Moreover, butterflies were so small and seemed to have become smarter. If one of them hid somewhere in the house or dropped poison, it would be hard to prevent.
Assuming again, if these butterflies were coming for her, why didn't they come when she just got home in the afternoon, but waited until late at night when everyone was asleep?
So the key question is, after this type of butterfly mutates, do they like to be active at night, or do they have to be active at night?
Youxi was more inclined to the latter, and if it was the latter, she would know the answer after waiting for a few hours.
Therefore, she did not disturb the butterflies and quietly retreated from the French window. She took off her protective suit and mask and threw them into the Star House warehouse. She went to the kitchen to make herself a large cup of coffee, then took a box of cookies and prepared to wait on the sofa until dawn.
In addition to checking various news videos from all over the world on the Internet every day, she has also been downloading data on plants and animals. However, there are too many plants and animals on the planet, and downloading is time-consuming.
A few hours passed quickly. When the second cup of coffee was finished, the butterflies that had been lying outside the French window began to move, first a few, then a group, and finally all the butterflies left the glass and flew downstairs.
At this moment, there was still about half an hour before dawn.
You Xi also moved. She entered the Star House and posted the note she had written early in the morning in a place where her parents could see it first when they woke up.
She simply said that she was going to investigate something, and asked them not to open any windows or doors after they got up - no matter who knocked on the door, don't open it for the time being. If possible, it would be best to stay in the star house before she came back, which would be the safest way.
After that, she put on protective clothing, walked out of the star house, and called the emergency number.
She did not hide anything, and told them everything about the murder in the community, her accidental damage to the wisteria petals, butterflies disguising themselves as wisteria flowers and coming in groups at night to seek revenge, and her speculation about the mass poisoning death incident in the gymnasium.
They took it very seriously and said they would dispatch a rescue team immediately.
She also reminded the other party that it was unknown whether the butterflies were poisonous, and it would be best for everyone to wear protective clothing and gas masks.
After hanging up the phone, she also took out a gas mask from the Xingwu warehouse and put it on, then after carefully checking, she quickly opened the door and left the apartment.
She checked the floor where their house was located. The windows and security doors in the stairwell were closed, and there were no signs of butterfly invasion.
She left a voice message for Xu Yan, briefly explaining the situation again, and said that she was now planning to go to the east gate to wait for the rescue team. It was a little farther away from the wisteria corridor and safer than the north gate.
She asked him to consider how to talk about this matter in the community residents' group, mainly to convey a few messages: First, try not to get close to the wisteria flowers, and don't deliberately damage them to avoid retaliation.
Second, be sure to close the doors and windows at night, as those butterflies are nocturnal. As for how to comfort the residents, she believed that Xu Yan could do it himself.
A few minutes later, Xu Yan sent a message, saying that he and her were going to the East Gate to wait for the rescue team.
Youxi: You don’t have a gas mask, so don’t go. It’s not safe.
Xu Yan: Don’t worry, I have a gas mask. I am a fan of apocalyptic literature. After the tornado occurred in the suburbs of S City, I stockpiled a lot of useful things according to the specifications. You wait for me in the lobby on the first floor, I will be down soon.
Youxi: OK.
**
It was not even six o'clock, just after dawn, when the rescue team's car arrived.
A military jeep drove into the community and stopped in the open space in front of the small garden.
The rescue team members got off the car. They were wearing light chemical protective suits, which were safer than the protective suits worn by Youxi and the other person.
Youxi also stockpiled such protective suits. Not only light ones, but also heavy-duty closed protective suits, but they were not useful in this environment.
The rescue team leader was the same one from last time, but he looked much more haggard than before. There were also fewer members in the team, only four or five of them. Some of them were holding flamethrowers, and one of them was holding an insect trap.
The man was an expert. The trap in his hand had been improved. It could use a built-in blower to suck the insects into the container at the back while capturing them, so as to ensure their survival and prevent them from escaping.
Everyone got out of the car and put on gas masks. The rescue team also put on gas masks for them. Seeing that they were fully armed, they all gave the two a thumbs up.
Youxi had already explained the key points on the phone. The captain asked them and one of the team members to stay where they were, and he took the rest of the team members and the experts to the wisteria corridor they pointed out.
Their plan was to capture a few butterflies for research, and then... burn them.
"Fire?"
The team member heard her question and thought that she was like some people on the Internet nowadays, starting to believe that the massive mutation of animals and plants is because the planet is driving humans away, and humans should not be enemies with animals and plants, etc., so he explained: "There is nothing we can do about it. There are too many butterflies. They are in the residential area and pose a threat to your survival."
"I am afraid that there are too few of you. The butterflies seem to have become smarter and will bear grudges. What if some escape..." Youxi is not completely opposed to such online remarks, but she does not completely agree with them either. Moreover, things should be prioritized.
These butterflies have already targeted her. Even if the rescue team does not take action today, she will try to eliminate them as much as possible. Otherwise, she and her parents will always be unable to guard against them unless they stay at home every day.
Hearing that she was worried, the other party was relieved and then revealed a piece of news to her: this kind of butterfly is dormant during the day, and even if awakened, it will react very slowly.
In fact, the news last night did not reveal all the information. The stadium incident was too shocking, and the person in charge of this matter set up an investigation expert team in the shortest possible time.
The expert team had already found a purple-blue iris flower cluster in a corner outside the stadium yesterday afternoon. One of the experts was an insect expert and felt something was wrong. Later, he went forward to carefully identify it and found that there were many butterflies that were almost exactly the same as irises hidden in this flower cluster. The
expert captured the butterfly and brought it back, and also organized several insect experts to study it together.
These mutant butterflies are dormant during the day, and it is difficult for ordinary people to tell whether they are flowers or butterflies. However, they start to wake up and become active at night, and even become extremely aggressive.
The scales on the wings and the body of the butterfly contain a highly toxic poison. This poison has a paralyzing effect and will cause the creature to die unconsciously in a coma...
Afterwards, the expert group cooperated with the hospital to compare the toxins extracted from the butterflies and the dead, and found that they were indeed the same.
So those people in the gymnasium died from the butterfly poison.
The only thing that puzzled the experts was that the people in the gymnasium had been living there for several days. Why did the butterflies suddenly attack humans?
And this doubt was answered when Youxi called not long ago.
Know how to hold a grudge and will retaliate.
Although it is not clear what the people in the gymnasium did to offend these butterflies, this should be the reason why they were suddenly attacked by butterflies.
The team member said that she was lucky because the security of their community building was good and the butterflies could not fly in, so nothing happened.
In front of them on the right, flames shot up into the sky, and Youxi couldn't help but walk forward for a while.
The expert had successfully captured the sample and retreated to the periphery. The rescue team leader was leading the team members to form an outflanking from several places and thoroughly clean up the flowers and butterflies on this corridor.
Under the high temperature, the butterflies that had returned to a dormant state moved, but as described by the team member, the butterflies' reaction ability and flying speed were not as good as at night. Not
only that, the rhizomes of the wisteria flowers seemed to be twisting slightly in the flames.
The rescue team leader noticed something was wrong and ordered several people to immediately turn up the flame to the maximum, speed up the burning speed, and clean up everything from flowers to vines to roots.
Youxi could feel the burning temperature even though he was so far away, not to mention the butterflies and plants whose defense capabilities were almost zero.
A moment later, both the butterflies and the twisting roots turned into ashes.
That day, when the smoke from the flames dissipated and the sun fell on the soil on the side of the corridor, a sharp-eyed team member found several shriveled and charred corpses among the burnt roots...
After investigation, it was found that in addition to the murderer who had committed a crime in the villa area before, the rest of the corpses were the people who had been missing in the community before.
As Xu Yan said, they had never left the community because they were poisoned by the butterfly. They hallucinated and approached the wisteria flowers. Then they were dragged into the gaps between the corridor and the wall by the wisteria vines, and then buried in the soil by the roots...
**
At noon, the local news reported the cause of the mass poisoning incident in the gymnasium. In order to prevent the public from making random guesses and causing more panic, the official announced this mutant species that must be vigilant: the pseudo-flower poison butterfly.
This mutant butterfly is not common. The two known forms include wisteria flowers and iris flowers. The former has a hallucinogenic effect, and the latter has a paralytic effect. Both are extremely toxic.
They are in a companion relationship with the plants they simulate. Whether it is butterflies or flowers, they cannot be easily destroyed, otherwise they will retaliate.
Afterwards, the news hid the name of the community and the names of the people involved, and reported the incident of butterflies coming to the door of Youxi community to seek revenge.
The cause of the gymnasium incident was that someone secretly picked some iris flowers to make up the boring living environment, but he did not expect to attract such malicious revenge...
At present, it is not ruled out that there are other undiscovered pseudo-flower poisonous butterflies in the city.
For a time, the Internet entry related to pseudo-flower poisonous butterflies became a hot search again.
People on the Internet said all kinds of things. Some people insulted the person who picked the flowers privately, saying that they didn’t know who it was, and that one person killed nearly two hundred people. He was really a murderer! So brainless, knowing that many animals and plants have mutated, he dared to pick flowers secretly!
Some people also said that the dead are the greatest, and no one likes such a tragedy to happen.
It’s better to say it with kindness since people are gone... But more people showed fear and panic.
This fear and panic reached its peak in the next few days when some residents in the community were short of food at home, and the fresh food packages promised before had not arrived.
**
After the wisteria incident, Youxi stayed at home for two days.
She mainly wanted to observe whether there were any butterflies left in the community that would come to seek revenge.
But it was obvious that the rescue team did a good job, and everything was calm the next night. Not only that, the mutated animals and plants in the entire S city were left with very few after the rescue team’s repeated cleanup. On the surface, the danger seemed to have gone away.
Youxi helps Fan Qi and Youfeng prepare vegetables, fish, meat and eggs at home every day.
Of the fresh food that Fan Qi bought last time, all the vegetables have been cooked and put into the Xingwu warehouse. There is still some meat left, which is all pork ribs, so the task she gave Youxi today was to split the ribs and cut them into small pieces.
Fan Qi was ruthless, because everyone in her family loved to eat such ribs, so she bought a total of eight pieces, each of which was half the size of a body.
Today she planned to fry half of all the ribs, roast the other half, and then pack them all and put them in the warehouse.
So Youxi spent the whole afternoon splitting the ribs and cutting them into pieces.
She was strong, and cutting the pieces was like cutting celery. She put seven or eight split ribs together and cut them with a few strokes of the knife.
Fan Qi was very satisfied. She fried some ribs that had been marinated with black pepper and salt and sprinkled them with pepper and salt powder. She occasionally fed some to her daughter who was cutting the ribs and You Feng who was making rice rolls with a bamboo curtain.
Fan Qi's plan was to cook all the rice in the house, let You Feng make 100 boxes of his best fried rice, keep 100 boxes of white rice, and make the rest into rice rolls with carrot and cucumber strips, pan-fried beef fillet or pan-fried chicken breast strips, and then wrap them with plastic wrap and store them all in the Xingwu warehouse.
This way, if you have less time or are out in a crowd, you can take them out and eat them, which is not only inconspicuous but also very nutritious.
In fact, there are a lot of such convenient and delicious foods in the Youxi warehouse, but this is Fan Qi's plan. No matter what her mother wants to do, she will cooperate.
After all, it is a high-end residential area. The three of them fried fragrant ribs in the kitchen, but the aroma did not drift away at all. In addition, the neighboring family moved downstairs, so there would be no problem in making delicious dishes.
The three of Youxi had no shortage of supplies and were busy at home, but other people in the community could not sit still.
**
On the morning of the third day, the fresh food truck that was originally scheduled was still nowhere to be seen. The residents who had run out of fresh vegetables at home could not bear it anymore and rushed out again to the only supermarket in the community.
Although the supermarket is not big, it is not small either, and it has a refrigerated and frozen warehouse. Before, people's homes were not so short of supplies. After the supermarket staff hung up a sign saying that the supplies were emptied and locked the door, everyone stopped going out.
But now it is different. Many people have run out of food at home, and the stock of staple food and convenience foods is getting smaller day by day. At this time, no matter if there is anything in the supermarket, they have to go and see it with their own eyes.
As a result, when the supermarket door lock was broken, a group of people found that the supplies in the supermarket had not been emptied at all after entering, and there were even a lot of fresh food in the refrigerated and frozen rooms. The duty officer lived in the lounge with a toilet at the back, never leaving the house, and lived an unusually carefree life of eating and drinking every day.
Both sides immediately rushed to the supermarket. The angry residents didn't even want to pay this time, and just took away the things. The duty officer shouted that there were thieves and robbers, but two fists could not beat four hands, not to mention that there were more than a dozen people standing in front of him, and the number was still increasing.
When Xu Yan and several security guards got the news and rushed to the supermarket, the things inside had been robbed by the residents. People even took things like towels and disposable paper cups.
The duty officer fell on the floor of the cold storage room, with a hole in his head and bruises on his face. He was completely dead.
The guard on duty was beaten to death in the chaos. No one wanted to kill him on purpose. They just fought out of anger. No one knew that the person lying on the ground was dead during the conflict, and no one knew who dealt the fatal blow.
All the residents who went to the supermarket to get supplies were frightened and stayed indoors. Xu Yan called the police, but someone had gone wrong somewhere outside and no one came after waiting for a long time.
In the afternoon of that day, someone posted several videos and photos online, showing that several waves of vehicles transporting fresh vegetables encountered mutant wolf packs on several different roads at the same time when entering the city.
When the rescue team arrived, only the trampled vegetables were left, the fish meat was gone, and several drivers who delivered the food were not spared either...
The wolves were hiding somewhere, and several rescue teams searched the suburbs for two days but found nothing.
This incident caused many truck drivers to lose their jobs. Although they wanted to earn this high salary, they had to live to spend it.
The photos and videos were taken by residents living nearby, and they were deleted shortly after they were uploaded. But later, more and more people knew about it, and the matter could not be suppressed.
Fortunately, the communities that had distributed the fresh food packages hid the food tightly and did not mix in with the crazy drama on the Internet.
People who did not receive the food packages kept making a fuss online, saying that it didn't matter if no one delivered food to them, as long as the nearby supermarkets were opened and they could go out to buy food and supplies.
Because supermarkets have refrigerators and freezers, the animals and plants suddenly mutated, and the supermarkets were not open before, so there must be a lot of inventory inside
. The next morning, the angry people who had been making a fuss all night saw the news that some supermarkets were open on WeChat Moments or online platforms. People didn't even bother to eat breakfast, and directly wrapped themselves up tightly, took pesticides and other tools and went out to buy.
Not all supermarkets were open, but a few were opened according to the different situations in each area.
Because some supermarkets' supplies have been distributed to the rescue team members, medical staff, various experts, firefighters, and police officers who are fighting on the front line this week...
These supermarkets are maintained by the rescue team members or police special police who are assigned to maintain discipline. Each person is limited to buying food according to their ID card, from staple food to the few fresh meats to convenience foods, various beverages, eggs, milk, condiments, and fruits. All food is limited.
Those who ventured out cursed, but due to the patrols of the rescue members and the police, most of them did not dare to make trouble.
Although the purchase of food is limited, buying a few more varieties can still last for a while, which is better than eating up all the food at home. Those who bought supplies were in a hurry and returned home quickly.
But S City is also a big city, and the people got the news at different times. When some people found out, it was too late to go to the supermarket. Most of the food that could fill their stomachs had been snatched away, so some people started to rush to buy daily necessities.
The Internet was full of messages asking which supermarkets still had supplies, and almost everyone was running between supermarkets.
The situation in every city is not very good now. It is unrealistic to expect foreign aid, and we can only save ourselves. Everyone has a premonition in their hearts, but they dare not say it out loud, so they want to desperately stock up on food and other daily necessities.
That night, all the open supermarkets were empty of supplies, but some people in the city didn't buy anything, and people on the Internet were panicking.
During the evening news, officials once again urged people not to panic, saying that the previous grocery truck accident was due to lack of preparation. Officials are now ready to dispatch troops and rescue team personnel to go out in person, and by tomorrow at the latest, they will escort supplies from several surrounding staple food, vegetable, fish, meat and fruit bases.
The authorities called on the public not to panic. Now that the mutated plants and animals in the city have been cleared, as long as everyone works together, this crisis will be overcome.
When the people heard that the troops and rescue teams were personally escorting them, they felt a little relieved.
Some people grabbed a lot of food during the day, and they were finally able to make a decent dinner at night, and the family sat together to eat a good meal.
However, late at night that day, someone woke up while shaking.
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