Chapter 27 Wound
“Son of a b*tch…” Seeing the danger from the prey in its mouth, Chang roared the sky to release the rage and unwillingness in his heart.
Chang lighted up quite a bit after he shouted; his mind slightly relaxed. But now, the pain that was suppressed by his nerves had become sharp and obvious.
He looked down to his left chest – there were three long bloody scratches inflicted by the stray dog.
Fortunately, although the scratches were long, they weren’t deep. They were painful as if a fire was lit on his chest, but they weren’t fatal wounds.
Chang stood in the grass bush feebly. He felt like his body was completely drained. The intense hunt and that brief tension between the cat and him while facing extreme hunger made him feel particularly weak right now.
“Why…” He sat down as if he had lost all of his strength. Chang noticed small puddles of blood on the ground around him. “These might attract other predators…” He rested for a bit and immediately went back to look for Jing.
Chang found Jing still standing where she was.
“Are you okay?” She smiled when Chang showed himself from the bushy grass.
“I’m fine, but the dog was taken by another animal.” His face looked frustrated.
“Thank god, at least you’re still alive. We should head out from here as soon as possible.” Jing held his hand and trotted back towards the camp.
“Are some other monsters approaching?” Chang followed her and asked.
“I won’t say they’re monsters; there’s a massive amount of level 0.003 organisms coming. They might be small bugs.” Jing replied, “We should be careful anyways.”
“Okay.” They walked out from the bloody scene where they hunted the dog. The two found a small abandoned house. He found a basin to rinse off the blood on his hands. Then, in the other room he sprayed some strong scented perfume and hair spray to cover the smell of blood on his body.
Chang finally felt a slight relief after he did this.
“Should we keep going?” Jing dropped down beside Chang, with her weary little body curled up on the couch as she asked. “You were scratched by the dog; we should go back to the base to disinfect your wound.”
“These things happen all the time, don’t worry. Human resistance to bacteria and viruses is an evenly matched competition. If one prevails but doesn’t destroy the other completely, any subsequent infections would be less intense. Since I didn’t die from the last infection, I won’t die from this infection either,” Chang said determinedly. “Just to be safe, I’ll still take some antibiotics, but there’s no rush for it. I’ll take them once we go back.”
“So we will keep on hunting?” Jing rubbed at her ankle, then asked the question again.
“Yes, both of us are in a fairly good condition right now, if we don’t get anything today, it will be even more difficult tomorrow.” Chang looked up to the ceiling, “I’m a little bit dizzy from hunger. If we go back to the base right now and only get that half pack of biscuit, it’ll definitely not be enough. My reaction speed and fighting ability will be significantly reduced by tomorrow; it will be almost impossible for us to get anything.”
“I though Mr.Li and Pangzi went out to find some edible plants.” Jing removed her shoes and socks while she spoke. She stretched out her ankle so that she could keep up with Chang in the next hunt. However, blisters and blood covered the bottom and sides of her feet. Seeing this made Chang upset.
Continuously walking for six or seven hours wasn’t something a skinny and thin teen girl could bear, not to mention that the path she walked didn’t have flat roads at all. The world returned to its natural state; the ground was filled with cracks, and it resembled a dense forest. Luckily though, there weren’t any rocks, concrete blocks, nails of any kind or industrial waste along the pathway. The roads in the city were completely shattered, and the ground was covered with all these obstacles. Even Chang himself had a hard time walking on it, while Jing was just a small girl.
“You can go back first, you must be tired. I can look for small animals by myself around here.” Chang sighed as he glanced over her blistered feet.
“I can’t go back now; it’ll be hard for you to find a prey without me. Plus, what if you run into any serious danger…” She carefully put on her socks and lightly tuck her feet into her shoes. She offered a generous smile to Chang, “Let’s go, I’m fine, they aren’t hurting that much.”
“Okay! Then we’ll walk around for a while and see what happens.” Chang nodded, lifted Jing with his hands and put her on his back. “Hold tight and tell me when you think there’s a good prey.”
“I will.” Jing first struggled instinctively, but then she tightly held onto his back.
Chang opened the tattered door that was torn by the flourishing plants, and then their figures merged in the red fog bit by bit.
However, this afternoon wasn’t like the things written in novels or screenplays; they walked around the area until they were fatigued. It was a fruitless afternoon.
As the sky was slowly getting dark, Chang dragged his exhausted body back to the military base, with Jing lying on his back. He slowly walked to the familiar room.
“We’re back.” When he reached the door, Chang put down Jing. When her feet touched the ground, her body was startled – it was a natural reaction from the pain of the blisters being pressed on.
Chang was relieved quite a bit as he put down Jing –he gained a stronger physique since he evolved and wasn’t as powerless as he used to be. Jing was light, about 50 pounds. But in the end, he was currently weak, so letting her go reduced quite a large amount of pressure on him.
When they opened the door, Qing shui, Pangzi and Lin were sorting the cleaned plants.
“We’re back.” The sound of the door alerted the three in the room and they turned their heads towards Chang and Jing at the same time. Chang gave them a brief strained smile and threw up his empty hands. “Sorry…I didn’t get anything.”
“It’s okay, actually, Mr.Li was talking about how difficult it would be for you guys to hunt… Wait, you were wounded?” Pangzi stopped sorting the plants when he saw the long scratches on Chang’s chest. He stood up and took out some rubbing alcohol and cotton pads.
“They aren’t deep, don’t worry.” Chang took the rubbing alcohol and cotton pad and poured it directly onto his wound, immediately causing him to feel a burning sensation. He clenched his teeth to reduce the pain and waited until the burning went down. Then, he used the cotton pads to absorb the blood gently. After doing all that, he pulled Jing over.
“I’ll be taking off your shoes, okay?” He let Jing sit on the bed. He saw a pair of blood soaked and hardened socks on her feet after he removed her shoes.
“The bloody blisters might have ruptured, causing her feet and socks to stick together.” Looking at her socks, Chang turned his head to Qing shui. “Mr.Li, how should I handle wounds like this?”
“We should soak her feet in saline so that the clothes will separate from her feet.” Qing shui stood behind Chang and handed a small plastic bowl to Lin who was still sorting the plants. “Please get some water for us. We don’t have saline, but we can make our own with table salt.”
“Sure.” Lin looked up at Qing shui and took the plastic bowl. She left the room without looking at Jing’s blood-soaked feet.
“Don’t get it on the first floor!” Qing shui was worried, “Get it from the higher floors where the monster’s tentacle can’t reach.”
“I know.” A response came from the hallway.
Shortly after, Lin returned with a full bowl of water. Qing shui added a small amount of table salt to the water and stirred. Chang held Jing’s feet carefully and put them into the bowl.
“Hiss!” Her whole body shivered the moment her feet touched the salt water. She kept hissing and instinctively wanted to withdraw her feet from the salt water, but Chang pressed down her trembling ankles tightly.