Little Mushroom

The thing's skin was black—the color of Anthony's skin.However, at this moment, his human face has been distorted and deformed. The places where the eyes were originally were covered with dense brown scales. The nose extended obliquely downwards to form a huge fissure. Curly long clarinet.

He stopped, the edge of his wing scraping against the car wall, making a screeching sound.

"Anthony, what are you doing?" Huo Sen's dissatisfied voice sounded: "I don't like to be watched."

After that, he lowered his head again, and An Zhe's body sank, and he felt teeth biting his shoulder and neck, the skin was ground by the teeth, and fine pains surfaced.But he couldn't care less, his whole body tensed up, and he looked at the monster that Anthony had mutated into.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

The wings behind Anthony vibrated slightly, and the mouthparts rolled in the air.

"Afraid?" Huo Sen, who was lying on him, seemed to feel the stiffness of his body, and cursed indistinctly: "What are you pretending to be?" Then he strangled his waist and bit his skin hard.

Right at this moment-

The buzzing sound of wings vibrating came, Anthony's six slender legs were lying on the ground, leaning forward, sinking to gather strength, and rushed towards them like a slender spider!

The sound of the wind rang in the small space, An Zhe's pupils dilated for an instant, and his body changed instantly, switching to the soft and sensitive state of the mushroom itself. Mycelium rolled up in the compartment, almost filling the entire space, temporarily blocking Anthony's sight.

Immediately afterwards, An Zhe suddenly felt his body stiffen for a moment, coughed a few times, and then panicked with all four limbs: "Damn, this is—"

He looked down and saw that Huo Sen bit down countless soft hyphae and choked them into the airway and esophagus. When he coughed, he looked terrified and painful.

At the same time, countless mycelia were chopped off by Anthony's forelimbs. The mycelium was soft and brittle, without any toughness, and could only gain less than five or six seconds of escape time.

An Zhe estimated the distance between himself and Anthony, quickly rolled up his clothes with mycelium, and flowed out of the gap between Huo Sen's body, which was in a mess, and regained his freedom.

His snow-white mycelium rushed to the door like a white tide, turned back to human form at the door, and pressed the switch on the door.

With a muffled sound, the car door bounced open. An Zhe instantly retracted all the hyphae, stretched out a hand and tugged on Huo Sen's collar and rolled it out. The two fell out of the car together and fell firmly into the sand. inside.

——This place is at least safer than the small space in the carriage.

However, in just a moment, Anthony also showed his head from the car door, and a piercing hum sounded. He first flapped his wings and flew to the sky at a height of four or five meters, and then swooped down suddenly——

An Zhe got up quickly the moment he flew up, and ran back quickly.

However, Huo Sen was just lying on his back on the sandy ground with his eyes unfocused, and Anthony's sharp forelimbs pierced through his chest in an instant.

——An Zhe had seen too many methods of hunting and escaping monsters in the abyss. He knew how to escape, and he thought Huo Sen knew it too.However, it wasn't until the moment when the blood splattered that Huo Sen suddenly came back to his senses, screamed, grabbed Anthony's front legs with both hands, kicked Anthony's body that had turned into a black chrysalis frantically, and tried to retreat.

There was a boom on the ground, and An Zhe turned around quickly, and saw that the armored vehicle that had been driving a long way away made a sharp turn, turned around and galloped this way-Fans finally realized that something was wrong.

He took a few breaths and ran towards the armored vehicle.

Through the car window, one can see Vance's anxious expression. The door of the armored car has already popped open before the car arrives. When An Zhe and the armored car passed by, a pair of strong arms suddenly pulled him up from the ground. , He got into the cockpit with Vance's movements, Vance quickly threw him to the other side of the cockpit, and closed the door tightly with a "bang".

An Zhe said: "They..."

"It can't be saved!" Fance slammed the steering wheel again, and the armored vehicle turned around and drove back to the original direction. The accelerator pedal was pressed to the bottom, and it galloped towards the north.

An Zhe leaned on the back of the co-pilot seat, took a few breaths, and after calming down a little, he looked in the rearview mirror - the mutated Anthony and the dying Huo Sen were entangled and rolled to the ground. Anthony raised his forelegs, then fell down suddenly, piercing Huo Sen's abdomen heavily, nailing his body to the ground.Then, the thing looked up and looked in their direction.About five seconds later, it seemed to give up chasing the armored vehicle, lowered its head, and pierced Huo Sen's head with its slender mouthparts, and Huo Sen's body went limp after a burst of convulsions.

The car drove very fast, but after a while, their figures had disappeared among the yellow sand bushes, and they were never seen again.

Vance said, "Anthony has mutated?"

An Zhe turned to look at Fan Si, and saw that his eyes were slightly red.

He lowered his head: "I'm sorry."

He is still alive, but Vance has lost two teammates.

"Sorry for what?" Vance forced a smile: "When we go out to work, people often die. I'm used to it. Maybe I will be the next one to die."

But An Zhe did feel guilty.Anthony was infected - if he had found the traces of the suspected human blood on the ant's armor and told Vance about it, they might have discovered that Anthony was infected in advance.

He lowered his head and said the matter.

Vance was silent for a while, his voice lowered slightly: "What Anthony turned into was not an ant, he might have been infected before. Before we met you, we encountered a group of mutated wild mosquitoes."

An Zhe: "Then...was he stabbed by a piece of armor again?"

Fance looked out of the car window, and after another long silence, he said, "The second plain has very little pollution, two stars. If you get stabbed or slightly injured, you may not be infected. But if you say it, you will definitely be thrown away by the team." Come on, a lot of people won't talk about it after they get hurt."

His voice was a little lower: "...because I want to go home."

An Zhe: "What about Huo Sen?"

If it was discovered that Anthony was infected in advance, Huo Sen might not have died.

"Don't take it to heart, Huo Sen died unjustly." Fance lit a cigarette and took a puff. "He did a lot of wicked things, and at least five people were killed under his command. If it wasn't for the lack of manpower this time, Neither me nor Anthony would work with him. What was he doing? Bullying you?"

An Zhe didn't speak, and Vance turned to look at him.

In the twilight, the boy's silhouette appeared quiet and peaceful, like a crystal clear drop of water.This kind of person appeared in the dangerous wilderness, and he might have unspeakable difficulties, but he didn't ask.

Similarly, An Zhe didn't know what to say to Fance, he was thinking about the scene before Huo Sen's death.At first, Huo Sen seemed to lose his mind briefly, and he didn't wake up until he was stabbed.

What did Huo Sen do before this?

He took a bite out of the mycelium.

An Zhe frowned. He actually didn't know if he, as a mushroom, was poisonous.

Now he suspects that he is a poisonous mushroom.

All the way forward, the vegetation is even rarer, and there are no creatures on the endless desert, only their armored vehicles drive alone.

At night, when the aurora appeared in the sky again, Vance planned to stop to rest.He put out the cigarette butt on the steering wheel, opened the gate connecting the cab and the rest room, and jumped down. The voice rang in the dark rest room: "Sleep first, and drive for a day and a half before arriving at the base."

An Zhe also came to the gate. In order to have a wide view, the driver's cab was positioned high, and in order to save space for the storage compartment, the rest room was positioned low and very low, with a height difference of more than one meter from the driver's cab. He had to jump down.

He stood there hesitating for a while, and after only a short three seconds, Fance seemed to see his hesitation and said, "You sit there first."

An Zhe sat down on the edge according to his words, with his legs dangling in the air. Immediately afterwards, Vance reached out and clasped his upper body and helped him down.

An Zhe landed steadily, and whispered: "Thank you."

"It's okay." Vance smiled, and his voice revealed a slow tenderness: "My brother is afraid of heights, and he often does. He is about your age."

An Zhe tried his best to explore the laws of human communication, and asked tentatively, "Did he also come to the wild with you?"

"Well." Vance said, "We've been together before."

"Aren't you here this time?"

"Dead." Fance said: "It's been two months, and he was killed by the judge at the gate of the base."

Judge, this is the third time An Zhe has heard this word.

The first time was Anze, he was dissuading himself from going to the human base, saying "you can't escape the eyes of the judge".

The second time was Anthony, who didn't want to add himself to the team, saying "we're not judges, we can't confirm that he's 100% human".

And in Anze's memory he obtained, this seems to be a term with a very high frequency of occurrence.

So he repeated: "... Inquisitor?"

"You don't know?" Fance's voice was high, with surprise: "Where did you come from?"

An Zhe whispered: "I didn't deal with others before."

"I can see it." Vance turned a knob on the wall of the car, and a dim white light lit up from the top of the wall, barely illuminating the small space.He took out dry food from the grid on the wall, and An Zhe also took out food and water from his backpack, and sat down opposite Fance.

I heard Vance say: "The base has a system called the "Judger Act", and then there is an organization that belongs to the military and has a high level called the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal are judges." Vance said: "They generally They are all on duty at the gate of the base, everyone has a license to kill, and killing people will not break the law."

After hearing this sentence, An Zhe vaguely remembered that he found something related in the memory he got from Anze.

He said: "... They judged whether the people who entered the base were human or infected?"

Fance: "Well, apart from the infected people who can be seen, there are some people who can't see it. The mutation process hasn't started yet, or the mutation level is too high, and the appearance is no different from human beings. The base calls such people aliens. .”

An Zhe opened his eyes wide.

In that case, he is an alien.

Vance untied his coat and put it aside, unscrewed the bottle of the water bottle, and continued: "The base is too densely populated. After the aliens enter the base, they will be slaughtered crazily, and then a large area will be infected. Whether the person in question is a human or a heterogeneous species, the process of judging is called 'judgment'."

"Then..." An Zhe: "What happens after the discovery of the alien species?"

"What else can I do?" Fance raised his eyebrows and said, "He was killed on the spot."

An Zhe didn't speak, and lowered his head to take a bite of the compressed biscuit. He had just learned to eat in a human way. Human food was a bit rough for him, and his mouth and throat would be scratched when he swallowed it.He eats slowly but has a fast heartbeat.

After a while, he asked again: "Can you really recognize all the alien species?"

Fance took a big sip of water, leaned against the wall of the car, closed his eyes, and said with a hint of depression in his tone, "Who knows, there is no proof of death. No one knows whether the people who were killed were really aliens. My brother is like that."

An Zhe didn't speak, and Vance didn't seem to answer the question, but he still listened quietly.

"He... went to the First Plain with me that time, where the pollution level was lower than that of the Second Plain. I kept looking at him, and I can confirm that he was not injured." Vance smiled, but his voice was hoarse: " Back at the gate of the base, the one on duty that day was not an ordinary judge, but their boss. Everyone called him 'the judge'. Other judges would give reasons for killing people, but he didn't. He didn't need a reason for killing anyone, and he didn't need a reason. Accept the plea, even if it is a high-level base, killing is killing. He was like that that day, he only took one look at my brother and then shot."

"I don't believe it, but I can't help it. There are many such things. He has killed many people. There are too many people who hate him in the base. I am not one of them. Maybe one day, I will be killed by him."

After all, Vance looked at his right hand in a daze for a while, then threw the kettle aside, lay down on his pillow, but his eyes were still looking at the roof of the carriage, he finally got back on track, and answered An Zhe's initial question: "Would they rather Even if you kill by mistake, you will definitely be discovered if a real alien species sneaks into the base. There was only one incident of alien species attack in the whole year of this year."

An Zhe felt uneasy. In order to hide his uneasiness, he closed his eyes and rubbed them with his left hand.

Vance said, "Go to bed, kid."

An Zhe was lying down next to him. No matter what happened tomorrow, at least tonight was safe. There were no monsters or Huo Sen. There was only Vance who was very kind to him.

Before falling asleep, he held the cartridge case and looked towards the car door at the end of the aisle.

If——if now he quietly opened the car door, got out of the car and left, and returned to the wilderness overgrown with monsters, he would still be alive and would not face trial or be shot dead on the spot. longer.

But are spores something bigger than life?

--Yes.

For creatures in the abyss, death is the most insignificant thing.And in this short day outside the abyss, he witnessed Anthony's mutation and Huo Sen's death, and human life is not precious.

An Zhe closed his eyes, he knew he had to go to the northern base.

In the early morning of the next day, they continued to drive towards the base.Because only Vance was driving alone, they lacked energy, and their rest time began to be irregular. They started to rest in the afternoon of this day, and continued to drive northward in the middle of the night on the third day, when the aurora began to dim and the sky turned white. At that time, Vance said: "It's almost here."

An Zhe looked ahead, and in the gray mist of the morning, a circular city gradually appeared on the horizon.

Cities, he knew the word, where people live in cities like mushrooms live in the rainy season.

The armored vehicle continued to drive forward, and after the early morning fog gradually dispersed, more details ahead appeared.The circular city has a gray steel wall, as high as the tallest mushroom. Twenty people stacked up, one person's feet stepping on another person's shoulders, may not be able to climb over the city wall.Some steel fangs and thorns protruded from the city wall, sharp and cold in color, like rocks and soil in winter.

The edge of the city wall is covered with surveillance equipment and laser devices, and intruders will be found immediately. The two city gates are the only way in and out, one can only enter, and the other can only exit.Now they are in the one that can only get in and out.

Afterwards, An Zhe saw many teams similar to Vance driving back from all directions. Some of them were lightly armed, some were wearing heavy equipment, holding weapons, four or five in teams, driving similar armored vehicles in the designated area Stop, then get out of the car and walk into the city gate, the car and the person are checked separately.

Vance got out of the car first, and An Zhe grabbed his arm and jumped out of the car. He felt that Vance's arm was a little tight, and he thought that this city gate might have evoked Vance's bad memories about his brother.

They walked towards the city gate together. There was a long queue there, and the head of the queue was a bit disturbed, but they couldn't see the situation clearly. People were entering one by one.

An Zhehui walked behind Fan Si and walked to the queue, looking around while walking.

Soldiers in black uniforms stood on both sides of the city gate, with two guns pinned to their waists, a thermal weapon and a laser gun.Behind them is a huge heavy weapon, facing the city gate.It is conceivable that once a monster tries to invade, it will be blown to pieces by these heavy weapons.

After looking around, he was attracted by a black figure - in an empty place under the city wall in the distance, the man was also wearing a black uniform, he seemed to be a disbanded and undisciplined soldier, unlike his colleagues Standing guard like that, but half leaning against the city wall, he was lowering his head and slowly wiping a black gun.

However, the uniform with black background and silver tassels on his body seems to be much more refined and upright than other people, or it may be because of his relatively slender and well-proportioned figure.

Fance glanced over there, and for some reason, his pace quickened a lot, and he pulled him straight forward, just when they were about to merge into the end of the team——

An Zhe saw the man in the distance raised his head slowly.

Under the brim of the black uniform hat, a pair of cold green eyes were exposed.

In an instant, An Zhe's footsteps stopped suddenly, and he felt a chill around him, as if it was frozen.

Vance turned around and said, "Why do you—"

The voice stopped abruptly.

A shot went off.

Vance's tall body swayed on the spot, and fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes were wide open, his throat crackled, blood overflowed from his temples, his body twitched a few times, and there was no movement.

But An Zhe couldn't even reach out and grab a piece of his clothes, and he didn't have any time to think about what happened just now. He could only raise his head and look at the officer in black uniform, because at this moment, the officer was Slowly turn the muzzle of the pitch-black gun—pointing at him.