The Invasion Day – Chapter 15

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 15

Neither of them could sleep, so amid the sound of Tang Xuhai’s heavy breathing, Wen Zhaoming started telling Fu Shiwu his story.

His legs were smashed in an accident.

Wen Zhaoming actually wasn’t from Yun City. He was born in a provincial capital and lived a good life when he was a child. But as fate would have it, his father passed on due to an illness and his mother remarried to a rich man.

The rich man was nice and treated him fairly, but he already had two children himself. At first, this wasn’t much of a problem, but upon becoming a stepmother, his mother was afraid of being hated by the other two siblings and used all her energy on pleasing them. She was also afraid of being too kind to Wen Zhaoming and making the other two uncomfortable. Her struggles couldn’t keep things in balance for long.

The man’s children were old enough to be aware of their father’s remarriage. Although they made no drama with the stepmother, all of them never really seemed like a close family. The atmosphere at home was mostly polite and diplomatic.

As the eldest child, Wen Zhaoming was considerate of his mother’s difficulties. Reaching high school, he started living in the dormitory, and after graduating from college, he moved to Yun City and focused all his mind on work. He basically never went back except for the holidays. Feeling that he was forced to move away, the stepfather was very sorry and rendered a lot of support to his work.

Wen Zhaoming quickly showed his talents and became a rising star in the industry. Unfortunately, when he was at an inspection of a new construction site, the building structure collapsed and crushed his legs.

It was a huge incident that had many people buried in the ruins. He was sent to emergency in time and had both his legs sawn off.

Following the accident, his mother fell deep into guilt and regret, and she decided to bring him home for treatment. The atmosphere in the house became even weirder because of his disability. Everyone treated him cautiously, which suffocated him to no end. Eventually, he could only escape back to Yun City and avoid all his acquaintances, because the sympathetic looks they gave him were unbearable.

The person who gave him the information was also someone who owed his stepfather a favour.

The stepfather’s two children were now studying abroad. By the time the astronomical phenomenon took place, his mother and stepfather had gone abroad for leisure. He had no idea if they were with the two siblings now, or how they were doing at the moment.

Listening to Wen Zhaoming’s words, Fu Shiwu felt a strange sense of discomfort in his heart. Although he still had both his parents, they couldn’t see each other all year round. In Wen Zhaoming’s case, his father had passed on but his mother was still around, however, he couldn’t live with her like a normal family.

Wen Zhaoming’s calves had been cut off but the knees were still there. The prostheses he was wearing were the best of their kinds. After rehabilitation, it would be possible for him to walk on his own.

It was just that after rehabilitation, the area where the wound came into contact with the prosthesis would be extremely painful when walking. The pain was so severe that most ordinary people wouldn’t be able to bear. It would also be a long process to adapt to this pain and learn to walk with prosthesis.

By this point, Wen Zhaoming could actually walk for a short while, but running and jumping would be quite a challenge.

When Wen Zhaoming talked about these things, he didn’t mean to win Fu Shiwu’s sympathy. He felt immensely ashamed in his heart, but he truly wanted to live. Even if he had to use this shame to exchange for Fu Shiwu’s help at this moment of life and death, he felt it would be worth it.

He told all this to Fu Shiwu instead of Tang Xuhai because he knew from a glance that Tang Xuhai was an iron-willed man who had his own principles. Wen Zhaoming couldn’t quite tell how Tang Xuhai would react, but he believed that the man wouldn’t be easily moved by his misfortune. 

Tang Xuhai had been willing to take Wen Zhaoming along, and that must have been the best gesture of sympathy from him.

The two were caught in their own complicated thoughts and fell asleep before they were even aware of it. 

Fu Shiwu was awakened very early in the morning. Opening his eyes, he sat up and put his glasses on.

He wasn’t sure if he heard something.

“Tang Xuhai?” He called out softly.

“What’s wrong?” Wen Zhaoming also woke up.

“Shhh —” Fu Shiwu said.

After a moment, they could clearly hear a groan. Fu Shiwu immediately stood up, grabbed the flashlight and rushed to the circuit to turn on the light.

“Tang Xuhai, are you okay?” Fu Shiwu examined him to find that Tang Xuhai’s face had turned all red and his clothes were soaked in sweat: “This is bad! The fever didn’t go down, it even became worse than before!”

“Give him more medicines, increase the dosage! We can also give him antibiotics!” Wen Zhaoming sat up, leaned on the electric wheelchair and staggered himself up.

Tang Xuhai was completely unconscious at the moment and was clenching his teeth hard, which took Fu Shiwu a long time to pry open. Tang Xuhai couldn’t swallow the medicines by himself, so Fu Shiwu eventually had to crush them all into powder and dissolve them in water, then fed him little by little.

Fu Shiwu pulled his unruly hair and nervously started at Tang Xuhai, hoping that the fever would get better. But reality was cruel and Tang Xuhai never cooled down, and after some time, he couldn’t even take in water.

“He can’t drink it, what should I do?!” Fu Shiwu panicked.

“He can’t stay like this. He keeps sweating and will be dehydrated. If he won’t take in water and the temperature won’t drop, it may be lethal!” Wen Zhaoming also broke out in a cold sweat. 

Tang Xuhai was the only one with combat power among them. If the fever stayed on and he died, the two of them would also be as good as death!

Fu Shiwu lifted the blanket, took off his soaked clothes and put on a new set of clean clothes for him. Not even a moment later, the sweat came pouring out again.

“We must keep him hydrated!” Wen Zhaoming let out a soft cry.

“Normal saline injection! He needs sodium chloride!” Fu Shiwu turned to look at Wen Zhaoming.

“Normal saline is the fastest way to replenish water.” Wen Zhaoming nodded and said unwaveringly: “But we’ve no IV drip or normal saline here.”

Fu Shiwu bit his lips: “I’ll go find them!” 

“You go?” Wen Zhaoming said.

“I go!” Fu Shiwu jumped into action immediately after the decision. Tang Xuhai didn’t have long to wait.

Fu Shiwu was the kind who wouldn’t hesitate after his goal had been set. He turned around and looked at everything currently inside this bomb shelter. 

He walked over to pour out the contents of his backpack, put aside the food and the hard drive and covered the clothes around his face. He picked up Tang Xuhai’s combat knife, tied the tactical belt around his thigh like Tang Xuhai did and inserted the knife into it. After a moment of hesitation, he picked up the multi-purpose shovel and placed it into the backpack.

Carrying the backpack tightly behind, he turned around and said to Wen Zhaoming: “I’ll block the door with the car after I get out.”

Wen Zhaoming watched him quietly with no particular sadness or joy in his eyes, then he nodded and said: “I wish you all the best.”

Their hopes both lay on him now, and all Wen Zhaoming could do was praying for him.

Fu Shiwu walked out of the theater, stabilised the SUV against the side door and left the Dongtian Theater without making a sound.

It was 10 o’clock in the morning, but Fu Shiwu, who hadn’t even eaten breakfast, felt no hunger.

He observed the surroundings with great caution and carefully controlled his breathing.

He knew for certain that those aliens had vision, but nothing had yet to be known about their auditory perception. He also had no idea how these aliens observed other creatures. What if it relies on sonar like bats? Or can it see thermal imaging with its eyes? Or is its nose more sensitive than dogs?…

Fu Shiwu made many blind guesses as he walked. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that an alien might suddenly appear from any corner now, opening its scary mouthparts and leaping towards him.

Fu Shiwu shuddered, then he pressed his body even lower and kept himself closely against the wall to walk forward.

His eyes opened wide to keep a 360° vision and his ears pricked up to listen from all directions. With every two steps he took, he would pause for a moment.

All of Fu Shiwu’s senses were active at their maximum capacity, collecting various signals in desperation. He could feel that his breathing was getting slightly too fast, but his alertness was stably maintained.

“I think I need chocolate now.” Fu Shiwu thought silently. If his body functioned like this, he would soon be in need of high-calorie food.

Return in one piece and I can eat all the chocolate! He encouraged himself.

The road was totally empty. They could still see pedestrians on the road yesterday, but no one was here today. Fu Shiwu carefully gazed at the windows of the shops on the roadside: there were neither humans nor aliens inside.

He passed by many small shops, one after another. All the food and drinks had been thorougly raided, while being left behind were mostly clothes and daily necessities. Fu Shiwu focused all his mind on searching for the items that he needed. 

On a commercial road full of shop fronts like this, it wasn’t at all difficult to locate a pharmacy.

Fu Shiwu glanced swiftly at the small pharmacy across the road, and after thinking for a second, he gave up the thought. Such a small pharmacy definitely wouldn’t carry medical equipment such as IV drips; at most, they would only have sterile cotton balls.

“Look for a clinic, a clinic, a clinic.” Fu Shiwu murmured to himself. “There should be a clinic in the residential area.”

As long as he could find a clinic, everything he needed should be there.

After walking for another 200 meters, Fu Shiwu finally left the commercial road and stood at the entrance of a residential area.

A large supermarket sat not far from this small residential area, and there were restaurants on both sides of the entrance, which should provide the supermarket staff with much convenience during meal times. Fu Shiwu stuck closely behind the entrance column for a long time and listened attentively. There was no movement inside. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and ran stealthily into the area.

“A clinic!!!” Fu Shiwu’s eyes lit up as he saw two clinics less than 100 meters in front of him!

One had a Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture sign, while the other carried a Western Medicine sign.

The two small clinics were both located on the first floor of the residential building, which made it obvious that they were converted from civilian houses.

Fu Shiwu couldn’t help becoming excited the moment he saw his target, and he hurried towards them.

The Chinese Medicine clinic was relatively close while the Western Medicine clinic sat at the end of another building. Now, there was almost nothing else in sight except the target.

At this moment, his ears suddenly hurt and a “Crunch” echoed from a distance away.

Fu Shiwu’s heart thumped heavily and in a blink, all the blood rushed to the top of his head.

“Huff —” Fu Shiwu meticulously controlled his body to remain motionless, then he turned to look at the gap between the two buildings.

He titled his head and saw an alien lying face-down on the alley in between the buildings, a couple of houses from his position. It was pressing down someone’s four limbs. Its mouthparts broke open the person’s skull, then something resembling a tube protruded from the mouthparts and entered his head!