The Invasion Day – Chapter 20

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 20

Tang Xuhai felt a bit perplexed, for he had never recovered this quickly when he suffered an inflammation due to over-exercising. This time, he even ruptured his old wound more than once.

But…

Tang Xuhai looked up at Fu Shiwu who was standing next to Wen Zhaoming, holding a syringe and adding powdered medicines into the drip chamber. With the reflecting lenses, an icy light shined from his eyes, his whole body exuding the aura of a ruthless killer doctor.

Tang Xuhai clapped his forehead, Don’t be deceived by such looks. In fact, he’s simply treating Wen Zhaoming blindly, right?! He’s just an antibiotics freak! 

He went according to his own feelings and the antibiotics were likely overdone. Maybe it was because of those that Tang Xuhai recovered ridiculously fast.

However, no matter how much of a mess Fu Shiwu might have accidentally done, he saved Tang Xuhai’s life. This was a favour that Tang Xu must remember!

“I didn’t get treated to death. My life is still long, huh?” Tang Xuhai muttered.

“What did you just say?” Fu Shiwu didn’t hear clearly and turned to look at Tang Xuhai with inquiring eyes. 

All the hair on the back of Tang Xuhai’s neck stood up as he waved his hand: “It’s nothing! How’s Wen Zhaoming?”

This is odd. Fu Shiwu did act cold and indifferent before, but he was never this scary, right? Tang Xuhai thought puzzlingly.

Fu Shiwu looked at Tang Xuhai suspiciously and followed along with the abrupt change in subject: “He doesn’t look good. We’ll know after seeing his temperature in a moment.”

Fu Shiwu took out the thermometer and looked at it, frowning: “40°. It’s still 40, no drop at all.”

Tang Xuhai said comfortingly: “You said I was feverish for one day and one night before starting to cool down. Wen Zhaoming must be fine.”

“I hope so too.” Fu Shiwu sighed.

After taking Wen Zhaoming’s temperature, he checked on Tang Xuhai and got 39° as a result.

“It’s 0.2° lower, at least.” Fu Shiwu smiled.

In this state, it was impossible for Tang Xuhai to do anything else. He could only obediently stay under Fu Shiwu’s care and allow himself to recover in earnest.  

The aliens must be out there, loitering around this Dongtian Theater. But this almost abandoned theater wasn’t a place that most people would know about. Several waves of aliens had descended Earth by now and they must have understood how the humans of this planet functioned. If the aliens saw an empty car, they would simply walk away. They might have some IQ, but likely wouldn’t be intelligent enough to push away the SUV that was blocking the theater door.

That was exactly why the three of them could have the time to retreat and recuperate even in such a perilous situation.

The main road a few kilometers away from Dongtian Theater, where the massive accident that blocked the entire road and prevented them from reaching the central warehouse took place, had now turned into a battlefield.

The accident amassed a large number of people and vehicles, attracting the attention of many aliens. This main road was where people must pass to reach the eastern suburbs, else they had to make exceedingly big detours. The army that had taken control over the central warehouse had to send out soldiers to clean up the accident, which ended up in a battle between the two sides.

Thereafter, other aliens were attracted by the loud gunshots and explosions, resulting in almost all of the aliens within the east of Yun City running to the scene.

Getting caught in this, the army directly piled up the wreckage of the cars into a fortification and put up a fierce battle that lasted three days.

With the main road totally out of use, the flow of citizens rushing towards the eastern suburbs was almost trapped. The armed police and officers that hadn’t yet evacuated then had to guard for the citizens who were trying to pass through the side streets and alleys. Everyone was making use of any tiny twists and turns of the city to detour, desperately struggling to get to the central warehouse.

As a Crime Unit policeman breathed a sigh of relief upon shooting down an alien that had suddenly popped out of nowhere, the group of people following behind him scrambled to get up and ran towards the other end of the roof.

Miao Jia stumbled to the edge of the roof, pulling a backpack with his dearest laptop inside.

“There is actually no road in this world. A road is created because many people walk on it.1A famous quote by Chinese writer 鲁迅 [Lu Xun].” Miao Jia was witnessing the manifestation of this quote right before his eyes.

The roof they were on belonged to a small room inside a very large and run-down community. It had no edge and no ladder for people to climb up and down. The people who were running for their lives simply jumped to the ground, no one having the mood to be afraid of height at this moment.

It wasn’t the first time that Miao Jia had seen such brave acts of these ordinary people, but he still felt shaken to the core.

He couldn’t just jump. It would break his laptop!

Miao Jia grabbed the edge of the roof with both hands and slowly slipped off, swinging his feet to see if they could touch the ground. This tiny space that the residents often used as a storeroom or parking space for their bicycles was at least 2-meter tall. Right now he didn’t even have the nerve to lift his head off the roof, so how could he land on the ground?

His clothes crumbled with the movements and the hem of his shirt was rolled up to reveal a large part of his fair belly.

He had been running around for the past two day, and today he even climbed houses and trees. The light blue shirt of his summer police uniform had long been dirtied, his badge also missing.

He looked like he was having a really hard time yet funny at the same time. The Crime Unit policeman who shot down the alien earlier was amused by the sight and kicked Miao Jia’s arm that was resting on the roof. He chided Miao Jia with a laugh: “How did you graduate from the police academy with this? Were your teachers all blind?!”

“Ge2Refers to how you address a male acquaintance who is not too much older than you (like your elder brother). Note: You don’t usually address someone as ‘ge’ on your first meeting; there should be a certain extent of familiarity between you and the person., I’m the backbone of the technical department, okay.” Miao Jia lifted his chin and looked at the policeman who was teasing him and having absolutely no intention to lend a hand. He said innocently: “At least I got a perfect score for my written test.”

Of course the Crime Unit policeman knew that most of these technical talents tended to earn a maximum score for their written test, yet their physique and marksmanship were extremely poor. On any normal day, his unit had to seek plenty of support from these technical talents and often closed one eye on their shortcomings. But now wasn’t the time to close one eye and let Miao Jia crawl down at his own leisurely pace.

The Crime Unit policeman put the gun into the holster and said with a grimace: “Even so, kiddo, you’re still a policeman, can you not be so scared?” 

After that, he squatted down, grabbed Miao Jia’s two arms and directly threw him on the ground.

“Ahhhhh!!!” Miao Jia screamed, landed on the ground with both feet and then fell on his buttock.

Miao Jia’s bottom hurt but he didn’t have time to lament. He swiftly got up and looked at his bag, relieved to find that his dearest laptop showed no signs of damage.

“Don’t just stand there, go!” The policeman urged.

Miao Jia turned around and quickly followed the crowd, sticking out his tongue behind the Criminal Unit policeman’s back. He indeed went to the police academy and managed to enter the police force, but in order to invest all his mind and efforts into his technical talent, he only performed the minimum for his physical front. The teachers showed their mercy and let him go because they knew that he needed to graduate. It was already a big task for him to not fall down, let alone flying from one roof to another.

“Be careful!!!” The armed police leading in front suddenly shouted as the team was walking through the community.

“Enemy attack!!!”

“Aaah!!!”

“Help!!!” 

The crowd instantly panicked but didn’t dare to run around. They squatted down on the spot and clutched their heads or lay flat on the ground. Some of them had survived an alien attack before and knew that if they ran amok in a fear, they would undoubtedly be killed by the aliens or wounded by their own policemen.

No one that was firing their guns at this moment would have the time to care about whether they might hurt the running people. If the aliens weren’t killed as soon as possible, every single person might perish right here.

Several aliens rushed from the front. “Bang bang bang”, the armed police fired a long string of bullets with their automatic rifles, the empty cartridges clanging loudly against the ground.

Miao Jia lay on the ground and quickly drew his pistol from the holster.

He raised his head and fired at one alien.

But he was stunned. The alien was moving too fast and he couldn’t aim at all!

There were seven of them this time. With his experience after the past few days, Miao Jia learnt that most of these aliens actually moved on their own, and only when the target was beyond their ability that they would group together. These aliens were really smart. If they faced a large team of humans, instead of jumping in recklessly, they would often choose to retreat, then gather other companions and come back to ambush again.

These aliens were probably running towards the central battlefield on the main road. Miao Jia’s team had actually come across several groups of them before.

It was thanks to the distraction of the battlefield that Miao Jia’s team could move this far totally unharmed, but if they actually encountered an ambush, the danger would be unfathomable.

Seven aliens was the largest group they had ever seen so far.

“Ahhhhh!!!” The armed police roared infuriatingly as the alien wrapped its tentacle around his neck. He couldn’t gasp for air and quickly suffocated, but before he died, he fired all his remaining bullets at the alien’s stomach and upper limbs.

“Monster! Go to hell! “His comrade was so angry that all his blue veins could be seen bulging up. He screamed fiercely at the alien standing amid the crowd and pointed the gun at its head.

A person accidentally hit by the stray bullet wailed and huddled to the side. The other aliens now realised that the humans who were holding onto ‘that strange appliance’ could easily kill them, so they simultaneously charged at those humans.

This was always the case every time. The number of armed police and officers escorting the citizens was slowly decreasing exactly because of this.

Both sides would fight until they all perished together.

Miao Jia’s palms were sweating so much that he had to clutch tightly onto his gun with both hands.

An alien bit a policeman’s head and cruelly twisted it off, then its black, merciless eyes swept over Miao Jia.

Miao Jia pulled the trigger.

But his bullets were out!

Miao Jia completely fell into a panic. He had fired so many bullets yet none hit the creature.

“Get away!” A strong force came from behind Miao Jia and he was pushed aside, then the people behind him raised their guns.

The alien moved incredibly fast. It turned sideways to dodge two bullets with the speed of light. Only one bullet managed to hit its body.

“Hiss!!!” The alien screamed piercingly with its mouthparts wide open, its tentacles swinging forward.

“Ge!!!” Miao Jia cried out.

The Crime Unit policeman dodged to the side and shot again.

The bullet hit the alien in the middle of its forehead at the very moment its tentacle swept across the policeman’s neck. The hooks immediately tore off a large piece of flesh from his neck.

As his carotid artery was slashed, the policeman’s throat shook and he slumped to the ground.

Miao Jia rushed over to hug the fallen man. He didn’t know this man at all, but he chose to call the man ‘ge’ out of his sweet-talking habit. This policeman really tried to be tolerant of his shortcomings and now even saved his life. Miao Jia’s tears fell down uncontrollably.

“Ge, what do I do now? You’re losing a lot of blood!” Miao Jia cried as he pressed on the man’s neck. Blood was incessantly pouring out, staining both his hands and clothes crimson.

The Crime Unit policeman saw Miao Jia’s silly expression and wanted to laugh, but in the end, he could only mutter a few words strugglingly: “Take off your… police uniform… Run…” 

He’s still a kid after all... The policeman sighed and breathed in his last.