Little Mushroom

"We are the people most closely connected to the fate of humanity.'

Her mother had told her this when Madam Lu was a little girl. Her mother's belly had been slightly bulging and a new life was in its infancy.

"We are the people most closely connected to the fate of humanity.'

Once she grew up, she told other girls this sentence. She took on the role of breeding offspring for the base while also being involved in the research of embryo culture technology. This research had extreme value so she was the only fertile woman who could freely enter and exit the Garden of Eden and the Lighthouse. One day, in the corridor of the Twin Towers, she met a handsome, green-eyed soldier.

Later, she had a child, a child whose birth had nothing to do with her duties. Due to their work, she couldn't often see her child's father. They could only occasionally talk through a communicator.

"I sometimes feel that… I betrayed the Rose Declaration," she said.

"Why do you think so?" The voice on the other end of the communicator was steady. "Aren't you growing a new life?"'

"Having a child with my lover, this was a right that women only had before the declaration." She placed a hand on her lower abdomen. "I have the freedom to use my womb without violating the rules and causing losses to the base's resources. I feel very happy… although this idea is dangerous."

The memories An Zhe received were intermittent, with only a few key nodes.

"He is going to the military," Madam Lu said. "I suggested he go to the United Front and now the distribution is over. Once you come back to the base, you will meet him."

"Does he look like me?"

"Yes. The only way he isn't very similar to you is his personality. The base doesn't allow people to know their kingship but you will know him as soon as you meet."

"I'm looking forward to seeing him."

"You will see him." Madam Lu said, "Pay attention to your safety in the wild."

"I will." The man said. "This time, we have recovered very important scientific research material, some of which is related to your field."

She laughed. "You worked hard. My research has been going well lately."

"I miss you." The voice of the man suddenly lowered. "Last night, I dreamed about the day when humanity will get through this disaster. We were both alive as well as our children. We were as happy as ordinary people."

Her voice was equally gentle. "Come back early."

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Everything was full of hope but the joy-related memories of her life were over.

10 days later, she could no longer call her lover and couldn't get information about him. She was ready for the worst.

On the day when she made up her mind to go to the United Front Centre to find the whereabouts of her lover, she met her child. She didn't see him very often. It was as if in the blink of an eye, the child who came up from the 6th floor to the 22nd floor to meet her had grown into an adult, a handsome young military officer.

Her heart might be full of worry but she felt some comfort seeing him. "You are here."

Lu Feng's voice was low. "Mother."

Then she saw the pattern on his black uniform and the badge on his chest.

"Didn't the base assign you to the United Front?" She was slightly puzzled.

He told her, "I'm in the Trial Court."

"Why did you go to that place?" She asked him anxiously. Few people wanted to join the Trial Court unless it was a last resort.

"I volunteered." The young officer's green eyes seemed to have mixed emotions but in the end, he was calm. "I will play a greater role in the Trial Court than I would in the United Front."

No matter what she wanted to say, she finally shook her head helplessly. Everyone knew how crazy the people of the Trial Court became. It wasn't a place where people should end up. As they were separating, Lu Feng called out to her from behind. "Mother."

Madam Lu looked back at him. Lu Feng stared at her, voice slightly hoarse as he asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing." She replied. She didn't intend to let the child know her worries and just smiled. "Take care of yourself."

Then she went and knocked on the door of the Information Management Office at the United Front Centre. "This is the Information Management Office. What do you want to inquire about?"

"The first combat sequence commander under the United Front Centre, Lieutenant Gao Tang. Is he still in the wild?" She asked.

The opposite person tapped the keyboard a few times.

"I'm sorry," the staff member told her. "The lieutenant general has been confirmed dead."

Her fingers were cold but she was still calm. It was the fate of every soldier to die for the base.

"In the… in the wild?"

"At the entrance of the city," the staff member said. "The Trial Court records show that Lieutenant General Gao Tang was convicted of infection."

She was in a trance and could hardly stand.

"Madam?" The staff member asked her.

"The Trial Court…" She muttered. "Is their judgment accurate?"

"They have a high probability of being accurate. The accuracy rate of each member of the Trial Court is controlled at 80%. This year, the average accuracy rate of the trainee who just joined is 90%… Madam, do you need help? Madam?"

She stood frozen in place as she recalled Lu Feng called out to her in a slightly hoarse voice. She suddenly trembled.

Perhaps her excessive behaviour scared the staff member. He said, "Your level of authority is relatively high. If you require, I can apply for the detailed records, the ID card number of the trial judge and the accuracy date for that day… Madam?"

"No." Her eyes widened like she had heard something horrifying. "Don't check… don't check."

Her memory was like a blank tide. She lost her lover and from that day on, she and Lu Feng gradually became estranged. She also lost him. In fact, she lost her children every day.

On the day the outer city was blown up, Lily heard the distant sound and entered her arms.

"Why did they blow up the city?"

"To make humanity safer."

"However, the people there are also the children of Eden." Lily wondered, "If the children aren't important then why keep us locked up here?"

"They have their own reasons. In order to reach a higher goal, they have to make some choices." She hugged Lily and explained gently, "The main city and the outer city are our children. Sometimes the children are willful and sometimes they hurt their mother and their fellow kin. It is only when we understand them that we won't feel pain."

As she spoke, the blood seeping under the door and the badge of the Trial Court on Lu Feng's chest overlapped with the mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

Lily asked the same thing. "Do you understand?"

She didn't answer. She just pressed her forehead against Lily's forehead and closed her eyes. "I wish for you to never go through this pain again."

Like sad music at the end, An Zhe quietly opened his eyes.

He found himself lying next to the rose bed. He looked up and saw green leaves swaying and shards of glass flickering. A dark shadow passed over his eyes, making him look up again. The hole in the dome that could only accommodate the queen bee's size had become larger and occupied nearly three-quarters of the dome. Its broken edge was shining with light and a bee as long as a human arm was flying through it.

The fluctuations had disappeared and there were no traces of the queen bee in the doom. However, the glass had been shattered and outside, artillery fire exploded like fireworks. It was the human army fighting. He wondered if they had killed the queen bee but it was difficult to hit a bee in the vast sky at night. An Zhe saw a small bee flying high and disappearing under the silver light of the moon.

Then there were a few dark shadows, accompanied by the buzzing of wings as five, ten, countless bees swarmed from all directions. Some bees still had white cloth fragments on their bodies. An Zhe turned to the direction they came from. The 22nd floor was empty and no one could be seen at all. They had all turned into bees.

Bees—

Another erratic memory appeared in An Zhe's mind.

It was a bee, a normal flowering bee who didn't eat people.

It was summer, the season when bees reproduced. However, it mistakenly flew into the human city. This city was inaccessible and people's doors and windows were closed. It wanted to find edible pollen but it wasn't possible.

Then it saw it. Behind the glass was a bright red, blooming rose.

A woman was taking care of this flower. She stood by the window, looking at the rose with a smile. Then she stared at the sky outside for a long time. She seemed to want to open the window and touch the sky outside.

The bee waited a long time, waiting as the woman left and came back, waited until she looked outside and shed a tear. She seemed to have finally made a decision and pushed open the window. The wind outside poured in and she closed her eyes like she was flying with the wind.

The bee had been hungry for a long time. It attached itself to the rose's stamen and pollen covered its furry hind limbs. It probed its slender mouthpiece into the centre of this flower. However, it was soon discovered.

The woman reached for it, fingers shaking and eyes quivering with slight madness. It was as if this was the first time she had seen such life. She was slow and didn't seem like she was going to dust it off, but the bee's instincts meant that what happened next was bound to occur.

Once her finger was only a few millimetres away and about to touch it, the bee subconsciously stung her.

The bee died, part of its internal organs pulled out and stuck on the woman's finger. A bee could only use its stinger once in its life.

However, it didn't seem to die. Its body fell into the rose bushes while its consciousness became a part of this woman's consciousness. It stayed dormant for so long that no one knew of its existence. Even the woman thought she was just stung and not infected.

—Until a part of its consciousness was gradually activated by strange fluctuations in the distance.

The memory of the bee was simple. After this experience, it was even lacking. Once An Zhe opened his eyes again, these things gradually faded out of his mind. The roses in front of him were still bright and he wondered who had given the flower to Madam Lu that year.

Only two people would give her flowers, her former lover and Lu Feng. Their reason for giving her flowers was just to make her happy.

Thus, once the rose blossomed, she was moved by this beautiful scene and she wanted to bathe in the sun and air outside. Then she happened to meet the bee who came for the flower.

The outside wind poured in and An Zhe gradually awakened. He sat up from the ground. Everywhere around him was empty. There were torn clothes, communicators and the debris of what people were carrying on the ground. He could imagine that while he was affected by the strong wave and fell into the memories of Madam Lu and the bee, everyone present was infected by the wave. Thousands of people turned into bees and flew through the opening in the dome into the sky.

He was an exception. He still maintained his human form, just like that time with the insect bite. He didn't mutate.

At this moment, the feeling of danger rose in An Zhe's heart. He looked up at the dome and saw three small military helicopters suspended above it. They were the ones who had just opened fire on the swarm. They found a hole in the dome and the windows of the helicopters were facing him.

Simultaneously, there was the sound of footsteps at the door. An alarm sounded and the emergency lights and red alarm lights went wild. The floor shook as armed emergency response soldiers rushed through the door, surrounding An Zhe. Every soldier had a heavy weapon that was aiming at him.