Death Warning (Continued)

Huo Lan aimed her sniper rifle at Snow Bird in the sky, but she never dared pull the trigger. Usually calm, she could not help her heart racing now, and cold sweat streamed down her forehead.

With Lou Yu unconscious, John, as vice-captain, had the authority and responsibility to direct his teammates.

He floored the accelerator and continued to pick up speed. At the same time, he asked Huo Lan, "Has he spotted us?"

Huo Lan said, "He has. He's been following us in the air."

John asked, "Does he look like he's going to approach?"

Huo Lan said, "He descended at first, but then he just kept pace above us. He doesn't seem to be planning to dive down and attack."

Even Huo Lan found it hard to understand after saying that. Snow Bird had come after them, so why hadn't he made his next move?

John immediately said, "We won't make a move unless he does. Keep an eye on Snow Bird at all times, and don't attack him first unless you absolutely have to."

The people at the base had complicated feelings about this white bird. Though he was a dominant force in the wasteland, he had never been known to eat a human since people first became aware of him, nor would he take the initiative to hurt them.

Of course, that didn't apply to those who provoked him first.

He had even helped humans on a few occasions, scaring off mutated monsters and guiding people who had lost their way.

But he wasn't overly friendly toward humans either, and he ignored their attempts to befriend him. He was a Snow Bird with quite a personality.

John was gambling that Snow Bird would let them go.

Though he didn't know what had prompted Snow Bird to take the captain back to his nest, the fact that the captain was alive and unharmed showed that Snow Bird meant him no harm.

John thought that perhaps, just like before, this was simply another occasion when Snow Bird had taken it into his head to do a good deed.

And as it turned out, John had gambled correctly.

He sped along the entire way, and even when the outline of the base gates came into view, Snow Bird was still flying overhead, showing no sign of seeking revenge for their taking Lou Yu away.

What was more, Snow Bird's presence had frightened all the nearby mutated monsters into hiding, so they encountered no danger on their way back to the city.

Rather than a pursuit to kill them, Snow Bird's behavior looked more like an escort.

Snow Bird's figure was impossible to miss. Before John and the others reached the gates, the soldiers guarding them had already noticed Snow Bird approaching.

Likewise, because of Snow Bird's unique nature, they did not attack immediately. Although heavy weapons capable of injuring him were mounted on the walls, they merely took precautions.

The soldiers also spotted the armored vehicle following behind him. When they saw Huo Lan at the sunroof, those who knew what the team had gone out to do all looked surprised.

Their eyes widened in particular when they stepped forward to inspect the vehicle and saw Lou Yu in the back seat.

John paid them no attention. As soon as he stopped the vehicle, he said, "Huo Lan, report Snow Bird's position."

Huo Lan called out, "Vice-captain, Snow Bird is circling at the edge of the safe zone. He hasn't followed us over!"

One of the soldiers in charge of the inspection wore a strange expression. So Snow Bird had followed these people back.

He wanted to speak up and condemn them, but Snow Bird had neither approached the base nor attacked, so he couldn't find fault even if he wanted to. His face turned a little pale as he held it in.

John naturally noticed his expression. He knew that the faction behind this man had always been at odds with their squad, so it was understandable that the soldier would want to seize the chance to make trouble. Unfortunately for him, they wouldn't give him the opportunity.

Once she was sure Snow Bird had no intention of attacking, Huo Lan felt much of the weight lift from her heart. Frowning, she said to the soldier trying to make trouble, "If you're done inspecting, let us through. We still need to get Captain Lou treated."

At that, the soldier's expression grew even uglier. Just last night, they had been celebrating Lou Yu's certain death, never expecting these people to bring him back in one piece today.

He couldn't help grinding his teeth in secret. Their squad really was lucky!

"Everything's in order. Go on in." Unwilling as he was, he couldn't use Snow Bird to make trouble, and he hadn't found any contraband in the vehicle, so he could only let them through.

After watching the armored vehicle enter the city gates and disappear from sight, Tao Qiu lingered a moment longer before flying back the way he had come.

The reason he had hurried after them when he discovered the man was gone was that he feared the man would run into new danger.

From what he had observed over the years, even in the apocalyptic wasteland, with humanity in such dire straits, people still inevitably split into factions and treated one another with hostility and exclusion.

Humans did not necessarily mean other humans well.

But once he got a clear look at the woman lying at the sunroof, he realized he had worried too much. The people who had taken the man away were his friends.

Before recovering his human memories, Tao Qiu had often encountered humans who had ventured out while he was hunting and patrolling. After enough encounters, he could more or less remember what they looked like.

The man had appeared about half a year ago. There were many human bases in this world, so it was only natural for people to move between them.

The man and his teammates acted together most of the time, so Tao Qiu was fairly familiar with their faces and knew that they were close-knit and got along well.

That made sense. If they weren't comrades who had been through life and death together, they wouldn't have risked coming to his nest to save the man.

Tao Qiu felt a little regretful. He owed the man, and had intended to wait until he woke up to discuss how to make it up to him. Now that the man had been taken back to the base, Tao Qiu didn't know if he would have another chance to make amends.

After all, his time was running out...

After returning to the cave, Tao Qiu ate all the prey that had been dead for some time.

After twenty years as a bird, Tao Qiu had long since grown accustomed to eating raw food. Even after recovering his memories of his previous life, he felt no particular desire for cooked food and kept things simple.

He carried the fur and bones he didn't want to eat far away and discarded them. Only after making sure no food scraps remained in the cave did Tao Qiu settle down on the platform at its entrance to bask in the sun.

In Tao Qiu's memories, his bird parents had not lived in a cave. They had built a nest in a large tree.

Perhaps, though, his previous life as a human still had a subconscious influence on him. He disliked tree nests that were exposed to wind, snow, and rain, so after his parents drove him out of the nest at the age of two, he found himself another place to live.

He had seized this cave from a mutated snake, and it suited his requirements for a home quite well.

As for his bird parents in this life, they had disappeared shortly after he left the nest. He had searched for them several times without success and didn't know whether they had left the area or been eaten by other mutated monsters.

His bird parents' mutation level was lower than his, and they weren't particularly strong, so it was more likely they had been eaten.

Tao Qiu had felt a sense of loss, but he had not been devastated by grief.

His bird parents had laid several eggs back then, but Tao Qiu was the only one that had successfully hatched. He had no siblings and had lived alone all these years.

They had spent too little time together, and his bird parents had brought him into the world out of the biological instinct to reproduce, so there had not been much affection between them.

Even the bit of familial affection Tao Qiu felt for his bird parents because of their blood ties had been worn away over the long years.

Tao Qiu's mutation level was high, and he grew stronger with age. There were a few evenly matched rivals nearby, but they all valued their lives and rarely fought, so he had lived quite comfortably over the years.

That was why, when the premonition of death suddenly appeared, he had been a little slow to react.

The lifespans of mutated monsters in the wasteland world were very different from those of ordinary animals and plants in the past. By the lifespan of an ordinary bird, Tao Qiu should have died of old age long ago, but here, a twenty-year-old mutated monster was still in its prime.

It had been about two months ago. One morning, Tao Qiu woke up and seemed to hear fate tolling his death knell.

The premonition was like a human's sixth sense, but stronger and more accurate. It was as though a knife had carved the news into Tao Qiu's mind; he simply could not ignore or disbelieve it.

And with the premonition came occasional bouts of piercing pain. Before that, Tao Qiu had never suffered any illness or pain except when he was injured fighting or hunting.

Though he had no concrete evidence, Tao Qiu inexplicably felt that his body was slowly rotting and decaying from the inside out, and that he was moving toward death one step at a time.

Tao Qiu did not understand why this was happening, and he had no friends or family with whom he could discuss what to do. He could only bear his unwillingness and panic alone.

Then, a month later, Tao Qiu was drawn to the vigorous life force that had suddenly emanated from deep in the dense forest. When he reached its source, he saw a strange fruit glowing green on an unfamiliar, nameless green vine.

Once the fruit ripened, the vine withered rapidly, as though its life force had been drained away.

The palm-sized fruit gave off a rich fragrance, tempting Tao Qiu to go over and swallow it.

After defeating the other mutated monsters drawn there at the cost of serious injuries and successfully eating the fruit, Tao Qiu's body underwent a series of changes.

He regained his human memories, became able to freely change between bird and human forms, gained an exceptionally powerful ability to heal himself, and, most importantly, delayed the arrival of death.

That was right: delayed, not stopped.

Before eating the fruit, Tao Qiu had a premonition that he probably had only two months left to live.

But after eating it, he could clearly feel the decay of his body slowing, and the sudden bouts of pain were no longer as unbearable as before.

By comparing the two, he made a rough estimate. At the current rate, he should be able to live another six months.

His death sentence had been postponed, but he would still die soon enough.

His body was even more anxious than he was, urging him to enter heat, find a mate, and leave offspring as soon as possible.

That was why he had captured the man and brought him back to his nest.

Tao Qiu sighed softly. Things had come to this, and there was nothing he could do, so he might as well sleep first.

With his hunger and thirst satisfied, the exhaustion brought on by the turmoil of the past few days washed over him again. Tao Qiu was so sleepy his eyelids kept drooping.

Before closing his eyes, Tao Qiu looked at a blade of wild grass in the dirt beside his head. It had just sprouted a tender shoot, yet for some reason it looked half-dead, and he was suddenly struck by a sense of shared sorrow.

He was as pitiful as the grass. If only both he and the little blade of grass could still be alive when he woke up.