Noah rushed into his room, grabbed two sets of clothes and shoved them into his backpack, then chose the warmest jacket to wear. After that, he stuffed his savings book under the backpack and finally felt reassured. The money he'd struggled to save for years had to be brought along. In case the world went back to normal later, he didn't want to become poor.
Noah took one last lingering look around the room, then threw himself onto the warm bed where he had slept for so many years. At that moment, his nose tingled. He had lived here for so many years and felt a deep attachment to this home. He didn't want to leave it at all. If everything went back to normal later, he promised to return to this place.
"Let's go! I'm ready now." Noah walked out of the room, his nose slightly red.
Noah set the door back up, the one that had been broken earlier. In his heart, he still hoped that this was just a nightmare. When he woke up, everything would go back to the way it was.
The two of them left the house together.
Sitting in the military vehicle, Noah turned and asked:
"Are we going to Moon City in this vehicle?"
"No, the military headquarters is in Wind City. We'll drive there first, then take the military plane to Moon City!" Kai answered without looking away.
"Wind City? My friend is there, I wonder how he's doing." Noah remembered that yesterday, Fin mentioned he had a performance there today, and he hoped his friend was okay.
"We'll find out when we get there! The people here have gradually evacuated to Wind City." Kai's eyes were focused ahead as he spoke.
Leaning back in his seat, Noah thought to himself. Once they got to Wind City, he'd look for Fin and ask Kai if his friend could join them on the way to Moon City. A few hours on the plane, and they'd be there. After reuniting with his aunt after so many years, he would ask her in detail about what was happening.
Kai hadn't said a word during the entire journey. If Noah didn't ask, he wouldn't answer. Since this was a military vehicle, its tires easily moved through the thick snow, and all Noah could see outside was a vast white, with no end in sight.
They reached the highway, where many vehicles had been stopped by the thick snow. Many people had decided to leave their vehicles and walk.
Seeing this, Noah turned and asked:
"Are these people all trying to leave Moon City?"
"Looking at the weather and the animals around, they all know that something is wrong here. Leaving is just a natural choice." Kai drove the vehicle through the snow without turning back, responding.
"Did my aunt ask you to come pick me up?" Noah turned and asked a question that hadn't been answered.
"If you think so, then it's true." Kai answered.
"What mission are you on here? Are you a special forces soldier?" Noah continued asking, not getting the answer he wanted.
"You must know what's going on! Hurry up and tell me some news!" Noah was determined to keep asking until he got the information he wanted.
"I don't know!" Kai answered, feeling annoyed by Noah's persistence.
Kai didn't want to tell Noah the truth, so even if he knew, he would still give this answer.
Kai continued to drive in silence until they reached a section of the highway blocked by many vehicles trapped in the snow, with no way to go around. Kai decisively said:
"Get out of the car!" Without waiting for a response, Kai got out and walked to the other side of the car to pull Noah out.
"You want to freeze to death in this cold and you're telling me to walk? Do you think Wind City is close by?" Noah refused, saying.
"Go first, then we'll see. Put on a thick coat and go, or you'll die here alone! Choose now!" Kai ordered.
"Hey, hey, don't be so hot-headed! Don't talk about dying here!" Noah said, then opened his backpack, found the thickest jacket, put it on, and followed Kai.
After walking a while, they left the highway and passed a house by the road. Seeing something strange, Noah approached Kai and said:
"Is this a bougainvillea? Only twelve hours after the meteorite fell, and it's growing like this? This is scary," Noah asked.
"It's grown that fast?" Kai murmured.
"What's growing fast?" Noah pressed.
"Evolution. Just one day and the normal plants have already grown this much," Kai finally admitted the truth.
"The bougainvillea, after twelve hours, has grown and covered a house almost twenty meters long. How much bigger will it get?" Noah looked up, seeing a sea of purple bougainvillea flowers, looking enchanting against the white snow.
As soon as Noah finished speaking, a shower of bougainvillea petals suddenly shot toward them. Kai quickly pulled Noah away, shielding him from the petals.
"Run! This place is too dangerous." Kai held his stomach with one hand and pulled Noah along with the other.
"Did it hit you?" Noah raised his hand, intending to check.
Kai quickly swatted his hand away and said, "It's just a superficial wound, hurry up and run!" Kai shouted, knowing that staying longer would only get more dangerous.
The two of them ran as fast as they could, getting out of the line of sight of those flower petals. Only at this moment did Noah truly realize the threat humanity was facing.
"It not only developed in appearance but can also attack. What is happening to this world?"
After running about two hundred meters, they had temporarily escaped the line of sight of the terrifying bougainvillea.
Noah helped Kai remove the petals from his body. Though they were both wearing thick jackets, seeing the cotton fluff spilling out of the down jacket made them gasp in shock. If they hadn't been wearing such a thick jacket today, what would be spilling out now wouldn't be cotton, but their organs.
The two of them carefully observed the petals. The nature of bougainvillea petals is very thin and wouldn't normally harm humans. These petals had evolved; though still thin, they had changed in both nature and appearance. They were as tough as metal plates, with small thorns growing on the edges. When they were shot out with a spinning motion, given their shape and properties, they would become a terrifying weapon of mass destruction when thousands of petals were fired all at once.
"Anyone hit by them would turn into a purple porcupine."
Lost in observing the petals, Noah forgot something. Despite wearing a thick jacket, Kai also wore a military grade protective vest underneath, but when he had shielded Noah earlier, he was also injured with a wound on his stomach from the bougainvillea petals.
"Is your stomach okay? Let me check!" Noah immediately asked.
"I'm fine, it's just a superficial wound. I'm wearing a protective vest!" Kai answered calmly.
"A superficial wound doesn't hurt? I'm a doctor, let me check!" Noah reached out.
Without waiting for Kai's response, Noah pulled up his shirt, but something made him pause for a few seconds and think:
"I know they train well in the military, but this body is a bit too good looking, right? The abs are so defined."