Apocalypse: After Being Reborn, I Stocked Up on All Supplies-Chapter 198 - Maternal Instinct

Chapter 198: Chapter 198 Maternal Instinct

“Quick! Don’t let it get away again!”

“Circle around from the other side and cut it off!”

“If we can’t capture it alive, just shoot it along with its babies!”

“But what if Dr. Xue blames us for killing it? That woman is beautiful, but she’s ruthlessly vicious…”

“Are you teaching me how to do things?!”

“Brother Meng, how dare I…”

“Gouwa, are you stupid? Which is the greater crime, dead or gone?”

“Stop the damn chatter!”

“Understood, Brother Meng…”

Whispers crept from the darkness nearby.

It sounded like the pursuers were hunting someone, and the chased appeared to be in the vicinity of the courtyard where Jiang Yan and her group were staying.

If Jiang Yan remembered correctly, the courtyards in this area were widely spaced from each other.

Before the apocalypse, many flowers and trees had likely been planted here.

But now, after enduring high temperatures and torrential rain, all these plants were dead and gone, with even the soil in the flower beds scraped clean by people.

What a mess it looked.

Judging by the footsteps, those people were getting closer to their courtyard.

The haze was thick, the night deep, and there was no starlight outside. Jiang Yan looked through the telescope but saw nothing.

She considered swiftly for two seconds and then, with a thought, retrieved an infrared thermal imager from the Space.

This device was much better than an infrared night vision scope because it didn’t emit infrared light, so it was not easy for the pursuers to detect.

And as long as the other party had a temperature above zero and emitted infrared radiation, they could be directly detected.

Soon, a group of crooked and colorfully glowing figures appeared on the screen.

She counted them; there were about seven or eight people.

They were all fully armed, carefully crouching down, flanking the gate of the courtyard they rented from the left and right.

Someone seemingly had a gun that had been fired recently, evidenced by the residual warmth at the muzzle, appearing red in the viewfinder.

Other people likely had guns too, but they didn’t show up in the image.

Jiang Yan’s gaze fixed on the center point where both sides were flanking.

Outside the courtyard gate, a mass taller than an adult, with a small head but a huge and bulky body, showed up in red in the viewfinder.

“This—”

Jiang Yan caught her breath.

Even though its shadow looked heavily distorted, she quickly discerned that it wasn’t human but some kind of animal.

And it was a bipedal creature with a huge belly dragging a long tail, reminiscent of a kangaroo.

But clearly, this one was not a kangaroo.

A kangaroo’s legs aren’t that short.

Without clothes to obstruct, the reflection from its body was much redder than from the humans.

Just as she thought this, the creature, as if its feet were magnets, tumbled and scrambled into the front yard.

Following a heavy “thump” as it hit the ground, the creature quickly vanished from the imager’s sightline.

“Bang bang bang!” A series of urgent and heavy knocks followed.

“Is anyone there?!! Open the door!!” A fierce male voice called.

“Thump thump thump!” The person started to kick the door violently.

Jiang Yan turned to look at Hua Bao on her shoulder and said, “Hua Bao, go down to the yard and see what has broken in?”

“Caw caw caw!” Sure thing, Mama!

Hua Bao had already leapt to the ground, his head and Vine turning paper-thin and “whisking” through the door crack.

It quickly reverted to its original form and hopped downstairs.

“Creak—”

“Creak—”

After a slight sound, the doors to the second bedroom and the children’s room on the first floor quietly opened one after another.

“Brother Tao.”

“Xiao Ye.”

Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing had come out after hearing strange noises outside.

“Dear, you stay inside. Xiao Ye and I will go take a look. If anything’s wrong, hurry upstairs to Jiang Yan,” Sun Jingtao said with furrowed brows, instructing.

Su Dai replied with worry in her eyes, “Okay, dear. You both be careful too.

Remember, patience brings calm; it’s only our first day here, try not to clash with them.”

“Okay.” Sun Jingtao nodded.

Hua Bao, who passed by the three transparently, didn’t pay them much heed.

It mimicked what it had seen in those monster movies before, with a few of its Vines like octopus tentacles, sneaking on “tiptoes” past the three, then flipping out the window that Jiang Yan had opened earlier with a “rustling” noise.

Sniffing the air filled with haze, Hua Bao turned its wise little eyes around.

Seeing some bloodied footprints on the ground, it grimaced for a second, then quickly made its way to a corner in the backyard.

Soon, a gigantic Rat appeared in the corner of the courtyard wall, its lips and paws smeared with blood, body trembling uncontrollably.

The Rat looked pitiful, with a bowl-sized wound oozing fresh blood on its belly.

The surrounding fur was wet and clumped together, emitting a strong, pungent smell.

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A closer look revealed that its belly was swollen like a balloon about to burst, lying beside it and heaving.

It was most likely a pregnant Mouse Mother about to give birth.

Next to its body was a freshly dug hole, beside which was a pile of bloodied dirt.

Perhaps because the Mouse Mother was dying from a gunshot wound and couldn’t complete the digging, it remained halfway done.

In less than a second, the Mouse Mother, tears in her eyes, started to spin in place anxiously.

It looked like it was chasing its tail with its mouth open.

Without much attention, Hua Bao silently watched its bizarre actions.

Soon, a wet, flesh-colored little tail appeared under the body.

Then, a body of the same damp hue, followed by a head.

A rat baby was born, its eyes closed, still covered in amniotic fluid.

The rat baby was not small; each was as large as an ordinary cat.

The Mouse Mother stopped spinning, bearing the intense pain from her belly, and bent down its bulky body to lick the amniotic fluid off the rat baby.

Quickly, it began to spin again.

The second and third rat babies were born successfully.

As each was born, the Mouse Mother would shake and bear the pain to lick one off.

Its body was even struggling to stand.

But with more babies still inside, it couldn’t stop.

“Rats?” Jiang Yan returned from her astonishment a second later with the feedback from Hua Bao.

But she quickly came to terms with it.

Rats naturally preferred dark corners and were good swimmers; surviving high temperatures and heavy rains was unsurprising.

Moreover, in many coal mines, for fear of encountering toxic gases, miners often released rats down there.

Over time, the harmonious coexistence between miners and rats became the norm in the mines.