ZHAO ANKANG

赵安康

Zhao Ankang, born on October 22, 1994, is a law graduate from the Henan Police College. Since July 2018, Zhao has been working at the Kaifeng Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau. Theprecious Thing is his only published story.

he did not. In this immoral war, he could be considered as having an outstanding military service record. When the superiors, on behalf of the military, asked him what rewards he wanted, there’d been no expression on his face. His family had disappeared a hundred years ago, and the military would not waste their limited resources to clone them. Therefore, he asked the superiors to replicate his old phone case, so as to remember his futile love.

There was a smell of danger in the air, and he felt a little pressure in his chest. Was he nervous? He smiled sardonically, his breath automatically quickened. He tried to slow it down. Was anyone around? He dared not to neglect his own instincts, a sensitivity cultivated by the long war. In police academy, he ranked second in the camouflage training program. This meant that without professional equipment, it was difficult for average people to locate him, and at this time, advanced equipment was precisely what both sides lacked.

Three days ago, he, who had survived numerous dangerous situations, had followed orders to visit this area with two comrades as well as a vintage telegraph transmitter. The headquarters commanded them to stick to this area. They had faithfully stood guard for three days, and killed more than a dozen enemies. Although their location had already been exposed, they did not retreat. Those were their orders!

The enemies might continue coming here. As long as the resources stored in their underground base were not used up, cloned soldiers would continuously appear. They were only machines made for the war, and no one would grieve their deaths.

In these three days, apart from killing more than a dozen enemies, they had other gains, but he could not take possession of the spoils of war. Therefore, through the telegraph transmitter, he sent messages about them to headquarters. This morning, the bunker had sent people here to take those things, including several broken guns, some dry food, and all the clothes he had grabbed. In the end, he managed to leave himself two compressed biscuits, because he had already run out of food.

When he and his two comrades arrived, they had not brought much food. One comrade died the first day, and during the night, he and the other comrade dug out a few rats under cover of the darkness. Those little creatures were tenacious enough to survive a nuclear war; they may be the eventual winners.

Three kilometers away from their position, there was a small pond with dirty water. During peacetime, even animals wouldn’t drink from there, but he and his comrade gulped greedily, regardless of the nuclear pollution.

The other comrade died the second day. They had been attacked by seven enemies, who were out to kill. However, as their abilities were better, the enemy did not succeed. All seven attackers were killed, but his comrade was also hit. Although the injuries were not in the vital parts, he had to watch the life of his comrade slip away, because he had neither antibiotics nor any medical instruments. Finally, after the repeated pleadings of his comrade, he had suffocated the poor man with his hands.

He did not find any rats on the second day. So what was there to eat? Headquarters did not end up collecting his comrades’ bodies. For one thing, they could use their genes to re-clone them. For another, their bodies appeared to be missing some... parts. The cloned soldier who came to collect spoils said nothing, but just shrugged and left. The enemy came! Looking forward, he saw two enemy scouts lying on the ground about a hundred meters away.

He sneered, feeling extremely excited, because that was the spot where he had previously killed dozens. He moved to his current position and looked at the two scouts now.

This time, the enemy soldiers might be more skilled. After all, the enemy had already lost a large number of troops. His heart thumped, and his breath became quicker and quicker.

What was the matter with him today? Why did he feel so uneasy? He touched his phone case and thought, “Protect me.” He gripped his AKM, which had killed dozens of enemies. Although he preferred to use the Steyr rifle, in today’s situation, it was lucky for him to have an AKM. This assault rifle was produced by the Soviet Union about a hundred years ago, and it must have been a fine product back then.

He raised the rifle, held his breath, and aimed at the two scouts.

Gunshots sounded. The two enemy scouts struggled a few moments, then lay still.

“Did I get them?” he thought. “Are their scouts so useless?” With the caution he had acquired in police

WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH HIM TODAY? WHY DID HE FEEL SO UNEASY? HE TOUCHED HIS PHONE CASE AND THOUGHT, “PROTECT ME”

enemy country. Her camouflaging skill ranked first among her class, and her other skills were also outstanding. So she was cloned.

Originally, she was assigned to another area, but when the scouts found there was an enemy death squad lurking around this area, she was sent here. She did not disappoint her superiors, because she succeeded in the task that had failed seven people yesterday.

ipulled up the data of the system’s top-ranked soldier, “Let’s start with this guy. His record is currently the best in our zone. His clone was killed by a female enemy solider not long ago. Hey, according to the spies’ intelligence and old information in the database, the female enemy soldier used to be his classmate when she was still a natural person. They were both trained at the police academy, and her grades seemed to have been a bit higher than his.”

“Oh? That’s interesting indeed,” the first one sneered. “Then let’s apply our new technology on him.”

Hsurprise. All his muscles instinctively contracted, and he quickly raised his automatic rifle, pushed aside all the distracting thoughts, and decisively pulled the trigger.