XG 103 - Humans were truly adaptable with strong survival skills

"Infertility isn't an issue as long as adoption is allowed. There would be a lot of children needing guardians," Wong Xue Guo said. There should be a lot of parents that sacrificed their lives for their children, but how would their children survive after their parents died?

"My baby is a good person," Suzie Yap praised. Oh, no. Her baby was still trying to plead with her to let her sign up!

"Not at all. Most people want children just to have someone take care of them when they grow old. I would want that too."

Suzie Yap lost her words at how rational her daughter could be. She took a deep breath to settle her turbulent emotions. "Baby, when I gave birth to you, there's no plan of having you take care of me when I'm old."

Her daughter's expressive expression of 'you don't?' had Suzie Yap mercilessly squeeze her daughter's adorable cheeks between her palms. "There's still your father and caretaker that I could have hired."

While her face was still sandwiched, Wong Xue Guo murmured, "Caretaker would be more neglectful than a biological child."

"It is, but I would never let my daughter serve me like that." Suzie Yap finally released her daughter's face, and tenderly rubbed her smooth cheek. If her daughter Awaken her gene, she would have lost her cute cheeks. "Baby, I would have given you more siblings if I could, so that you would never get lonely. Years ago, I got into a terrible accident and had to remove my womb. In this life, you are the one and only child I could ever have."

Wong Xue Guo was obviously shocked hearing that and could not find proper words to reply to that. "Mother..."

Suzie Yap licked her lips and found that saying it now surprisingly does not hurt as it does years ago. "Baby, mummy is bad and selfish. It's because I'm afraid of the pain of losing you that I heartlessly pushed you away. Mummy is sorry, my baby daughter. I love you, truly so much. I want to kiss you, hug you, protect you from everything, yet I'm afraid of the pain if I failed to defy the fate that others had tried and failed. Mummy is useless..."

"No!" Wong Xue Guo shook her head fiercely, her eyes watery, and grabbed her mother's cold hands. "I... I... I love you too! Even if you and Father don't pay attention to me, I still love both of you. I'm so happy, relieved... that you love me."

The pain from childhood till now, of thinking that she was a burden to her parents, quickly unravelled its tangled knot. It would be a lie to claim that she was alright with being the least prioritized person in the family, that it does not hurt her when she constantly reminded herself to be satisfied with what she had to dilute the pain of being ignored.

There would still be some hard feelings, but her heart was much lighter now after knowing her mother's reason for treating her that way.

The unexplained stare that was frequently directed at me when my mother thinks I did not notice...

The fancy dresses my mother always picked out for me whenever she went shopping...

The meals were always eaten in the dining room with my silent mother ...

Those actions that had puzzled her in the past was now were now clear in her eyes, that it was actually her mother's own timid way to show her love. She had always thought her mother did it as an act of responsibility as a mother.

The mother-con promised to herself that one day, the negative feelings for her mother would be gone. Wong Xue Guo loved her mother too much to have the heart to blame her for a long time.

* * *

Humans were truly adaptable with strong survival skills. As many teams had been dispatched to clean up the streets of zombies, more survivors finally came out of their hiding places. They used whatever materials they could get to build a strong fence around the small part of the town, with enough space for everyone to stay and keep safe. Even if their survivor's numbers increased, they could add more fences when that time comes.

If the survivors were not willing to cooperate with each other in the first place, the idea of building a fence will never be realized.

They had even started to search for ways to make food and hunt down animals to eat. Not even rats were exempted from the food choice. Everyone had their own talent and knowledge, thus they would do trading with food and supplies, not money. The money would be a useless currency for many years to come. No one could say how long this disaster would last.

Fortunately, it was now at the end of February and winter was ending. It was time to greet spring, which every survivor welcomed.

The strong-willed survivors had survived the cold winter without enough preparations. There were many that had died from cold, and their death served as a lesson to other survivors to warm their bodies even when they thought they could withstand the cold.

As long as they know how to survive, humans would not be easily trampled down.

There were some people trying to grow vegetables to fill their stomachs, picking those that would need less time to grow. There were more buildings than occupants, so the extra rooms were used to grow different things and test which could survive. Those that knew how to plant vegetables were actively sought out by others to learn from them, in exchange for food.

Everyone was glad no one caused trouble and tried to act like a lord over everyone. There were some that tried that but were quickly subdued by experienced middle-aged survivors that were past the age to find joy in oppressing other people.

Now was the time for everyone to work together to survive this hellish environment.

Most survivors believed that this apocalypse was not an act of God, for there will be crueller, harsher, and extreme ways to wipe out humankind. With few natural disasters occurring, it would be easy to erase half of the population in an entire world after all. So far, the weather was normal and the survivors with weaker minds to brainwashing would not be easily swayed by the cult fanatics that took this chance to claim God was doing cleansing.

A week before the day of the trial experiment was not a long period, but it was also not short.

Wong Xue Guo was firm with her decision to activate her gene, but her mother was still sitting on the fence about whether to agree to let her go ahead or not.

She does not want to linger around in the base and risk having her mother try to change her mind so she joined Kang Xunsu, L.L., Ash, Kim Sung-Ho, and Beom Seok to go out and hunt. Chen Yibo could not join them, still stuck in helping out in the lab with the final preparations before the trial date.

Feeling bitter, Wong Xue Guo could not help but scorn, "Aren't you just a high school graduate? What else can you help other than doing menial tasks?"

"I'm doing simple calculations for my elder brother. I've learned some basics from the books he had sent me during my school holidays to read."

And you decide to read those kinds of difficult books, high schooler?

"You like it?" Wong Xue Guo's tone was doubtful.

"Yeah." Chen Yibo's smile was as bright as when he insisted her parents love her.

Wong Xue Guo remembered the science textbook that she had already locked up in her drawer the day she finished her final exams. "... Remember not to overwork yourself. Brother Xunsu always says he regretted sleeping so little during his youthful days and harmed his health later."

"Thank you. Stay safe too and stick with Xunsu all the time." Or else Chen Yibo would be uneasy during the whole duration of her trip outside like a worrywart father.

Now that their usual hunting ground was taken over by the survivors, they would need to hunt further away for food and stuff. While it was still winter, they were encouraged to go out every day to gather supplies. From Suzie Yap's cautious tone, after winter would be more dangerous for humans to live.

Would the winter end, bringing along the zombie's hibernation mode?

Wong Xue Guo was reminded of the energetic zombies in Diamond shopping mall. They were truly different from the languid zombies in the winter season, so languid they would be buried under the snow, bringing in a different variety of danger to the survivors when they tread through the snow. But she could not blame the zombies, for she herself often feels lazy and wants to do nothing else but lay on her bed during this cold season.

Ugh, I will need to search for a punching bag to exercise in my room and train to run faster before winter ends!