Warning: The following chapters contain intense themes of survival, trauma, emotional conflict, and sexual violence. Reader discretion is strongly advised, as the content may be disturbing or unsettling. Proceed with caution if you are sensitive to these themes.
Alice was born twelve years after the apocalypse started. She never experienced a peaceful world.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, her mother, Wana, was beautiful but had no powers. To survive and find food, she had no choice but to depend on others and went through great humiliation.
Because supernatural powers required strong physical energy to develop, many women died during the mutation process. Over time, fewer and fewer women survived in the base.
At first, the men who took advantage of Wana were careful not to get her pregnant. They didn't want to waste food on a child. But when the number of newborns dropped, the base began to force women to have children. Wana, being a foreigner, was targeted even more. The number of people she was forced to be with kept increasing.
Without enough food or energy, it was hard for women to become pregnant. Even when they did, the babies often couldn't survive. After three miscarriages, Wana finally gave birth to Alice.
When the base found out the child was a girl, they gave Wana and Alice a little more supplies. But hunger and suffering were still constant.
Wana was treated like a baby machine. She had become numb, just like a walking dead. She lived day by day with no hope. But after Alice was born, Wana became strong again. A mother's love changed her.
She looked at her daughter's little face and became scared. In this twisted world, even small girls were not safe. One of the A-rank ability users, Alvin, had a bad habit of targeting children.
At age two, Alice already looked bright and smart. Wana was terrified of what could happen to her. So she made a heartbreaking decision. She used hot charcoal to burn a scar on Alice's face. Then she lied, saying she made a mistake while cooking for an ability user.
During these days, the zombies had become more active. Alvin had just returned from a mission, where he killed over 200 zombies. As a reward, the base planned to give him a young girl.
He had already decided to take Alice. But when he came back and found out she had a burned face, he was furious. He rushed to Wana's place and beat her.
Wana, already weak and exhausted from years of miscarriages and hunger, couldn't fight back. She started bleeding after only a few hits.
Alice cried loudly as she watched her mother get hurt. Alvin got angry at the noise and hit Alice too. Wana, afraid things would get worse, crawled over and covered Alice's mouth with a pillowcase to stop her from crying.
After taking his anger out on them, Alvin calmed down a little. He didn't want to kill them completely, since women were already rare in the base. If they died, he would get less food.
He pulled up his clothes and left.
When everything was over, Wana just lay stiffly on the bed, silent tears rolling down her face. She thought about the world before, how did it suddenly become like this?
I didn't have money. I never wasted food. I always walked instead of taking the bus. I barely used the air conditioner or fridge. What did I do wrong? Why did the apocalypse have to include me?
Before the end of the world, Wana was still a college student. Since she grew up in an orphanage, she learned to observe people's moods from a young age.
She was good-looking and had been accepted into a university abroad, supported by a national scholarship. Her life wasn't too bad.
After arriving overseas, because Asians naturally looked younger, many classmates and neighbors made creepy jokes at her. They called her "Rìyǔ, Rìyǔ."
Wana wished she could wrap herself in a Zhōngwén flag. But she never argued with those people. Every time someone called her Rìyǔ, she would respond, "I'm Zhōngwén," then quickly walk away from the trouble. She pretended not to hear the loud laughter that always followed.
She didn't like anything about that place and barely communicated with anyone. She only focused on learning as much as she could, hoping the loan money wouldn't be wasted. If she gained enough skills and went back to Zhōngwén with an international degree, maybe she could earn more money.
"Mommy… waah… mommy!" Little Alice cried her heart out, but Wana didn't have the strength to comfort her. Slowly, she lifted her hand and removed the pillowcase wrapped around her head.
Alice crawled next to her mother, curled up against her neck, and hugged her, sobbing softly.
Wana felt all the strength draining from her body. It really seemed like she wouldn't survive this time. She turned her eyes toward the east and murmured, "I really want to go back to Zhōngwén…"
But the road home was filled with dangers, and she had no chance to go back anymore.
When Wana woke up again, she saw Delaney applying ointment to Alice's face. She opened her mouth to speak but could only let out hoarse gasps. Her throat was completely dry.
Hearing her, Delaney quickly poured a bowl of water to moisten her mouth and said, "Finally, you're awake. If you stayed unconscious any longer, those foreigners would've cooked you for dinner."
After drinking some water, Wana's throat felt a bit better. She forced a weak smile and said, "Thank you, Delaney."
Seeing how weak Wana looked, Delaney didn't know what to say. No one knew when this hellish world would end.
She herself often didn't want to live anymore and didn't have the strength to comfort others. She just sighed and said, "Wana, Little Fish is still small. Try to live a little longer for her."
Delaney was also a student who studied abroad. Before the apocalypse, the two of them barely interacted. Now, in this foreigner-run base, they were the only two Zhōngwén survivors from the centralized breeding facility.
The fact that Delaney came to check on Wana at all made Wana feel grateful. But she knew Delaney couldn't help raise Little Fish. She had two kids of her own.
So, Wana dragged her sick body and kept barely surviving. Because she was so physically weak, she always looked like she was on the verge of collapse. No one wanted to play with her, and no one gave her any supplies anymore.
Delaney would sometimes give them some relief food. Both mother and child were skinny like matchsticks.
Then, when Alice turned seven, she awakened her special power and survived. Only then did Wana finally pass away.