SS.01 Chapter 4

The soldiers won't forget what happened last night. Anna appeared in the mall independently, holding a sword with a child in her arms. They can't imagine how difficult it was for her to protect herself and a small child against those zombies.

Even they, soldiers, were already having a hard time trying to survive the apocalypse, what more is it for a mother and child. The most worrying thing was for the woman to have such a beautiful countenance.

No wonder she was wearing a hood when she came last night, now they found she was also wearing a mask, she was trying to hide her beautiful face. With this kind of appearance, some people would surely have disgusting thoughts towards her.

Fortunately, they have met them instead of other people. It was also a good thing that their boss found them. Perhaps it was the reason why their boss insisted on going with them to the supermarket?

Their boss has probably recognized her voice but pretended not to know her. He must have taken her to the supermarket to have a chat and confirm it was her.

Feeling those gazes falling at him, David looked at his subordinates. His lips twitch after instantly seeing their disappointed eyes. It was as if they were criticizing him as they glanced at the mother and child in his arms.

David had already seen this coming, but there was nothing he could do. He could just pretend not to see it as he held his wife and child in his arms.

"Let's go look for some resources." His voice returned cold, bringing the soldiers back to their senses. This is still their devil boss.

They started to move, eating breakfast before carrying their firearms, and began to look for resources while David took Anna and Dave with him to the upper floors. He needed to gather stuff that his wife and child needed.

Anna took Dave back in her arms while walking behind David who was holding a gun, fully alert and ready to protect them if there are zombies upstairs.

"Be careful. There are a few zombies on the next floor." She said after using her sharp hearing to detect the noises, making David look at her with curiosity, but he didn't ask how she knew.

It may sound suspicious, but David guessed that Anna probably learned it while striving to survive alone in the apocalypse with a child. These ideas, his heart suddenly felt uncomfortable.

People would have their ways to protect themselves. He thinks Anna has powerful senses which are why she was clear about the situation upstairs. But, he also wants to know more about her.

As they continue to move, they indeed meet a few zombies. Bang! Bang! Bang! He took the shot straight to their heads. When he turned to look at Anna, David's heart skipped a beat, frightened after seeing a zombie pouncing at his wife and son.

Before he could react, Anna swiftly moved, dodging in an agile way, unleashing her sword, swinging it elegantly without any panic. She cut the zombie head, clean and neat like she was just cutting a fruit.

David couldn't help but gulp. He realized that his wife was truly not an ordinary woman. The first thing he noticed was her footsteps that didn't make a sound even wearing glass boots.

Now, her way of using a sword was very relaxed. Her clothes, even her shoes were not even dirty. Mostly, she didn't even feel frightened by those zombies.

David felt amazed and bad as he knew she must have become like this while trying to survive. Still, he didn't utter a word as they continued to move forward. When they came to a department store, he halted.

He was thinking if he should let her know about his space. His necklace was passed through every generation, but it was only him who successfully found out about the hidden space.

Just two weeks ago, the base discovered other people who survived the flu, started having superpowers. Some of the soldiers also luckily got various abilities. This includes him.

Aside from his necklace, David also had space and metal ability. This incited him to use his necklace without any problems. He now wonders if his wife was one of them who gained abilities. Otherwise, how would it be easy for her to survive alone?

After hesitating for a moment, David decided to probe. "Did you meet any other people with abilities?"

He looked relaxed, but he was secretly glancing at Anna who turned stiff. David guessed that she should be one as well but tried to hide it as her last alternative.

"There are people who were lucky to gain some abilities. Just like me. I have a space and gold ability." David added, secretly watching Anna's expression turning back to normal.

'Impossible! You should only have a gold ability!' Anna thought in her mind. 'Did everything change because I arrived? Well, then I'll leave those resources to him for now. I will just collect some once I am alone.'

Gold and metallic ability were the same, but Anna forgot that as the protagonist in the story, David is one of those people who gain their abilities in the early stage of Apocalypse.

Now that she remembered, Anna does not need to worry about using her ability. She nodded in acknowledgment. "I have frost and lightning ability."

She lifted her hand that held her crystal sword, changing its size into a dagger before disappearing like a bubble. With a bare hand, Anna showed some small purple lightning dancing in her fingers.

'Damn! I knew it! No wonder she dared to come here alone and survive with our child!' David exclaimed in his mind, truly amazed by how Anna could perfectly use her abilities. 'So that is why her body felt icy and that cold sword almost freezes my hand!'

After being astonished, David suddenly turned stiff. He realized how lucky he was that Anna didn't use her ability against him when he took advantage of her last night.

Being frozen by ice or struck by lightning would surely kill him. What more is that lightning was the metallic weakness. He couldn't help wiping a nonexistent sweat on his forehead.

"That is good then." He said nonchalantly but his heart shuddered as he hoped that Anna wouldn't freeze him if he would steal a kiss on her lips. 'Anyway, she said I'm the father of her child and my son looks very similar to me.'

As they continued to move, David almost cleared every floor. Especially when he saw anything that Dave could use, even all of the toys for children, making Anna feel speechless.

'Did David truly believe Dave was his real child? But I don't recall the book saying he had a child.' Anna started to wonder.

She started to worry, 'Could it be that he had something with that woman in the shop?! Maybe Dave's mother was his previous lover? What if he found out I wasn't his child's mother? Although Dave seemed to look a bit similar to him and had the same blue eyes, what if there is a DNA test?'

With those thoughts in her mind, Anna remained silent. She followed him, fighting with zombies as they collected resources until they went back to other soldiers who found the warehouse.

After cleaning them up, Anna thought they were about to leave when David suddenly claimed, "We have to look for my elder sister first. Their home is within the City."

When they arrived at the entrance, they were stunned to see countless zombies swarming outside where their military vehicles were parked.

"Boss, there are too many of them. I am afraid our bullets won't be enough and even our abilities may be exhausted before we can get out." A soldier with a deathly pale face uttered.

They were lucky enough not to meet many zombies in the mall, but they didn't expect that most of them were at the entrance. It even makes it worse since those zombies were around their military vehicles.

Everyone fell silent. There was despair and sadness in their eyes. They knew very well that in this situation, some of them wouldn't probably be able to survive.

David clenched his fist, his left-hand holding Anna's was full of sweat. There is his wife and child with him, yet it is no doubt he couldn't even protect himself.

As hope started to vanish in their mind and heart, Anna, who had been silent, pulled her hand from David's grip, making him turn to look at her.

She took a deep breath and carefully removed Dave's carrier from her body before handing the child in David's arms, giving a kiss to Dave on his cheeks and she uttered. "Stay with daddy, Mommy will be right back. Okay?"

"Where are you going? What are you going to do?" David suddenly held her hand and tightened his grip, not letting her leave.

Anna rolled her eyes before tipping her toes as she kissed him on his lips without any shame. "Just take care of my baby, if he is harmed, I will kill you."

David, who turned stiff by the sudden kiss looked at her with confusion, but Anna pulled her hand from his grip before moving in a haste towards the second floor, leaving everyone dumbfounded by her swift and nimble movements.

As they were all frozen by shock, they watched Anna on the second floor, using her sword, slashing the glass wall which was facing the entrance of the mall.

"Stop!" David and the other soldiers were horrified after seeing Anna jump outside from the second floor.

All of them immediately ran towards the same spot where Anna left, but they were astonished at what they saw outside.

Their eyes almost popped out as they saw Anna was surprisingly safe, jumping from the zombie's head while slicing their arms which were trying to reach out to her. Not just that, every zombie that Anna stepped in would be immediately frosted.

Then, a burst of purple lightning fell from her other hand, striking every zombie head, burning them into dust while those which were frozen crashed into pieces.

Her movements were graceful. She was like a goddess of lightning and ice, dancing and freezing everything, while the purple lightning was like a punishment falling from heaven.

"No wonder... No wonder she was brave enough to come alone and survive in Apocalypse while having a child in her arms." A soldier finally came back to his senses as he mumbled in realization.

"Boss, are you sure she is your wife? How come you are still alive?" A soldier gulped with a frightened expression.

They all have the same question in their mind. If they were Anna who was left and became pregnant at a young age, they wouldn't hesitate to kill him once they met again. But their boss was alive and well.

"Maybe she loved the boss that much which is why she didn't kill the boss after meeting again?" Another soldier added.

"Then boss, make sure to take care of your son. Otherwise, as she said, if he was harmed, she would kill you." Another soldier reminded David.

"My mommy is the best!" Dave happily clapped as he watched Anna in awe.

He didn't notice that David turned stiff while watching his wife fighting, no, it looked like she was just playing against those zombies.

"How is she this powerful? She had been fighting alone for almost an hour now and was still not exhausted." One of the soldiers finally noticed, but David's face instantly turned black.

"No one is allowed to speak about what happened here. You see nothing. You hear nothing. Understand?!" David instructed menacingly.

It was then that those soldiers realized the severity of Anna's actions. Their faces turned stern, eyes were firm. "Yes, boss!"

They are not ungrateful people. With her abilities, she could effortlessly leave with her husband and child, they won't be harmed, but she didn't. She didn't think about abandoning them. They were very touched as they knew that Anna revealed her ability to protect them.

Truthfully, Anna wasn't that kind, but she finally recalled the story where this group of soldiers was the protagonist's most trusted subordinates. Some of them would die in this city to leave the mall.

Since she confirmed that there are no other living people around, has enough ability, and could do something for them, Anna decided to reveal her abilities. At the same time, she wanted to know how long her superpowers would take before she would feel exhausted.

What Anna has forgotten was the time she spent trying to control her powers. It only took her a month to fully grasp both of her abilities. Yet she didn't feel exhausted until she came out.

When all the zombies around were about to be cleaned by Anna. The soldiers moved out of the mall and prepared their military vehicles.

David took a long stride towards Anna who she turned to look at him and was pulled into his arms, sandwiching Dave as he embraced her tightly.

"Mommy! You are the best!" Dave said with happiness, but couldn't turn to give Anna an embrace because of being in between them.

"You are no longer allowed to do this. You can't let other people know what you are capable of." David whispered in a cold and serious voice.

Anna got startled at first before realizing what he meant. "I know. Don't worry, aside from you and those soldiers, there are no other people nearby."

Her words made David feel helpless. He now understands that she was different from other people. He is not sure if it was one of her abilities to know if other people are watching her, but she seemed not to realize the severity of the situation.

What if there are certainly no other people around, but there are telescopes that could be used. Who knows if far away from here, someone was watching everything.

"Still not allowed to do it unless we are left with no choice. You can't let them see you are not exhausted at all." David insisted while Anna understood what he meant.

With a nod as a response, Anna pretended to feel exhausted. She leaned her body towards David, his hands on her waist, almost carrying her as they began to walk towards one of the military vehicles.

"Sister-in-law!" The soldiers in the vehicle greeted her enthusiastically, their eyes beaming with gratefulness.

Anna turned stunned by their address towards her. Behind her mask, her cheeks were burning, feeling embarrassed as she drilled into David's arms while her arms surrounded his waist.

David chuckled seeing Anna shyly hide in his arms, but he liked it. Caressing her back, he gave a kiss on her head. "You take a rest. You are too exhausted."

Then, he turned to Dave who was sitting obediently beside him. "Mommy is too tired so my son should let mommy get some rest, okay?"

Dave confusedly turned to look at David, but he saw him winking secretly, recalling what was told to Anna earlier. "Yes, very very tired. Mommy should sleep."

Honestly, Dave didn't understand why David wanted Anna to pretend to be exhausted. She was completely fine, but since he promised his real parents to be obedient, he will obey his new parents.

David chuckled, very pleased to see his son being smart and obedient. He gently rubbed Dave's head, yet feeling distressed as to how Anna took care of his son and grew up this way.

A beautiful misunderstanding continued as their vehicle moved towards the address of his elder sister. He was very worried about her situation. They failed to meet for years after he became the leader of a special task force.

He heard his elder sister had a child with her husband, but he hasn't seen his nephew even in photos. His elder sister keeps on insisting that he must visit them if he wants to see her son.

Unfortunately, he was too busy in the army while having dangerous missions and now, it suddenly became the end of the world. He was able to contact her before, but the communications have stopped, he is not sure about their situation.

Throughout their journey, other survivors are trying to wave red clothes as a sign requesting rescue. Sadly, they were not those troops sent for rescue, but his team came here to look for his elder sister.

"Boss, we are here."

The vehicle stopped, making Anna lift her head to look outside. She was stunned to realize it was the same place where she took Dave last night. Her heart jumped in her throat. She had a bad feeling.

"Let's go." David softly uttered as they got out of the vehicle, Anna followed with Dave in her arms.

As they entered the clothing shop that was left clean, Anna was now sure that David's sister was Dave's mother!

"Boss, everything was gone aside from two headless zombies upstairs." One of the soldiers reported.

David was hit by the realization that those two zombies were probably his elder sister and her husband. His heart was very painful but he tried to calm himself.

"What about the child?" David uttered softly, it was like he was about to collapse.

"Nothing. His room was clean. Even his stuff was gone. Everything was wiped out, the child has probably been taken away by someone." The soldier answered, making David sigh in relief.

"That… The owner of this shop is your elder sister and her husband? The child is your nephew?" Anna finally asked, making everyone turn their attention to her.

"Mommy, why are we back home?" Dave suddenly asked, making everyone's eyes turn hot as they looked at Anna who turned stiff. Her lie was exposed.

"I can explain." Anna urgently said as David looked straight at her with his cold eyes. She felt helpless and had no choice, but to tell the truth.

"Dave is not my son. Not your son with me. I found him upstairs last night." Anna bit her lower lips.