Chapter Ninety Four - Putting Children First

Lucy's circumstances only those of the first squad, Ren Zexian and Nathan understood, the others had not enquired.  In those first few weeks of these trying and difficult times, it had not been unusual to find children alone and without much support.  Two such children lived amongst them, though Nan Li Liang had had the advantage of age and learning aiding his survival.  A toddler surviving in these circumstances could only be due to a miracle.

Said miracle was currently growing loudly, his black fur bristled upon his body to the point where the hair seemed to leap from his frame, turning into dissipating fog before their eyes.  He clearly did not look like a normal, large dog and caused the older woman to hesitate even retreat a few steps.

"Monster!" She blurted and clutched the clothes of her son.  That man had turned pale white, even attempted to shove his mother's body in front of him, revealing his cowardly nature.

"What is going on here?" Rhodes nudged Cole who could only shake his head, glancing instead at Patrick.

Being much more in the know, the shorter man informed them; "Well, when we settled here originally, we explored the village for resources.  We discovered Lucy and Aslan there.  He is very protective of her, we believe it was thanks to him that she managed to survive."

Rhodes frowned.  "How long into the apocalypse was that?"

"Just over three months."

A hint of guilt and shame flickered in the son's expression but was gone in the next heartbeat.  "Maybe we were mistaken," he tittered.  "She simply looks like my daughter did."  His mother nodded heavily still staring warily at Aslan who's growls had quietened.  The hound licked his black nose before his eyes shifted towards his ward for a moment and then he sat down, allowing the child to slide from his back. 

Lucy ran to Dexter, raising her arms to be lifted by the man, who naturally obliged.  She pointed at the shameless couple, repeating that they were 'bad' before sticking her thumb in her mouth and nestling her head into the man's shoulder.  Her sight did not waver from the older woman and her son as if she was still guarding against them.

Having lived for many, many lifetimes, Ren Zexian was not a man that did not understand human nature.  Humans were often selfish, prioritising themselves over others and not every parent would die to protect their children, let alone children unrelated to them.  Being young did not save them either.  Emperors were known for wiping out whole families including babies due to the sins of one man or woman.  Cultivators had killed good seedlings, fearful that they might be a threat to them in the future.  Peasants in the village of his birth sold their children during droughts and times of famine, so at least they would not starve.

And it was easy to imagine that a father might abandon his daughter to the wave of undead zombies in his village in order that he might live.

That said, there were many times where he'd witnessed scenes that could only be considered altruistic, without any fathomable ulterior motive, without thought to their own reputation or to their own well being. Such as the time a mortal doctor joined a small group of Healers and headed into an area experiencing an disease of epidemic proportions to help ease the suffering of the sick and dying, to try to find a cure with those immortal men and women, whose chances of catching the disease was so much less. Ren Zexian, himself, had helped with containment; a much crueller task that it sounded as he'd had to kill more than one mortal attempting to escape the epidemic and would not listen to reason or be coaxed to turn back. As it was, of a million mortals, only a hundred thousand survived, that mortal doctor still experienced a brush with death in the end, but survived. Had the containment been unsuccessful, billions of more people could have been at risk as well.

So where there were shadows, there was also light. Where there was selfishness, there would also be selflessness. Where a man might sacrifice a child to save himself, a man might also save a child regardless of the price. The male cousin of the man, who may have just sacrificed the little blond girl twice, frowned as he held his own children closer to his frame.  His blood-related daughter, who currently held his leg, sensitive to the undercurrents of tension in the air, was his life.  Her birth had expanded his world, his views and awakened a protective nature within him that he had never before imagined that he had.  Granted, things had not worked out with her mother, they'd both been children themselves, but the first thing he had done when the apocalypse hit was to rush to his former girlfriend's door to find his daughter and he'd arrived just in time to save her from her mother's hungry grasp.  His blood turned cold whenever he thought about what would have happened had he arrived just half a minute late.

While he was not as close to his little son, the child left to him by a friend during their flight to find a safe place, one that she had not reached in the end, he couldn't imagine abandoning him just because they did not share blood.  His eyes fell upon the little blond-haired girl who he knew did not share his cousin's blood.  If he recalled correctly, the little girl, June, was the daughter of his wife.

"You said that your stepdaughter was lost with her mother," he pointed out, suddenly not willing to let his cousin off so lightly.  He'd never actually liked the man, but he was his uncle's son and the older woman his uncle's wife.  They were family, so he and his sister had supported them as such.

"She was, she was!" His cousin insisted, his eyes shifting from side to side, unable to meet the other's intense gaze.

"We would have been eaten by my daughter-in-law had we not escaped!" His aunt added to reinforce their story.  This was not completely untrue; the sick young woman had slept downstairs so not disturb her husband's rest and they'd found her limbered around downstairs that morning. She'd hurried towards them once she'd caught their scent, seeking their flesh.

"So you saw June killed or turned?" The man pressed on.

"Y-yeah, yes!"  No one missed the fact that they exchanged glances before replying.  There was a wave of disgust throughout the survivors watching this scene.  While none of them could claim to have been altruistic during the apocalypse, indeed all had had moments where they had to weigh the lives of others against their own lives or lives they were already responsible for, but Lucy was one of their own.  To imagine that she, a small child, had been abandoned without hesitation made them sick to their stomachs.

Dexter immediately wanted to refuse this selfish pair a chance to enter their home, however before he could open his mouth to speak, the male twin stepped in first.  "Cousin, admit your mistakes before you make an even greater fool of yourself." Before his cousin could refute, he turned towards Dexter, who still held the girl child to his chest.  "We hoped to be able to find a place together in your base, however, we understand if that is not possible.  What they have done... they are our relations, taking responsibility for their actions is not unexpected."

Subconsciously, Dexter glances at the daughter of his heart, who nodded, brushing her small face against his chest as she did so.  "It's not that we don't welcome you," he then told the other man, "but if you want us to let that pair in, I'm afraid we can't agree."

"Understood," the man replied and turned towards the rest of his family to discuss it.  The cousin and his mother sidled over, hoping to cling to the twins' thighs, not willing to be abandoned themselves.  However, in all of the time that the twins had been supporting this mother and son pair, they had not once attempted to better themselves.  The son was lazy and overly proud, using the excuse of his relative's strength to subdue unhappy voices and gain more resources for himself.  While the older woman was the complaining type; her feet hurt, her arms ached, there was pain in her lower back!  The food was cold, unseasoned, boring!  The children were too naughty and tiring!  She was too 'old' to deal with them!  Both barely did the minimum amount of work in base.

In this era, people could not live without relying on themselves first and such relatives were an anchor weight that would only do them harm in the end.  They had children to think of as well as themselves and if this pair could abandon a step-child without a second thought, they could easily leave their own children to fend for themselves as well and of course neither the twins nor the girl's partner could accept this.

The young woman turned towards Rhodes and his men.  "I don't like to ask under the circumstances, but they are still family," she began, her shoulders resigned, "but could you please allow them entry into the army base.  I don't wish their death."

"You're going to leave us?" The cousin stiffened and the older woman looked shocked, as if she'd never anticipated such could happen to them.  In all honesty, if it hadn't been for the brother/sister pair fighting their way clear, protecting them all the way, they would not have survived the fall of their small base.  Even the sister's partner had raised a baseball bat in attempts to smash the bodies of mutants who approached to near. How could they survive without clinging to their relative's thighs?!

"No, no, no, you can't possibly!" The middle-aged woman begged the twin cousins.  "Look, these people are just making excuses, probably don't want any of us here.  We'll all go back to base.  After a while, I'm sure we can earn ourselves a place together..."

"Aunt, please don't make this any more difficult for us," the boyfriend grabbed his girlfriend's hands to comfort her as the young woman wavered.  He was never fond of this pair of leeches; they had long drained his compassion as relatives of his girlfriend with their lazy ways and large mouths.  When their small community had been thriving, it had been a nuisance, but they weren't alone in their antics and the majority of people had pulled enough weight to cover them and their ilk.  Despite the growing dislike for them, no one had been heartless enough to throw the minority out to their potential doom.  They'd seen enough death and experienced enough heartache.  He hardened his heart.  "We have children to think about.  We have to put them first."

The pair turned to glance towards the child in Dexter's arms, immediately retracting their former claims to attempt to cling to her tiny, golden thigh.  "A child should be with their relatives, right?" The older woman cajoled. 

"No," Lucy repeated, before grabbing Dexter's neck with her small arms.  "My daddy."  Dexter melted before the princess and Aslan chuffed and moved to sit at the man's feet.

In the end, the pair that had left their village home after almost being attacked by their wife and daughter-in-law, forgetting the small child upstairs asleep in her cot as they fled, were abandoned by their relations thanks to this heartless action.  They were taken to the base where their days of coasting on by and relying on other's strong thighs were at an end.