"Polly, run! Don't look back!"
Flora Bloom was trapped in a circle of zombies, completely exhausted and unable to fight any longer. Seeing her daughter about to break free from the encirclement of zombified creatures, a smile slowly touched her lips.
'As long as my daughter can escape, I can die without regrets.'
But just then, Polly Bloom, on the verge of escaping, was scooped up into a pair of arms. The small, ten-year-old Polly Bloom, her eyes glistening, filled with delighted surprise when she saw the man who had picked her up.
"Uncle Underwood, you're here! Quick, save Mom! She's surrounded by monsters!"
Flora Bloom, who had given up the struggle, suddenly felt a surge of hope when she saw Shelton Underwood holding her daughter. She wanted to fight desperately against the zombies and other monsters once more.
But in the next second, the scene before her made her pupils dilate. All the strength seemed to drain from her body, and her heart stopped beating in that instant.
A ferocious beast seemed to awaken deep in her soul, about to erupt. But she was too weak even to groan.
Not far away, Shelton Underwood held Polly Bloom. His once expressionless face twisted into a savage snarl as, at the same moment, a sharp blade plunged into Polly Bloom's fragile chest, piercing through her small body.
Ten-year-old Polly Bloom had awakened a very rare Thunder Ability at birth. Despite being born in the apocalypse, she was still kind. Naive and innocent, she would never in a million years have imagined that the uncle she trusted most would kill her at this very moment.
Shelton Underwood casually dangled the small, dying body from one hand as he strolled toward Flora Bloom, who was still surrounded by zombies and monsters.
Flora Bloom's face was a mask of terror. Her body trembled as she watched Shelton Underwood's every move. She stared, unblinking, at her daughter Polly Bloom's tiny body, a lump in her throat making it impossible to utter a sound.
Running on pure instinct, she fought off the monsters trying to close in on her, desperate to break through the horde and get to her daughter.
"Flora Bloom, just hand over the item, and I'll give you your daughter back. How about it?"
Flora Bloom carefully watched Polly Bloom's small body, dangled so casually by Shelton Underwood. She knew that at such a young age, even with a superpower protecting her, she wouldn't last long after being run through with a blade.
Besides, the monsters around them were strange. They only attacked her, acting as if they couldn't even see Shelton Underwood.
"Isn't it strange? Why these monsters aren't attacking me?"
In a moment of distraction, one of the zombies clawed Flora Bloom's arm. Blood instantly streamed down her limb, and the wound abruptly turned black.
She'd been scratched by a zombie.
Although she also had a superpower, it was the most useless Water Ability, with almost no offensive capability. In the ten years of the apocalypse, humans had evolved, but so had the zombies and various monsters. While superpower users' resistance to the zombie-monster virus had grown, the level and toxicity of the monsters had also increased.
The resistance of the weakest superpower users had already waned. Without a timely injection of an antitoxin, even a superpower user could mutate into a zombie or monster from a small scratch.
"Oh, so you got scratched."
"Originally, if you'd just handed over the item, I might have left you and your daughter's bodies intact. But look at you now. You're probably going to turn into a monster."
"But this is fine too. You and this little bastard can turn into these horrible, disgusting monsters together. The item will still be mine either way."
As Shelton Underwood finished speaking, his hands began to glow with a yellow halo.
At the same time, as if receiving some command, the surrounding zombies and monsters attacked Flora Bloom with even greater frenzy.
Flora Bloom could no longer support her own body and collapsed to the ground.
She looked at Shelton Underwood, her weak body heaving with labored breaths. She could feel her superpower was exhausted, and her body was in excruciating pain from the corrosion of cosmic radiation.
"Shelton, why? Why are you doing this to me? Polly… didn't you dote on her the most? Why would you hurt her? She saw you as a father!"
Upon hearing this, Shelton Underwood's face suddenly darkened.
"Shut up! It's because of that little bastard that I've been a laughingstock for ten years! If it weren't for your spatial ability—a space that no one else can use—do you really think you and your daughter would have survived this long?"
"But you said you didn't mind!"
"Yeah, if I were still a useless piece of trash with no superpower, of course I wouldn't have minded."
"You… you've awakened?"
"HAHAHA, thanks to your sister Belle, she's the one who developed the awakening potion. I helped her test the drug, just to see what would happen. And heaven smiled on me—I succeeded. And did you see? I'm now a High-level Superpower User that everyone fears and respects."
Flora Bloom felt as if her mind had been struck by lightning. Her body gradually stiffened.
Belle Bloom had told her that the research on the awakening potion would take at least another month to yield results. 'She lied to me! My own dear sister… lied to me?'
"Oh, right, there's something else you probably don't know. Seeing as you're about to die, I'll be merciful and tell you. Your dear little brother, Joel Bloom, was bitten by zombies because he was trying to save Belle."
He looked at Flora Bloom's fair skin, which was beginning to rot away in patches from the cosmic radiation, and said with a look of utter disgust.
"Remember that test subject locked up in Belle's lab? The ugly thing that had its eyeballs and organs dug out to extract data? To help me extract the superpower genes from his body, Belle shaved off all his flesh. He's probably nothing but a skeleton now."
"But zombies really are amazing creatures. As long as you don't damage the head, they won't die no matter how you torture them, even if they have no flesh or organs left."
Flora Bloom finally broke.
She threw her head back, glaring at Shelton Underwood, and screamed, "You animal! You're all animals! I won't let you get away with this, even in death!"
"Flora Bloom, did you really think you and your little bastard could die so easily? In this apocalypse, the most terrifying thing isn't death. It's wanting to die but being forced to live on like a monster."
As he spoke, Shelton Underwood approached Flora Bloom. The surrounding zombies and monsters parted to let him through.
"Your brother's Control Ability is really powerful. It can actually control zombies and monsters, make them obey commands. Tell me, with a superpower this strong, I'll be the supreme king of this apocalypse. What kind of woman couldn't I have?"
"You slut, you cuckolded me for ten years and still pretend to be pure and innocent? I'll turn you and your little bastard into a mother-daughter zombie pair, and you'll both obey my commands from now on. HEHEHEHE."
Flora Bloom listened to Shelton Underwood's words, terrified and helpless. She thought back on the past ten years, bit by bit, and realized she should have known long ago. Shelton Underwood was no longer the kind man from before the apocalypse who had cherished and cared for her.
At some point, Shelton Underwood had become lazy and short-tempered, prone to yelling and cursing at her. Flora Bloom had thought it was because he was struggling under the pressure of the apocalypse without a superpower, but now she realized that wasn't it at all.
A sense of release washed over her, and she began to laugh softly.
Her filthy face and broken body made her look like just another piece of trash that belonged in this apocalyptic world.
She slowly raised her hand and looked at Shelton Underwood. Her eyes were completely dead, devoid of all life.
"Let me hold my daughter one last time, and I'll tell you the location of that item."
"Something so important, and you didn't keep it with you?"
For once, Shelton Underwood lost his composure. Shock appeared in his eyes as he stared at Flora Bloom.
"Something so important, and you weren't carrying it at all times? Where did you hide it?"
"Heh, I was just being cautious of ill-intentioned people. I just never expected that the one who would try to harm me… would be you."
Flora Bloom looked at Shelton Underwood, a faint tenderness returning to her eyes. She was waiting for an opportunity—an opportunity to die holding her daughter, even if it meant death.
"I can't escape now anyway. Before I turn into a monster, just let me hold my child one more time, and I'll tell you the location. A dying person's words are true, after all."
Shelton Underwood hesitated for a few seconds before finally agreeing.
He tossed Polly Bloom's small body over to Flora Bloom. Polly, whose breathing had already been faint, showed no signs of life after hitting the ground.
Her expression unreadable, Flora Bloom turned and gathered her daughter's cooling body into her arms. The child's tender skin was already mottled and rotting from the radiation.
Tears flooded Flora Bloom's eyes, but no sound came from her throat. She was filled with so much hate—hate for her own weakness, hate for her poor judgment of character.
Three years into the apocalypse, Belle Bloom had sent their parents to the battlefield in exchange for military supplies, indirectly causing their deaths. But because Belle was her only sister in the world, Flora had compromised, had forgiven her.
Now, that same sister had not only caused her death, but her daughter's as well.
Thinking about it all, piece by piece, she was only now understanding everything. Flora Bloom raised her hand and opened her palm. Lying in it was a strange, deep blue Crystal Stone, like a gemstone.
She hugged Polly Bloom and pressed a firm kiss to her small forehead.
"Be good, Polly. Mommy's coming to be with you now."
Before Shelton Underwood's horrified expression, Flora Bloom quickly swallowed the deep blue crystal he coveted and, in the same motion, bit off her own tongue.
Scarlet blood from the tip of her tongue mixed with the deep blue crystal as she swallowed them both, uttering the most vicious curse.
"Shelton Underwood! Belle Bloom! If there is a next life, I will use the cruelest methods in the world to ensure you can never be reborn for all eternity!"