Chapter 30: Skeleton
“Mommy, I’m leaving now.”
Mibao stood before the gravestone, her face full of reluctance.
She couldn’t help but step forward and hug the gravestone, as if she were hugging her mother.
Maybe it was instinct—although she had never met her mother, she still felt a natural closeness and attachment to this mother she had never seen.
“Mommy, I’m going to look for Daddy now,” Mibao murmured as she clung to the gravestone. “I might have to go really, really far. If you can see me from the sky, you can come along with me.”
After a moment of thought, Mibao felt that might be a little selfish, so she added softly, “But if it feels too far for you, then don’t follow me. Once I find Daddy, I’ll come back with him to see you again.”
As she spoke, Mibao reached out and touched the gravestone.
But the stone was a bit rough, and at one edge there was a sharp corner. When her fingers brushed against it, she accidentally cut herself.
A drop of blood fell onto the gravestone and trickled down its surface.
“Mibao!”
Seeing her hurt, Chaoyang instinctively shouted, then rushed forward, grabbing her hand.
Mibao blinked. “It’s okay, Brother Chaoyang, it doesn’t hurt.”
“With a cut like this, how could it not hurt?” Chaoyang frowned slightly, then pulled a band-aid from his pocket and carefully stuck it onto her finger.
Chaolu also walked over, glancing at Chaoyang, then at Mibao.
When Chaoyang finished putting on the band-aid, she tilted her head at him curiously. “Little brother, it’s only been a few days, but you and Mibao have gotten so much closer~ Looks like you really like her, huh?”
After all, her smart little brother usually treated people with cold indifference. Forget kids his own age—he even looked at children her age as if they were idiots.
Back then, saving Mibao had been mostly because, with the apocalypse, there were so few living people left to meet.
At that time, it was more out of courtesy than anything else.
“Mm.” Chaoyang admitted openly, “Mibao is much cuter than you. Having Mibao as my little sister makes me really happy.”
Chaolu: “…”
Chaolu: “…If you want to compliment her, just compliment her. Why drag me down in the process?”
What a bad little brother.
Chaolu was not happy.
The next second, a soft little hand suddenly grabbed hers.
Chaolu froze for a moment, then lowered her head—only to meet Mibao’s bright, sparkling eyes.
“Don’t be sad, Sister Chaolu,” Mibao said earnestly. “If you’re sad, then we’ll all be sad too.”
Chaolu blinked in surprise, then couldn’t help but smile.
She bent down and gently pinched Mibao’s cheek. “Mibao is the best—such a sweet little darling~”
Then she turned to glare at Chaoyang. “Unlike you. You’ve got zero EQ when you talk!”
Chaoyang: “…”
But he hadn’t said anything wrong.
“I’ve seen Mommy now. Let’s go,” Mibao said, glancing once more at the gravestone.
Everyone nodded.
It was already three or four in the afternoon. If they didn’t head down soon, it would be dark.
So the group turned to leave. But just as they were about to descend, Mibao suddenly seemed to sense something. She turned back, her little face showing some confusion.
“What is it?”
Chaoyang, standing beside her, looked at her in puzzlement, then followed her gaze back to the gravestone.
Mibao shook her head. “I don’t know either… It just felt like… Mommy looked at me just now.”
But Mommy was a star in the sky, and it wasn’t even night yet. How could Mommy have seen her?
“It must’ve just been your imagination.” Chaoyang didn’t pay it much mind. While speaking, he took hold of Mibao’s hand. “Come on, let’s go down the mountain.”
Mibao obediently nodded.
The group descended the mountain together.
About an hour later, the slumbering grave slowly stirred. A decayed hand—so rotted it was almost only bone—emerged from the earth, followed bit by bit by the rest of the body crawling out of the soil.
The corpse was nearly nothing but a skeleton, with only scraps of flesh clinging tightly to the bones.
Climbing out wasn’t easy. She even had to force open the coffin.
The coffin was of excellent quality; it took her a long time before she finally pried it open.
The skeleton’s consciousness was hazy. She stood blankly before the gravestone, the cold wind whistling through her bony frame, unmoving for a long, long while.
Why… had she crawled out?
She didn’t know.
All she remembered was a scent—one that clawed at her insides with an unbearable hunger…
Ah, though it seemed she no longer had insides. No heart, no liver.
What scent was it?
What was she supposed to do?
With nothing left but bones, not even a brain, thinking came to her with great difficulty.
It was only instinct that had driven her to claw her way up from the earth.
The skeleton lingered before the gravestone for a long time before finally moving closer. She slowly extended a hand, scraping at the gravestone with the tips of her bony fingers.
The blood had already dried; she managed to scrape off only the tiniest bit.
So she leaned her entire skull forward.
Mm…
Yes, it was this scent.
Although—how a skeleton could even “smell” was a mystery.
Her skull slowly parted its jaw, as though she wanted to speak.
But no sound came out.
Only the clattering sound of bones knocking together came out.
So before long, she closed her bony jaw again.
Must… find… that scent.
Find it…
This was the only thought left in the skeleton’s mind.
With what was left of her brain, she could only hold onto one thought at a time.
Any more, and she couldn’t remember.
It would all blur together.
So the skeleton began to stand, then headed down the mountain.
Must… find that scent.
But where had it gone?
The skeleton didn’t know.
She only knew that if she wanted to find it, she had to leave this place.
The sky was already darkening, the sun setting in the west. The skeleton shuffled slowly down the mountain.
She couldn’t move fast—if she fell, her bones might scatter.
She didn’t know why she was aware of that… maybe it was just her survival instinct as a skeleton.
…
…
The next morning, the adults and children prepared to head out in search of a radio.
With the internet down, the only way to get national news was through broadcast radio.
FM channels could only cover very local information, but AM channels could span across provinces—that was what they focused on.
Of course, ideally, they’d find a radio with SW (shortwave) channels too. Though more vulnerable to weather interference, shortwave signals could travel the farthest distance, and maybe even bring news from abroad.
When danger loomed, information was everything.
There hadn’t been a radio in yesterday’s convenience store, so now they had to head for a larger supermarket.
But the more prosperous the area, the more zombies there would be.
The three children didn’t feel much, but the adults were clearly nervous.
After all, they hadn’t really faced zombies head-on before, and the fear was real.
“You seven adults, why are you all so timid?” Chaolu looked at them with utter exasperation. “It’s the apocalypse already—if you don’t toughen up, you’re bound to die sooner or later!”
The adults: “…”
…Had they just been looked down on by kids?